Church Planting
7 Tips to Eliminate Boring From Your Sermons (And Avoid Writer’s Block)
Ever write a message or talk that even you suspected was boring? That’s exactly where I found myself a while back. I’d outlined my message for our current series weeks ago, but when I went back into it 6 days before delivery, I realized I’d written a basically boring sermon on a fundamentally exciting subject. What’s…
Read More
Has Your Leadership Peaked? The Theory of the 10 Year Run.
The last thing you want as a leader is to have your best days behind you. But it happens all the time, long before a leader steps out of leadership. The questions are how does it happen…and, more importantly, what can you do about it? Sadly, you can’t launch into leadership at age 25 and…
Read More
CNLP 243: Rich Birch on the Nuts and Bolts of Church Growth – What the 6% of Growing Churches Do That Others Don’t
Here’s a question. When 94% of churches aren’t growing, what do the 6% do that the others don’t? Rich Birch has worked at three growing megachurches, and distills the things they do that others don’t in a way that can apply to a church of 50 as easily as a church of 5000. Rich talks…
Read More
CNLP 242: Frank Bealer on How to Seriously Boost Your Productivity During High Demand Seasons
Frank Bealer is one of the most productive people Carey knows, and he doesn’t say that lightly. Frank deconstructs how he has grown his productivity in 3 distinct seasons of his life as a leader in his 30s. At 22, he became CEO, and over the last decade and a half has worked on the…
Read More
5 Rather Startling Reasons People Leave Your Church
No matter how long you’ve been in leadership, it still hurts when people leave your church. It’s somewhat easy to understand people leaving when things are going poorly— when there’s conflict, division or dysfunction. But what most leaders aren’t prepared for is the reality that people will leave when things are going well. Even when…
Read More
CNLP 237: Ed Stetzer on Why Christians Are Losing the Culture War, How the Culture is Changing, and What’s Next For the Future Church
There’s no question everything is changing in culture and the church and few people have their finger as tightly on the pulse as author, blogger and thinker Ed Stetzer. In this wide-ranging interview, Ed talks about the culture war and why Christians are losing, how to use your social media voice, how the culture continues…
Read More
5 Disruptive Church Trends That Will Rule 2019
As everything seems to change around us more quickly than ever, what trends should church leaders pay attention to in 2019? For the last three years, I’ve kicked off the new year with a post on disruptive church trends. You might still find those helpful. Even though some of them are a few years old,…
Read More
The Top Ten Most-Read Blog Posts of 2018
2018 was a big year for almost anyone in leadership. I can’t remember a time when things seemed to be changing faster, which actually makes leadership even more challenging. Which is why I’m so glad we’re in this together. We covered a wide range of topics on the blog this year and had some fascinating conversations.…
Read More
CNLP 235: John Van Pay on Leading America’s Fastest Growing Church While Being Home 5 Nights a Week, How to Find Margin Amidst Growth and How to Say No to Stay Focused
John Van Pay’s first decade of ministry didn’t go the way he planned. He was driven and ambitious, but his wife was ready to leave him. That caught John’s attention. He then went on to plant a church with the stated plan of being home 5 nights a week. He honored that. Within a decade,…
Read More
CNLP 234: Donnie Griggs on How To Make a Big Difference in a Small Town, What Works and What Doesn’t in Small Communities, and Finding Great Leaders
So many leaders write off small towns and villages as places not worth investing in. Donnie Griggs would beg to differ. He tells the story of how he planted a church in a town of 9000, only to see it grow to one with 1600-1800 people in small towns and villages. Donnie talks about how…
Read More