Our whole world looks different than it did a year ago, and that means ministry looks different too. Due to Covid-19, all of our ministry programs shifted from in-person to online or socially distanced in the span of about seven days.

When I got my first job as a professional Christian there were two big strangely related tensions in my life. First, and obviously, I had a brand new job in a brand new culture in a brand new “industry.” Secondly, I wanted an iPad. Let me explain. My new job was challenging. My title was […]

This is the finale- Part 3- in a series on the different ways to recruit. Sign up for his RSS feed at Coach Shef #3. The Pyramid Approach Basically…let’s talk pyramids schemes (No offense meant here). Your current leaders replace themselves. This is when a leader, who is having a great time serving, brings other […]

This is Part 2 in a series on different ways to recruit by Coach Shef. #2. The Storefront Approach Here we are catching those who “show up” – The right people seek you out. (The wrong ones will sometimes too…Let me say this one more time…Are you running background checks?) This way you know that […]

This week we continue our conversation with Coach Shef on recruiting: There are basically three main ways to get leaders: a Big Push, catching “Show-Ups”, and leaders replacing themselves. I tried to keep with the sales theme from last week’s post on “Selling What’s Important” and I will unveil a different approach over the next […]

There is nothing more important to your ministry than the quality and quantity of your volunteer leaders. So your priority needs to be that. Normally when I talk about the job of getting leaders, I talk about treating it like a job interview. You can’t be desperate…and you can’t take just anybody. You have to […]

I recently had a member of my team ask me for 5 minutes… We began our conversation and he started with a lot of prefacing. That’s never a good sign. As you might have gueseed…after the prefacing…he called me on something I had done that made him uncomfortable. I had fallen short as a leader […]

I’ve been wondering about trust specifically when it comes to the cultures we build around us as leaders. One of my favorite staff talks at North Point is called Trust vs. Suspicion. If you’ve never heard it you can hear some of it on Andy’s Leadership Podcast. That talk and the vocabulary has become part […]

I was once told that a definition of leadership was “letting people down at a rate that they can stand.” In some ways, I get that. I think there is a bit more to it but…here’s my problem…I love saying “yes.” I’m still a people pleaser. And, though I say “yes” too often, I still […]

I thought we’d start out this week focused on key questions leaders like you and me need to ask to continue to grow and learn. Coach Shef wrote an amazing post on 3 of his favorite questions that I pulled from. You can read the entire piece here. You can also hear more from him […]