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Common things people say as they’re falling away…
Just because they say one or many of these doesn’t mean they are falling away, but these are the type of things “falling-away” people say… I’m just gonna’ take a break from church I don’t want to be too wrapped… Continue reading
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Not having someone’s gift does not mean ungodliness or immaturity
We must be careful that we do not judge ourselves or others by their lack of certain ministry gifts. Unfortunately, this seems to happen a lot. A godly person sees someone else’s gifts; leadership, preaching, music, prayer, welcoming, stewardship, whatever.… Continue reading
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Reblog: A good welcoming team welcomes, a great welcoming team…
… assists, coaches, supports and facilitates your regulars to welcome new people. If Max brings Bob to church, you don’t just want Bob to get support as he joins. You also want to support Max and help him support Bob… Continue reading
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If leadership means making decisions, raising up new leaders means…
If leadership means making decisions, raising up new leaders means… delegating decisions. If you want more people involved, you need more teams/groups for them to join. If you want more teams/groups, you need new team/group leaders. If you want to… Continue reading
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Why the core activity of leadership is making decisions
If you’re a leader of a ministry, an group, a church, whatever, your core activity is making decisions. In the end, it was your decision to accept this post, it was your decision to get people on board with you,… Continue reading
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Why you should beware mixing past-focused conversations with future-focused conversations
These two conversations are very different. They have different styles, different data, different “feel”, different implications. Swapping between them too quickly can falsely carry elements from one into the other. Past-focused conversations are mostly objective (what actually happened; numbers, times,… Continue reading
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The dangers of “desert island” theology
Desert-island theology is when you try to reduce a theological question down to its basic elements. This can be a really helpful activity for thinking clearly, however it need to be taken back into context. Some examples: What is marriage?… Continue reading
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Reblog: Ambiguity tolerance and church size
In general, small churches (30-90) and especially church-plants, are filled with people who have a high tolerance to ambiguity. You can tell by the very fact they’re at a small church plant. That means they would have had to pluck… Continue reading
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Ministry Exercise: Imagine doing another staff member’s job
Is very easy to get caught in your own silo as part of a staff team. You’re slogging away at one aspect of church, and you can easily start to feel like others aren’t pulling their weight, or they’re not… Continue reading
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Your minimum is your priority
Do you have something that you absolutely have to do? “I have to have a coffee every morning!”, “I have to go to the gym 3 times a week!”, “I have to be at work 40hrs a week!”, “I have… Continue reading
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A microphone doesn’t mean you can use your normal voice
Your normal voice is the voice you use in normal situations… and preaching/mcing is not a normal situation. It’s a very strange situation. You’re infront of hundreds of people. How would you speak if you didn’t have a microphone? Loud?… Continue reading
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Reblog: Do you know why there’s a roster?
Do you have a good reason for using a roster to run your church meetings? Not just any reason, but a good reason? Some churches (I suspect) have very bad reasons. “So that everyone gets to have a go.” Is… Continue reading
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Their response to sin = their grasp of the gospel
How do you know when someone’s really “got” the gospel? It’s an important question because we spend all this time and energy working hard at helping people get the gospel and keep hold of it. What does that look like?… Continue reading
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If someone won’t see you as their leader, there’s not much you can do.
There’s always going to be some people in your church who will never really see you as their leader/elder/pastor. They’ll come along, they’ll attend, they’ll agree with this and disagree with that. They might find you arrogant (ironic!), they might… Continue reading
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Don’t forget words when welcoming
I friend of mine once went to a church that did the logistics of welcoming really well! They had greeters at the car-park, paths, gates and doors. they smiled and nodded at you as you walked in. But they didn’t… Continue reading
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How to make the most of student ministers at your church
Lots of churches have/employ bible college students at their church while they’re studying. These students are usually asked to do things like youth group, lead services, preach 4-6 times a year, lead a growth group, run the Christmas service, etc.… Continue reading
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Reblog: Do you let people stop you preaching jesus?
There are some people sitting in your suburb/workplace/campus waiting for someone to tell them about Jesus, there are others who couldn’t care less. Don’t let the latter’s attitude get in your way of finding the former. Continue reading
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Dress to un-impress at church
We used to say, “Dress slightly more dressed-up than the average person in your church.” One of the main reasons was because we didn’t want people to think, “hmmm, this is too casual to be ‘church’ – it’s meant to… Continue reading
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Don’t feel guilty for making a choice – especially if you could never know which option is better
Some people seem to hate making ministry decisions… And not just big decisions, just little decisions about ministry things. Where should I do walk up today? Who should I approach? Should I sit at this table and chat to them,… Continue reading
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Bad preaching doesn’t just mean “wrong preaching”. It can also mean…
…empty preaching. That is, it’s preaching that doesn’t say anything deep, significant or meaningful. It’s just skims the surface, week-in, week-out. Let’s be clear… that’s not sad, it’s bad. That type of regular preaching is like keeping people as seeds… Continue reading
MINISTRY PRINCIPLES & PRAGMATICS 