Jan 18, 2020

Evaluate the board you serve on. You may be surprised!


One thing pastors notice is that boards are far more likely to evaluate them than they are to evaluate themselves. Yet, the quality of board work has as much impact on most churches as the quality of the senior pastor's work. Annual evaluation of the senior pastor should be combined with a self evaluation of the board including the input of the senior pastor.


If you are a board member, evaluate the...
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Mar 23, 2019

10 Signs that you attend an unhealthy and spiritually abusive church in the wake of Harvest Bible Chapel


As I have been thinking about the events at Harvest Bible Chapel, Mars Hill, Willow Creek and a number of other large congregations that are walking down the same path I have been reflecting on some common traits of dishealth and spiritual abuse. The sad thing is that these behaviors are antithetical to what a healthy church looks like (think the book of Ephesians) and the fruit of the Spirit....
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Jan 15, 2019

Confusing, outdated, unclear and vague church governance systems


Many churches are long overdue to change their governance systems, but I am still surprised to read many church constitutions that make real leadership very difficult. Church leaders who would never structure their business the way their church structures leadership are seemingly OK with the fact that it is almost impossible to do any kind of leadership within their governance system.

Yes,...
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Sep 20, 2018

Six board lessons from the recent Willow Creek events


My objective here is not to revisit the specific controversies of Willow Creek but to draw some lessons for those of us who serve on church boards to consider. For my part, I am drawing on decades of working with church boards as well as having served for years on various boards. The recent issues at Willow Creek simply serve to illustrate my observations. I suspect that the good people who...
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