What follows here is a guest post written by my colleague Joel Gregory. I do not know to whom he is specifically referring and it doesn’t matter. At least once every year we hear or read about a religious (usually…
Pastor, please stop!
By Bill Owen (Note: our plug-in for sharing links is not cooperating today. Please follow the link below to read the story.) http://chchurches.org/pastor-please-stop/ Pastor, please stop! Becoming an effective, emotionally intelligent pastor requires more than delivering a good sermon, making timely…
Thinking beyond stereotypes about bivocational ministry
Because of many unwarranted stereotypes about bivocational* ministry in some denominations, congregations, and Christian cultures or tribes, it is unfortunately seen as second-class ministry. This is overwhelmingly not true. Such a perspective limits the possibilities of innovative congregational staffing patterns…
Musical Chairs and the leaders of dying organizations
By Mark Wingfield “I don’t want the ship to go down on my watch.” These words have been uttered, or perhaps muttered under the breath, by many a pastor and organizational leader who has found themselves at the helm of…
Finding an antidote to toxic churches and toxic leadership
By Brian Kaylor In Greek mythology, the mighty warrior Hercules created poisonous arrows after slaying the many-headed Hydra. The word for these deadly arrows — toxikon — eventually gave life to the modern English word “toxic.” Author and leadership coach Bob Dale…
Welcome to the church of the Shark Tank
Have you ever watched the television program Shark Tank? It is a reality show on ABC television with re-runs on CNBC. I recently started watching it. Typically I do not watch reality television, but one night while channel surfing I…
How to bring dignity to firing church staff
Firing staff is never a pleasant experience. No one (except maybe Donald Trump on television) looks forward to telling a person that they now have to find another job. Firing people in an organization or church is often met with…
Leadership is overrated
Leadership is overrated. There, I’ve said it… Recently in a meeting of church and educational professionals I voiced this bias and received a less than enthusiastic response. Most of the persons attending the meeting had some investment in the leadership…
Center for Healthy Churches relocating to Tennessee
By Bob Allen The Center for Healthy Churches, an organization formed last year after Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center announced it would phase out its 21-year-old Center for Congregational Health, is moving from North Carolina to Tennessee in a new partnership…
Congregations fix yesterday’s mistakes, hoping they will solve tomorrow’s challenges
No doubt the tragic death of 150 people involving Germanwings Flight 9525 on March 24 is of such extreme seriousness that no trite applications of what happened should be put forth. At the same time, the actions and lessons of…
Feeling or flinging in basketball and an authentic Christian lifestyle
A personal game-within-a-game I play when watching basketball games is to guess in the split second between the time when a player shoots a jump shot and it comes down in or near the basket whether or not they felt…
Transforming together: What CBFNC’s General Assembly taught me
Recently I attended the Cooperative Baptist Church of North Carolina’s General Assembly. I was honored to receive the Randall and Lou Lolley Scholarship for my theological education at Duke Divinity School. But I couldn’t help but feel more than just…