Weeks before I received my first calling as a pastor, the elders decided that they were going to seek to acquire property and build a new facility for the church. They informed me that leading the relocation and capital campaign efforts would be part of my job. As a fresh seminary graduate, I had precisely zero requisite experience for the task. I had no experience in fundraising or contracting. And, of course, seminary did not include any preparation for the task.

A few years ago Christianity today released a podcast series entitled “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill.” It’s as gripping as it is sobering. In it, Mike Cosper chronicles the history of the formation of Mars Hill Church. The podcast follows Mark Driscoll’s beginnings as a church planter in 1996 when he launched Mars Hill in Seattle to his quick rise to fame to the church’s ultimate collapse. The details are excruciating. It’s heartbreaking that such an influential community could have gone from leading such a huge cultural wave to closing its doors in a matter of years (Mars Hill ceased to exist in 2014).

In 2023 I was able to read 50 books. For 2024, I had the same goal, but only made it to 36. That’s okay…it was a busy year with lots of projects, trips and family time.

In past years, I’ve added the habits of reading through the Bible in a year, memorizing scripture, working out, and other disciplines. This year I will try something different: I’m resolving to do less.

Is the modern, western church what Jesus had in mind for us? Did we take something that was meant for community and love and twist it into another form of simple entertainment? It’s time to take a serious look at what church looks like today and ask some important questions about what church is supposed to be.

Every Sunday at 7:30 am I join a small group for prayer before the day’s activities begin. It’s such a great way to start a Sunday morning. There is something special about praying together. I love praying on my own, but I have found that in the presence of others, God often blesses me with focus that I lack on my own, with a sense of his presence that I sometimes miss on my own.

I have two podcast interview updates to share. One interview was about writing and the other about pastoring.

First, the podcast about writing. I was a guest on Amy Simon’s podcast, The Purposeful Pen. The episode released yesterday. It’s a podcast to encourage Christian writers.

In the world of non-denominationalism, the tendency is to scrape theology down to its bare minimum and make room in our local churches for as many in the family of Christ as possible despite our theological differences. The spirit behind this reductionism is admirable: to not create unnecessary division. Why can’t we join together as a church in unity despite our minor disagreements?

New Life is swimming against that current. In a day and age many church’s doctrinal statements could be printed on written out on a napkin; we have a 37-page doctrinal statement.

What is your “date-on-the-whiteboard” as a leader? How can you make sure that you are demonstrating to your clients that you are attending to them, details and all? Don’t forget to change the whiteboard, fellow leaders.

Whatever power I’ve been given, I pray that I humbly steward it, recognizing it’s more than I deserve and more than I can handle on my own. God is gracious when he gives us an xB’s worth of power and gracious when he gives us Ferrari’s worth of power. And whatever he offers us, may it make us trust him and his transforming power within us.

You might expect our experience at the various cathedrals to be rather uniform, but they were each unique in their own right. And while there were certain cathedrals that we really appreciated because of their beauty, our favorites were those that were hospitable.

There once was a church. It had everything going for it. Three weekend services with growing numbers. Meaningful ministry in the community. Evidence of people growing more mature in their faith. Programs and classes for all stages and phases of people’s lives. Robust youth, kid’s and college-aged programs. One could easily say that “God’s hand was on this church”.
There was just one problem.

Each year around this time, my family sits down together and answers the following questions. It allows us to collectively reflect on the past year and to set new goals for the coming year - goals in the areas of Faith, Work/School, Personal Development and Family.

Every year in the past I have read between 20 and 25 books. At the beginning of 2023, however, I made the lofty goal of reading 50 books for the year. And, I did it!

How would you describe the atmosphere in your home? Relaxed? Anxious? Tender? Conflicted? Busy? Joyful? Legalistic?

How about the atmosphere in your church? What does it feel like to step into your church’s foyer on a Sunday morning?

How do you know whether it’s time to leave your church? Some advice for those considering a job change.

Churches, like people, are intended to be streams not ponds, highways, not cul-de-sacs. The book of Acts shows us a healthy church multiplying itself across the Roman Empire and beyond.

What’s THE most important trait of a leader? Can we even find one key trait that all great leaders must possess?

Focus multiplies the power of everything. Take light and focus it and you get the power of the laser. But if you give your attention to too many things, you’ll experience the law of diminishing returns (see below) and you actually accomplish less. This is true in ministry and business as well as our personal and spiritual lives.

In this brief series I have shared how significant the process of creating our staff culture document was for our staff. The document represents who we are when we are at our best. In that sense, it is a hope, it is a prayer we have lifted up to God. “Lord, by your grace, shape us to be this kind of team,” we have offered up to God.