In their book The Missional Leader: Equipping Your Church to Reach a Changing World authors Alan Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk state that “discontinuous change” is the defining feature of the environment where church leadership takes place. Such change requires new, rather than simply adjusted, forms of leadership. The book describes the course a church takes as it navigates change, and describes the type of leadership that such change requires.
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Often, unmarried feel unwanted in the local church. The incessant marriage analogies. The awkward moment when you meet someone and have to say “actually, I don’t have any kids.” The constant guilt related to sexuality.
This BONUS VALENTINES episode is based on my blog post 7 Things Singles Need from the Church (A Valentines Post). We discuss the post as well as a TON of great responses on Facebook.
Take a listen, and, if you like it, HELP GET THE WORD OUT 
The best way is to subscribe, and leave us a (5 Star…) review in iTunes. Telling your friends and shouting it from the mountaintops is good, too.
A new episode of Tear Gas and Gumdrops is live today!
The episode is entitled “Church Planting: A Good Thing After Lots Of Therapy.” In this episode, Kyle interviews me on why I’m out planting churches after a few tough years.
You can get the podcast here in iTunes.
The best way to get the word out is to rate us and give us a review in iTunes. If you like it, I hope you’ll take a moment to tell the world. Continue Reading…
Here’s an excerpt from today’s post for Fresh Expression US, entitled Dying Church? Five Signs You Still Have Something to Give:
For many declining churches, their primary asset may be their building. In years past, the building may have been solely dedicated to official church activities. Today, the building sits vacant most of the week.
Have you thought creatively about how your building can be a blessing to your community?
A few options might include:
At some point, your values will change.
This is a good thing.
When I was growing up, I was incredibly insecure and had a hard time making friends. My primary value was to avoid the shame I felt when I failed to connect with others. By focusing on avoiding the shame of connection, I grew increasingly lonely.
For years, I was embedded in churches that focused on a set of “legalisms,” specific rules that couldn’t be broken. These mainly had to do with language, dress, sexuality and how often we showed up for church. By focusing on rules, I grew rigid and judgemental.
For many churches “success” means a growing number of bodies in seats on Sundays, and a growing budget. By focusing on the numbers, churches often go to ungodly lengths to gather more people.
For fundamentalists (Christian, Muslim, Atheist, etc.) intellectual assent to core beliefs is essential to one’s identity. By focusing on right belief, fundamentalists often will excuse hurtful behavior.
Sadly, what often happens is that our ideals change but behavior does not.
We all know the truism that what you measure is what gets done. Whether we like it or not, our ideals often get trumped by our score card.
So how do we redefine a win when our values have changed? Here’s a five steps that I’ve found helpful: Continue Reading…
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