A Change of Inputs (recovering evangelism while there is still time)

Churches are in a decaying orbit; we have to change our inputs.

Strategic Reallocation of Resources (Post COVID)

Though COVID will “always be with us,” the pandemic seems largely over. It has been over for a while, the politicians and news outlets just needed another story to fill their news cycles. What that means for churches is where you presently are; is where you are going to be. No one else is coming

“Trail Guide to the Gospel of John” Has Been Released!

My goal was to write a one stop, “lay person’s” commentary on John’s Gospel that people couldn’t put down.

Going “Old School!”

(The Comeback of American Sunday School)   After decades of decline, I believe Sunday School may be poised for a Post-COVID comeback.  It would be an old thing that became the latest new thing; ecclesiastical Chuck Taylor Converse All-Stars.  Mind you, this would not be a “cut and paste” of Sunday School circa 1970, but

Leading in Perpetual Crisis (10 Keys)

I received two notes yesterday from highly committed parishioners.  Both thanked me for effectively leading the church through “crisis.”  My first thought was “which crisis?”  Since 2016 or so, the church world has been in a perpetual state of crisis.  The tornados keep touching down and the tornados already on the ground never seem to

Strengthening What Remains (A Word to the Church)

I had breakfast with my dad recently. We were exploring what the Western church will look like on the other side of COVID-19. We agreed that even churches who have been open for months on-site are still running less than half of the live attendance they did a year ago. What will happen with the

Leadership in the Roaring 2020’s

Leadership in the Roaring 2020’s will continue to be an ongoing process of navigating a jagged series of unpredictable no-win scenarios. This is not an anomaly; it is the new normal. We are going to have to get used to it. Effective leaders will have to be: 1. laser focused on their mission 2. empathetic

Does Your Church Want a Future? (then “get” this!)

History will look upon the years that spanned our lifetimes and declare them to be a period of seismic cultural shift.  In the same way the Gutenberg Press changed the world in 1439, the advent of the personal computer and the internet has changed the world again.  We live in a time when the Norman

Know What You are Going to Do! (2020 Edition) #UMCrapstorm

  I have played competitive softball since I was fourteen years old at every imaginable level.  Up to a handful of years ago, I played over a hundred games each season and now in my late fifties, I still play twenty or thirty.  For much of that time I was a shortstop.  The shortstop is

Preaching the Bible (all of it)

A major failure of modern orthodox Christianity has been an unwillingness to preach and teach the whole of the Bible.  I am as guilty as anyone.  We play the hits over and over but we don’t play the whole album.  As a result, most of the content of the Bible goes unaddressed and unexplored in