Ray Pritchard has some advice for pastors that steal sermons: The nature of the Internet makes it easy to steal someone else’s work and make it your own. But the Internet also makes it very easy to find out when a pastor has been using someone else’s work. What about using an outline verbatim? From my point of view, that’s fine because an outline is not a sermon. I don’t think you need to give credit for an outline unless it is amazingly unique. The same holds true for ideas and thoughts that you may find here and there. No one wants to hear a sermon that sounds like a pastiche of quotes:...

Sorry. But there is really no nicer way to say it. Your excuses are stupid. Especially when it comes to your relationship with Christ. Yes, you may have a had a rough childhood. Yes, you may have a busy schedule. Yes, you may think you’re giving up too many opportunities and experiences. Same goes for us leaders.  Our excuses are stupid. Stop being scared. Stop worrying about your security. Don’t misplace your priorities when it comes to leading the church. Do what needs to be done. Because your excuses are stupid. The work is TOO...

When the College of Cardinals vote on who will be the next leader of the Catholic church, what standards and qualifications will they be looking at? According to an article this morning at CNN, the standards are ‘remarkably loose’ for choosing a new Pope. In fact, any baptized man in good standing could be elected pope. But no women (since they can’t even become priests). So… according to the CNN story… that really opens up the range of options.  Here’s are some possibilities: House Speaker John Boehner U2 Lead Singer Bono Comedian Stephen Colbert Or, how about a...

Earlier this month, the Arkansas State Legislature voted to pass a measure allowing the concealed carry of firearms within houses of worship. The bill was passed in an effort to increase personal security and safety within churches, which were identified as “soft targets.” Is this a necessity in churches, or is this an over-reaction to the nationwide gun debate? Does YOUR church allow people to carry concealed firearms? CLICK IMAGE TO WATCH VIDEO (Length:  2 min 57 sec) Subscribe to MinistryBriefing on YouTube What do YOU think?  Leave a text or video comment...

The Northeast got hit with a HUGE snowstorm over the weekend.  Some places got over three feet of snow. For churches that are not able to meet on the weekend, that means a week without an offering. And if your church is close on it’s budget… this can be a HUGE deal. Is there something you can do about it? Mark Brooks shares some thoughts: Is there anything you can do?  Yes!  The following are some key ideas you can do right now to make up the loss of a cancelled service.  I recommend the following… Write a snail mail letter to all your donors asking them to this week send in their...

TMI = Too much information. I think it should be a real medical diagnosis for some pastors I’ve met over the years.  Here’s how to tell if you’re a TMI pastor: 1.  Do you chuck so much content into a sermon that it really should be three sermons?  People will only remember so much. I like how Rick Warren says he wrote the Purpose Driven Life.  He tried to use as few words as possible.  He took paragraphs and made them sentences.  He took 10 words and made them into five.  Wordsmith your sermons.  Many sermons could be half the length and be spot on (and not really lose a thing...

Michael Warden has a great piece on leadership wars. Where will you find your greatest leadership challenge? When you’re deciding who to hire or what to build? When you’re deciding the direction, the vision, the values of your church? When you deal with a difficult church member or a tremendously irrational board member? No. Michael writes: The greatest battles a leader faces are private affairs, most often in the dead loneliness of middle night, with no one but the Spirit standing between you and the great void. Warden brings out a great point. Leadership is lonely. It’s not nearly...

According to CNN, Christians only give (on average) about $35 bucks to their church each year. I have NO idea if that is true (maybe it is if you average out offerings among all church attenders).  But let’s go with that. According to that source, churches receive about $4 billion dollars in donations a year. The article goes on to say that if people tithed, churches would have received more like $25 billion. I’m wondering. What is the percentage of people who tithe in your church? What is the average gift in your church per year per household? Do you keep track of these figures? And what...

Joseph “Skip” Ryan was pastor at Park Cities Presbyterian Church in Dallas.  But then his life began to fall apart.  He became addicted to pain medicine, his marriage fell apart, among other things. Watch his story, and how restoration and repentance can play out beautifully: Seldom to you see an honest and true view of what pastors and church leaders face. Can we learn from this without having to go through the depths of what they did? Thoughts? HT:  Justin...

From the Bad Church PR department: A Connecticut pastor who took part in the recent interfaith prayer vigil after the Newtown shootings was asked to apologize by the President of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod. In a letter to the denomination sent earlier this month, Pastor Matthew Harrison said: I asked Pastor Morris to apologize for taking part in this service. I did this for several reasons: I believe his participation violated the limits set by Scripture regarding joint worship, particularly with those who reject Jesus (Romans 16:17), and was thus a violation of Article VI of the LCMS...