Gary and I recently returned from a trip to Paris. We got home on Sunday night before the terrorist events happened on following Friday. The first thing on our minds were what if we had been there. Then we began to think about what if we had a team there when these events took place.
What does that really mean? As Creative Director for my church, many times, I’m not even sure myself. Creativity is one of the hardest things for a person or a team of people to manage, especially at a church level. One of my goals for the beginning of this year is to establish what my church’s creative process is.
For us at Crosspointe we’re in the middle of promoting another round of small groups. Here are ten things we remind ourselves to do, and you might benefit from as well if you’re promoting any kind of group sign ups.
Sight gives us the ability to know where we are, who is around us, and where to go. It gives a sense of comfort and stability, even control. The sense of sight gives us the ability to move forward in the right direction. Casting a vision to your students is like opening their eyes to the great things God can accomplish through them.
Our missionaries continually amaze me. They give up family reunions and celebrations. They give up the security and comforts of one of the richest nations on earth. They give up the fellowship pastors have in the United States at pastors meetings and informal meals. They willingly and joyfully go wherever God has called them to go, regardless of the difficulties they face.
We have a choice to make at every situation that confronts us. Will I be positive or negative? Will I encourage or criticize?
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only thing that changes people’s lives. Jesus told His disciples to reach the world with the Gospel. This has been the heartbeat of the Baptist Bible Fellowship. Start churches – reach people.
David Janney and Ronnie Floyd spoke Tuesday evening at Baptist Bible College Fellowship Week 2015 about those two subjects. Two passionate messages that remind us all why God has us here.
Church leadership is more complicated and more diverse than ever before. Working together, honoring Jesus, and moving forward are three aspects of church leadership that are vital and much needed in today’s world – Unity, Jesus, & Goals.
Three preachers spoke Tuesday morning at Baptist Bible College Fellowship Week 2015: Ben Feldott, D. L. Moody, and Eddie Lyons.
Nobody wants to talk about it. But many pastors of small churches feel insecure around pastors of big churches. Too much emphasis has been made on attendance. Big & small churches are important to God’s work in our world.
In his final post dealing with church planting, Tim Hawks talks about the Five Benchmarks of a Self-sustaining, Self-governing Church Planting Church.. Tim Hawks is a 1981 BBC graduate and current Lead Pastor of Hill Country Bible Church in Austin, TX.
In his third post dealing with church planting, Tim Hawks outlines Hill Country’s residency program for training church planters. The Program is a one year learning community that assists a church planter with an environment that hones the skills, character and knowledge of the planter, coaching him to a successful church plant that eventually matures into a part of the Association of Hill Country Churches whose mission is to take the life changing reality of Jesus to all of Greater Austin.
In his second of four posts dealing with church planting, Tim Hawks talks about the key components of Hill Country Bible Church's aggressive church planting strategy. Tim Hawks is a 1981 BBC graduate and current Lead Pastor of Hill Country Bible Church in Austin, TX.
Tim Hawks is a 1981 BBC graduate. He has launched a very aggressive church planting strategy in Austin Texas and shares some of his thoughts in this post titled "Journey Into Becoming a Church Planting Church". This is the first of four posts that will outline his church's strategy for Church Planting.
I get asked about church planting a lot, which is funny since I planted a church over 20 years ago… when I was 23 years old. The term Church Planter seems to infer more than one… I was done at one; succeed or fail, one church was it for me.
As a pastor, there are many elements to ministry that Bible College or seminary do not fully prepare you to handle.
Taxes, government compliance, legal issues, child safety, accounting, budgets, computer systems, security, copyright, property management, building programs, insurance, human resources, health benefits, communication, marketing, stewardship and much more are all part of leading a modern church in America. No wonder pastors are overwhelmed!
There is a big problem with churches today. They care so much about what people will see once they are inside the church, they forget to make sure that the outside of their church, their front door, looks just as nice. And in the world we live in now, your front door is not attached to your building anymore.
Whether you are just starting your children’s ministry or looking for your next step to make it better, every ministry has the ability to make it better.
We are seeing more and more students “drop out” from church after high school. The largest drop happens from the ages of 17 to 19 according to Christianity Today. With each generation leaving in droves, what can the church do to stop the bleeding?
Have you ever looked at other churches that seem to have an army of volunteers? Have you thought to yourself, what is the secret? How does this magically happen to other churches while in my ministry I keep hitting wall after wall?
I think that is a danger of the current college-aged generation. We are tinkerers. We tinker with our relationships. We tinker with where we go to school. We tinker with our major. We tinker with our doctrine.
The infrastructure of the BBFI lends itself to extraordinary potential in it’s network of pastors, global missionaries, schools and ministries--but the thing that may be lacking is a cohesive unifying effort to drive momentum.
Detroit is coming fast. I’m sitting here thinking about this new role as the VP of Education. It’s not a ruling position but a serving role. Servant leadership asking to be slipped on like a new pair of shoes. Words tumble around as I try to wrap my arms around this task.
God has a passion to reach the world with the gospel, and the BBFI has always had that passion, too. We are excited to be part of God’s plan to have people from every nation, tribe, people and tongue praising Him in heaven. (Revelation 7:9-10)
There are many resources out there to help you as a leader and I wanted to share a few of those resources with you today. I have been listening to the Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast for years. I am able to adapt his principles to the way I lead in Children's Ministry.