Escaping the Performance Trap

We don’t have to stay stuck in the endless loop of performing and pretending.

The religious life sometimes feels like trying to hold a beach ball underwater. Joby Martin says we are constantly fighting to keep our bad parts (temper, materialism, lust of the flesh, etc.) from popping out. Every once in a while we lose control and that sin nature wriggles free and pops up, sometimes several feet into the air—metaphorically speaking. It’s embarrassing, so we grab it and shove it back down under the water.

The Church Multiplication Challenge

Across the United States, in churches of all shapes and sizes, God is breathing new life into his people as increasing numbers of leaders embrace the kingdom call to not just grow, but to reproduce and multiply.

A generation of seasoned pastors who’ve pursued the growth paradigm—and now an emerging generation of new leaders with an eye toward the next move of God—are uniting around the priority of reproduction and multiplication. These churches are leaning into their discontentedness and taking action. They are shining the light on a new and far-less-traveled path to success for leaders who’ve been focused exclusively on the church-growth paradigm of the past 40 years.

The 3 phases of church-planting churches

It seems for the last four decades or so, church communities have been talking about planting other churches. But much of that time was spent talking without taking action. The difference today is that people are actually walking out the talk. In other words, we’ve moved beyond just the idea of planting churches to actually doing it.

I would like to frame what has and is taking shape with regards to churches planting churches in three phases.

6 Marks of a Healthy, Well-Balanced Christian Life

My husband and I both work full-time, and we have two children in preschool. My job is creative and demanding; some would say I’m at the top of my field. On paper, this looks wonderful. In real life, it can be both messy and exhausting. Some nights, after the kids are in bed and my choices are laundry or working on my website, I’m too wiped out to do anything but go to bed.

I’m wondering all the time if I should stay the course, if I should change jobs (I’m topped out where I am), if I should switch to part-time so I can homeschool (I’d love to do this but not sure we can afford it). I wonder what I’m even aiming for. As a mom, what does a well-balanced, healthy, God-honoring life even look like?

16 leadership lessons I learned the hard way

Normal teenagers don’t read leadership books. They play baseball, chase girls, and wait on their budding mustache to bloom into all its glory. But as my wife continually reminds me, other than my sweet mustache, I wasn’t normal.

In my defense, I came by it naturally. Our home was filled with leadership books. They were left on bedside tables, stuffed in briefcases, and alphabetized near the theology section of our home library. As a young businessman and civic leader, Dad devoured anything that helped him wrap his mind around his growing responsibilities. As his only son and namesake, I followed suit. By the time I graduated high school, I could quote John Maxwell and Peter Drucker like a seasoned executive.

But it was all theory. As I soon found out, leadership in the real world is complicated, contextual, and hard. To grow beyond my theories, I had to immerse them into real organizations with real people and real problems.

Here are several leadership lessons I’ve learned the hard way.

Five essential elements of transformational small groups

Transformational discipleship involves moving people from sitting in rows, where they are simply in proximity to one another, to sitting in circles. From there, they move into community with one another.

Who are the outcasts in (some) churches?

The word “outcasts” seems strong. Perhaps it is. But, after over 30 years of working with thousands of congregations in North America, I think the nomenclature is close to reality.

When I use the word “outcast,” I am referring to those who are neglected at best and ostracized at worst. And lest anyone think I am compromising biblical views on marriage, sexuality, or other issues, I am not. In a number of churches, however, some of these groups are truly marginalized and, perhaps, shunned by members in the church.

5 sins leaders must constantly give new wounds to

In his famous and classic work, Mortification of Sin, John Owen wrote, “Never think your sin is dead because it is quiet, but labor to give it new wounds, new blows every day.” He also famously wrote, “Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.” The more we think our sin is quiet, the more susceptible we are to its deception and destruction. If we think we are standing firm, we are more likely to fall (I Corinthians 10:12). Based on my own struggles and learning from the struggles of other leaders, here are 5 sins leaders must “labor to give new wounds to every day.”

The Triumphal Entry before Jesus

Every year on Palm Sunday, children enter our worship service with palm branches, delightfully waving to the congregation (or devilishly whipping one another) in celebration of Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem. Many know the story of the Lord Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey to the adulation of the crowds.

But not everyone knows that long before Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey—hundreds of years before he was even born—another man rode a donkey into Jerusalem. And in that first triumphal entry, we uncover precious truth about the second.

New research on declining, plateaued, and growing churches

I love solid research. This new release is absolutely incredible.

I am grateful to Exponential for engaging LifeWay Research to discern current levels of church health according to a number of factors. While worship attendance trends over a three-year period were a primary indicator of health in this study, the Exponential research also included conversions, income, and staffing in the data.

Great Faith

As I’ve been thinking and recording my prayer list for 2019 (in the Every Nation prayer and fasting devotional guide), I find myself in a common dilemma: how ambitious should I make my prayer list?

Do I pray for abundant provision, or do I pray for daily bread and wisdom to steward it well?

More Church Planting Is Needed

Among the best ways for us to reach people with the gospel is personal evangelism and church planting. Even with all the changes in culture this remains our best option for reaching unbelievers.

Church planting efforts need focus. A scattershot approach will not be the most effective.

Here are five things we are going to need to increase church planting capacity.