Archive for Healthy Church – Page 7

Rahab’s Conundrum

by Rhesa Higgins Have you ever entered an elevator and, instead of facing the door, faced everyone inside? Have you ever chosen to purposefully eat with the wrong utensil in a crowd? Have you ever walked up to a complete stranger in public and ask a deeply personal question, perhaps about religion, politics, or money? […]

Mary’s Treasure

by Rhesa Higgins “And Mary treasured these things in her heart.” Luke 2:19 “I am so afraid to tell my elders. What if they fire me?” Her face is screwed up in genuine anguish as she shares what should be happy news. After years of hoping and trying and disappointment, she and her husband are […]

“Sugar and spice and everything nice, that’s what little girls are made of.”

by Rhesa Higgins Calligraphied on a pink plaque surrounded by hearts and flowers, this statement hung on my bedroom wall from infancy. As I entered high school, other plaques that representing successes in debate tournaments soon surrounded it. At the time, I didn’t appreciate the irony. Little girls in the United States, and especially in […]

Pioneering

by Rhesa Higgins Pioneers get a lot of glory in the history books. We applaud their vision. We celebrate their bravery. We congratulate their strength. The covered wagons that made their way across the American West are the stuff of legends. Manifest destiny! But in reality, pioneering is grueling work. Trudging across uncharted territory in […]

Breathing New Life Into Established Churches: Part 5

by Carlus Gupton In Part 2, 3 and 4 of this series, we discussed the first three practices that are fairly universal in the quest to breathe new life into established churches: 1) Keeping the mission, maturation, and ministry of the Church at the forefront in decision-making  2) Pursuing unity in the context of progress, not in the place […]

Breathing New Life Into Established Churches: Part 4

by Carlus Gupton In Part 2 and 3 of this series, we discussed the first two practices that are fairly universal in the quest to breathe new life into established churches: 1) Keeping the mission, maturation, and ministry of the Church at the forefront in decision-making and 2) Pursuing unity in the context of progress, not in the […]

Breathing New Life Into Established Churches: Part 3

by Carlus Gupton In Part 2 of this series, we discussed the first of four practices that are fairly universal in the quest to breathe new life into established churches: Keeping the Mission, Maturation, and Ministry of the Church at the Forefront in Decision-Making. The second practice I would highly recommend is: Pursue unity in the context of progress, […]

Breathing New Life Into Established Churches: Part 2

by Carlus Gupton The first thing to keep in mind when trying to breathe new life into established churches is… Keep the Mission, Maturation, and Ministry of the Church at the Forefront in Decision-Making. At the risk of overstatement, the driving force behind most leadership decisions in established churches is holding down complaints and pursuing […]

Breathing New Life Into Established Churches: Part 1

by Carlus Gupton My passion is strengthening established churches, both in terms of training young ministers and coaching elders. Some of this comes from my own experience. I have never planted a church, but I have served several established churches ranging in size from 80 to 1,100. From these experiences, lots of reading, tons of […]

Performance Evaluations (Part 4): Church Staff Performance Evaluation and Its Impact on the Kingdom

by Greg Anderson This is the last post in a series on church staff performance evaluation. In previous posts, we discussed how co-discovery, defining essential competencies, writing job descriptions, etc., can benefit staff, leaders, and the local church. In this post, we broaden our perspective to include how performance evaluation benefits the Kingdom of God. […]

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