Articles on Strategy
Every church needs to have a strategy of how they want to do ministry. Foundational in deriving your strategy is your church’s culture and your place in the church universal in delivering the gospel to the lost. What is your ministry strategy?
Leading in Uncertain Times, Part 1
The understatement of the century is that the world has changed. And we are all continuing to live right in the middle of this shift. We are being forced to create and adapt new [...]
6 Proven Tips for Keeping Remote Team Members Accountable
We would love to share a top list of proven tips for remote teams around accountability. Our team gets asked these questions very often: How do you know the job is getting done if [...]
Mergers and Acquisitions: Questions to Ask & Financial Due Diligence
Is a merger or acquisition right for your church? While there can be many benefits, a successful merger or acquisition requires more than just finding another church that feels like a natural fit. Join [...]
A Rough Road and How to Align Staff with Vision
Rough roads are tough on any vehicle. They jar, bounce and stress the machine and driver, often knocking things out of alignment. When wheels, tires, steering, shocks and struts are out of alignment it [...]
Three Strategies that Protect from Ransomware
Ransomware is a serious threat that costs a lot of unbudgeted dollars to fix. Effective protection is available! Here’s what I recommend. Ransomware is not like most malware threats that slip into systems under the [...]
5 Practical Ways To Lead More Effective Meetings
Church leaders usually fall into one of two categories: you love meetings or you hate them. But meetings are a critical part to building a healthy staff culture, communicating effectively, and developing your team. [...]
What the Church May Look Like After COVID-19
During the CapinCrouse 2021 National Church Virtual Seminar held on February 24 and 25, 2021, I had the opportunity to lead a workshop in which leaders discussed what the church may look like after [...]
Leadership Principles from the Tech World
Molly Matthews is the CEO of Pushpay, a leading provider of donor management solutions that simplify and encourage engagement, payments, and administration, enabling customers to increase participation and build stronger relationships in their communities. [...]
Sexual Harassment in the Church
Hey Fletch … I would like to bring our staff through some type of sexual harassment training and share our sexual harassment policy. Are you aware of any videos, articles or resources that you [...]
Water Cooler Conversations While Working Remotely
Good team communication is a challenge anytime, but even more so when working remotely. While that topic can address many things, let’s focus on how to have those comfortable and helpful water-cooler-type conversations with [...]
Your Pastor’s Heavy Pack
Chances are, your pastor is exhausted. Here are the surprising reasons why. There’s something that church leaders need to know. If you serve on a church board or leadership council, please lean in. Pastor, [...]
Ask Better Questions
Questions are powerful—sometimes more powerful than we acknowledge. Unaware of how to use questions well, leaders unnecessarily bring uncertainty into their group discussions. Now, more than ever, stakes can be knowingly and unknowingly high [...]
Peace with Others
When we think about leadership, we don’t always think about peace. If you’ve observed a skillful and thoughtful leader, you know that their relationships are marked by peacefulness. I’m not suggesting that these leaders [...]
Leadership and the Art of Celebration
It goes without saying that 2020 has brought an abundance of challenges for ministry leaders. We’ve had to take on challenges we never would have expected and might not have been necessarily prepared for. [...]
Hospitality: Shake Shack, Southwest Airlines, Chic-fil-A, Buckingham Palace and the Bible
Danny Meyer is known as one of the world’s top restaurateurs. He leads the Union Square Hospitality Group and is founder of Shake Shack. He was one of the keynote speakers at a Willow [...]
Noise Pollution—How to Decipher the Difference between Smart Ideas vs. COVID-19 Induced Noise
Since the start of COVID-19, we have all seen social media platforms blow up with people providing ideas, strategies, warnings, 5 or 10 ways to completely change over the next 90 days, etc. We [...]
6 Key Considerations for Budgeting in Changing Times
There is still considerable uncertainty about the global COVID-19 pandemic and its long-term effects. What will the effect be on your ministry’s future revenues, expenses, and opportunities? How can you best manage continually shifting [...]
The Changing Reality in America’s Largest Churches
What is going on in megachurches? How are they growing and what is their racial composition? Fletch talks with Warren Bird and Scott Thumma—the premier researchers on megachurches who have just completed their Megachurch [...]
5 Critically Important Things that Church Boards Don’t Like Talking About—Why It’s Not OK and How to Fix It
Fletch and Mike Batts talk through challenging subjects that are often overlooked in board meetings: senior pastor compensation and benefits; compensation of family members; related party transactions; issues that could bring liability or reputational [...]
Casting A Powerful Vision for Small Groups
Even though more than 90% of pastors say groups are the primary vehicle for discipleship in their church, anyone who’s been around church small groups know that groups can be hit or miss. Ryan [...]
Confident Leader
Fletch talks with Dan Reiland about Dan’s latest book, Confident Leader! This will be a fast paced discussion on a vital topic. Come and learn—bring your questions! Dan says about Confident Leader! … The moment [...]
The K Shape: Implications for Churches
This intriguing article, America's Two Coronavirus Realities by Dion Rabouin, perfectly describes what I am seeing in most churches and communities in the U.S. In my last ebook, Beyond: The Forward Focus Framework, I described three [...]
Want to help your team? Give them autonomy
The one thing you can stop doing that will have immediate results As soon as I sent the text message in response, I knew I had made a mistake. It was a relatively simple [...]
Breaking the 5,000 Growth Barrier and Beyond
Why do some churches go from 50 to 500 to 5,000 and beyond, while others seem to cap out at a certain point? What kind of church leader does it take to break barrier [...]