Josh was one of the most zealous workers we'd seen at church, but I realized he was three steps beyond "weary in well doing" when I read his letter: "My walk with the Lord is nonexistent. I've allowed the pressure of church work to crowd out time with God. Now it seems impossible to get back in touch with him. We've also gotten seriously into debt, and I've been trying to do "ministry" while working ...
Many leaders of smaller movements and organizations try to make all the decisions themselves, and under certain circumstances this approach works well. But such leaders almost always crash and burn as the organization grows; or alternatively, the organization itself collapses when the original leader ages or becomes ill or dies.
Even in small organizations there are compelling reasons why a leader ...
On Pentecost last year, 850 gathered for worship beneath an enormous yellow-and-white tent on a church lawn in Falls Church, Virginia. Folding chairs were arranged in roughly the same configuration as pews in a planned sanctuary to be built on that site.
It was Celebration Sunday at The Falls Church (Episcopal), and for the first time in recent memory, the whole congregation worshiped as one. The co-chairs ...
The king asked, "Well, how can I help you?" With a prayer to the God of heaven, I replied, " If it please Your Majesty and if you are pleased with me, your servant, send me to Judah to rebuild the city where my ancestors are buried." Nehemiah 2:4-5
An important leader in our church told me that his work schedule had stretched him to the limit and he didn't know what to do about his church commitments. ...
Then I prayed to the God of heaven, and I answered the king, "If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my fathers are buried so that I can rebuild it."
I also said to him, "If it pleases the king may I have letters to the
governors of Trans-Euphrates, so that they will provide ...
"I may be old," said Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes at the end of his long life, "but I haven't stopped growing."
If an elderly man can have that perspective about reading law and philosophy, church leaders should have all the more such passion for the church of Jesus Christ, for we believe God is leading his people into the future. Here are four ways churches can keep growing: