Some of the hardest working, most devoted pastors work in the smallest churches in terms of attendance. If you’re a small church pastor, you probably feel more alone, more tired, and (at times) more frustrated than pastors of churches 10 times yours in attendance. And that was before the COVID disruption.
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It’s imperative for every church to both optimize their first impressions and be extremely clear about what they’re inviting people to engage with. And the pervading sense of uncertainty about the future that I hear from pastors these days clouds every conversation about these issues.
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A sneak preview of a new tool that shows where the church has been and where it is going.
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When church leaders think about growth, they default to measuring people's participation, not their production.
[...]If we’re honest, it’s pretty easy to see the functional Great Commission in North America: Go into all the world and make more worship attenders, baptizing them in the name of small groups, and teaching them to volunteer a few Photo by Vero Photoart on Unsplash And, “Organized Disciple-Making” does not equate to the programs you’re running—or, for that matter, to the programs the “bigger and better” church down the street or the one across the country is running. See, if you’re [...]
Scriptures clearly remind us that God is building his church. But the reality of church can seem so contradictory to this truth. Reggie McNeal once wrote, "We have the best churches men can build, but we are still waiting for the [...]
Most of you will disagree with what I am about to suggest. Nevertheless, I will try my best to share with you what I’ve learned over the last 13 years. Keep in mind that this post title is not a [...]
My friend Jim Tomberlin is a multisite guru, leveraging his experience at Willow Creek Community Church to help many churches think through their multisite strategy.This week Jim published a useful little tool called 125 Tips for Multisite Churches.As a clarity [...]
This post is the second part of what I spoke on two weeks ago at Leadership Network's Rapid Growth Leadership Community. The first post was, 4 Personal Hazards of Pastoring a Growing Church.As we look to the organizational side, there [...]
I was thrilled to join Sam Chand and Chris Willard at Leadership Network (LN) this week for a Rapid Growth Leadership Community. A leadership community is a gathering of 10 church teams that come together around a topic or theme as convened by [...]
I recently spent a day with Eric Geiger, who has just joined the Auxano team. In addition to serving as the executive pastor at Christ Fellowship in Miami, and having co-authored the highly influential book Simple Church, Eric helps walk [...]
I have identified 12 kinds of churches in North America, in order to provide a practical look at the growth challenges of today. As an introduction to a series, I provide a peak at the list and a few opening [...]
I want you and your ministry to experience the benefits of stunning, God-given clarity. As a pastor turned vision coach, I’ve worked with an unprecedented variety of churches from growing mega-churches and missional communities, to mainline revitalization and church plants. I started several interconnected organizations that help the church embody the movement that Jesus founded. My visionary planning tools, the Vision Frame and the Horizon Storyline are used by thousands of churches every year through my calling to raise up other consultants and trainers. In 2004, I founded Auxano, which I sold to LifeWay and continued to lead until 2020. In 2014, I created Younique to deliver gospel-centered life design through the church. It is now the world's only comprehensive, open-source life plan system.
In 2023, I founded Run Free as my official team-based consulting shop. We deliver the most innovative Vision Framing experiences available to church teams through the "Pivvot Process" and to network/denominational leaders through the "Denominee Process." We also offer team coaching to church leaders using the "Performance Practices" of meta-performance executive coaching.
I've written seven books: Future Church, Church Unique, Younique, Clarity Spiral, God Dreams, Innovating Discipleship, and Building Leaders. I enjoy speaking about clarity, calling, disciple-making, and vision. It's all about helping one another do more than we can imagine. I co-locate in Houston and Chile with my wife, Romy, and the last of my four children, Poema.
If you are interested in Run Free's consulting offerings or want to discuss getting a LifePlan, just reach out to set up a conversation.
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