Kingdom Thinking and Church Planting

The person, work and ways of Jesus should determine our purpose and mission in the world, and then our mission to follow him should drive us to discover different approaches of being the church.

Bottom line: We must start with Jesus!

How to be angry like Jesus

The best way to know the difference between good and bad anger is to follow the example of Christ. The Apostle Paul seems to summarize Jesus’ approach to anger in his confusing instructions in Ephesians 4:26: “Be angry and do not sin.” That verse may seem odd, but it perfectly depicts Jesus. Yes, Jesus got angry, but he was always sinless.

Jesus shows us three right ways to be angry:

The Seven Traits of a Healthy Church Leader

I am encouraged.

I am really hopeful.

I see more signs of healthy church leaders today than I have seen at any point in my 30 years of ministry. This trend portends well for the future health of our congregations. Healthy church leaders will lead churches to greater health.

Should the church be more inclusive or exclusive?

One of the biggest challenges that Christians face today is reconciling the seemingly exclusive claims of Jesus with the postmodern cultural value of inclusivity.

Whether you are at a Starbucks or a law firm, a university campus or a preschool, inclusivity is what everyone seems to be striving for. It’s written in value statements. It’s expressed in public memos (sometimes after an employee Twitter gaff). And perhaps most importantly, it’s simply assumed to be an inherent good by most people in society.

Loving the Lost

It’s fascinating that a lot of Christians don’t seem to like non-Christians, often referred to as the lost or the unchurched. Often we want to keep away from messy people - perhaps missing the obvious that we are messy as well.

4 necessary mindsets for developing transformational leadership

I am convinced that gifted and well-equipped leadership is absolutely essential for every church. Biblical leadership is taught clearly in the Scriptures but perhaps often lost in the application of the local church.

Second Timothy 2:2 says, “And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” Here we see the transference of the core teachings of our faith to new leaders who will teach others.

This is biblical leadership development.

3 ways churches think they are known in their communities

Usually when I ask a question on social media, I expect a decent number of responses. Church leaders and members are typically gracious to me and share their opinions readily.

But when I asked a question about the reputation of their churches in the community, I was inundated with responses. Many wanted to share the good and the bad. Perhaps the most intriguing facet of the study was the three distinct groups in which the responses fell.

The question was simple: “What is your church known for in its community?”

Within a few minutes of my post, many responses came forth. After I read and added all of them, I saw three patterns emerge.

7 Ways to Create an Evangelistic Culture in Your Church

So your church is “evangelical.” But is it evangelistic? Here are seven ways you as a pastor can build an evangelistic culture that’s about more than baptism numbers.

While many churches would consider themselves to be evangelical, I have personally found very few of these same churches to have a strong evangelistic culture.

I wouldn’t evaluate this through the number of conversions reported by churches. That is solely the work of the Holy Spirit. Instead, I suggest we look at some key indicators of an evangelistic culture from Scripture.

5 Ways to Elevate Evangelism

Evangelists are hard to come by these days. Although the gift of evangelism is listed with several others in Ephesians 4, it seems like evangelists are few and far between. Peter Wagner, a longtime professor of church growth at Fuller Theological Seminary, first estimated that 10 percent of Christians are evangelists. However, more recent studies have suggested the percentage of a congregation who are gifted as evangelists to be closer to 1 to 4.

Interestingly, the word evangelist only appears three times in Scripture, which supports the idea that it may be somewhat rare (Acts 21:9; 2 Tim. 4:5; Eph. 4:11). What are the marks of an evangelist? How do you know if you are gifted? Here are several indicators:

8 convictions concerning evangelism

For most of my time in ministry, I’ve focused on helping pastors, from seminarians to veteran pastors, lead their churches in evangelism. Here are the key convictions as to why I think evangelism is as vital today as it ever has been and why I am devoted to it.

Preaching the Cross

When I was growing up, my family did not go to church every Sunday, but we never missed Christmas Eve or Easter.

This image of the “Christmas-and Easter-only” churchgoer is always in the back of my mind when I prepare to preach in the weeks leading up to Easter Sunday. If someone only went to church twice a year, what sermon would I want them to hear? How could I sum up the essence of the gospel in thirty minutes? What message would make the biggest impact? What words might make all the difference?

7 principles to lead as Jesus led

Jesus did not come to be your leadership guru. He came to die on the cross, for your sin, and in your place.

Yet, he did lead. And we can learn from how he led. If we look closely, we see that his leadership was wrapped in humility and servanthood. Even for those in high leadership positions, we all ultimately submit to one Person, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus also led perfectly. Now of course we are not perfect, but nonetheless Jesus’ model guides us toward Spirit-led leadership that honors all those under our care. The more we follow Jesus, the more ‘perfect’ we can be in emulating and taking on the characteristics of a good leader. And when we lead like Jesus, we leave a legacy that is shaped around Jesus.

A Dream To Be A Disciple-Making Church

Think about your church. What do you long to see for them? What do you regularly pray over them? If God were to answer your deepest prayers for your church, what would happen? What would change?

Ministry is partnership with God

As ministers and leaders, we often see ourselves as the chief builders. But we need to be reminded that we are not the chief builders. God is. Our role is to make disciples. God’s role is to build His kingdom. We labor, but ultimately, God builds (see Psalm 127).

We are not called to work for God; we are called to work with God.

In fact, ministry is partnership with God. We are not servants. We are not contract labor. We are sons and daughters working with our Father in His harvest field.

When we truly understand that ministry is partnership with God, three things will happen: