I love this quote from Chuck Swindoll: “We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.” My guess is that you have AT LEAST one impossible situation going on right now in your church. I know we do. (As is usual). It’s SO easy only to see the problem.  It’s much, much hard to see the ultimate solution to that problem as an equally greater opportunity? What problem do you have at church today that is your greatest opportunity?  What do you need to do to change your perspective and make it happen? Todd HT:  Church Leader...

Man, leaving a church job is difficult. What will people think?  What reason will you give (other than the ‘I feel God is moving me)? People expect people to change jobs.  But not in the church… many people expect that you’ll be in your position until the day they (or you) die.  And when you decide to move on… some will take it personally. So… when do you know it’s time to move on? Let’s look at a purely secular, non-churchy view… from Harvard Business Review. They say to watch for these signals: Start by figuring out whether you lack excitement about...

“My Song in the Night” recently featured these two paragraphs from the book Doxology and Theology by Ken Boer: “… some leaders (myself included) have believed that to be gospel-centered, every song we sing has to explicitly state the gospel, or more narrowly, substitutionary atonement. But we shouldn’t be more gospel-centered than the Bible is. The Bible includes all kinds of topics, and our services and songs should address the full range of human experience. “If the history of the universe is a movie, Christ’s death and resurrection is the turning point of the movie. Don’t let...

Here’s an interesting post from writer Donald Miller. I think we can all feel his pain. But in ministry, I’m not sure you have the option to ‘not respond’. Miller writes: “On a given day I’m asked to coffee twice, asked to review and endorse at least one manuscript, receive more than one-hundred emails and about twenty text messages. That’s per day. Per week, add in a few invitations to speak, a few friends coming to town, requests to talk on the phone and so on. I’d say I get between 500 to 1000 requests per week that claim to need a response. I see each of these...

Charles Arn writes: “How do we identify the receptive people in our community?” One proven way is through life events.  Or, more specifically, transitional life events.  Here is the principle: The more disruptive a life event is to a person’s psychological equilibrium, the more it will cause him/her to be spiritually receptive. The “Social Readjustment Scale” below was originally developed by two cardiology researchers at the University of Washington Medical Center.  The events were identified as precipitators of a heart attack.  (The numbers to the right are the relative severity of...

This is a really cool behind the scenes look at how Joel Osteen Ministries is using social media.  It’s a major piece written over at the Huffington Post. See if you can find a quote from yours truly somewhere in the article.  :) Read the article here… Please do leave your comments below.  What did you think of the article? Todd

J. D. Greear offers some personal rules that he follows: 1.     If I ever preach the gist of another person’s sermon, meaning that I used the lion’s share of their message’s organization, points, or applications, I give credit. 2.    If I glean an interpretation of a passage from someone, but the organization of the points, application and presentation are my own, I generally do not feel the need to cite. 3.     When I take a direct point or a line or the creative wording of a truth from someone, I feel like I should cite.  4.     When I give a list that someone else has come up...

Margaret Marcuson thinks it’s time for you to face the financial facts in your church.  Do you know the following basic information about how people give in your church? What are the trends in giving and expenses? What is the giving pyramid – how many givers do you have at successive giving levels? What is the pace of income through the year – what percentage comes in during December each year? What percentage of income goes to ministries outside your congregation? She offers seven tips to dealing and working with these facts: Be as open as possible. Even difficult facts, calmly presented...

How safe will your church be this weekend?  Security is a big issue in churches today.  You never know when an upset parent, or mentally unstable person will find his way on to your campus and into your church building. Active Faith has created a free ebook that will help you come up with a plan to make your church more secure. ACTIVE Faith’s free ebook covers 7 critical areas for modern church security. Background Checks Check-in System Disarming Friendliness Emergency Action Plan Triage Teams Emergency Response Team Kits Emergency Communications The larger a church body becomes, the more...

Many churches this Sunday will talk about what happened in OK. And some will be looking to partner with organizations that are helping the people on the ground.  That’s a great thing. Here are some of my favorite ways that your church body can help the victims of the tornados, either corporately or individually: LifeChurch.tv Life Church.tv, which describes itself as “Oklahoma’s largest evangelical church,” says its Oklahoma City metro locations will accept donations of items over the next week, between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., and distribute them to tornado victims....