My first real experience of Christian ministry was in the context of church revitalisation. A little Pentecostal Church between Bradford and Leeds had fallen on hard times, suffered a split and was down to its last half a dozen elderly members. My dad had preached there regularly after they first approached a larger church for… Continue reading Revitalisation
Category: Leadership
The cost
Jesus famously said that those considering following him should first count the cost. His point was that they were going to face persecution and have to be willing to give up their life. They would lose friends and influence for the sake of the Gospel but the Gospel is worth it. Jesus’ words were not… Continue reading The cost
Church membership
Occasionally I have conversations with church planters and revitalisers about whether or not they should have church membership. There are actually quite a lot of Christians who don’t agree with the idea of membership and say they would refuse to join a church. How do churches do membership? Every church has some form of membership.… Continue reading Church membership
Spotting and developing potential leaders
How do we identify potential future leaders in the church? A lot has been made of the “Blokes Worth Watching” approach associated with Philip Jenkins, Sydney Anglicans and ministry schemes in the early years of this century. This has been seen both positively and negatively with on the one hand, many in conservative evangelical circles… Continue reading Spotting and developing potential leaders
Ephesians and Church leadership
We want our church leadership to be Biblical. Usually by this, we mean that we want to appoint people to the offices we find in Scripture and mirror the structures we find there. The problem is that there is often a lot of disagreement here because in fact the New Testament doesn’t really have that… Continue reading Ephesians and Church leadership
DNA: Why you might want a church handbook and how to go about it
An independent church is likely to require a constitution in order to satisfy charity law. This is a legal document. Many churches, in addition to this will provide something based on the constitution intended to be more accessible to the congregation. They may refer to it as a handbook and it is likely to include… Continue reading DNA: Why you might want a church handbook and how to go about it
Criticism can be personal
In an article identifying “eight essential qualities of pastors who love their jobs”, Sam Rainer identifies the second one as “They don’t take criticism personally”. On one level, I agree with this if by it, he means that you need to hear all the critiques without taking it too much to heart. There can be… Continue reading Criticism can be personal
The leadership course
A few years back, I put together a short course to help people considering involvement in church/Christian leadership. I’ve shared it on our resources pages and it is available for free if you would like to make use of it in your church.
Training Elders
Tim Suffield writes here on the importance of training elders. I don’t really have much to add to what he has to say. I agree with him that we should train and equip all elders at a church, whether they are on staff or not. I agree with him that this is not first and… Continue reading Training Elders
Should a pastor blog?
Sinclair Ferguson doesn’t seem to think so. Recently a clip of an interview with him was circulated where he argued that the time spent writing your blog article could have been spent visiting an elderly lady in the congregation. I have an obvious interest to declare here because I write a blog and have done… Continue reading Should a pastor blog?
