New Approach to Staff Bios

We recently upgraded our website and out Creative Arts Pastor Cameron Sprinkle took the Clover framework and put together what is in my opinion a great website for our church.

The staff bios I think are really strong. Cameron had us all say something fun and something serious about each other member of the staff. This way folks who check out our website first before visiting can learn about the staff without the staff bragging on themselves.

You also get to see the finished product of the Lost reference, that I mentioned in a post from last week.

You can check out the entire site: genesischurch.me

April 2, 2012 in Encouraging with 3 Comments

Monday Morning Quick Hits

  • Last week Mark Driscoll stepped down from the leadership of two organizations he was instrumental in forming: Acts 29, a church planting network and The Gospel Coalition. I’m not the biggest fan of the way Driscoll does things, but I don’t lead a church of thousands, helped plant hundreds of churches, or written multiple books. One of which is the best church memoirs I’ve read. I hope that this is a move of health and balance.
  • Been a long-time fantasy football player, and thinking about joining a baseball league. Anyone need one more for their league?
  • Valuable or annoying: profiles of pastors looking for a church job and posts from churches with available positions?
  • In a month I went from less than 50 subscribers to the email newsletter to over 500. Everybody likes free.
  • Christianity Today has a wide-ranging interview with John Piper that covers his famous tweet “farewell Rob Bell.”.
  • Seth Godin on the rise of short. Applies to sermons too.
  • Young adults not returning to church is a popular topic and rightly so. Jonathan Pearson has a short rundown of a few prescriptive actions.
  • Before you approach someone about mentoring you, learn and follow these rules first. via Perry Noble.
  • Sucker for “books you should read” posts.
  • Friend and fellow pastor wrote a song for our current series.

April 2, 2012 in Uncategorized with 1 Comment

April Fool’s at Church

Curious if anyone pulled any pranks this morning at church.

Fake a power outage, flip the sound off, some intentionally misplaced or misspelled sermon slides. You don’t want to go overboard and risk getting sued, but I’m all for having a little fun.

So did anyone pull a prank today? Or did you have one planned but chicken out?

Let me know in the comments in the meantime some inspiration:

April 1, 2012 in Encouraging with 0 Comments

Young People Are Leaving: What Are You Doing About It?

It seems that every other post in my Google Reader account is about young people leaving the church and not coming back. I think those of us in youth ministry saw this coming. Either among our peers or the students that graduated from our ministry, people didn’t come back.

Like many of you I read unChristian and the subsequent follow-ups The Next Christians and You Lost Me. We even covered so of the information from the books here.

The data is known. The response isn’t.

So what are you doing about it? 

Seriously, let us know in the comments.

March 31, 2012 in Practical with 11 Comments

Blog Series: 30 in 30

This is the landing page for a new blog series. You can get the entire series as a Kindle book.

A pastor is a unique profession. Before I got into it I thought my time would used for study, counseling, and creative planning sessions. Sure that happens but I overlooked the relational aspect of ministry. Everything you do from your time with God to how you treat your neighbors comes back to relationships.

If you are just getting started in ministry then read this, or at least skim it. If ministry feels stale and you want to start fresh without trying to find a new job, read this. These 30 tips and practices are born out of personal experience. Things that I did that worked and things that I overlooked and regretted.

Each Tuesday I’ll post another chapter with the links updated here.

  1. Learn Names
  2. Ask Every Question
  3. Pay Attention and Listen
  4. Relax
  5. Don’t Change Anything
  6. Say Yes to Everything
  7. Don’t Commit to Anything
  8. Don’t Bash or Try to Replicate What Was Before
  9. Meet Your Neighbors
  10. Meet Other Pastors in the Area
  11. Find the Hangouts
  12. Identify and Meet the Connectors
  13. Have People in Your Home
  14. Establish a Date Night
  15. Taxes, Vacation Time, and Other Things to Clarify
  16. Identify Cheerleaders and Axe Grinders
  17. Do What You Know
  18. Be Who You Are
  19. Plan One Big Thing
  20. Pre-Emptive Appreciation
  21. Love Kids and Old People
  22. Go Home at 5
  23. Find an Outside Mentor
  24. Protect Your Sabbath
  25. Go Through What Was Left
  26. Get Out of the Office
  27. Celebrate the Honeymoon
  28. Take a Risk
  29. Set Very Broad Goals
  30. Social Media
  31. Post Script

I love the thought of getting your feedback on the individual chapters, so let me know what you like and what you didn’t like in the comments.

March 30, 2012 in Challenging, Encouraging, Practical with 0 Comments

Finding a Church Job: Networking for Real People

This is part 3 of a blog series called Finding a Church Job.

I hate networking.

The idea of a room filled with people wearing name tags forcing conversations with strangers puts me in a cold sweat. Identity is your job title and passion is your next project. As an introvert networking is somewhere between root canals and a tax audit.

Obviously I make all this a bigger deal than it really is. My guess is that most of you feel the same way as I do.

If you want to find a church job though you can’t rely only on online job boards you have to network. Since most of us don’t care for the stereotypical version of networking you can do it differently.

You have develop relationships and connections with other pastors. Which means you are going to have to reach out and not just find but create opportunities. Just don’t be creepy about it.

So here are 5 ways to “be” different (once I started I couldn’t stop, I am a pastor) and network for real people.

Be Focused

Leeches. That’s what I think of when going into a networking situation. People that are looking for anyone that can help them get another step ahead. So when you are looking for a job don’t cast a wide net.

Narrow your search down a geographic area, type of role, or type of church. Don’t talk to just anyone but talk to those in that field or area.

When someone comes up to me and says they are looking for a job and will go anywhere it isn’t that I lose interest, but I don’t make the same connections I would if they said they were looking to join a church plant or be a worship pastor.

Find the connectors in your area. The people who host meet-ups or seem to know everyone else.

Continue Reading…

March 29, 2012 in Challenging, Encouraging, Practical with 7 Comments

Is Seminary Worth It?

A piece on the changing nature of seminary as published by the Christian Standard.

I am a statistical anomaly. I am a young minister who went to seminary almost immediately after receiving my undergraduate degree. More and more, people like me are opting to bypass seminary and go directly into full-time ministry.

Some of these individuals have been spectacularly successful. The incredible stories of new churches being planted and existing ones becoming vibrant again make me think about the time, effort, and resources spent on a seminary degree, and I wonder: Was it worth it?

Has a world of blogs, conferences, and books made a seminary degree obsolete?

You can read the rest of the piece at the ChristianStandard.com

March 28, 2012 in Challenging with 3 Comments

Creating a Missional Mindset with Students

So I need some help. I have to figure out to get teenagers to embrace a missional mindset.

So here’s the deal: I lead a mid-sized Student Ministry at a very fast growing church that is preparing to open our first campus in a multi-site strategy. Specifically the challenge is our high school group. We have a tight-knit group that is understandably concerned about not seeing their friends and losing what they have.

The plan is to do small groups at each campus but on different nights with combined big events happening somewhere between monthly and quarterly. If we can get into it I think we will be fine, just trying to get there. Talking to others who have done this the key is getting students to embrace a missional mindset. That’s the what, I need help with the how.

A few thoughts I have at this point:

  • Clearly casting the vision repeatedly
  • Allowing students to have a say by presenting options
  • Creating student leadership teams that have influence over programming
What would you add? Any experience with something like this?

March 28, 2012 in Practical with 7 Comments

Needing Criticism: Schedule and Follow Up

You can jump into the larger conversation on the importance of seeking criticism in ministry here.

As I understand it a meltdown at a nuclear power plant doesn’t happen without warning. Prolonged and unchecked reactions build up over a period of time on the way to disaster, however there are plenty of opportunities as it happens to stop things from becoming catastrophic.

Criticism becomes a problem when it is ignored or avoided.

Throughout this series the overarching issue has been that we don’t like to be criticized. This fear is what leads to something really damaging and painful.

Rookie Pastors looking to develop their leadership can’t just seek criticism they have to be intentional.

Schedule

Figure out a system of some kind that forces you to ask for honest feedback on a regular basis. This may take the shape of something formal, but more than that I think it is an attitude.

After each sermon seek someone out. At staff meetings let those you serve with speak into what you are doing. Before you send out a mass email let someone else review it. These practices may not lead to immediate results, but over time they will. The feedback you receive may not be crucial to your leadership but the humility you exhibit will.

Follow Up

People make passing comments. An email. It gets back to you second-hand.

You decide not to pursue it further citing that they were blowing off steam. You reply to their email and take their lack or response for reconciliation. Or since they didn’t come to you directly you decide not to sink to their level.

Leaders lead. The criticism that hurts does because of the immature way it is delivered or due to the immature way it is received. Be mature and have the conversation you’ve been avoiding.

March 27, 2012 in Challenging, Practical with 1 Comment

Monday Morning Quick Hits

March 26, 2012 in Uncategorized with 6 Comments

Page 30 of 90« First...1020«2829303132»405060...Last »