Are You Measuring What God Measures in Your Life and Ministry?

Last week in my post: How Leaders Keep from Tapping Out, Burning Out or Being Disqualified, I shared with you some of the things that Hugh Halter and I have been learning about being leaders who stay in the game for the long haul.

Man in church alone crop

We looked at the first part of our Journeymen Oath #2: “I Commit to Move at God’s Pace and Measure what God Measures.”

And we saw how important it was to move at a sustainable pace, following Jesus’ teachings on the pattern and the promises from his parables that lead to explosive and sustainable kingdom growth. Small is big, slow is fast and multiplication wins. Now let’s finish up this “oath” and look at metrics and measurements. (more…)

Why You’re Blessed to Be a Blessing

While there are a zillion things I may still want in life, (okay, maybe just a few thousand) my life has certainly been filled with an abundance of blessings and awesomeness. While driving the other night, my wife, Tina, and I spent a little time discussing some of the things we have to be thankful for.

The things on our list may be similar to yours. Things like our relationship with God. How close we are relationally to our grown children and how much fun we’re having these days with all of them. Our home and community. If I went for the long list it would fill several pages and would include many more large blessings ie. health, friendships etc. and smaller things like my iPad, guitars and so on. But there would be a lot.

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Are You One of the Cool Kids?

When I was growing up, whether it was hanging around my neighborhood or on the school playground, or spending time with my sisters and cousins during family celebrations, it was important to feel as if I was one of the cool kids—one of the insiders.

No one likes to feel on the outs or be pushed to the margins of the social circle.

We all want to be insiders. (more…)

7 Reasons Why Gossip Is Poison

Gossip is poison! And I’ve noticed gossip is one of those things these days that is so common in relationships, in our conversations and in our cultural experience, that we hardly even notice it anymore. Let me show you how to stop gossip.

Let me start off by saying that I have gossiped…

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Lifeschool 207: Missional Living When Your Church Doesn’t Support It

You desire to live a more missional life in community with others… making disciples in everyday life, but you don’t have the support of your pastor and local church leadership. Now what?

This week on the Lifeschool Podcast, we’ll speak to your heart first and then give you steps to get started and ways to help you get your leaders and others on board with this missional lifestyle.

Missional Living When Church Doesn’t Support

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Lifeschool 204: Is Cultural Diversity Realistic in the Church?

It’s easy to look across the auditorium–or across the room–and ask why the church and our small groups or missional communities are not more diverse. But are racial differences the only form of diversity there is?

This week on the Lifeschool Podcast, we’ll look at some of the reasons we don’t see greater diversity in the church and why there may be false expectations in connection with some of this. We’ll give you practical ways to look at your own church and community groups and begin to discern new opportunities for diversity.

is cultural diversity realistic

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