By Eddie Pipkin January 19, 2017 With January came the rush of resolutions: friends and co-workers counting off the things they were newly conquering on the one hand and giving up on the other. Likewise, there was the usual flurry of articles about how to keep resolutions, along with the articles examining the underlying science [...]
By Eddie Pipkin December 30, 2016 One of the twists of the recent presidential election was the shock on behalf of the political prognosticators as to just how far off the polls were. The predictions were clear that Hillary Clinton would win, and the triumph of Trump surprised virtually everybody. The professional reporters and pollsters [...]
By Eddie Pipkin November 21, 2016 In honor of the Thanksgiving holiday and the delicious main dish with which it is gloriously associated, I thought it would be an appropriate time to share a list of 10 ministry “turkeys.” These are things that churches routinely get wrong that turn off folks who are otherwise motivated [...]
November 11, 2016 By Eddie Pipkin Much has been written about stewardship issues for local congregations and the value of keeping current with technology in order to sustain giving levels, but these articles tend to focus on the financial implications themselves. Very little has been written about the value of these new technological tools as [...]
By Eddie Pipkin November 2, 2016 And now for one of my occasional blog entries in which I cite an example of the sports world in regards to leadership in ministry (and some readers love that, and some hate it, I know, but there are definite leadership lessons to be gleaned from people who do [...]
October 25, 2016 By Eddie Pipkin There is a lot of baggage that comes with the idea of evangelism. The Christian church in America has a long and storied focus on evangelism. And not all of it is savory. In our quest to bring believers into the fold in the past half century, we have [...]
Forward When it comes to the big E word, we all know how to do it wrong, or how to not do it at all. But do we know how to do it right—with the unchurched, the nones, the never churched, the don’t-want-to-be-churched, or the please-leave-us-alone-happily-ever-after-unchurched? How do we share our faith with somewhat lonely, [...]
October 3, 2016 By Phil Maynard I have worked with a surprising number of churches recently that have expressed a need to help their members and friends learn how to build relationships. This is, of course, a foundational practice in the church, because . . . • First time guests are much more likely [...]
By Phil Maynard September 26,2016 Every church I meet with expresses in some way a desire to reach new people and engage them in becoming growing disciples of Jesus Christ. It is also true, however, that almost every church I meet with is in decline, resulting in fewer people participating in worship, less of a [...]
By Phil Maynard September 19, 2016 Why? A few weeks ago, I was working with a group of churches and we were having a conversation about the ways in which Jesus could make a real difference in people’s lives, how following Jesus could fundamentally change the ways in which people live. An elderly woman, sitting [...]
