Everything I was taught about preaching in seminary was backward. Between undergraduate school and seminary, I took eight preaching courses. Each of them was taught by amazing people who loved God and poured themselves into me. For them, I am grateful beyond words. The problem, looking back, is that the classes focused on the wrong thing: their goal was to make me a … [Read more...]
How Senior Pastors Can Schedule Their Week For Maximum Impact
One of the first things I do when I begin coaching a Senior Pastor is lead them through a process of redesigning how they schedule their week to ensure their highest ministry priorities get consistently accomplished. It is the same process whether they serve churches of 50 to 5,000. Here’s what that process looks like: Draw A Weekly Calendar The first thing I have … [Read more...]
How To Reach Searching Catholics
One of the greatest joys of my life is serving my friends and neighbors who grew up in the Catholic Church but are now, for whatever reason, looking for God outside the church of their youth. Knowing how to reach searching Catholics has been a huge learning experience for our church. I must admit that when I was growing up I didn’t know too many Catholics. That’s … [Read more...]
50 Limiting Beliefs That Hold Senior Pastors Back
It's the time of year when many of us in ministry are thinking about how we can improve ourselves and our ministries in the coming year. Here’s a list of fifty of the most common limiting beliefs that hold Senior Pastors back from leading at their full potential. See if you can recognize some of these in how you view yourself and the church you lead. 50 Limiting Beliefs … [Read more...]
5 Reasons Churches Don’t Break The 400 Barrier
If your church has been running in the 290 to 490 attendance range for more than five years, you are stuck at the 400 barrier. In my experience, more Senior Pastors reach out for help at this size range than any other. That's because the complexity of issues they get hit with at this size are fundamentally different than what had to be addressed to break the 100 and 200 … [Read more...]
3 Free Ways To Double Your Christmas Eve Attendance (and why it matters)
Christmas Eve attendance matters because 25% of all your visitors for the entire year will come (or not come) on Christmas Eve. My experience has been that only 1 out of 10 new visitors that attend a church will come back, come to Christ, and grow to full devotion. That means if you want to grow by 100 converts, 1,000 people will need to visit your services in 2016 and 250 … [Read more...]
What To Do When Facing A Massive Budget Shortfall
In the past few weeks, I've lost count of how many Senior Pastors I've talked to whose churches are hemorrhaging financially. Dealing with a massive budget shortfall is something every Senior Pastor will face sooner than later. Churches get into this situation when a combination of the following five factors are in play: Common sense budgeting, forecasting, and … [Read more...]
There’s No Substitute For Hustle
Hustle beats strategy every day of the week. When we've stopped growing, 99 times out of 100 it's not because we don’t know what to do next, it’s because we've grown complacent. Senior Pastors come to me all the time looking for the silver bullet to church growth, to preaching, to leading their congregation to become generous. I’m going to let you in on a little … [Read more...]
How Senior Pastors Can Reduce Email Fatigue
There’s not a Senior Pastor out there who hasn’t loathed the day email was invented. What began as a tool to make communication easier, has become the ministry equivalent of the ancient Trojan horse – a seemingly innocent messenger that can quietly sneak into our well-ordered world and wreak havoc. If you’re feeling overwhelmed with email fatigue, here are three proactive … [Read more...]
How To Define Your Preaching Audience
Each Spring I set out a red bird feeder in my backyard. It is a red metal box that stands affixed on a 5’ pole. I always position it so we can see the swarm of birds that come to it through our kitchen window. I’ve always felt that that bird feeder is the simplest metaphor for understanding a preaching audience that I’ve ever witnessed. Here’s why… When The Bird Feeder Has … [Read more...]
Why You Must Discover Your Senior Pastor Archetype
For Senior Pastors to thrive they must discover, and then operate within, the framework of their unique God-given style of doing ministry; in what I call their "Senior Pastor Archetype." Most leaders, I’ve discovered, spend YEARS fighting against their natural archetype because (a) they’ve never taken the time to discover who they are, (b) the way their mentors modeled … [Read more...]
How Senior Pastors Can Overcome Depression And Burnout
Almost every single Senior Pastor I’ve coached over the last two years have dealt with depression and burn out. I don’t think this says anything specifically about the people I’ve coached as much as it does about how hard it is to be a Senior Pastor in the 21st century. I can say with certainty that virtually no-one understands the immense, unrealistic, and unrelenting … [Read more...]
Why Senior Pastors Should Quit Social Media (or, what Cal Newport can teach us about sermon writing)
In his book Deep Work, Cal Newport warns about the danger of what he calls “attention residue,” the lingering effects of switching back and forth between tasks. We sit down to study for a sermon, then we check our email. We sit down to study for a sermon, then we check social media. We sit down to study for a sermon, then we are interrupted by a knock at the door. We … [Read more...]
How To Staff Churches Under 600
For Senior Pastors, the PROCESS we follow for how to staff churches under 600 is just as important as the PEOPLE we hire utilizing that process. To be perfectly honest, in the early days of my ministry, I had no staffing process to follow, and consequently the churches I served gained very little kingdom traction. I had no clue what I was doing. But once I developed an … [Read more...]
14 Ways Introverted Senior Pastors Can Be More Relational (without wearing themselves out)
One of the most common complaints I hear from churches is how they wish their introverted Senior Pastors were friendlier and more approachable. The good news is this can be very easily addressed, without Senior Pastors running themselves into the ground. Here are a few things I’ve learned over the years to help introverted Senior Pastors practice being more … [Read more...]
3 Ways To Double Your Energy In 90 Days (or less)
Many Senior Pastors I meet confess that they don’t have the energy necessary to consistently function at their highest capacity for extended periods of time. They fluctuate. Their energy comes and goes in spurts. One day they’re focused and passionate. The next day they’re lethargic and unmotivated. What is in danger, to borrow a publishing phrase, is the Senior Pastor's … [Read more...]
5 Scheduling Mistakes Pastors Make That Hurt Productivity (and how to fix them)
If churches aren't growing, I promise that a good bit of the cause is their Senior Pastors have made personal scheduling mistakes that are sabotaging their productivity. The first thing I do when coaching a Senior Pastor is to require them to (a) see a dietician, (b) get a complete physical, (c) meet with a financial planner, and (d) consult with (or hire) a personal … [Read more...]
Enhance Your Hiring With A Ministry Staff Questionnaire
My goal when hiring someone is to get as much information ahead of time to help me decide whether or not I want to take the next step with them. I accomplish this by giving all candidates a lengthy questionnaire to fill out before we move to face-to-face interviews. Part of the reason for giving this to people is to get actual information. I want to know everything that is … [Read more...]
Creating Executive Limitations For Senior Pastors
Purpose The purpose of this policy is to establish and communicate certain limitations to the authority of the Senior Pastor as set forth by the Christ’s Church of the Valley (CCV) Leadership Team. Scope The Senior Pastor is empowered with the responsibility and authority necessary to conduct the day-to-day affairs of the church, including the establishment of a strategic … [Read more...]
Setting Up A Cash Flow Management Policy
I've attached the cash flow management policy we use at CCV. It guides what we do when we experience a budget shortfall, and the required actions necessitated to trigger moving to the next level of seriousness. I highly encourage that you and your team adopt one for your team, especially before you head into summer. CCV Cash Flow Management Policy Level 0 - Business as … [Read more...]
