The Star Trek sequel is being filmed as I write this, and this little bit of future cinematic joy brought to mind a post I wrote back in 2010: Last night, we had a joint elders meeting. Our merged congregation has been such a miraculous thing to start with that I think all of us… Read More »
All in the Family?
A couple of days ago, I wrote a blog on Commodus, the Roman emperor who inherited his rule from his father Marcus Aurelius. My original intention had been to write about choosing people who are qualified rather than people you are close to but somehow I got sidetracked. This entry from Out of Ur got… Read More »
Know the Agendas
I am re-reading Steven Sample’s book, Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership which my friend Rob gave to me several years ago. Sample is the current president of USC and a former president of SUNY-Buffalo, and a very successful leader in business. One of the points that Sample makes is that he surrounds himself with a small… Read More »
Putting Church in the Blender
When we started the merger process between Grace Baptist Church and Heritage Baptist Church back in 2009, our elders and I did a lot of digging and found few resources to guide us. There just wasn’t much out there on church mergers, and what was out there was overwhelmingly negative. Despite this, we decided that… Read More »
Leadership by Community, post 4
Why should we have one pastor (or more) who is paid while the rest of the elders are volunteers? That’s a question I have contemplated a lot; and it is one I had to wrestle with since – well – I’m a paid pastor. Ultimately, it boils down to the New Testament. The Apostle Paul… Read More »
Leadership by Community, post 3
A lot of times, people will come to me or to one of the elders and ask about something. Our natural reaction is to make a decision on the spot, but in reality, we do not have that authority. Unless the leadership community has made a decision and/or invested further decisions for a specific area… Read More »
Leadership by Community, post 2
Elder leadership is not a committee-run church. It is also not a board, like the boards in large corporations. It is leadership by community. com·mu·ni·ty (kə-myōō’nĭ-tē) n. pl. com·mu·ni·ties a. A group viewed as forming a distinct segment of society: the gay community; the community of color. b. Similarity or identity: a community of interests.… Read More »
