As our churches have met online, we think we face two unprecedented challenges: a global pandemic, and a digital revolution. Put it like that, though, and I reckon it’s misleading. To be clear, there is a global pandemic, which is life-threatening and has a widely available vaccine only just on the horizon. And undoubtedly there
Let’s share some ideas, get the juices flowing, and think together about making Jesus known in lockdown. Chris Green is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: Leadership round tableTime: Oct 24, 2020 11:30 AM London Join Zoom Meetinghttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/86817573365?pwd=VG8veFNXakc4M2Z3NVNSRE9WQmZLdz09 Meeting ID: 868 1757 3365Passcode: 834323One tap mobile+441314601196,,86817573365# United Kingdom+442030512874,,86817573365# United Kingdom Dial by your
My thoughts, as a privileged white guy.
How can we support small groups online, and how can we lean on them as we move out of lockdown? Zoom.
I’d considered a series on the blog, on how different pastors are responding to the crisis, and the creative solutions they have come up with. But the more I thought, read, and listened, the more I thought that actually, there are some core lessons we are all learning.
Fellowship like this causes headaches and eye strain. It is literally disembodied. The oppose of incarnational. Touch screens are clever, but they don’t enable you to, well, touch.
As I like to say, all our planning is done in pencil. It sounds great, but it is wearying.
My generation of pastors is facing the greatest leadership challenge of its life, globally and in real time. From the human perspective, the future of the church rests on our actions over the next few weeks.
We pastors know that we need to speak to the sheep in our care. But what can we say, when we ourselves are making it up as we go along? Six hard-won lessons.
The military has an acronym: VACU – a context which is unusually Volatile, Ambiguous, Complex, and Uncertain. You’re now leading church in a VACU world.
In the blizzard of questions about how we do church-in-quarantine, the central question remains, ‘What will practically, relationally, build love between us?’
What is it about the patterns of being Christians together, that lays us open to spiritual abuse – both as perpetrators and victims?
Leadership has to be an expression of the Fruit of the Spirit, not a cover for egos, bullying and power.
Here is the single, most devastating sentence in the book: ‘“I am pretty sure a smart, productive atheist could do my job well,” said a successful pastor.’
So, what are the spiritual habits for pastors, so that we avoid self-sabotage? They are all obvious, but essential. And in my experience, we need to re-learn these lessons frequently, and with increasing force over time.
There are three forces which are determined that you fail to follow Christ, and will show you no mercy in attacking you at the moment of of your greatest vulnerability.
After I’ve looked back over the significant moments of the previous week, and everything that’s happened, I now want to ask, ‘Who do I need to thank’?
This is no surprise: I am a huge fan of Michael Hyatt’s products. They’ve become central to how I organise myself as a pastor. They are undeniably expensive here in the UK (especially when import duties apply as well as shipping), but the planners themselves justify it, I think. At least, I am still using
A book of wonderful treasures
