Strategy
Do You Have the Passion Level of a Successful Leader? How to Tell
If there’s one characteristic I see in successful leaders in growing churches and organizations, it’s passion. The more church leaders I connect with, the more I see this trend: leaders of growing churches (and growing organizations) have a white hot passion for their mission. You can hear it in their voice. You can see it…
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CNLP 207: Bobby Gruenewald on Leveraging First Mover Advantage, Innovation, AI, Technology and the Future Church
Bobby Gruenewald leveraged first mover advantage in building and selling an internet hosting service and the world’s largest wrestling fan site. Then he moved into church world, creating Church Online and YouVersion. Bobby talks about how innovation happens, what’s next in AR, AI, machine learning and much more as the church moves into the future.…
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Declining Attendance and 7 Preaching Shifts That Are Happening Right Now
Every week you host services at your church hoping to reach more people, which is admirable and appropriate. The problem is that the culture is changing and never bothered to ask you permission. In many ways, preachers are using a method that’s been around for centuries…if not millennia…which on the one hand is wonderful. The…
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9 Surprising Challenges You’ll Face When Your Church Grows
It’s easy to believe that there will come a day when your church or organization will never struggle and you’ll never struggle as a leader. As tempting as that is to believe, it’s just not true. Every church struggles. And every leader struggles. And—yes—even growing churches struggle. I outlined the struggles smaller churches experience in my post 5 Tensions Every…
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CNLP 206: Les McKeown on Visionaries, Operators and Processors and How Each Is Necessary In Thriving Organizations
Les McKeown, serial entrepreneur and author of The Synergist and Predictable Success, is back after his first episode became one of the most downloaded ever on this podcast. This time, Les talks about how three distinctive styles of leadership—visionary, operator and processor—are essential to your organization’s long-term success, and how often those three styles of…
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6 Stock Expressions Every Leader Should Stop Using
You say things every day as leaders that work against you, not for you. Have a look at the list below, and you’ll immediately recognize that you probably say some (or all) of these things without even realizing it. They’re almost verbal ticks in our culture. They’re stock expressions that everyone uses and nobody should.…
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5 Signs You’re a Lone Ranger Leader (And Can’t Grow a Team)
Everyone knows that Lone Ranger leaders rarely take their organization as far as leaders who can build a team But here’s the question no one really wants to ask—so am I a Lone Ranger leader? Cue the awkward tension. If you’re even asking the question, good for you. Most of the leaders who need to ask…
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CNLP 205: Eliot Crowther on Market Disruption, Explosive Growth, Scale and How Pushpay Grew from an idea to a Billion Dollar Company
In 2010, 24-year-old Eliot Crowther was in an almost dead end job as a door to door salesperson. Then he had an idea. Within months he and Chris Heaslip founded Pushpay. The fledgling company almost failed more than once, but Eliot tells the story of how Pushpay went on to becoming a company with a…
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3 Very Simple Phrases That Will Motivate Your Team Way More Than You Think
Sometimes, it’s the simple little things that get you further ahead in leadership than you imagine. Simple things that, honestly, most of us forget because we’re too busy. In the everyday hustle of answering 100 emails, jumping from meeting to meeting and moving in and out of dozens of conversations, we forget what really motivates…
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7 Signs Your Church Is Honestly…Mediocre
One of the problems many churches face these days is that they’re neither great at things or terrible at things. They’re honestly just…mediocre. Facebook Live has made watching other churches’ services easier than ever, and as I’ve scrolled through my Sunday morning feed or visited different churches over the years, I’ve been a little amazed…
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