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Leading Ideas
Delivered every Wednesday, our free e-newsletter Leading Ideas offers articles by thoughtful, cutting-edge leaders on subjects you care about — navigating change, reaching younger people, financing your ministry, communicating effectively — to help you be the leader God is calling you to be.

The Lewis Center is committed to helping congregations and denominations thrive and grow by providing ideas, research, resources, and training for vital and fruitful leadership. Through Leading Ideas, we share vignettes of leaders and congregations, book reviews, leadership quotes, and helpful “right questions” built around the premise that leaders don’t need answers — they need to know the right questions.

Leading Ideas
0 Opening Doors on Christmas Eve

When our two grandsons were seven and three years old, they would often race the thirty yards or so from their house to ours. The 7-year-old was faster and taller and would arrive first. He could also manage the mechanics of the storm door handle with ease. The 3-year-old was always about five seconds behind, arriving just as the door…

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Leading Ideas
0 Nursery Lessons: A Better Way of Recruiting Volunteers

Recently we have been focused on revitalizing the nursery at our church. We put in rigorous safety measures. We organized a committee to support the nursery’s vision. We assigned a greeter position to the front door of the nursery and tried like crazy to recruit people to help rock babies. Every step was successful except for one — recruiting volunteers.…

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Leading Ideas
0 Choosing Church … or Soccer, or Work, or Family Time, or …

Sunday morning has become a popular time for youth sports. Weekends are for some families the only opportunity to share quality, sustained time together. And a significant proportion of the population works on Sunday mornings. How else would you get your coffee or donuts on the way to church? The church should support families in their God-given vocation of caring…

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Leading Ideas
0 Your Money Autobiography

There is a disaster in your community, and opportunities for giving donations abound. What is your response? You receive a cash gift for your birthday. What do you do with it? Have you ever wondered why you respond the way you do to a situation that involves money? How do you make your choices for earning, spending, giving, saving, and…

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Leading Ideas
0 Five Practices of Fruitful Living

The genius of Bishop Robert Schnase’s Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations (Abingdon 2007) was to identify foundational habits that, when properly implemented, enable the church to flourish in the essentials of congregational life. His newly released companion volume, Five Practices of Fruitful Living, encourages individual Christians to adopt these practices as a way of life rather than a passing program…

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Leading Ideas
0 Five Practices of Fruitful Living

United Methodist Bishop Robert Schnase, author of the best-selling Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations published by Abingdon Press in 2007, has a new book on a similar theme, Five Practices of Fruitful Living. Below is a portion of a recent Leading Ideas conversation with Bishop Schnase. What made the original Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations so successful, with over 100,000…

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Leading Ideas
0 Find a Few Wise People

When pastors tell me about particularly troubling dilemmas they face in their congregations, perhaps the most common advice I offer is, “Find a wise person,” or “Find a few wise people.” Here is what I mean. If you have selected the right persons to consult they will give you their best assessment of reality. Because you have affirmed their fairness…

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Leading Ideas
0 Myths about Clergy Burnout and Managing Stress

The plight of stressed-out pastors has attracted a great deal of attention since The New York Times front-page report, “Taking a Break from the Lord’s Work,” by Paul Vitello and an op-ed response, “Congregations Gone Wild,”by Jeffrey MacDonald. TheHuffington Post followed with “Soul Care and Roots of Clergy Burnout” by Anne Dilenschneider citing a new report from Clergy Health Initiative…

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Leading Ideas
0 If You Count the Money, Count the People

At a recent gathering, clergy and laity from several congregations were asked how they keep track of their attendance each Sunday and how they keep up with who is attending. A vigorous debate ensued. Some reported how they monitor the numbers and keep track of people attending, but the energy was with those who did not attempt either task. The…

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Leading Ideas
0 Ways to Welcome Worship Guests Warmly

Greet guests when they first arrive in the parking lot. Greet guests as they arrive at the door, saying “Good to see you. Glad you are here.” Do not ask for their names as many guests are cautious and prefer anonymity. The larger the church, the more this is true. Clearly mark the rest rooms, nursery, and worship rooms. In…

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Leading Ideas
0 Churches Face Changing Demographics

The American Community Survey provides an ongoing demographic portrait of the country and is the largest survey that the Census Bureau administers other than the decennial census. The latest data come from the 2008 nationwide survey and form the basis for the State of Metropolitan America report recently issued by the Brookings Institution. The share of U.S. households that are…

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Leading Ideas
0 The Promise and Peril of Conflict

A compelling example of leaders turning conflict into opportunity for structural and cultural change is found in the first seven verses of Acts 6. The idyllic description of the first Christian community (Acts 2:42-47 and Acts 4:32-37) is soon marred by incidents of deception (Acts 5:1-11) and internal conflicts (Acts 6:1-7). While the sudden deaths of Ananias and Sapphira —…

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Leading Ideas
0 Promise and Peril: Understanding and Managing Change and Conflict in Congregations

In Promise and Peril (Alban, 2009), David Brubaker tackles the conundrum churches face: Change usually leads to conflict, but change is required to make progress. Drawing upon research with congregations over five years, Brubaker found that about 10 percent of churches each year face conflict serious enough that a special meeting has to be called to address the matter or…

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Leading Ideas
0 Should a Church Staff Member Report to a Committee?

When board- and committee-centered congregations engage paid staff, they sometimes struggle to find language to describe how staff members should relate to one another and to the rest of the organization. Especially if the staff person leads a program area like education, music, or youth work, which is “owned” by a committee, it seems natural that the committee should hire,…

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Leading Ideas
0 Leaders Stay Young

What are the qualities of a good leader? Fortunately, Jesus defined leadership: A dispute arose among them as to which of them was considered to be the greatest. Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them…But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the…

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Leading Ideas
0 Addressing Diversity in Congregations

According to the measuring tools used by Natural Church Development, my church — New Hope Church in Maryland — falls in the top 5 percent of all U.S. congregations for diversity. We have been able to embrace our differences without calling undue attention to our diversity. At the same time, commonality is found across a range of factors (e.g., preferred…

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Leading Ideas
0 Mutual Mentoring

In a traditional mentoring relationship, an older, wiser colleague provides wisdom, counsel, and advice to a younger, less-skilled aspirant. Today, however, the notion of reverse mentoring is gaining traction as a way for established leaders to stay attuned to contemporary cultural trends. Few things could be more needed in the church today, given the importance of connecting with younger generations.…

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Leading Ideas
0 Meeting the Spiritual Needs of a Changing Community

Are there times when it feels as if your church resides on a different planet than it once did? The street signs are the same. The trees have been there for ages. The sun rises in the morning and the moon at night. But, somehow, everything else feels unfamiliar. Our communities can feel like different planets because of shifts in…

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Leading Ideas
0 Focusing Your Congregational Communication

How do your church members get information? Is everything communicated through the bulletin or announcements at church? Or do you communicate with your congregation through email, blogs, phone trees, snail mail, etc.? During a recent leadership retreat, the New Hope church team performed an informal audit of our congregational communication. We discovered that we were using over twenty-seven modes of…

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Leading Ideas
0 New Findings about American Congregations

Building on previous reports from 2000 and 2005, the Cooperative Congregations Studies Partnership based at Hartford Seminary has released a new research report on congregational life in the United States. Based on a 2008 national survey of churches and other religious communities, the report covers worship, conflict, leadership, vitality, attendance, finances, and other challenges. The findings are based on responses…

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Leading Ideas
0 Christ-like Leadership for a Post-Modern World

Many of us carry around a model of leadership that grows out of our childhood and is modeled on our parents. Parents have all the answers — at least for a while. They are big and powerful, can solve any problem, and provide us with everything we need. In adulthood, we find plenty of leaders who promise these same things.…

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Leading Ideas
0 A Better Script for Small Churches

I have served as pastor of small, mid-size, and large churches. And some of them grew, especially the larger ones. Large churches that grow larger are exciting to serve and provide great stories of success. But 75 percent of churches in the United States and 95 percent in some countries are small and don’t grow rapidly if at all. So…

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Leading Ideas
0 What Report is First on Your Church Council Agenda?

When I started out in ministry nearly 35 years ago, I wandered into my first church board meeting with wide eyes and my mouth firmly shut. I did not know much about running a church business meeting. I watched as the chair called for the first report. It was the report from the Finance Committee. The finance chair handed out…

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Leading Ideas
0 The Four Stages of a Pastoral Transition

A time of transition for a pastor can be both exciting and terrifying. The possibility of a new start with its challenges and opportunities brings anticipation. Yet leaving the known for the unknown also brings anxiety. Such transition is more complex than may be immediately apparent. As pastors are dealing with both personal and professional transitions, there are also congregations…

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Leading Ideas
0 How Full is Your Menu?

Occasionally I like to visit a local Mexican restaurant. As I scan the menu, I search for items I’ve never tasted. However, I often feel a little overwhelmed by the menu that gives me pages and pages of options. Don’t get me wrong; I love variety. I love the adventure of trying new foods, but even I feel overwhelmed by…

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This article is reprinted by permission from Leading Ideas, a free e-newsletter from the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary available at churchleadership.com.