Perhaps, like me, many of you were taught early in ministry that the way to multiply something is to divide it in half. If you want to multiply a small group, develop another leader and divide the group into two groups. If you want to multiply your youth group, find another leader and divide the…
Read more
Missions Partnerships are one of the best vehicles a church can use to engage fully in missions. A healthy partnership will contain five elements, and the second element is Strategic Prayer. Any International Worker (IW) will tell you that prayer is their most coveted component of partnership. Sometimes on the church side of the partnership…
Read more
Growing up, Saturday was Chore-day. Dad would assemble us kids and then begin handing out chores: Chris, mow the lawn, Mike, wash the van, Jana… you get the picture. I remember one time I was assigned to mow the lawn, but when I went to start the lawn mower it was out of gas. When I went back…
Read more
Missions Partnerships are one of the best vehicles a church can use to engage fully in missions. A healthy partnership will contain five elements, and the first element is Staying Aware. If we are to be good partners, we must be intentional about staying connected and maintaining a good relationship with our IW counterparts. Staying…
Read more
We celebrate to remember. Have you ever thought about that? One of the big reasons we celebrate certain days is to remember something. Whether it’s the 4th of the July in the United States or Passover in ancient Israel, “red letter” days, as they used to be known, are a pause for remembering. And so…
Read more
One of the common questions that comes up in conversations with church leaders is, “How do we start a missions team?” These are good churches who want to be on mission, but for whatever reason – poor experiences in the past, people who have moved away, etc. – find themselves needing to build a missions…
Read more
If you have raised kids you remember the questions they had about the “__” word. You know, the “d” word, the “h” word, the “s” word, and on and on they go. In the church world we have one of those seemingly taboo words too, the “e” word… Evangelism. I think there are three things…
Read more
Chances are you didn’t become a pastor so that you could think about church insurance all the time – and that’s good; don’t change that about yourself. However, just because it’s not in the top 10 things you’d choose to do on a Friday night does not mean that you can completely ignore it. Even…
Read more
We all know that we are called to be a “going” people. The church is to “go” and make disciples who in turn “go” and make disciples. The question for us, then, is how do we create this culture in our local church? Below are some ideas to consider along these lines. Start with you. God…
Read more
At least once a year your church will find itself hosting one or more International Workers (IWs) for anywhere from three days to a week. What’s the best way to steward these times? That answer will vary from church to church, but below are a handful of thoughts and ideas that have been gathered over…
Read more
