March 17, 2020

3 Spiritual Phrases Christian Leaders Should Stop Saying

I often hear from people who say “We don’t any need more ideas/strategies/conferences/skills…all we need to do is ________,” and then they fill in the blank with something that sounds spiritual. Maybe you have people like that at your church, or someone like that on your team. It’s amazing how common this perspective is. You know the drill.  Every time you suggest “Why don’t we try reformatting our services/changing our kids ministry/reaching out into the community” they shoot back with “what we really need to do is just pray” (or “what we really need to do is get back to the Bible…”) as though […]
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February 11, 2020
Pastor Aaron Buer shares how key being encouraging is to those that work in ministry.

How to Be a Chief Encouraging Officer At Your Church

My senior pastor often talks about the word “encourage” and how it contains the word “courage.” The word comes from Old French, “to make strong.” Have you noticed that ministry takes courage? Walking with a family as they grieve the loss of a loved one—that takes courage. Sharing the message of the cross with people who are far from God—that takes courage. Confronting each other’s sinful behavior—that takes courage. Asking the people of your church to serve and give—that takes courage. Sharing constructive feedback with church employees—that takes courage. Pouring out your heart from the stage as you teach or […]
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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. […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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October 27, 2019
oasis

Resource highlight: Oasis Africa Study Bible & App

Imagine preparing for a sermon without a Bible. Yet, sadly, many pastors don’t have access to the Scriptures, much less understand how to study it! This month we want to highlight an amazing resource, the Africa Study Bible (ASB), that helps African pastors overcome those challenges specifically in Africa—the fastest-growing region for the Christian Faith. Watch our video interview with Dr. Matthew Elliott, president of Oasis International, to learn more about the ASB. Then learn how you can receive a digital version of the ASB via the ASB App for FREE!**  Be encouraged, and learn how you can get your […]
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September 21, 2019
unreached

Can Anything Grow in the Desert? Testimony from a Pastoral Trainer in Kenya

Watch our video interview with Pastor Tasse, be encouraged, and learn more about MentorLink International’s resources for training leaders who lead like Jesus. A written interview is below, as well as links to the MentorLink courses. We encourage you to subscribe to our YouTube channel for future interviews. “ With explosive numeric growth but few trained pastors, Christ’s Church in the great continent of Africa has been described by African leaders as “a mile wide and an inch deep”—a description which can fit many congregations anywhere. Kenyan pastoral trainer Pastor Alia Tasse rejoices over the rampant church planting in Africa. […]
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September 3, 2019
trend

5 Preaching Trends That Will Shape the Future (PART 1)

In a culture where everything’s changing, so is preaching. Sure…the message never changes, but the method has to if you want to be effective. What worked in preaching a decade ago is less effective today, not because the scripture or Gospel has changed, but because the culture has. The fact that 70-80% of all churches are plateaued or declining and the rash of deconversions we’re seeing are evidence that in many cases, what used to be effective isn’t anymore. This is a post I wrote with Mark Clark, Lead Pastor of Village Church, a church that reaches over 5000 people each weekend […]
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August 15, 2019

Leading in Suffering

reshared with kind permission of Leading International. Last month in Nepal, I had dinner with a pastor who spent time in jail for evangelizing. His case is still ongoing and he potentially faces several years in prison. I asked him whether he was nervous about going back to jail. Without hesitating, he simply replied, “No brother, we have already won!” His statement took me by surprise. How can someone view this as a victory? He explained how in jail he was able to share Christ with all the inmates and guards, and I realized that his comment about winning wasn’t […]
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