March 10, 2020
Kevin Halloran interviews the field director of Leadership Resources Intl. about preventing sins in ministry.

Preventing Disqualifying Sins in Ministry: A Conversation

reshared with kind permission from the Leadership Resources The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:16 to “watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers” (NIV). Unfortunately, it doesn’t take long to think of ministers who haven’t watched their lives or doctrine closely. Within the last couple of years, two high-profile pastors in the Chicago area have had their sin exposed publicly, even covered by news outlets like the Chicago Tribune. Major sin by Christian leaders leads to great pain, not only in the ministers’ lives […]
February 18, 2020
DTS podcast discusses what makes a good elder board

What Makes a Good Elder Board

What Makes a Good Elder Board? 00:15 Brandenburg’s background in pastoral ministry 02:17 What is an elder-led church? 10:19 What are the qualifications of an elder? 19:15 Is there an age requirement for elders? 24:00 Developing young leaders in the local church 27:04 Utilizing giftedness in the local church 34:48 Creating healthy relationships between pastors and elders 40:57 Building culture in the local church Bill Hendricks: Hi, my name is Bill Hendricks. I’m the Executive Director for Christian Leadership at the Hendricks Center, and I wanna welcome you to The Table Podcast, where we deal with issues of God and […]
January 28, 2020
Dr. Ramesh Richard shares his one word for the year: Able

Able-Our Word for 2020 and Beyond

Limits characterize life. Humans experience physical and psychological limitations, geographical and chronological parameters, cultural and intellectual boundaries. Call it finitude. We may try to maximize this existential reality, and we must. Some even break human limits in indirect ways. Remember when poets thanked God that “men cannot fly”? Now we fly, harnessing mind, metal and nature to transport us across the world and to the moon and back—most often with bags. Finitude is attended by frailty. All earthly life features a necessary beginning and an inevitable end. Once we cross peak age, which comes all too early (25, I am […]
January 21, 2020
Author Bob Tiede shares the power of focusing on one year as the vision for your year.

What Is Your “One Word Focus” For 2020?

Did you know that a “One Word Focus” for 2020 could dramatically increase your effectiveness in the coming year? There is incredible power in having a single focus! Jon Gordon, Dan Britton and Jimmy Page have written an incredible book:  “One Word That Will Change Your Life.” They share: “87% of us make New Year’s Resolution every year. Although these resolutions are meant to be good and well-intentioned solutions, unfortunately they are built on a flawed assumption of more effort,  willpower and goal setting. We set to-do goals instead of to-be goals.  Success is measured by what we accomplish instead of who we become. […]
January 21, 2020
Saying no means saying yes sometimes!

Say No to Saying Yes in Your Ministry

Reshared with kind permission from Breeze Church. Welcome to 2020! I don’t know about you, but I feel like I’m living in a sci-fi movie. Maybe it’s because I grew up in the 1900s but the year 2020 feels like hover-boards, vacations to the moon, and robot butlers. Anyway, a question for you: Do you have any goals for 2020? Maybe you’re a resolutions person, or perhaps you have goals in mind for your church or ministry. Perhaps God has placed something on your heart to run after in 2020. Recently, I spent some time in the book of Nehemiah. […]
December 2, 2019
multiply

Pastoral Training efforts multiply in Latin America

Gloria and her husband Hosman have trained pastors for nine years. They currently aim to train at least 100 per year. But their training emphasis has shifted. Now they not only train pastors to lead local congregations, they train them to replicate their training. By doing so, they exponentially accelerate the training of pastors. Gloria and Hosman face the same challenges that many around the world face: pastors who lack time (many are bi-vocational), money (the church can’t pay them), resources (e.g. transportation), education (even basic) and experience (they don’t know enough to know what they don’t know). So they […]
October 29, 2019
teach church to pray

Teach the Church to Pray

Reshared with permission from the author Learning to Pray With Scriptures Praying with Scripture is not a new concept. The use of Scripture for prayer has been around since the early church fathers and it gained momentum during the Monastic period. Some Christian traditions kept this practice in their liturgical worship and Lectio Divina.  However, this practice is generally lost to most of us evangelical Christians due to our disproportionate emphasis on spontaneous prayer, thinking that this approach to prayer is much more sincere than prayers that are being read out. The Four Movements in Prayer This book combines methods […]
October 24, 2019
designer

Designer Shoes

This article “Designer Shoes” is reshared from RREACH. Searching for worship music and sneakers on the internet, a young man started noticing a strange occurrence. Several Christian pastors wore rather expensive sneakers in the pictures on their church websites. The shoes ranged from $600 to $3,000. This trend alarmed him, and he asked a question, “What is OK as far as optics … as far as pastors wearing hype or designer clothing?”. His Instagram post started a blaze of comment from the Wall Street Journal to the New York Times and several other media outlets. Public criticism is an occupational hazard of Christian leadership. […]
October 22, 2019
pain

Pain: The Gift of Leadership

Guest Post by Dianne Ogle, reshared with kind permission from Leadership With Questions Is there such a thing as being thankful for pain in our life? As Samuel R. Chand says in his book Leadership Pain “Reluctance to face pain is your greatest limitation. There is no growth without change, no change without loss, and no loss without pain. Bottom line: if you’re not hurting, you’re not leading.”  If we are really honest with ourselves, it is through pain that our growth and development flourishes the most IF we yield into and ask ourselves tough questions. What can I learn through this season of pain? […]