I love reading articles together as a staff team. There are few better ways to align your team and learn to speak the same language. They’re short and to the point (at least the good ones are!). And the articles can be the bad guy- they can speak authoritatively on a topic and staff don’t hear “my director is trying to get us to _____ (share our faith more, do more work)” … [Read more...] about Foundational Articles to Read with Your Team as you Plan for the Fall
Movement Building
The Two Most Important Days of the Year
I was recently looking over some notes from a talk given by my friend Brian McCollister, a national director with Cru and a guru on how to build a college ministry. He asserts that, in college ministry, the two most important days of the year are: The first day of school The first day of fall retreat The First Day of School Really, it's whatever day you do your big push … [Read more...] about The Two Most Important Days of the Year
Students can do ministry – we can help
In Cru, we talk a lot about being "Student Led, Staff Directed". But I fear that staff communicate to students, often more by actions than words: “We staff would love to reach this campus on our own but since we don’t have the manpower to do it, we’re gonna need some of you students to help us out.” Bud Wilkinson, legendary former head coach at OU was once asked, “what … [Read more...] about Students can do ministry – we can help
Surfing the Edge of Chaos – Leading a Movement
One of the greatest challenges in leading in ministry is finding the balance between planning/strategy and empowering/releasing. I don't like messy. But I wholeheartedly believe that you have two options: You can either Control or Empower. You can't do both. Control is orderly. Empowerment is messy. There's a lot of wisdom on this topic in a recent post by Jon … [Read more...] about Surfing the Edge of Chaos – Leading a Movement
The Comfortable Do Not Create Movements
In Cru we talk a lot about "movements everywhere". This is great insight from Ed Stetzer on how movements happen: Actual movements are tricky things, but the word has never been more popular. Three things that I believe we need to spark a movement: The comfortable do not create movements. We all need a cause bigger than ourselves, which can drive us to action with a … [Read more...] about The Comfortable Do Not Create Movements