Avenues to Application

From the majority of Christian pulpits and classrooms comes the message, “We need to do more.” The lesson is taught, the sermon preached and people are left wondering, “Now what?” After all that good information, motivating words, and all the rest what am I going to do about it? There is no shortage of guilt [...]

Rob Bell on the 10th Commandment

Some really powerful and insightful words from Rob Bell at Catalyst regarding the 10th commandment (not to covet) and its application to ministries and ministers. Here is an excerpt from Out of Ur’s summary of his message,
“Rob professed his amazement at Christian organizations that rank the most significant churches and organizations based on size. And [...]

Cutting – What Parents, Teachers, and Ministers Need to Know

I am amazed at how few people are aware of this growing trend among young people. We normally think of cutting the arms and wrists and suicidal behavior but more and more teens and young adults are tuning to this habit as a form of emotional release and control. This video explains much of the [...]

A Night of Letter Writing

Last night we worshiped God and sang about outreach. Then we got to writing. We are starting with a list of 500+ names and addresses in the neighborhood of our building. We spent time praying for them and writing notes of encouragement for each one. Young and old and everywhere in between came and wrote [...]

10 Ways to Help Deacons Be Effective

As Jay mentioned earlier, one problem many churches face is helping their deacons to be effective. Often through poor communication and unrealistic expectations things fall through the cracks. It vital to the health of the church that we take the necessary steps to help our deacons be effective:
1 – Realize this is volunteer help and [...]

What Church Database Software Does Your Church Office Use?

We are on the lookout for a new database for our congregation. If you have any suggestions on software that you have found to be exceptionally useful in your congregation please post your thoughts here.

Connect. How We Put On An Invovement Night at Northwest

Two months ago our elders and ministers had a one day retreat to talk about the future and direction of the church. In that meeting several things came to light that we decided to act on that included new ministries to add/expand existing ministries and trying to get 100% involvement from our membership in service/ministry.
Following [...]

Frank Talk About Ministry

See Frank Bellizzi’s latest post about ministry. I really appreciated it and it is a great read. Link. Frank’s blog is one of those that leaves me scratching my head why he doesn’t get way more traffic. His blog is excellent and I always look forward to reading his thoughts when I see a new [...]

Keeping People Between the Front Door and the Back Door

When talking about retaining people church leaders often use the terms front door and back door to refer to bringing people in (the front door) but not wanting them to go out the back door (leave the church). I think this terminology needs to be examined because I think underneath it is the old facility [...]

Preaching – Transition from Motivating to Educating

It seems like some of the most effective preaching that is going on today is very educational. I don’t mean educational like a dry lecture from Ferris Beuller’s Day off. I mean very engaging but certainly not light on the biblical narrative or even bits and pieces of more complex theology thrown in the mix. [...]