One of the challenges of becoming a discerning church is fighting old models of decision-making. Discerning is no easy task. It is not very efficient and requires time and energy (two highly valuable commodities in our world today). In addition, it is natural to revert to ingrained patterns of functioning, such as political jockeying or [...]
Read MoreChurch Leadership
Trends in church leadership come and go. In the 80s and 90s a tendency to fashion church leadership after business leadership was common. In my seminary coursework, I was required to read corporate leadership books. It was not uncommon to find CEOs of major companies leading sessions at conferences for pastors. While many churches grew [...]
Read MoreGood Meetings
Meetings are often longer than planned. Minor tasks sometimes take hours to accomplish. I will tell my wife that I will be done in an hour; three hours later I am texting her informing her that I am on my way home. Business leaders have written books about the inefficiency of meetings encouraging leaders to [...]
Read MoreEthos
I was reading On the Verge: A Journey Into the Apostolic Future of the Church (Exponential Series) this afternoon. Alan Hirsch describes ethos in the fifth chapter. He likens it to the operating system of a computer. It is in many ways the culture of a church. His discussion prompted me to consider the environment [...]
Read MoreImplementing with Open Ears
I wanted to update you on the status of our recent decision to change our Sunday morning schedule. We are planning on making the change the week after Easter. It has been a long road of listening, discerning and listening a bit more. Yet it seems that it is time to pull the trigger on [...]
Read MoreFortitude and Flexibility
As I reflect on the dynamic of discernment, I am living in the tension of process and free-flowing forms of interaction. We want to be intentional about moving forward. At the same time, we want to be open to the movement of the Holy Spirit. Are these dynamic incompatible? Can they co-exist? While I struggle [...]
Read MoreWatching to Learn
In the morning, I generally read Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals. The book is designed for community reading, but it works well as a devotion. It leads me into focused prayer and provides Scripture for reflection. This morning, I was reading Genesis 24:1-27. This is the story of Abraham’s servant being commissioned to [...]
Read MoreUnforeseen Circumstances
We are on the other side of the January 22 meeting. One unforeseen detail was that I did not attend. On Saturday afternoon, I came down with a stomach virus. I was unable to preach in morning worship and attend the meeting on Sunday evening. As I lay in bed pondering what this would mean, [...]
Read MoreAnother Decision
It has been a while since I have blogged on this site. I have been a bit overwhelmed finishing my doctoral thesis. However, I hope to contribute to this site throughout 2012. My thesis has been submitted to the second reader and I have a bit of time to sit back and evaluate what I [...]
Read MorePromotion-Focused vs. Prevention-Focused
A couple weeks ago, my thesis supervisor was in Muncie for an on-site visit. We reviewed the work of the first few chapters and talked about areas that needed work. One of the oversights was psychosocial research. I assumed that confidence in decision-making was something that would naturally lead to better decisions. I needed to [...]
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