The Leadership Quality No One Talks About - By Lance Witt - The writer of Hebrews paints a beautiful portrait of a spiritual leader.  When describing how the Priest functions, the writer says He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness. [...]

Sharing The Dream - By Kay Warren - I’ve noticed one common trait in couples who thrive in ministry over the long haul: the ability to see themselves as a team who shares a God-given dream. I believe this one factor can actually make or break the ministry God has called you to. Being a [...]

Who is the most difficult person you have ever had to lead? Did somebody’s face and name just pop into your mind? When I first thought of that question, the name that immediately popped into to my mind was Cecil.  He was a member of the first church I ever pastored.  He was a red-headed, [...]

Why Leaders Need to Be Readers by Rick Warren -- We need to balance both input and output in ministry to be healthy. You can’t constantly give unless you’re filling up your tank. You can do this through many tools—from reading books to listening to podcasts to participating in conferences. I heard someone once say, [...]

Do You Have the Heart of a Pastor? I want you to think of someone that you believe is a great leader.  Go ahead… think of someone that you respect as a leader.  Have you got their name in your mind?  Now, answer this question.  What qualities do they posses that make them a great [...]

Communicating More Like Jesus: Part 4 By Rick Warren - During this series of blog posts we have discussed how there has never been a more appealing an interesting preacher than Jesus. We looked at two areas: First, Jesus began with people’s needs, hurts, and interests. Jesus usually taught in response to a question or [...]

Communicating More Like Jesus: Part 3 By Rick Warren In part one and two we discussed how there has never been a more appealing and interesting preacher than Jesus and the importance of modeling him when we preach. Jesus began with peoples needs, hurts, and interests. Second, JESUS RELATED TRUTH TO LIFE I love the [...]

Communicating More Like Jesus: Part 2 By Rick Warren In part one we discussed how there has never been a more appealing and interesting preacher than Jesus and the importance of modeling him when we preach. Jesus began with people’s needs, hurts, and interests and our basic message to the lost must be good news. [...]

Communicating More Like Jesus: Part 1 By Rick Warren There has never been a more appealing and interesting Preacher than Jesus. WHY NOT MODEL HIM? Jesus’ preaching attracted enormous crowds, and the Bible often records the positive reactions of those crowds to his teaching. Matthew 7:28b (NIV)...the crowds were amazed at his teaching. Matthew 22:33 [...]

10 Distinctives of Emotionally Healthy Preaching: Part 2 By Pete Scazzero Emotionally Healthy Discipleship impacts preaching in multiple ways. Over a 24-year period, I organized these learnings around a series of ten questions that I ask myself, and others, when preaching a message. In last week’s blog post I introduced the first five questions: 1. [...]