Encouraging Personal Devotion during Advent
December is a time when people are looking for experiences to share with friends and families. Church leaders can plan in advance to offer events…
Browsing: Spirituality & Leadership
Articles
Fruitfulness for Others
The fifteenth chapter of John’s Gospel contains rich imagery of the vine and the branches, an image that would have been obvious to those who…
Ask Bigger Questions
In June 2011, Steve Jobs made a twenty-minute presentation to the Cupertino City Council to introduce Apple’s plans for a new corporate headquarters, affectionately known…
The Spirituality of Leadership
The church of the future must emphasize spirituality. We traditionally have asked people to come to church simply because it is a good thing to…
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…
Spiritual Hardening of the Arteries
“Where your treasure is so will your heart be also,” Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:21. We live in a country and culture where heart…
The Ministry of the Missional Church: Community Led by the Spirit
The Ministry of the Missional Church (Baker Books, 2007) by Craig Van Gelder is not leadership in search of theological rationale. It is a theology of…
Review of What’s Theology Got to Do With It?: Convictions, Vitality, and the Church
Many of us intuit that there is a critical deficit of theology in contemporary congregations. Like Anthony Robinson, we have seen the “Pecos River syndrome,”…
Leadership from Inside Out
Ever since I read Wesley Granberg-Michaelson’s Leadership from Inside Out, I have urged every minister I could button-hole to read it as well. My attraction…
Becoming a Spiritual Leader
Bishop John Schol writes about the spiritual qualities of leadership: deep faith, discipleship, and the heart and mind of Christ, and the fruits of leadership.…
Spiritual Leaders and Vision
Bishop Schol writes that spiritual leaders help a congregation discern and attain a vision of their future. Spiritual leaders are compelled by vision. Out of…
“Who is the Greatest?” – The Perennially Wrong Leadership Question
Lovett H. Weems, Jr., writes that authority is not about status; it is about what God’s will is for each of us and how faithful…
Prayer and Fasting Leads to a New Mission and a “Mission Prayer”
While pastor of a church started in a rapidly growing area, Peter Moon describes how prayer and fasting led his church to a renewed sense of mission,…
Ducking Spears, Dancing Madly: A Biblical Model of Church Leadership
Lovett Weems reviews Ducking Spears, Dancing Madly: A Biblical Model of Church Leadership by Lewis A. Parks and Bruce C. Birch. The authors look at Saul,…
Which Comes First — Belief or Belonging?
Lovett Weems considers Robin Gill’s supposition that people tend to belong to religious communities before coming to belief rather than the other way around. Robin…