Ego Death

Ego Death

Ego I was a youth pastor for most of my 20s. And I was all in on being a youth pastor. I got a graduate degree in youth ministry, where I met many of my close friends, who are also youth pastors. I read books, attended and spoke at conferences, and was fluent in the...
Market Value

Market Value

Market Value When Dave Berg first told me he brought his three-month-old baby to serve as part of a family mission trip, I’ll admit that I made a weird face. Was he joking? He brought a baby to a work site? To serve? It’s a baby. Dave is an earnest guy,...
How to be Luckier

How to be Luckier

Unlucky I spoke with a new leader at a church last week who expressed her frustration that she never caught a lucky break, that every victory she had won had been so hard fought, and how it hadn’t felt like that at the last place she worked.  We’ve all...
Chaos Theory

Chaos Theory

Back to Normal So much of the church dialogue of the past year or so has focused on “back to normal” – we wanted to go back to our pre-pandemic numbers, our pre-pandemic programming, and our pre-pandemic life. We wanted something that felt more stable and didn’t...
“I’ve Seen Master Plans Before.”

“I’ve Seen Master Plans Before.”

I had been working at a large church for several years when they announced a multi-phase $40 million capital campaign to completely transform the layout of the campus and provide needed improvements. The church’s leadership held a vision meeting to show off the...