As director of ministry placement, I've made my share of mistakes. Here are some of the biggest I've made. I share them so you don't have to repeat them!
1. Don't pray about it.
If God gives the vision for a ministry, He always prepares the players to make it happen. Successful ministries grow in God's own timing.
2. Assume everyone you ask to serve will stick it out automatically.
The idea that all workers, paid or volunteer, are, in essence, volunteers is not new. In today's highly competitive job market, employees, especially in technical fields, frequently entertain job offers from headhunters. What makes people stay at a company? Most think erroneously that money is the number one motivator. It's not.
An acquaintance, a chemist in the computer industry, recently complained ...
James Cobble Jr. is executive director of Christian Ministry Resources and publisher of Church Law & Tax Report.
News reports have spotlighted the problem of child sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church, but Protestant churches also have reason to be concerned. Our research indicates that on average, over the past ten years, approximately 3,500 churches per year have responded to allegations of ...
ARTICLE First Contact How do you connect first-time guests to the church body? Erwin McManus, Ken Fong, Cheryl Sanders
Rating:Not yet rated
Erwin McManus Mosaic
Los Angeles,
California
Plug Them in, Quick!
The number one indicator that a first-time guest will be here a year from now is if we get them serving somewhere, so first contact is critical.
A lot of times trying to assimilate guests is like fishing in the rapids—they're rushing in and out. We create shallower pools, places where people slow down so we can talk to them. We have ...
Back on the playground, tag was a fun game—fun until the sound "You're it!" rang in my ear and I felt a rude slap on my shoulder. Being tagged meant feeling a panicky self-consciousness as my friends ran squealing away to the schoolyard boundaries. But the feeling was short-lived, ending as soon as I could catch someone else unawares and pass on the mantle of "It!"
Pastors and key
leaders scratch their heads and wonder, How will I motivate my
congregation? In the coming decade, the motivations of compassion and
community will stir the grassroots to action and generosity.
However, pastors and leaders who continue to approach the congregation with
the motivations of challenge, reasonability, and commitment will be disappointed.
They will simply see an increasing ...
ARTICLE Motivating People The right rewards, relationships, and purpose incite action. Roger Thompson
Rating:Not yet rated
The average, lifelong church member has been "incentive-d" to death. He's watched countless attendance thermometers rise to the top as he invited friends to Sunday school rallies. Pins, Bibles, trips, titles, and strokes have been dangled before him, and he has pulled the sled like the lead husky. But if the pressure is released or the campaign is less slick, will the performance continue?
In a speech to West Point cadets following the Persian Gulf War, Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf put into perspective not only our strength in the military but also our strength in business, church and family. Addressing the young men and women who will play a leading role in our country's military future, Schwarzkopf said: "In the final analysis, you should never forget that the airplanes don't fly, the ...
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