Success is not just a matter of being in the right place at the right time – it’s more a matter of being ready when the right time arrives. Far too many opportunities are lost not because people aren’t in the right place, but because they are not ready. The concept of wind captures the essence of this principle. If …
Building Job Descriptions for Mission
On Today’s Whiteboard Wednesday, Dan Ackerman, Executive Leader for the Zeeland Classis of the Reformed Church in America, speaks about how to create effective job descriptions that will enhance mission growth. The great news about Pentecost is that God entrusted his Church with the plan to expand His Kingdom. In fact, God’s mission in Pentecost, or from Pentecost, can be …
Leadership and Listening
Leadership begins with listening. The center of a leader’s job is to make sense of the human condition. One hundred years ago, we would have read Shakespeare to understand the human condition. Today, Pixar is doing an extraordinary job of making sense of the human condition. The human condition is, quite actually, the toggle between longing and loss. Take 11-year-old …
Membership to Missional: Thinking (Mental Framework) Matters
On today’s Whiteboard Wednesday, Art Wiers, who serves on the core leadership team of the region of the Great Lakes, gives us insight on how we should ‘think’ about church and why this matters. I like to take a moment to think church. People who grew up in the church would think about membership as their primary orientation to church. …
Deep Change
What is Deep Change? This is a great question posed by an insightful leader in a church in our region of the Reformed Church in America. Since our society is more akin to the New Testament world than the one in which I grew up after World War II, and the North American Church has been largely in decline for …
Being a Missionally Minded Church from the Start
On today’s Whiteboard Wednesday, Eliza Cortez Bast, Coordinator for Local Missional Engagement for the Reformed Church in America, speaks on how churches can be missionally minded from the Start. What it means to be missional from the onset? What does it look like for a church to be more than just Sunday? What does it look like for a church …
Peeling Back the Onion
At a little campground in Kearney, Nebraska, we sat in a tent in a big circle. I was a youth pastor, and we were in the travel stages of an adventure trip to the Grand Tetons. I brought a little exercise to the group to facilitate the bonding experience and convey my hopes and expectations. This was our first night …
The F.A.I.T.H Filter
On today’s Whiteboard Wednesday, Mike Gafa describes the F.A.I.T.H. filter and how utilizing this tool helps enable successful strategic planning for leadership teams. Before you lock down strategic plans, I recommend that you ensure that your plans pass through a tool called the “F.A.I.T.H. Filter.” F stands for flexible, because plans need to be held loosely, being flexible to adapt …
A Worthwhile Resolution: Luminex Prayer Movement
Resolutions are often considered while on the threshold of entering a New Year. Most of us can think of things that we ought to be more resolved about in our daily lives. I want to ask you to consider a resolution that could have tremendous impact beyond what you or I can imagine. Would you personally consider making a resolution …