This past week our staff went to the beach (Avalon) for our annual planning retreat. We made great progress in defining some of what next year (September 2010-May 2011) is going to look like: message series, children’s and student programs, major events, etc. We also discussed new structures for our work together. Until recently we […]
Category: Team Building
Here’s the rest of my list: Mistake #6: Trying to Fix Problems…rather than Process. Unfortunately, there have been too many times when I have found myself reacting to a problem rather than addressing the process that led to the situation in the first place. It takes a lot of discipline to rise above the […]
Yesterday morning we meet with our Strategic Planning Leadership Team. Each of these team members in turn lead a team of people looking at campus and buildings, finances, human resources, technology and a category we’ve been calling “teaching church.” As I learned in the course of the meeting, these teams are doing a […]
Beyond the buildings and programs and personalities that make up a Church community there is also going to be a culture, just like any organization or community. The dictionary defines culture as the totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns characteristic of any community. It’s a style of social expression and activity that is deeply determining […]
This past Sunday we published four of the seven “great practices” we had found in successful Churches. Below are the final three practices. Take a look. Practice Five: Not only are you only as good as your web site, you are your website. The Internet is the most important place and way your Church will […]
As we gathered together with Parish staff and leadership last week we spent some time looking at things we’ve learned from others, especially the very best practices of some of the most successful Churches in America. As an exercise, and for purposes of our current discussion, we identified 7…obviously there are many more, but 7 […]
From Michael This week we took our annual staff retreat. I was surprised by how much work it turned out to be. We went to Avalon, New Jersey which is a beautiful place, but it was cold and rainy (actually a good thing, because no one was tempted away from our agenda). The group is […]
From Michael We had a really great weekend to close out the current message series as well as the season of Lent. Last week we topped 4100 in attendance but this weekend it was over 4200. Incredible. This was also our annual “First Serve” weekend where we challenged every member to become a minister. At […]
From Michael I am currently reading a book called “The Emotionally Healthy Church.” In the many ways that I have studied and even talked about Church, I had never seen this designation before. Big/small, old/new, vibrant/boring, traditional/contemporary, rich/ poor, well maintained/falling apart, Catholic/Protestant…are all designations that are usually made of Churches; but how about emotionally […]
