David Murrow, the director of Church from Men, has some ideas: 1.  The midsize congregation will disappear. 2.  An explosion of satellite campuses and microchurches 3.  A small number of cutting-edge megachurches led by amazingly talented communicators. 4.  No denominations. 5.  America will have about 200 well-known preachers by 2062. 6.  More money spent on mission. 7.  We’ll need a lot fewer preachers. 8.  We’ll need a lot more campus pastors. 9.  Small group ministry will be more important in 60 years than it is today. 10.  Microchurches and megachurches will cooperate for...

Dateline Santa Monica. No ‘permanant’ Nativity displays is the new law. So… churches decide that the law really doesn’t apply to non-permanent LIVE Nativity displays. Here’s our take: What do you think?  Is this a good thing, or are the churches kind of thumbing their nose at the city on this one? Leave a comment below… Todd

Do you agree or disagree with this statement by Kim Fabricius? How should the church respond to congregational decline, financial deficits, and vocational shrinkage?  The answer is obvious: make ministerial selection more stringent, theological education more demanding, and spiritual formation more exacting. And burn anyone who proposes a managerial or entrepreneurial solution. Me? I disagree. 1.  The answer is not that obvious.  (No answer usually is). 2.  While helping make the ministerial selection more stringent, it really doesn’t address another problem… who’s in charge of...

Eric Geiger has some great tips on interviewing for your next church staff member position.  Eric writes: If you are a leader, you know that having the right players on the team is absolutely essential in fulfilling the mission the Lord has given your ministry. Thus, the recruiting and interviewing process is very important. In looking back at all the interviews I have been a part of, here are five red flags that give me great caution in taking a next step with a potential team member. 1 – No questions If someone asks no questions, it gives me the impression that they are passive, that they are not...

From The Plano Star: “Where you start is not nearly as important as where you finish.” Those were the words of one of Plano’s most famous residents, Zig Ziglar, the world-renowned motivational speaker who died Wednesday at the age of 86 after a short bout with pneumonia. Ziglar was living proof that his advice about starting and finishing was true. While he died in Texas, Ziglar had a difficult childhood growing up in Alabama, where he was born in 1926. He suffered the loss of his father when he was only 5 years old and was forced to get his first job selling peanuts at the age of 6....

Lovett H. Weems, Jr. writes: It turns out that five seconds or less is all we need to realize we may have said something we will regret. Unfortunately, when we speak those words, we do not have an “undo send” button. We live with the consequences, sometimes forever. Peter Bregman cites a neuroscientist to explain what is going on in our brains when we react in ways we later regret. When something unsettling happens to us, the emotional response center of the brain immediately evokes emotion. That is not bad, except that emotion is not the source of our best decisions. There is something of a battle...

Paul Tripp writes: Let’s be honest, pastors. We are tempted to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. At times, we chafe against things that we think are beneath our pay grade. We are not always willing to do the dirty work of the ministry. I know I’m not always ready and willing. We are too oriented to reputation, position, and power. We desire to be recognized and to be prominent. We are not attracted to redemptive servitude. We want our ministries to be clean and comfortable.  We tend to think of ourselves as more movers and shakers than servants. This doesn’t...

OK… the Filter is not your average video podcast.  In fact, we’d say it’s ‘below average’. No special high profile guests.  No format, really.  Just a couple of guys (Matt Steen and myself) who love Jesus and love the church, talking about the ministry happenings of the week. We’d like to invite you along for the ride.  Pop it on while you’re eating lunch.  Watch it before you have a tough meeting (or after).  And The Filter is a great procrastination tool for not getting the stuff done that you know you should be doing. That said, it’s 55 minutes...

Has your church ever made a mistake that it seems you can’t recover from? Like this guy did a couple of weeks ago: A couple of weeks ago, Eric Hartsburg accepted a $15,000 payment to have the Romney “R” tattooed on the side of his head. Probably (maybe) seemed like a good decision at the time. Now, not so much. But the fact that he’ll have to explain himself to his grandchildren (who ask him ‘Mitt WHO?’ will haunt him for a long, long time. Have you ever made a decision in your ministry that seemed like a misplaced tattoo? I mean… everyone knew that it was...

It’s the time you dread… when it’s time to leave your church job. Sometimes it’s because you feel God is moving you on, and you’re excited about the next chapter. Other times you leave out of despair, hurt… and sometimes for your own sanity. But how do you leave well?  With Honesty? And Grace?  No matter the situation? Josh Griffin has the following advice: Leave at the right time It isn’t always possible, but leaving at a natural break is best. The end of summer is ideal but not always possible. But even more than leaving at the right time in the calendar, pray...