There is so much wisdom in this brief book: The Heart of a Servant Leader: Letters from Jack Miller. The example I was reviewing today was written to a man who was in conflict with his church leaders and then, after another pastor was brought into the conflict to try to help (‘Rob’), the man became conflicted with the new (trying-to-help-with-the-conflict) pastor too. Please note: this excerpt is after a long, kind, gentle affirmation and assurance of deep love for the recipient of the letter. If Pastor Jack Miller was anything in life, he was an encourager. But this excerpt is such an insightful confrontation that I really wanted to…

Hooray for this GREAT post from Pastor Anyabwile: Preventing Church Splits It is so good. Truly. And it’s about far more than ‘just’ preventing church splits—it’s really about all of the ‘one anothering’ commands of Scripture. (Love one another. Serve one another. Pray for one another. Forgive one another. Bear one another’s burdens, etc.) If you love the Church and would like to know how to love your local church better, take a few moments to read this. And then? Print it out (or give yourself a task and archive it electronically ) and spend some TIME with it in the coming weeks. It’s that good. Let me share just…

I’m plowing through the editorial comments from our friends who read Draft 1 of “Redeeming Church Conflicts” and WOW! Are we blessed to have such wise and generous friends. I really need wisdom, though, because sometimes one reader will say, “This section was fantastic!” and another reader will say of the SAME section, “Cut this for sure!” Thankfully, most of the time, the counsel lines up and for that, I am grateful. One point that Dave makes that (so far) all of our readers have appreciated is this one. I hope it gives you something worthwhile to chew on too: A ‘Hired Hand’ Mentality In John chapter 10, Jesus describes…

Am I the last person on the planet to know about this ministry? PoopedPastors.com I had no idea something like this existed and I haven’t poked around to really read the material yet; but I sure have served my share of pooped pastors in conflicted churches or even just in “normal” churches and “normal” ministry. And I love and trust the friend who recommended it to me (Hi, A!) So I wanted to be sure to let you know about it. I’m tucked away, working hard on draft 2 of “Redeeming Church Conflicts” which is due to Cap’n Dave on Saturday night and then (Lord willing) on to Professor Dennis…

I’m not a big fan of the use of the word “stupid,” so I assume this paragraph will be substantially edited between now and June 1. But it does kind of make me smile a little. The rawness of it is a great example of the conference calls Cap’n Dave and I have been having this year on “Redeeming Church Conflicts”: “Even wise and seasoned Christians often jettison their theology when conflicts come because church conflict has a propensity to freeze us all, just like the proverbial deer in the headlights. Even solid theology flies right out the window during church conflicts. Christians get locked in personal offenses, lose their…

I’d appreciate any prayers you might send my way as I am deep into another marathon writing day on Dave Edling’s and my current book project, “Redeeming Church Conflicts: Turning Crisis into Compassion and Care.” I’m deep in the thick forest of around 500,000 words right now (exegesis of Scripture, our substantive content, case study examples, etc.), trying hard to whittle them down to the 75,000 word manuscript required by our publisher. Much to rejoice in! God is so good to his people. Much that makes me cry. Church conflict is excruciatingly painful; truly “not the way it’s supposed to be.” But we’re in a bitterly cold multi-day snowstorm anyway,…

Loved this brief post from IX Marks: How Members Can Serve the Church on Sunday Morning  

I’m not familiar with this book (Spiritual Leadership by J. Oswald Sanders), but even just the summary questions listed by Kevin DeYoung in a recent blog post are worth contemplating: Are You Ready to be a Leader? In reflecting on my own strengths and weaknesses, and in thinking (and praying!) about potential future leaders for our church’s women’s Bible study, I was particularly challenged by these: 2. Do you retain control of yourself when things go wrong? The leader who loses self-control in testing circumstances forfeits respect and loses influence. He must be calm in crisis and resilient in adversity and disappointment. 4. Can you handle criticism objectively and remain…

If you are not yet familiar with (and praying for!) the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelism, I hope that you will consider clicking through to their website, learning about their (astounding and yet necessary) goals, and then praying for all of the participants, expositors, and presenters. A dear friend of mine is serving during one of  the main plenary sessions, so I have been praying for Lausanne for months now. And this morning, I learned that Ken Sande and Manfred Kohl will also be attending and serving, so now I am praying specifically for them too. I hope you will join me in lifting up the thousands of Christians…

(Some wisdom from my coauthor, Cap’n Dave, taken from our rough draft of “Redeeming Church Conflict’s” Chapter 10—“Authoritative Leadership” …) “First Peter 5 verses 1-3 call elders to be shepherd leaders who care for the flock entrusted to them by God. Verse 3 tells elders to ‘be examples to the flock.’ The question naturally follows, examples of what? The short answer is to be examples of holiness. That means they are to reflect the character qualities set forth in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. Furthermore, the list of the fruit of the Spirit set forth in Galatians 5:22-23 provides additional guidance of what practical holy living looks like. God’s…