February 19, 2014 By Phil Maynard Jesus once warned about building a house on a poor foundation. Nowhere is this issue more obvious than when we have leaders in place without the foundations to sustain them through the shifting sands of ministry leadership. It is frequently the case in selecting congregational leaders that we [...]
January 15, 2014 By Phil Maynard Almost every where I go pastors indicate that one of the top two needs in the congregation is more and better leaders. Over the next few weeks I will be looking at some key components for developing a system for multiplying congregational leaders. The storyboard below gives an overview [...]
December 26, 2013 By Phil Maynard Did you know that as many as 90% of people looking for a place to worship will visit the website of a church before making a decision to attend? The website of the church is today’s equivalent of an advertisement in the yellow pages a decade or two [...]
December 19, 2013 By Phil Maynard Consider the following. …It’s a familiar story lived out in many congregations across the United States. Someone is in crisis, a couple has their first child, or a family moves to the area. They decide to attend the church down the street. They don’t know anyone, so they arrive [...]
December 13, 2013 By Phil Maynard Don’t miss the opportunity of the Christmas Season. This is one of three or four times a year (seasonally) when people are most open to an invitation to church. It’s no secret. Most churches (somewhere around 80%) are plateaued or in decline when it comes to participation in worship. [...]
November 29, 2013 By Phil Maynard As Christ poured himself out for us, so we who follow him must pour ourselves out for others -- by being liberated to live on less . . . in order to bless others more. How does the church cultivate extravagant generosity? I’m borrowing from Andy Stanley, pastor of [...]
November 22, 2013 By Phil Maynard We continue thinking about extravagant generosity by looking at our culture from the vantage point of what Jesus hoped would be our relationship to money and things. Our culture, infected as it is by the disease of “affluenza,” might be characterized in three ways. Materialism: it is all about [...]
November 12, 2013 By Phil Maynard I know of few pastors who look forward to talking about money . . . and few lay persons who enjoy listening! Oddly, Jesus talked more about our relationship to money and things than faith, prayer or forgiveness. In fact, he spoke more about it than anything but the [...]
November 5, 2013 By Phil Maynard “We are a small church with a traditional worship service, not a passionate worship service,” said a pastor apologetically. The pastor seemed to assume that a traditional worship service couldn’t possibly be a passionate worship service. And that a small membership congregation couldn’t worship passionately. I don’t think either [...]
October 31, 2013 By Phil Maynard Weary Clergy and Idle Laity: What's Wrong With This Picture? One of the impressions I get is that many pastors are weary. They have been at this ministry thing 60 hours or more a week for some years and they are just tired. And no matter how hard they [...]