January 22, 2025
Leading Ideas from the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary
10 Reasons Churches Aren’t Attracting People Who Need Jesus
Many churches bemoan the absence of newcomers but fail to consider how their own failure to meaningfully engage others contributes to this reality. Phil Maynard outlines 10 reasons churches aren’t attracting the many people in their communities who need Jesus. Read more now.
Leading Ideas Talks Podcast — Episode 161
Exploring Spiritual Direction
How can spiritual direction impact leaders and congregations? In this episode Eunhyey Lok reflects on the role of spiritual direction, its benefits for personal and church growth, distinctions from counseling, and tips for finding a spiritual director. Watch now, listen to the audio version, and read transcript.
Stages in Leadership
Lovett Weems reflects on stages of leadership through the experience of making a difficult journey. Read more now.
The Right Question
Leaders do not need answers. Leaders must have the right questions.
At the end of a report from the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, Finances and Faith: A Look at Financial Health Among Congregations in the Post-Pandemic Reality, Charissa Mikoski posed questions for congregations. Here are those covering two topics: Does your congregation operate in a deficit? If so, what is the biggest draw on your budget? How might this be diminished? What percentage of your income comes from sources outside of participant donations? How might you leverage your resources to diversify this percentage?
> Want more Right Questions? Read “Right Questions for Church Leaders.”
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Support the Lewis Center. Leading Ideas is made possible by contributions to the Lewis Center for Church Leadership from readers like you. Thank you. Donate now.
50 Ways tip sheet
50 Ways to Welcome New People
Learn how your congregation can make a good first impression with first-time visitors with strategies and tips to ensure they feel truly welcome and at home in worship, plus guidance on visitor follow-ups and ways to be more inviting in your church. Read now, download free, and share.
> Discover tips and strategies on more 50 Ways topics.
Watch. Learn. Lead. Subscribe to our YouTube channel for video podcast episodes, leadership strategies and tips, free video resources, and much more.
The Doctor of Ministry
Apply Now for the Premier Doctor of Ministry in Church Leadership
Wesley Theological Seminary and the Lewis Center together offer the Doctor of Ministry in Church Leadership Excellence. With this track, clergy will receive the enhanced knowledge, skills, and motivation to increase congregational and denominational service, vitality, and growth. Learn more and apply today for May 2025.
“Quotable” Leadership
“When we listen, thin tendrils of trust begin to sprout out of fallow ground. The possibility of a relationship grows. Even if we don’t convince the other person, we become a little bit more open to each other’s ideas, interested in each other’s experiences.” — Chloe Maxmim and Canyon Woodward
Online cohort-based course from Wesley Pathways for Ministry
Strategic Innovation
Leading congregations through various challenges and towards innovative changes can be difficult. It requires a level of discernment and action that maintains certain aspects of a congregation’s traditions but disrupts others. In this course, participants will learn how to think both carefully and creatively about how to overcome various challenges in ministry by responsibly fostering innovation and change in ways that move forward their congregation’s life and ministry together.
The course begins February 1, 2025. Completion of this course will count toward the Lewis Center Church Leadership Certificate Program if requested. Learn more and enroll now.
Editor: Dr. Jessica L. Anschutz (janschutz@wesleyseminary.edu)
Copyright © 2004-2025 Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary
January 15, 2025
Leading Ideas from the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary
10 Features of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Beloved Community
C. Anthony Hunt identifies 10 features of the Beloved Community in the work of Martin Luther King Jr. He describes how King’s concept of Beloved Community, rooted in the biblical notion of God’s unconditional love, connects faith to action. Read more now.
12 Tips for Preaching Online
Jim Tomberlin shares best practices for churches delivering digital sermons to their online audiences or satellite campuses. He highlights how simple adjustments to language and camera strategies can make those not in the room feel valued and included. Read more now.
The Right Question
Leaders do not need answers. Leaders must have the right questions.
Someone who lived where public schools were losing support concluded that for her, the defining issue was captured in this question: Do you care about other people’s kids or not?
> Want more Right Questions? Read “Right Questions for Church Leaders.”
Online cohort-based course from Wesley Pathways for Ministry
Strategic Innovation
Leading congregations through various challenges and towards innovative changes can be difficult. It requires a level of discernment and action that maintains certain aspects of a congregation’s traditions but disrupts others. In this course, participants will learn how to think both carefully and creatively about how to overcome various challenges in ministry by responsibly fostering innovation and change in ways that move forward their congregation’s life and ministry together.
The course begins February 1, 2025. Completion of this course will count toward the Lewis Center Church Leadership Certificate Program if requested. Learn more and enroll now.
50 Ways tip sheet
50 Ways to Encourage Faithful Giving
Helping people experience the joy of giving is more than a way of funding the church’s ministry. These 50 ways of encouraging faithful giving will help your church members grow in discipleship through faithful stewardship and extravagant generosity. Read now, download free, and share.
> Discover tips and strategies on more 50 Ways topics.
Support the Lewis Center. Leading Ideas is made possible by contributions to the Lewis Center for Church Leadership from readers like you. Thank you. Donate now.
In-depth interview with Dustin Benac
Exploring the Future of the Church Together
How can the church adapt to future challenges and foster community through innovative leadership? Doug Powe and Dustin Benac discuss the future of the church, emphasizing collaborative leadership, the importance of belonging, and adapting to cultural shifts through innovative community structures. Read more now.
Watch. Learn. Lead. Subscribe to our YouTube channel for video podcast episodes, leadership strategies and tips, free video resources, and much more.
One-day event in the Memphis, Tennessee, area
Taking Faithful Steps Leadership Conference
Saturday, March 29, 2025 | Germantown, Tenn. | $79
The conference features engaging speakers, dynamic breakout sessions, and enriching discussions designed to deepen your understanding of effective leadership in a faith-based context. Keynote by the Lewis Center’s Lovett H. Weems Jr. Breakout sessions by the Lewis Center’s Doug Powe and Jessica Anschutz, plus Ken Sloane, Kris Konsowitz, and others. Learn more and register now at takingfaithfulsteps.org.
“Quotable” Leadership
“We are all bound up together in one great bundle of humanity, and society cannot trample on the weakest and feeblest of its members without receiving the curse in its own soul.” — Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, 1866
Free video study
Learn to Talk Honestly and Openly about Faith and Race in Your Church
Moving Faith Communities to Fruitful Conversations about Race is a dialogue about race in America and may be used to help your church bring people together to talk about moving forward bravely and boldly in the name of Christ. The study is divided into four 15-minute videos which may be used in one or more sessions. Watch now.
> Discover more free Lewis Center videos.
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Editor: Dr. Jessica L. Anschutz (janschutz@wesleyseminary.edu)
Copyright © 2004-2025 Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary
January 8, 2025
Leading Ideas from the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary
7 Trends Impacting Church Leadership for 2025
As the landscape of ministry continues to shift, the Lewis Center sees congregations adapting in creative new ways. Jessica Anschutz, Ann Michel, and Doug Powe of the Lewis Center staff identify seven trends impacting churches and how they pursue their missions in 2025. Read more now.
Leading Ideas Talks Podcast — Episode 160
The Future of the United Methodist Church
What does the post-pandemic and post-disaffiliation United Methodist Church (UMC) look like? In this episode, Jessica Anschutz speaks with Lewis Center Director Doug Powe and Senior Consultant Lovett Weems, who discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the UMC. They highlight regionalization, the need for structural reform, and changes to the ordination process, while advocating for renewed focus on mission. To remain vital, the UMC must balance sustaining traditional practices with disruptive innovation to connect with underserved communities while fostering spiritual growth and inclusivity. Watch now, listen to the audio version, and read transcript.
11 Characteristics of Effective Smaller Churches
What are the qualities of effective smaller churches? David Ray explores eleven key qualities of dynamic and faithful smaller churches that he observed across 21 communities. Effective smaller churches prioritize worship, embrace their size, foster a community spirit, have fun, commit to mission, find a niche, support pastoral leadership, empower laity, deploy resources wisely, thrive with vitality, and nurture passionate faith. Read more now.
The Right Question
Leaders do not need answers. Leaders must have the right questions.
According to Charles Duhigg, research indicates that three types of questions dominate conversations and draw on different parts of our brains. It is important to recognize what type of conversation is happening so you can engage it in appropriate ways.
What’s this really about? (practical, problem-solving, decision-making) How do we feel? (beliefs, emotions, memories) Who are we? (our social identities, how we are seen by others and how we see ourselves, relationships)
> Want more Right Questions? Read “Right Questions for Church Leaders.”
The Doctor of Ministry
Apply Now for the Premier Doctor of Ministry in Church Leadership
Wesley Theological Seminary and the Lewis Center together offer the Doctor of Ministry in Church Leadership Excellence. With this track, clergy will receive the enhanced knowledge, skills, and motivation to increase congregational and denominational service, vitality, and growth. Learn more and apply today for May 2025.
Support the Lewis Center.Leading Ideas is made possible by contributions to the Lewis Center for Church Leadership from readers like you. Thank you. Donate now.
NEW video short
5 Ways to Strengthen Ministry with Children
Jesus said, “Let the children come to me.” Here are 5 Ways your church can demonstrate its love for children and its desire to connect with younger families through effective ministry for and with children. Watch now.
Watch. Learn. Lead. Subscribe to our YouTube channel for video podcast episodes, leadership strategies and tips, free video resources, and much more.
Online cohort-based course from Wesley Pathways for Ministry
Strategic Innovation
Leading congregations through various challenges and towards innovative changes can be difficult. It requires a level of discernment and action that maintains certain aspects of a congregation’s traditions but disrupts others. In this course, participants will learn how to think both carefully and creatively about how to overcome various challenges in ministry by responsibly fostering innovation and change in ways that move forward their congregation’s life and ministry together.
The course begins February 1, 2025. Completion of this course will count toward the Lewis Center Church Leadership Certificate Program if requested. Learn more and enroll now.
“Quotable” Leadership
“Congregations are facing challenges with no easy answers. Fundamental changes are needed at the heart of the church. In other words, congregations must discover new ways to be the church in the twenty-first century.“ — Dwight Zscheile, Michael Binder, and Tessa Pinkstaff
Book by F. Douglas Powe Jr.
The Adept Church: Navigating Between a Rock and a Hard Place
The Adept Church helps congregations develop realistic road maps for navigating between a “rock and a hard place” with a clear process for defining reality—a process based on strategic decisions concerning where the church needs to go and not where it is currently. This theologically grounded, yet practical guide is for church leaders seeking to save their churches. Learn more and order now.
> Discover more books from Lewis Center authors.
Editor: Dr. Jessica L. Anschutz (janschutz@wesleyseminary.edu)
Copyright © 2004-2025 Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary
Looking for more? Read the text versions of Leading Ideas articles from 2024.