Thoughts on leadership, covocational ministry, church revitalization, and outreach.
Have you ever asked yourself, “How do I get my small church to grow?” This is the question we’re asking ourselves. A while ago we identified one thing we needed to work on. The Question Simply ask yourself this question: "Am I personally excited to invite people to our church gatherings?" I think it’s the first thing to work on if we want our small church to grow. Before I …
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I've worked for many years now (off and on) as an associate pastor at my church in Muscatine, Iowa. This weekend, I was ordained by the church leadership. I believe that every believer is an ambassador of the gospel! Every believer is called to minister, each in their own way! Some of us are also called to also go into ministry as a vocation, and as someone in that category, it feels …
I have a BBA in Marketing. I want to relay something that I learned from studying marketing that relates to evangelism. I hate comparing those two very different things, but, bear with me. This is helpful (I think). One of the things that stuck with me from those marketing courses in college was the idea that everything your company does is marketing. In business, everything is …
My wife Bethany has been leading a group study of an evangelism book called Tell Someone by Greg Laurie. Here's how she's doing it and why I think it's been a great thing for our church. She's been recording her thoughts about each week's reading (two chapters per week) and people are reading along and commenting their own thoughts either on Facebook or on our church website. I thought …
Many pastors are very tired and burned out right now, from the stress and extra work of ministry during the coronavirus days. Take a few minutes to listen to this excellent video by pastor and author Timothy Keller. He gives four thoughts and scriptures about how to avoid burnout and get through this well. I've broken out his four points below the video to make it easier to follow, or skim if …
Like most churches in America, we have moved from our regular meetings to some version of "meeting online" during the coronavirus crisis. This has had an unexpected benefit: people who don't join us normally have been tuning in to our "online meetings" and some seem to be really enjoying them. We are having short "services" on Facebook Live. We're doing it very simply, very informally, in …
I'm proud of the worldwide church. I see a lot of faith and outreach during this time of global Coronavirus crisis. The church is uniquely positioned to be courageous in a time when the world is fearful. Let's live it out! What's our role? Show what it looks like to have a deep foundation The church knows that we don't have to fear because our hope is not in this world. Our Savior is …
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Something I’m learning: Everything in ministry, in business, and I think anywhere we are trying to be effective in our efforts, the absolute number one thing to focus on is people. To grow, we need workers. We’re working to build up the children’s teaching program at our church in Muscatine, Iowa. What we need are more workers. The vision is there, the plan is there, the kids are ready, but to …
Looking at the culture of the 1st century, it's astounding that Jesus chose Mary Magdalene to be the first person to see him after his resurrection. I enjoyed this Easter sermon by Tim Keller about the Resurrection and Mary Magdalene's appearance. Here's that section, starting at 18:17: Transcript Maybe the most telling thing about this passage that tells us that Jesus Christ saves by …
I couldn't believe how much meaning was packed into the name "Jesus" when I studied it. Here's me doing my best to relay what I learned. Did you know? "Jesus" is the same name as "Joshua." How did it happen that we wound up with two different names that are actually the same name? And what implications does it have for the Gospel? My intro didn't make it into the video for some reason, but …
Amplify is an evangelism conference put on by the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism. I have gone to the conference for the past two years and it was phenomenal. I would highly recommend taking a look. Here’s why I’m excited to go this summer: Connect with my tribe This conference is a great place to meet like-minded leaders who are excited about helping people find their way back to …
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Godly leaders operate with a sense of urgency. It felt like I was struck by a lightning bolt when I started looking into Romans 12:8. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his …
