When John Stott wrote about ‘double listening’, I as a young pastor took it very seriously. I still do. But I do think it has become much harder.
Category: leadership
Many pastors feel exhausted but rarely say so. A reflection on burnout, guilt, and recovery in ministry – part 1
Ask any artist if they have seen computer generated art which is designed to sell – to outsell the human. The question they’re wrestling with, is this: What is the point of being a human artist? Christians and their non-Christian colleagues are asking exactly the same question.
Leadership brings criticism, but how we respond matters deeply. Reflecting on a tense church conflict, this post explores common mistakes pastors make in tough conversations — and what we can learn from them. For leaders committed to growth, it’s a challenge to listen, reflect, and lead with grace. #ChurchLeadership #LeadingWell
There’s always something a bit irritating about the eternal optimist, isn’t there? The one with the permanent smile, the cheerful chappie, the Teflon grin. The person without a hint of the downbeat. And perhaps you share the wider suspicion that behind it lies ‘Positive thinking’. Norman Vincent Peale’s famous and popular book, The Power of
We pastors are in the encouragement business. The cheering-up and cheering-on business.
Let me share something blindingly simple and obvious. So simple and obvious, in fact, that it’s taken me until I’m old enough to have a bus pass (US readers, = old enough to remember the moon landing) to spot it. Thinking is really important. #Leadership #thinking #pastor
I admit to becoming increasingly aware of envy, and it is ugly. And I’ve started to notice a pattern, which you might recognise, and maybe a way through.
The line between here and overwhelm is vanishingly small.
We’re still concentrating on leading our churches, one decision at a time. No wonder it’s exhausting.
Just because pressures are common or even fun doesn’t mean they carry no weight .We aren’t immune.
I’m delighted that The Gift is now available to buy. I wrote it because decent, biblical leadership is a deep need in our churches, and one we are failing to meet. Had working pastors are preaching good sermons – and leaving the teaching there. Or, knowing that there’s work to do, they reach for the
It is shameful and shocking that an investigation has found the Conservative Evangelical subculture to be characterised by fear.
There are only six ways for senior leaders to react to the Thirtyone eight Report and the IAG statement which goes with it. Three of them are deadly, and two more are unwise. By ‘senior leaders’ I mean the leaders of the larger churches, those who serve on Conservative Evangelical trust and committees, the people
‘A Time to Speak’ Jonathan Fletcher, abuse, and the Report – one Conservative Evangelical’s response
When a scandal comes really close to home, commenting is no longer gossip. There is, as Ecclesiastes says, a Time to Speak. This is it.
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.
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.
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.
What is it about the patterns of being Christians together, that lays us open to spiritual abuse – both as perpetrators and victims?
