Leadership Reflections

Here is something I’m thinking about but haven’t researched yet or formed any strong opinions on.  I”m keen to know what you might suggest. There are a few key options for how a senior staff person structures his or her linkage to staff (and there could well be many more): A CEO-COO model where the senior [...]

Do Christian ministries lose their Christian identities?  Yes.  Could it happen to your ministry?  Yes.  Can you prevent it?  Yes. How do you prevent it?  Well, you have to tell stories.  But let’s lay the groundwork for storytelling first. Christian Horizons is fighting to retain its Christian identity by appealing a ruling of the Ontario Human [...]

“God wanted us to come here to help children, we are convinced of that,” Laura Silsby, one of 10 Americans accused of trafficking Haitian children, said Monday through the bars of a jail cell.  “Our hearts were in the right place.” We’ve all read about the short term mission team that went to Haiti in late January [...]

Your faith is seen by what you do (James 2:18), so what are you preaching through your ministry’s deeds?  In How Christian is my ministry?, I dealt with the same issue in terms of the employment relationship, but now I want to approach it from a different angle:  What do your programs and practices say about your theology?  How can you ensure [...]

I’ve just delivered a seminar called Ministry Employment Practices across Canada, and many people shared stories from their workplaces.  The ones that stood out involved a few pastors who were fired with no notice and no pay in lieu of notice.  I don’t want to identify the people, so I’ll just say that the worst case by far had these words associated [...]