I have always been fascinated by martial arts. I grew up watching Bruce Lee flicks and all of the ninja films that came out in the 80’s. Just because I had seen all the movies I thought I could win in a fight until… I got my gluteus maximus kicked (gasp) by a bully in my neighborhood. That’s when I enrolled in karate classes and everything changed. I learned how to defend myself and the next time that kid came around looking to mess with me… let’s just say it’s didn’t work out so well for him (insert goulish laugh here – bwahahaha!)Lots of … Read More

Today at 2PM EST I’m leading a 45 minute webinar called, “Creating a Leadership Pipeline”. Here’s what I’m going to cover in this webinar today… – How to create a reproducible system that develops leaders at every level in your church – How to never hear “I’m not growing” or “I’m not being fed” in your church ever again! – How to help believers grow from infancy to maturity – How to Develop the 1 quality every church must have to train strong leaders – How to never need to look for staff outside your church again – Plus a … Read More

I attended a conference this year and one of the speakers was waxing wise about systems of leadership development and discipleship. It sounded pretty good until someone asked him a question about his experience implementing these ideas. The dude turned white as a ghost. That’s when we all found out the news. It.was.all.theory. 100% of it. I fear for the Pastor who implements his ideas in their church. It could seriously hurt his church. That’s why I think books by theorists need to have a “Surgeon General” type warning as though you were buying a pack of smokes. If you know anything about me, you … Read More

Most of us know the story of Dr. Frankenstein: he tries to create life in his laboratory and it ends up being a monster. He is 8 feet tall,with yellowish skin, black hair and black lips. Not the kind of guy you want to meet in an alley. Here’s the really scary part: a lot of churches remind me of Dr. Frankenstein’s creation. They have different pieces jammed together to look normal, but close up something’s not right. We’d all agree that there’s a big difference between Dr. Frankenstein’s creation and a baby born into a loving family. That’s the difference … Read More

I recently did a survey and asked everyone who subscribes to the churchstrategies.com newsletter, “What’s area of ministry you need the most help with?” The overwhelming answer was, “Leadership Development”. I was planning on doing a few 3-5 minute videos in response to that, but I realized that wasn’t going to cut it. So I’ve decided to do a FREE 45-minute webinar called, “Creating a Leadership Pipeline in your Church” on September 13th and 14th @ 2PM.          I’m going to cover the following:  – How to develop a system for developing leaders at all levels – How … Read More

Everyone knows that I’m from Boston, so I love the Red Sox. I literally cried like a little girl when they won the World Series in 2004. But I will say that while the Sox are my team, I deeply respect the Oakland A’s. They have one of the lowest payrolls in baseball and yet they make the post-season regularly. How do they do it? They know they couldn’t compete with the Yankees and Red Sox in regards to signing big named fee agents, so they decided to put all their effort into their farm system. This way they develop … Read More

I’ve noticed something in the church leadership “genre” that seems to be overlooked. Maybe you’ve noticed it too… Lots of books on how to be a better leader, but very few on how to develop and train leaders within your church. It’s like there’s a group of “Church Leadership Illuminati” that are keeping this info from getting to us. Maybe I’ve just watched too many episodes of the X-Files 🙂 Or maybe there really is a hole in the leadership information that’s available. I’ve worked with thousands of churches like yours and most of them are looking for solutions on … Read More

I spend a lot of time around church leaders. One of the biggest issues church leaders face is discipleship and leadership development. In fact, I’ve noted 5 leadership development “killers” that you need to avoid like the plague… 1. There’s no training for existing leaders – Giving training to your existing leaders makes them better leaders and allows you to create the model for the next level of leaders. 2. There’s no list of potential leaders – We keep a list of people that we have our eye on at Calvary. This list is those who are serving faithfully and growing in … Read More