Yesterday I spent a few minutes talking with my friend and mentor, Dr. Joe Brown. Joe is 65 and retired from Hickory Grove Baptist Church in Charlotte. He recently began an interim at a church in Monroe, NC. Part of our conversation centered on young pastors and how many of them are planting new churches.… Read More »
Running the Wrong Direction
The college football season is underway and we’ve already had one play that was both unusual and embarrassing. It occurred during Thursday night’s game between Kent State and Towson. Kent State punted the football to Towson, but the ball bounced and touched the Towson return man. That made it a fumble or a live ball.… Read More »
Are You Average?
Over the years, I’ve been part of numerous conversations with leaders in churches, community institutions and other organizations who wanted to make changes and improve their effectiveness. These conversations often turn to what similar groups are doing and how much they spend on certain functions. Inevitably someone asks the question, “What is the average these… Read More »
Leadership By The Negative Minority
I recently found myself repeating a phrase I had not used in a long time. The phrase is “leadership by the negative minority.” Let me explain what I mean by it. One of the challenges leaders face is dealing with negative reactions to change and efforts to effectively be on mission with the gospel. If… Read More »
Great Leaders
Brian Dodd is a Leadership Consultant with INJOY Stewardship Solutions. He regularly writes about leadership on his blog at briandoddonleadership.com. After visiting the Billy Graham Library he reflected on what he learned and came up with the 14 leadership lessons listed below. Great leaders have a singular focus. Great leaders who are completely sold out… Read More »
Would You Rather Be An Effective Leader Or A Good Leader
Does getting things done and moving a group people toward a goal make someone a good leader? Not necessarily. Adolf Hitler, Suddam Hussein, and many others have achieved goals and motivated large groups of people to get things done. They were effective leaders, but I don’t think we would consider them good leaders. What we… Read More »
Are Leaders Born Or Made
A longstanding debate exists over this question: Are leaders born, or made? In church ministry this questions matters because we depend on so many people to lead so many ministries. If leaders are born, then we have a finite number of people who can lead. If leaders are made, then more people can make a… Read More »
Leadership Thoughts
Peter Drucker famously stated that “management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” One of the lessons I’m learning as the years pass is that leadership becomes increasingly important as our church grows. It also becomes more challenging. More people, more activities, more systems, more complexity, more everything. This “more” makes it… Read More »
The Holy Spirit and Othniel
Judges 3:9-11 is the brief record of Israel’s first judge or leader after they had settled in the promised land. His name was Othniel and he led them to victory in a war with a Mesopotamian king, which was followed by 40 years of peace or rest. Read this brief account in Judges 3:9-11 Having… Read More »
The Holy Spirit and Joshua
Numbers 27:12-15 describes a conversation between God and Moses in which God tells Moses he will not be allowed to enter the promised land because of a specific sin in his past. Moses is to go to the top of a mountain from which he can see the promised land, but once he sees it… Read More »