General

At many churches around the country and around the world, we’ve pressed the pause button during this COVID-19 virus crisis. Pressing pause doesn’t mean that we’re no longer preaching the Gospel or ministering to people. It simply means we’re temporarily not doing things they way we’ve always done them.

Every kid is unique and special to their parent, but here’s what we miss sometimes: As church leaders, we tend to focus on what we can do for someone with a special need and overlook the unique gifts and talents they bring to a church. 

Small group leaders are a wonderful—and wonderfully peculiar—brand of people. If you’ve spent time, blood, sweat, tears, and more tears as a small group leader, congratulations! You are among the proud and few.

Loyal staff members are the people who make the church tick. They’re the ones who make all the behind-the-scenes magic happen—the stuff very few people in the congregation ever see. 

People open up when they feel like they’re in a safe place. And the people who have landed in the safe place you provide are probably a lot like the ones who have landed in mine.

Comparison is the moving sidewalk you wander onto, the one that whisks you 50 yards away to a bad place before you take a step. It’s always right there, just one tiny thought away, ready to slide you silently, deeply into a mire of discontent.

Social media is where your students are hanging out. If you want to reach them, you need to engage with them on their turf. So, what should you do? Just keep struggling to stay up-to-date with your social media posts and suffer through the overwhelming nature of it all? Of course not. Just because it's overwhelming now doesn't mean it has to stay that way. Here are four tips to help you utilize social media in your ministry without getting overwhelmed.

When other people feel known, they feel safe and not alone. When people feel known, they’re more willing to trust us and listen to the gospel we have to share.  We can know our community on an intellectual level, but we need to have a relationship before we can have influence over them.