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Habits of Healthy Leaders Patrick Lencioni, in his book, The Advantage, notes that ‘organizational health trumps everything.’ Not only have I found his argument to be true in the church to a high degree, but I have also found it to be true for the leaders of the church as well. Outside of the work of God, health is the most important factor in the effectiveness of pastors, staff and ministry leaders. Outside of the Read more…

Leader health is essential to the effectiveness and longevity of leaders. In order to be healthy, leaders must engage in self-care. Generally, Christian leaders, especially pastors and those working in churches are terrible about self-care. Martyr Syndrome Many Christian leaders, church staff and pastors have a martyr syndrome. Somehow we have come to believe that being a good Christian or a good pastor means being a martyr. We have convinced ourselves that self-harm is a Read more…

Rev. Dr. Marcus J. Carlson, Executive Director I saw a screen shot of a tweet that got me thinking about some of my key boundaries in leadership. One of my key rules as a leader has been to avoid unnecessary surprises. That means expecting those who report to or work with me to give me a heads up on things before they hit. It also means that I do the same for those I work Read more…

Palm Sunday & Good Friday: A Reflection on Pastoral Ministry At face value, Palm Sunday and Good Friday have little in common. Sure, they are both part of Holy Week and the culmination of the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry. They are also part of the culmination of the Gospel story. Otherwise, they do not seem to have much in common. One is a celebration and a time of joy; one is a moment of Read more…

Habit #7!

Habit #6!

Habit #5!

Habits of Healthy Churches Patrick Lencioni, in his book, The Advantage, notes that ‘organizational health trumps everything.’ Not only have I found his argument to be true in the church to a high degree, but I have also found it to be true for the leaders of the church as well. Outside of the Gospel, the most important factor in the effectiveness of a church is the health of the church. Outside of the work Read more…

Welcome to the third installment in a three part series on Interim Ministry. In this series, we will look at interim ministry addressing the following questions: Part 1: Interim Ministry – what is it? Part 2: Interim Ministry – when is it needed? Part 3: Interim Ministry – what type of interim ministry is needed? Part 3: Interim Ministry – What type of Interim Ministry is Needed? While there are various roles in the church Read more…