When the Minister Leaves the Sacred Place

by Grady King It’s over. The long awaited day when the minister would say his last parting words to a church has come and gone. Whether choosing to leave on good terms, follow a new call, or being terminated, there is grief. The emotions run the gamut from deep sadness and grief to relief. Some church […]

How Do You Stay Sane When There Is So Much Craziness that Surrounds Ministry?

by Jim Martin How do you stay sane when there is so much craziness that surrounds ministry? Good question. Craziness is everywhere!  It seems to be a constant in this broken, unredeemed world. Everyone has to deal with the brokenness of the world.  Sometimes others’ brokenness can be sharp and jagged, cutting bystanders like broken […]

Do you listen well?

By Jim Martin Do you listen well? One of the most important tasks for any church leader is listening.  Listening can be incredibly difficult.  In fact, most of us have had far more training in speaking than in listening. A few suggestions: Listen intently. This means eye contact.  This means paying attention to body language. […]

When Much of Your Ministry Take Place Away from Public View

by Jim Martin This morning, I’m thinking about you — a church leader.  You may be a minister in some role in a congregation.  Maybe you preach each Sunday. So much of what you do takes place away from public view. I suspect you are busy.  You’ve glanced at this post to see if it […]

What I Have Learned about Long-Term Ministry

by Jim Martin I wrote this as I marked the 20th year I’ve served the Crestview Church of Christ in Waco.   Since I started preaching there, I have learned a lot. This post will list some of the lessons learned about congregational ministry while serving this church in this city. 1.  Ministry is much like marriage. […]

Leading from Your “Why”- [What I learned from a TED Talk (part 5)]

This post is a continuation of our posts on a TED Talk.  (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4) In a 2009 presentation, Simon Sinek spoke on the subject of “How great leaders inspire action.” His talk focused on characteristics of inspiring leaders and organizations and asserted “all the great and inspiring leaders and […]

Change and the Church [What I learned from a TED Talk (part 4)]

This is a continuation of our posts about a TED Talk. (part 1, part 2, part 3) In my experience, this Bell Curve describes what we experience when dealing with change in the church. We can anticipate that half of our members will be open (to some degree) to changes in thinking or action. They […]

The Law of Diffusion of Innovation [What I learned from a TED Talk (part 3)]

This post is a continuation of our previous posts about a TED talk. (part 1, part 2) Simon Sinek, having addressed the idea that “people don’t buy what you do; they buy what you believe,” moves on in his TED talk about inspiring leadership to teach me something else about church. He speaks to the […]

What I Learned about Church from a TED Talk (part 2)

The Golden Circle and Church I suggest most of our churches (and many of our leaders) are perfectly conditioned to be ordinary. We have been trained to “sell” our “product” based on What and How rather than Why. “Hey, we do church right here. Our name is right. Our organizational model is right. We worship […]

What I Learned about Church from a TED Talk (part 1)

In 2009, Simon Sinek spoke to an audience of 50 people on the subject of “How great leaders inspire action.” TED (conferences on Technology, Entertainment, and Design) video-taped the event. From such humble beginnings, Sinek’s speech went on to become the second most-watched presentation on TED.com. If you haven’t see the speech, here’s the link. It’s […]

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