This is the time of year for new leadership transitions. In the Catholic world, May to July is usually the season for ordinations and new church assignments. Some are becoming pastors for the first time- others are just moving on. You might be taking over the reins from a great leader, or someone who didn’t […]
Category: Team Building
Our latest message series at Nativity for the Easter season, called “Groundbreaking,” has got me thinking a lot about what the Early Church did and looked like. This message, by the way, is all about how Jesus’ resurrection changed the face of history, and how deeply that resonated with the Apostles and the first Christ […]
This week Nativity’s Strategic Leadership Team (there are 6 of us) took a day for an off-site retreat to reflect on and assess how things are and where they are going. Our retreat was not prompted by any major issue or particular problem, but by the consistent, ongoing evaluation that characterizes any healthy, growing organization. […]
There’s one difference between God and the Church: God doesn’t need to change. But, the most effective and successful churches are constantly changing. The message and the mission never change- that’s a God thing- but the methods and techniques we use to communicate that mission/message are in constant need of re-shaping to reach the ever-changing […]
The Church is a living thing. It’s a body, not a building. When we talk about a healthy church, it’s important we make that distinction because often our plan for growing healthy churches is aimed more at the latter than the former. And they are very different in practice. Think of some healthy churches and […]
The tug of day-to-day church culture will always be away from Evangelization and Discipleship and toward simple maintenance. Why? Because it’s easier and church people will always try and drive the culture that direction. In maintenance mode parishioners don’t do any of the work and get all the attention, so why wouldn’t they lean that […]
One of the most effective things you can possibly do to grow a healthy parish that is easy to get started, not particularly demanding when it comes to maintenance, and, best of all, free: Greeters. Really? Yeah, really. There are lots of reasons people give us for how they found their way to our church, […]
The Bible is full of the stories of some of the greatest saints and sinners in history. But based on this assessment, we often assume that these characters are either too good or too bad to teach us any really concrete life lessons. This summer, our parish has been surveying “imperfect” characters from the Bible […]
This is typically the time of year when churches experience staff transitions and changes. Here at Nativity we’re not expecting very many changes at all this year, but still I was thinking about it in view of some of our past experiences. Hiring new staff members is one of the most important things I will […]
With school out and Memorial Day already behind us we are well into the summer season. I count about 12 weeks until we begin our fall season with “Kick-Off” weekend. Meanwhile I want to make the most of the time, so that I am in a strong position to meet our busiest season. Here’s my […]
