All posts filed under: Miinistry

Why a Healthy Sex Life (If You’re Married) Makes You a Better Leader

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By Margaret Feinberg Via churchleaders.com While you’ve probably read books about sex and maybe even taken a few quizzes, have you ever correlated sex with your leadership skills? Although having a healthy sex life may not turn you into a superhuman leader, here are five ways a healthy sex life can improve your leadership skills: 1. A healthy sex life removes temptations. The temptations we face as leaders aren’t just sexual, but temptation takes many different forms. First Corinthians 7:5 encourages married believers to engage in sex, preventing a potential foothold for Satan. Whether it’s the allure of power or money or worldly success, if you are satisfied at home, you will feel less of a drive toward temptation elsewhere. 2. Leaders engaging in a healthy sexual relationship with their spouse will naturally develop stronger communication skills along with grace, humility, and gentleness. These skills are transferable, allowing you to be more effective when interacting with other people. Selfless love is the key to a healthy sex life; if leaders can selflessly love their spouse …

2012’s Top Churches to Watch/ part 5

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  TOP 10 U.S. CHURCHES to learn from about CHURCH SIZE These are the top churches to learn from about running a large church. Lakewood Church (Houston, TX) :: Joel Osteen Made 6/6 size lists with an average attendance of 44,333 Willow Creek Community Church (South Barrington, IL) :: Bill Hybels Made 6/6 size lists with an average attendance of 23,213 Second Baptist Church (Houston, TX) :: Ed Young, Sr. Made 6/6 size lists with an average attendance of 22,325 North Point Community Church (Alpharetta, GA) :: Andy Stanley Made 6/6 size lists with an average attendance of 22,015 LifeChurch.tv (Edmond, OK) :: Craig Groeschel **Made 4/4 size lists with an average attendance of 20,894 **(did not report numbers in 2010 & 2011 despite mid-30K+ attendance) Saddleback Church (Lake Forest, CA) :: Rick Warren Made 6/6 size lists with an average attendance of 20,489 Southeast Christian Church (Louisville, KY) :: Dave Stone Made 6/6 size lists with an average attendance of 18,348 Phoenix First Assembly (Phoenix, AZ) :: Tommy Barnett **Made 4/4 size lists with an average attendance of 17,023 **(did not report numbers in …

2012’s top Churches to Watch/ Part 4

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TOP 10 U.S. CHURCHES to learn from about CHURCH PLANTING These are the top churches to learn from about planting multiple churches. Redeemer Presbyterian Church (New York, NY) :: Tim Keller Made 1/1 church planting lists with a rank of #1 Mars Hill Church (Seattle, WA) :: Mark Driscoll Made 1/1 church planting lists with a rank of #2 Northwood Church (Keller, TX) :: Bob Roberts Made 1/1 church planting lists with a rank of #3 Perimeter Church (Duluth, GA) :: Randy Pope Made 1/1 church planting lists with a rank of #4 Spanish River Church (Boca Raton, FL) :: David Nicholas Made 1/1 church planting lists with a rank of #5 East 91st Street Christian Center (Indianapolis, IN) :: Derek Duncan Made 1/1 church planting lists with a rank of #6 Community Christian Church (Naperville, IL) :: Dave Ferguson Made 1/1 church planting lists with a rank of #7 Fellowship Bible Church (Little Rock, AR) :: Bill Wellons Made 1/1 church planting lists with a rank of #8 Kensington Community Church (Troy, MI) :: Steve Andrews Made 1/1 church planting lists with a rank of …

2012’s Top Churches to Watch/ Part 3

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TOP 10 U.S. CHURCHES to learn from about CHURCH INNOVATION These are the top churches to learn from about innovative methods. LifeChurch.tv (Edmond, OK) :: Craig Groeschel Made 2/2 innovation lists with an average rank of #1 Granger Community Church (Granger, IN) :: Mark Beeson Made 2/2 innovation lists with an average rank of #2.5 Mars Hill Church (Seattle, WA) :: Mark Driscoll [tie for 3rd] Made 2/2 innovation lists with an average rank of #5.5 Seacoast Church (Mt. Pleasant, SC) :: Greg Surratt [tie for 3rd] Made 2/2 innovation lists with an average rank of #5.5 Fellowship Church (Grapevine, TX) :: Ed Young, Jr. [tie for 5th] Made 2/2 innovation lists with an average rank of #6 Mosaic Church (Los Angeles, CA) :: Erwin McManus [tie for 5th] Made 2/2 innovation lists with an average rank of #6 North Point Community Church (Alpharetta, GA) :: Andy Stanley [tie for 5th] Made 2/2 innovation lists with an average rank of #6 National Community Church (Washington, DC) :: Mark Batterson Made 2/2 innovation lists with an average rank of #9.5 Community Christian Church (Naperville, IL) :: Dave Ferguson Made 2/2 innovation lists …

2012’s Top Churches to Watch/ Part 2

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  TOP 10 U.S. CHURCHES to learn from about CHURCH GROWTH These are the top churches to learn from about how to consistently experience high level growth. Church of the Highlands (Birmingham, AL) :: Chris Hodges Made 7/8 growth lists with an average rank of #29.86 Crossroads Community Church (Cincinnati, OH) :: Brian Tome Made 7/8 growth lists with an average rank of #37.14 Seacoast Church (Mt. Pleasant, SC) :: Greg Surratt Made 7/8 growth lists with an average rank of #59.14 Lancaster County Bible Church (Manheim, PA) :: David Ashcraft Made 7/8 growth lists with an average rank of #68.0 Mars Hill Church (Seattle, WA) :: Mark Driscoll Made 6/8 growth lists with an average rank of 34.17 Central Christian Church (Las Vegas, NV) :: Jud Wilhite Made 6/8 lists with an average rank of 36.0 Woodlands Church (Woodlands, TX) :: Kerry Shook Made 6/8 growth lists with an average rank of #37.0 Christ’s Church of the Valley (Peoria, AZ) :: Don Wilson Made 6/8 growth lists with an average rank of 37.67 Community Bible Church (San Antonio, TX) :: Robert Emmitt Made 6/8 growth lists with …

2012’s Top Churches to watch in America/ Part 1

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At the end of January, every church in my denomination receives an annual church questionnaire. This questionnaire helps my denomination to study conversion or new birth experiences, baptism, weekly attendance, growth rates, scope of influence, church planting efforts etc… to see if we are successful in building God’s kingdom. If you study or research churches, you know that everybody relies heavily on the above metrics to determine successful or failing churches. And everybody knows that this is not necessarily a perfect way to measure churches. That’s because, “sometimes exceptional churches have humble results in terms of size, growth, and influence while sometimes unhealthy churches know all the right formulas to give the appearance of spiritual success.” However, “these matrices are our most reliable, efficient, and accurate way to gauge churches in research studies.” – please look for the lists in the next posts… but let say this in closing – 1. It is important for every church leader to learn from other churches 2. It is important to use one’s time wisely when studying other churches …

Divert daily, withdraw weekly, abandon annually…

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It is good to work. But! Work is a great thing! I thank God for the opportunity to work. For He himself worked (Gen. 1:1). And He said that if we don’t work we won’t eat 2 Thess. 3:10). But the thing with work is that it can turn one into a workaholic. Therefore, we need to recognize that though God has ordained work for us, we must emulate his example – “he rested on the 7th day” (Gen. 2:2). Somebody once said, “work and no play makes jack a dull boy.” Actually it is a proverb –  and it means that without time off from work, a person becomes both bored and boring. So I took a little vacation this week – a week of complete rest and I am so thankful to the Lord for the opportunity to do this. I feel refreshed and energize for the weeks ahead. During my time away, I read a few articles and magazines – here is an excerpt of somethings I learned about recognizing and handling burnout: Preventing burnout” Having determined …

OPEN CHURCH – A Fascinating Project

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http://openchurch.com/ I recently started following Kent Shaffer’s blog and for the first time began to hear about “Open Church”. I must say the idea behind Open Church is awesome. And I have planned to become a longterm supporter by the end of Christmas 2011. Here is what Open Church is all about: Open Church is a global Church platform for all cultures. We help global Church leaders to equip each other with ministry ideas and free downloadable resources. They acquire distribute, and translate high quality free resources and help ministers create new resources for their culture by their culture. These resources will save the global Church millions of dollars, lead more people to Christ, and develop better disciples. They also offer an idea platform to share ministry ideas from all geographies and cultures. These ideas will teach people timeless Biblical principles and cultural best practices. Their focus is quality with impartiality. All partners and contributors receive equal honor and God receives the glory. It is a place where the village pastor from Malawi is treated the same as …