Leadership – Apprentice 2 Jesus

The heartbreak we refuse to acknowledge

It’s easy to point out the big failures in the American church. Another one happened over this past weekend. We will wrestle with another celebrity pastor and how their church failed to handle the situation. Tish Harrison Warren reminds us that for all the press coverage of a failed leadership problem there are so manyContinue reading “The heartbreak we refuse to acknowledge”

Get out of the way

As I go through 1 Timothy 3 again, there are a couple of quick notes: I am working on making a case for women in ministry that show Paul is TRUE to calling for women IN ministry. It’s something I’ve always held to, but I want to use “THE” passage men often use to withholdContinue reading “Get out of the way”

Influence

Over the years what I have always read about, heard about, and believed was Billy Graham had a way to proclaim Christ and be a friend of high powered people without having much of a political agenda. Then I came across a documentary on a Catholic priest named Theodore Hesburgh. It was unreal how heContinue reading “Influence”

Why do we keep raising up incompetent leaders?

Quit talking about “servant leaders”!

This piece from Mark Galli at Christianity Today is a soul cry for me. It resonates so deeply. I am exhausted to the point of grief over the phrase “servant leader” because the context of that phrase isn’t reflective of the term at all.

Dealing with the sin of church leadership

Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep and say, “Spare your people, O Lord, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’” (Joel 2:17, ESV)

The failure of the shepherds

Kenneth Bailey in his book, The Good Shepherd, walks through several major “shepherd” passages of Scripture. He makes the case for seeing the Father and the Son as shepherds rather than vengeful judges.

Spiritual Leadership — Encouragement

I am reflecting on some key principles of spiritual leadership as I reflected on 2 Timothy last week in a personal retreat. The first key was prayer. The second principle is encouragement. Paul was one to call out spiritual gifts and help develop those gifts in others.

Spiritual Leadership — The Prayer Life

On a retreat this past week, the Lord walked me through several New Testament letters, but he had me plant myself in 2 Timothy the most. There are some great thoughts on spiritual leadership I will build on. To be honest, it was also a brutal walk through a letter for me. It was personalContinue reading “Spiritual Leadership — The Prayer Life”

Thoughts on Mentoring

I know we use terms like “coaching,” but we also use terms in the church like “leadership,” too. I miss other words with slightly different connotations, like “mentoring” and “pastoring.”