Healthy Leadership

Here is a message my friend, Shawn Lovejoy, gave at “Velocity Conference” a couple years ago. In this message he challenges all of us pastors & ministry leaders to focus on our own spiritual, emotional, relational, & physical health. We cannot lead people to where we are not!

I have yet to meet a pastor or ministry leader who this message hasn’t really hit home with. This is one I definitely encourage you to listen to a few times & really grab a hold of the message here.

It will dramatically change your life & ministry.

BTW: The next Velocity Conference is coming up next week – Feb. 27-28. It at all possible you need to be there.

***Use this link to listen online or download – Healthy Leadership – Shawn Lovejoy  (to download – right click link & “save as”)

Enjoy! And please “reply” with your Top 5 takeaways for you, your ministry, and/or church.

Worship Gone Wild

One of the greatest areas of tension & frustration in most churches is in the area of worship. Whether it be the style, focus, & substance of music, or dealing with the “personality types” involved, or in keeping the senior pastor, worship leader, & team “on the same page” with regards to the vision, purpose, & values that God has given their church. Worship, and everything that it entails, is a real challenge in most churches.

Here is a very good podcast from the worship leaders & pastor of Fellowship Church. There’s a lot of very practical & helpful insight & ideas which will greatly help any pastor, worship leader, member of a worship team, or any Christian for that matter.

***Use this link to listen online or download - Worship Gone Wild  (to download – right click link & “save as”)

Enjoy! And please “reply” with your Top 5 takeaways for you, your ministry, and/or church.

Time to Chill

Burnout is WAY too common in ministry. In fact, I’ve heard that 80% of all the pastors who start in ministry DO NOT finish in ministry. That is a sad & sobering statistic! I would also contend that this statistic may even be higher for volunteer ministry leaders.

I am constantly telling our ministry leaders to slow down, spend time with their family, pace themselves, to say “no” to things & to focus on doing a few things REALLY well. I want to see them here in our church serving with the same passionate energy & zeal 10 years from now, as they have today.

Here is a great podcast from Ed Young Jr., Pastor of Fellowship Church. It is a strong challenge to all of us pastors & ministry leaders to pace ourselves & make time for what is really important in life. This was especially timely for me – being on strict orders from my cardiologist to reduce my stress.

Enjoy! And please “reply” with your Top 5 takeaways for you, your ministry, and/or our church.

***Use this link to listen online or download - Time to Chill (to download – right click link & “save as”)

Why People Leave A Church

Here at Eagle Pointe we do an event called “Momentum” every other month. This is a time where all of our volunteers, core, leaders, etc come together for a big, fun party environment. It’s a time of thanking them & communicating how much we value those who help carry the load & responsibility of what we do here.

This environment is also where I share some behind the scenes things we’re working towards or dealing with as a church. These are things we probably will not get into during a weekend worship service & we want to keep our core people “in the know”.

This past Sunday night we had a “Pre-Super Bowl Bash”. In addition to great music & video, a hysterical skit from our drama team, I shared some of the challenges we face in trying to get people connected & keep them connected in our church. A lot of this has to do with the type of church we are & who we are reaching, but I believe a good bit of this applies to any church trying to reach people for Jesus.

I encourage you to take time to listen to what I shared. Here’s a link to listen or download - Momentum – Why People Leave A Church  (to download – right click & “save as”)

***NOTE: If you are not an Eagle Pointe’r – you may want to skip the first 8 minutes or so.

Breaking Barriers

Here is a great podcast from Perry Noble, pastor of NewSpring church. It was so good I’ve listened to it 3 times in the last week while working out at the gym. As with any podcast, seminar, etc there will be parts that you may not agree with or may not apply to you or our church. However, I think this is one where God just might have a few things He wants to teach us.

Enjoy! And please “reply” with your Top 5 takeaways for you, your ministry, and/or our church.

***Use this link to listen online or download - Breaking Through Barriers

Breaking the 500 Barrier

In this past year at Eagle Pointe church, we’ve been hitting against what is known in church circles as the “500 Barrier”. Counting adults, kids & teens we’re running about 450.  And for the last year we push up to that ceiling & then we drop back down a bit – then we push back up & then we… Now, this is very common in church circles – actually – it’s not very common… In fact, here are some stats to put what we are faced with into perspective – let this soak in…

• 60% of all churches in the U.S. have 100 people or less.
• 80% of all churches in the U.S. have 250 people or less.
• And according to Hartford Church Research Institute – in 2010 – only 6% of all churches made it above 500 people.

That’s why I said the 500 barrier was a common & not so common issue – many churches face this barrier… Here is a great podcast in which Nelson Searcy, pastor of the Journey church in New York City & president of Church Leader Insights, addresses this challenge & shares some of common causes & solutions to this barrier.

Enjoy! And please “reply” with your Top 5 takeaways for you, your ministry, and/or our church.

***Use this link to listen online or download - breaking_the_500_barrier