Articles in this category focus on rejoicing in the community of other believers, how to build and nurture community, and how to better reflect Jesus Christ to our brothers and sisters in the faith.
It’s easy to look at our brothers and sisters and see their warts and blemishes. Yet the perfect One, the holy One, the One without a single imperfection doesn’t look on His people the way we often do.
Mark Altrogge
The longer a great team is together, the better it seems to work together, but it starts with finding the right people to join the team.
Ron Edmondson
I think it’s vital to a healthy team that the leader be continually conscious of his or her need for influence and ways to improve upon it.
Ron Edmondson
Ultimately, God has made us ‒ even as leaders ‒ to connect best with other specific people. We must wholeheartedly seek them out and refuse to settle for second best by sometimes saying “no” to certain people in order to say “yes” to others.
Nick Franks
We all want better, truer, deeper Christian community. We all want to grow personally. But how do we get there? Scripture has a surprising answer: Show up. We are obsessed with life hacks and shortcuts today. Everywhere ads hit us with easy tricks to grow our investments, to make dinner prep a breeze, to give […]
Ricky Alcantar
Impacted by a testimony of the transforming work of God in someone’s life, we are often left in awe of God’s faithfulness and with a fresh hope of what He will do in us and in others we are praying for. How quickly we forget that in most cases transformation in our lives is a […]
William Frisbie
The effectiveness and health of a team is directly associated with developing a common working approach.
Malcolm Webber
I’ve been in many church offices where I observe walled-off office after walled-off office. Collaboration is paramount to a healthy church culture. Even if you are the only paid staff member you still need to be collaborating internally on projects, creativity, and other things.
Joe Hoagland
We need to get better at criticism. Much better. That is my criticism of the church.
David Goodman
What is the best and most biblical way to define a “healthy” church?
Malcolm Webber
If you were to ask someone what their most important relationship is, the answer would most likely revolve around a family member. So why do these leaders who claim family relationships matter have such a devastated family? It’s because it’s easy to say your family is important but difficult to live it out.
Joseph Lalonde
Revitalization is essential. It’s not easy and there are many ways, but as a revitalizing pastor, here are three observations of turnaround churches. The big question: if your church were to close its doors tomorrow, would anyone in the community care, notice, or react?
Matthew Fretwell
Osmo Wiio’s first law of communication is that “Communication usually fails, except by chance.” The barriers to effective listening are numerous. In order to be effective leaders, we must identify and understand that which hinders us from effective listening.
Malcolm Webber
There is a growing divide between church importance and Millennials, and it’s not getting any better. To close the door of the divide, the church must relate the importance of salvation for the collective community ‒ the power of God on display ‒ through prayer, proclamation, and practice.
Matthew Fretwell
Several years ago at a physical therapy appointment I was getting some kinks worked out of my back. As the therapist torqued my left leg into a pretzel, she told me about a friend who recently got news about a life-threatening medical condition. As my therapist shared, she felt unsure about what to say to her friend facing […]
Charles Stone
When people are facing extreme problems, their organizations often embody those same challenges. The Coalition of Women Living with HIV and AIDS was one such agency. Having grown quickly, but haphazardly, it was on the brink of tearing itself apart. This is the story about the power of forgiveness to resolve conflict and bring positive [...]
Joyce Mataya
“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD.” (Ephesians 2:19) When the apostle Paul describes the church as God’s household, His family, what does he really mean? Reflect with me a moment on what it means to be a family. To be family […]
David Goodman
We have a constant flow of leaders through the retreat center who share their stories with us. They are all doing incredible work but at the same time facing huge challenges. We find there is an amazing energy and drive among the leaders we meet to do great exploits for the Lord and they are […]
Stephen Mayers
Recently I participated in a leadership retreat near Lake Michigan focusing on renewal. The purpose of the retreat was to teach how to offer renewal to others. The first morning I got up early for a walk on the beach and discovered a very unique stone in the shape of a heart with a hole in it. This […]
Ritch Hochstetler
Community serves a twofold place in the life of the leader. First, the healthy leader is built in community (Eph. 4:13-16). No healthy leader will ever be developed in a vacuum. The hottest ember grows cold in isolation. When we come together we are given copious opportunities to be patient, kind, forgiving and loving, to […]
Malcolm Webber