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Posts Tagged ‘clarity’

Emil Brolick, Wendy’s new CEO, has a real challenge. The world has changed and Wendy’s has been stuck for 10 years. It’s now woefully behind its more nimble competitors, McDonald’s and Subway. But Emil has this simple plan: Have a vision and a strategy Define reality Give hope Execute Each step is critical, but leaders [...]

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Over 100 years ago, Charles Spurgeon proclaimed every Christian here is either a missionary or an imposter. Recollect that. You either try to spread abroad the Kingdom of Christ, or else you do not love Him at all. You are either doing good, or you are not good yourself. That kind of challenge has been [...]

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In his new book, The Next Christians, author Gabe Lyons writes that every generation must confront the unique challenges of their era. Here are three questions that must be addressed to do so: What does mission look like in America in the 21st century? How should the message of the Gospel go forward? What does [...]

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My dad passed away last night. He suffered from Alzheimer’s and deteriorated rapidly over the past few weeks. It was a blessing to have my mom and all eight of us kids around his bed as his breathing grew slower and slower. It was a special time as we told stories and sang old hymns [...]

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How do we make decisions in these uncertain times when many of our old signposts have disappeared or are no longer relevant? These words from business guru Peter Drucker may offer us and our ministries some important insight: Decisions are not so much made as they become apparent. What “God things” are becoming apparent around you [...]

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Half of all the churches in America failed to add one person through conversion last year. Every week, 43,000 Americans are leaving the church for good. And on average, churches 20 years old and older are shrinking every year, as the chart here shows. It’s because of statistics like these that I invested three days [...]

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Would you believe that nearly 60% of the US population will never be reached by the current models of the church? Even with a combined annual budget of nearly $107 billion (mint.com), the existing 300,000 churches in the US have failed to connect with over 180 million Americans. Americans who will probably never attend what [...]

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Do you relate with these comments from Phil Cooke? For most of my life, Christians were laughed at or ridiculed for the wrong things. The non-believing culture made fun of boycotts, our protests over irrelevant issues, or crazy promotional stunts in the name of the gospel. Far too often, some Christians took the “peculiar people” [...]

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Seeker sensitive, mega church, traditional, contemporary, relevant, post modern, attractional, missional, incarnational, house church, cell groups, small groups, church plant, multi-site, micro church, church growth, church health, simple church, church vision, church mission, church story… New books are written, church leaders are burnt out, and the beat goes on. Every week we get more calls from [...]

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My parents came of age in the 50′s and raised their families in a world of slow, continuous change. Boomers like me came of age in the 80′s and raised our kids in a world of fast, discontinuous change. Our children are coming of age in a digital century where everything is reordering at hyper [...]

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Last week I wrote a post titled “We Want To Participate” about the need for the church to become a place where everyone can participate, effectively use their gifts, and feel God’s joy. I’ve been asked to help facilitate a group of eleven large church pastors. They are committed to share their dreams, ideas, and [...]

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I’m still trying to process what I saw and heard at the Verge Conference in Austin last week. With all the talk of the younger generation checking out, why did 3,500 young people show up for an aggressive three-day challenge to get beyond “feel good” Christianity? This wasn’t the typical boomer crowd that frequent many [...]

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Who will save the church? That depends on what you mean by ‘save.’ If you mean “what will keep things just as they are?” then the answer is nobody will. It’s over. And if you mean “who will maintain that handy place where we get encouraged on weekends, have our weddings and funerals, hang with [...]

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Kevin Miller at Christianity Today shared how teachers who are “with it” teach 1 1/2 years of content in a given year, versus the 1/2 year’s worth of content from poor-quality teachers. That’s a 300% increase in effectiveness year after year! We’re all teachers with our own unique classrooms. Imagine the impact of a 300% [...]

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There is a noticeable buzz in both offices this week!  Activity is picking up and we are rolling in 2010.  Thanks for everyone’s hard work – you’re a great team! That was the last line in today’s weekly update to the Aspen team. Its remarkable really, even though unemployment is over 10% giving to some [...]

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