Dan Rockwell offers this list of the top 12 reasons that leaders fail.  Take a look at the list.  How many fallen leaders do you know that failed because of something on this list?  Also… do some self-inspection  Are there things on this list that you need to watch out for personally? Neglecting culture. Culture building is job-one for all leaders. Lack of paranoia. The paranoid think about what could go wrong and make contingency plans. Bitterness, grudges, and resentment. People fail. Successful leaders allow fresh starts. Task rather than people focus. Accepting complexity. Lack of...

Mike Bonem writes:  When you hear “IQ,” you know what it refers to. And you’re probably familiar with EQ, which stands for emotional quotient or emotional intelligence. But what about LQ? It’s short for “laughter quotient.” It’s actually something that I made up, but I think it’s vitally important for you and your staff. I recently led a retreat for a group of ministry leaders. All came into the retreat feeling tired and stressed. One evening, we intentionally avoided any kind of formal learning agenda and instead played a couple of different games. We laughed and laughed, and that’s...

Thom Rainer today provides a list of things that scare church leaders: Procrastination. Fearful leaders put off tasks for fear that they cannot do them well. They are experts at passive-aggressive behavior. They can receive an assignment to do a task, then “conveniently” forget to do it. Over analysis. Fearful leaders want to over-analyze every situation in an attempt to eliminate risk. They never stop analyzing because they never eliminate the risk. An organization built around fear will have an excess of analysts and policy wonks. A bias against actions outside the status quo. The status quo is...

Tim Hawkins suggests over a hundred ‘Christian’ swear words. How many do YOU say? How many would be acceptable in your Sunday message? Enjoy. Todd

I admit that the thought never even crossed my mind. Nobody wants to bury the Boston bomber, Tarerlan Tsarnaev. Nobody. This article asks why no Christian (or anyone else for that matter) has stepped up to show enough mercy to take the body and bury it. From the article: “I’ve not heard a lot from the Christian community” on this issue, said Joel Anderle, senior pastor of Community Covenant Church in West Peabody, Mass., and president of the Massachusetts Council of Churches. “This is one of those curious areas where Christianity, and in particular Protestant Christianity, has come to believe...

Why does this remind me of some sermons I’ve heard (and then later found online)? Found here.  

Does your productivity run in spurts? Mine does. And it’s not always at the time I want it to be. This graphic pretty much sums it up:   I’m a night owl… and some of my best work comes when I’m ready for bed. That’s frustrating. I’m slowly learning to be more productive early in the day… in fact… sometimes I can fit what seems to be a full day of work into the first couple hours of the day… when it’s quiet, and when I’m fresh. What’s your productivity graph look like? Read more...

Pastor Ryan Budde from Croswell Wesleyan Church in Michigan has a small problem on his hands.  A member of his church has recently been arrested for hosting a cancer fundraising benefit to help pay her medical bills.  Problem is… she doesn’t have cancer. The 38 year-old woman is facing eight charges in a couple different investigations (in 2001, the woman said a man raped her in a Meijer parking lot and that she received a sexually transmitted disease from the rape.  That, she said, is what caused her cancer).  And last September, she claimed she was sexually assaulted again.  The...

St. James Anglican Church in Newport Beach, CA may be without a building soon. They are trying to retain their building since their split from the US Episcopal Church over widening differences of biblical interpretations and the confirmation a few years back of the first openly gay Episcopal Bishop. The Episcopal Diocese is suing St. James and two other Orange County churches for their property. As it currently stands, St. James will need to appeal the current decision of the court, giving the property to the diocese.  If the appeal does not go through, the church will have to vacate the property...

Press release from my friends at Exponential: On the heels of Exponential ’13 in Orlando selling out and drawing 5,300 leaders on site and 40,000 to the live Exponential ’13 Webcast, Exponential has announced plans for an Exponential West 2013 this October. The conference will be hosted by Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., Oct. 7-10, and like the recent Orlando event will focus on discipleship. For the last several years, Exponential has been asked to bring the annual event held in Orlando each April to the West Coast. However, Exponential leaders have been deliberately...