Minister's Toolbox

One of the titles given to Christ in Isaiah chapter nine is Wonderful Counselor. What sort of counsel do you give? Does counseling work, and is it an effective use of your time? Whether it works or not depends largely on two factors. First, the ground rules for the session. Second, the willingness of the counselee to be accountable. Some of Jesus’s counsel was very short and oftentimes abrupt. Tel...

At first glance, it seems kind of absurd to think of accountability in a negative way, but there are pitfalls that can limit your effectiveness as a church leader. Accountability is high on the priority list of Heaven. Jesus warned his followers that every word spoken on earth would be recorded and accountable on the Day of Judgment. Sometimes, it becomes necessary for the good for the church to r...

 It is very easy to measure ministry success by the numbers. Membership increases by 20% each year, you are successful. If they decline, you are not. Biblically these measuring sticks are completely inaccurate. According to John’s gospel, Jesus had a congregation of 5012 which everyone deemed successful. He preached one sermon and 5000 left. Churches today that are business, as usual, will be out...

I participate in a weekly meeting of pastors in our region called, Gatekeepers. Every week, we get together for a no agenda meeting incorporating sharing, prayer and mutual encouragement. One of the pastors this past week spoke about a sermon he preached recently on the subject finishing well.  It is difficult to find pastors or leaders who make it to sixty and are still filled with passion and dr...

Diet is Latin for the general assembly of Worms, a city in Germany. In 1521, Martin Luther, (a Catholic priest and professor of moral theology at the University of Wittenberg) was called to give account. His bold and thoroughly unexpected stand against corruption in the church offended the hierarchy at the highest levels. Few of us grapple with issues that will impact the future of the world. Stil...

You have more material than most professional authors. You spend multiple hours per week writing sermons to bless your congregations. Each sermon is potentially a chapter for one or more books. You can write, design and publish a book in a matter of days with the simple tools of today’s technology. During today's podcast I share the simple steps you can take to publish it at little or no cost...

Change is at the heart of what we do as church leaders, but you remember I said this is a bit ironic. The irony is, that by and large, church leaders are typically people who don’t change at all! What if you were an alien from another planet who visited your church. What would you see and experience? Would the report you give to your superiors reflect New Testament Christianity? Principles must re...

I am always amazed, particularly at national restaurant chains and how they operate. Millions are spent to get a franchise, build a building and open for business. Before you walk in the door, literally millions have been invested by seemingly astute businessmen. What amazes me in many of these establishments is first: the employees. In many fast food places, you can see dirty floors. You can see...

If I asked pastors what their most important ministry is, many would say family. A great answer, but wrong. Your most important ministry is to the Lord.  Now before you roll your eyes and think, “O brother, that is obvious,” listen to the podcast and allow me to explain myself. This is crucial to your present and future ministry.  David ministered to the Lord. That single dynamic caused scripture...

Have you noticed that reports of the miraculous are much more plentiful in third world countries than in the U.S. or Europe?  For our part, we pretty much dismiss most of it as ignorance, superstition and unimportant. A philosophy governs society and permeates our educational system. It affects how we view ourselves and the world. To a large extent this philosophy deeply hinders gospel efforts by...

Numerical growth is one gauge people use to determine the effectiveness of any ministry. It is a legitimate gauge, providing we are talking about actually reaching lost people. Throughout the United States and other parts of the world, growth tends to be cosmetic. Only about 5% is due to new converts. Without realizing it pastors can unwittingly become the ringmasters of a circus. Our time is spen...

Most pastors do a lot of things in ministry. By the end of the week or year, we look back and wonder if all the preaching, counseling, budgeting, seminars and meetings were actually productive. Ephesians 4:11-16 states that there are five specific leadership callings in the church: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. We talk about what this means in present-day terms during the...

How much of what we do or practice as a church is sending the opposite message of what we are trying to convey? Is our church saying, "All Are Welcome" outwardly, but in reality, saying, all are welcome if you become like us as soon as possible? About 80% of people come to your church through personal invitation. Included in that statistic is checking you out on the web before they come....

Christians tend to move around.  They come to your church from another church across town because they are searching for something they haven’t found elsewhere. When people come from other churches, we can be faced with several ethical dilemmas. For example, what about people who come to us as victims of spiritual abuse? What if it is a pastor we know? During the podcast, we delve into solving the...

Someone says, “How are you doing?” Our #1 answer is: “Busy.” Busy is a great word because it means absolutely nothing. People who are not in ministry honestly don’t understand fully what it means to work for God. You decide on what activities will be productive towards reaching the goals heaven has set for your life, family, and ministry. I have always worked in non-denominational settings, so for...

How does a hate-filled young man, mixed up in Kung-fu Karate and eastern mysticism find a path to Christ? Today, I share my journey that eventually led to full time church ministry. During the podcast, I mention a free offer. You can get a free audio of the first 3 chapter of my (now published) book, When A Good Church Goes Bad . Listen here or get the entire book free at audible.com

In this second part of a two-part series, we address heresy INSIDE your church. How do you address people who intend to siphon people away from your church to build their own? We offer a free download today, How To Address Heresy In Your Church . I also mentioned MileIQ which is a great free tool to help you track the miles your drive to take advantage of legitimate tax breaks from the IRS. More i...

Heresy inside and outside our churches is a serious responsibility all leaders must face at one time or another. How do we address it biblically? I spoke of a national ministry that serves as an example of heretical teaching. I also mention a website you can use to verify whether rumors are true before you pass them along on social media. It is called, Snopes.com . I also invited you to submit a q...

Can church leaders "fake it till they make it?" For a while, but our ministries can never truly have impact unless they are authentic. We are called to deliver fresh bread to our audiences, not stale sermons. How do we do that week in and week out? I will be doing a survey to our email list. Please sign up to get a free eBook on how to be more effective with social media.

Church leaders often do their work unnoticed and under-appreciated.  How do you respond to people who fail to acknowledge the hard work you do month after month or year after year? Some insights on today's podcast. I also talked about a new affiliate tool that can be helpful this coming year for your taxes. It is called MileIQ. Click on this link for more information.

What did Jesus mean when he said, Judge not, or you will be judged? Does that mean we cannot judge under any circumstances? How can we do our jobs as leaders if we are not allowed to judge? Does this even make sense? Today we mentioned the best seller,  7 Habits of Highly Effective People. We also mentioned Audible books where you can get a 30-day free trial.

The majority of people in western countries believe in Jesus, but see no connection between belief and participation in a local church. Why? Has the gospel lost its relevance or are our church services at fault? During today's show, I recommended a book by Watchman Nee entitled, The Latent Power Of The Soul. Click here  to read a chapter on Amazon.

We do a great deal of praying in public, but does it really impact anyone?  Is there a way to make a difference when we pray and ditch formal prayers that are quickly forgotten? We offer a free download on today's show that give you the salient points from both this episode and last week. You can get it here .

Ministers are often called on to pray at public gatherings. Do these prayers ever impact anyone? How should ministers pray in public? A book I recommend for personal prayer devotions is The Complete Works of E.M. Bounds . Very practical and inspirational.     

As church leaders, we are called to know, understand and be led by God's voice, but what does He sound like? How can you tell if you are hearing Him or just your imagination? Today, we chat about 3 sure ways to hear God speak. I also mention a free download which sums up each point that you can get here .