2 Churches — 1 Pastor
It is increasingly common for a congregation to share a pastor with another congregation and for pastors to be serving more than one church. Lew…
Browsing: Lay Leadership
Articles
Episode 15: “Leading in Small Church or Multi-Church Settings” featuring Lew Parks
Are you a pastor serving more than one church? Or a leader in a congregation that’s part of a multi-church ministry? Listen as Lewis Center Director F. Douglas Powe speaks with Dr. Lew Parks, a small church vitality expert. They explore perspectives and practices that can help ministry flourish even in a church that doesn’t have its own pastor — or a pastor who doesn’t serve just one church.
When Churches Hire Members
It is increasingly common for churches to hire their own members. Ann Michel of the Lewis Center suggests we need to consider how congregations and…
Episode 5: “Toward More Synergistic Leadership” featuring Ann Michel
What practices lead to synergistic leadership? Listen as Lewis Center Director Douglas Powe interviews Ann Michel about her book “Synergy: A Leadership Guide for Church Staff and Volunteers.”
7 Ways to Invest in Your Staff Culture
Phill Martin, a clergy coach and an executive with the National Association of Church Business Administrators, says a typical church invests half its operating budget…
Toward a Compelling Theology of Lay Ministry
Ann Michel of the Lewis Center Staff says that as the number of laypersons engaged in professional ministry grows, there is a need to articulate…
Reluctant Leadership
Congregations often struggle to fill vital ministry roles because new leaders are reluctant to step forward. Lewis Center director Doug Powe names three critical factors…
Synergy: A Leadership Guide for Church Staff and Volunteers
The landscape of ministry is rapidly evolving as more and more lay persons take on significant ministry roles. Part of this trend is a growth in…
Ten Hints for Leading Volunteers
Jill Fox lists ten things to keep in mind to develop a ministry team with healthy and happy volunteers, and one that is also attractive…
Three Keys to Identify and Develop High-Impact Leaders
C. Anthony Hunt writes that the development of high-impact leaders is critical to the ongoing effectiveness, vitality, and growth of congregations. Discerning the gifts, passion,…
3 Surefire Ways to Fail in Developing Leaders
Tony Morgan says that church leadership development efforts often fail because they are programmatic rather than personal,they are limited to specific roles, and they move…
Freeing Laity for Ministry
How many members does your church have? Do you tend to think first of what those members need (hospital visits, sermons, childcare, parking, Bible studies,…
Launching Sustainable Ministries
What do you do when someone in your church presents an idea for a new program or ministry? New initiatives can be empowering and energizing.…
Does Everyone in a Church Need to Know Everything?
Every congregation has a set of expectations, mostly unspoken and never completely identified, about making decisions. And sometimes, these expectations are unhelpful. One such unhelpful…
The Church That Wouldn’t Die
Detroit is almost surgically separated into east and west by Woodward Avenue. Woodward stretches northwest from the Detroit River downtown all the way up through…
The Power of Laity in Connecting to the Community
For much of my ministry, I had a recurring fantasy each time I was moving to a new church as pastor. I would imagine myself…
Saying Yes
One of the surest ways to empower people to serve is to champion their ideas. If any church member approaches you with an idea for…
Leadership is Always about Others
There are many, many things about leadership that we do not know. However, there are a few truths about which we can be sure. One…
A Consensus Model for Conducting an Annual Meeting
Each year, my congregation holds an annual meeting to review the past year, give updates on issues, and share projections for the coming year. We…
A Different Kind of Church Shopper
Gone is the denominational and congregational loyalty that was the mark of our parents’ generation. In particular, I have been acutely aware of two types…
Reach More Volunteers
If the idea of recruiting volunteers has been a challenge in the past, you are not alone. But getting rid of the mind-set of recruiting…
Turning Church Spectators into Active Participants
The story told in John 21:15-19 is almost too familiar. Three times Jesus asks if Peter loves him, three times Peter says yes, and each…
Recent Research Quantifies the Nature and Scope of Lay Staff Ministry
The growth of lay staff in congregations across denominations is a significant trend shaping the way churches engage in ministry and the way people experience…
Strengthening the Ministry of Lay Staff
Many churches rely on lay staff workers to lead critical ministries of education, formation, outreach, and worship. Yet lay staff rarely have the level of…
Volunteer Expiration Dates
Expiration dates are on all sorts of things and for good reasons. We can find them on loaves of bread, gallons of milk, and egg…
Avoiding Lay Ministry Burnout
Have you known a church member who seemed fully engaged and invested in a congregation but suddenly walked away? What makes someone “flame out” unexpectedly?…
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…
What’s Your Leadership Game?
Someone asked me recently if I preferred to play chess or tic-tac-toe? “Actually I’m not a big fan of either game,” I responded, “but if…
Rewarding Leadership
How do congregations celebrate persons who point toward the achievement of the congregation’s mission? And how do these celebrations occur consistently and frequently, rather than…
Creating Leadership Accountability Systems
Intentional leaders know that team leadership is not a lone ranger proposition. While leadership is certainly a specialized role, it serves best in conjunction and…