Category Archives: Advice & Ideas for Pastors, Staff and Leaders

Looking for a new church ~ Part III

This is article 3 of 3 about our “church shopping” experience here in Sarasota Florida. You can read those at two previous posts. My point of view includes the fact that I’m a minister who used to pastor churches and … Continue reading

Posted in Advice & Ideas for Pastors, Staff and Leaders, Neil on the Loose | 2 Comments

Looking for a New Church ~ Part II

This is the second post on this topic. Read the first here. We’ve now visited six local congregations in our new town looking for a new church home, several of them two or three times. Over the past 12 twelve years … Continue reading

Posted in Advice & Ideas for Pastors, Staff and Leaders, Neil on the Loose | 1 Comment

Looking for a New Church ~Part I

This is the first of three posts I’ve made about our adventure in church shopping. You can see the other posts in my “Neil on the Loose” category of posts. I posted this first post after visiting 3 churches. We’re … Continue reading

Posted in Advice & Ideas for Pastors, Staff and Leaders, Neil on the Loose | 1 Comment

What the Pastor Shouldn’t Say

“Missed you last Sunday“ Seems harmless. But to many of us coming in the door, it comes across as passive aggressive, -judgmental. “Missed you last Sunday” sounds a lot like, “You should have been here.” Worse, it sounds too much … Continue reading

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Problems with Pastoral Prayers

While working on an article about Teaching About Prayer with software for my sundaysoftware.com website, –and complaining about teachers and pastors who use prayer to summarize their lesson/sermon, …I had a bunch of thoughts and experiences flood back into memory about “The Pastoral … Continue reading

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The Christian Athiest (and online church)

Just got done reading “The Christian Athiest: Believing in God like it doesn’t matter.” (Craig Groeschel, Zondervan, 2010) It’s worth the price and full of sermonable content. Other than the snappy title, what caught my attention was that it came from the … Continue reading

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Performing Church Cleanup

Lately I’ve been enjoying the similarities between “things I need to do on my computer” and “things I need to do to my church.”  In fact, I sometimes believe my computer is a PARABLE ABOUT THE CHURCH.  Shoot, this is … Continue reading

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Scanning the Congregation for Malware & Trojans

Two days after Xmas a “trojan” program installed a piece of “malware” on my heavily guarded computer called “HDD Low”.  It’s schtick was to try and convince me I had all sorts of harddrive problems and needed to use my … Continue reading

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Still think Facebook is low-brow?

Pastor Friend: “Why on earth should our church be on Facebook?” Neil:  “Because that’s where an increasing number of your members are –everyday.” Pastor Friend: “Our kids maybe, but our adults? It just seems so vapid, a colossal waste of … Continue reading

Posted in Advice & Ideas for Pastors, Staff and Leaders, Building a Better Church Website | 2 Comments

Ministering in a Recession

As I walked out of a favorite restaurant the other night, the owner said to me, “You know I really appreciate every time you come here. Customers like you make the difference between us staying open and having to close the … Continue reading

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Making it Big in Windows -the Old Geezer Report

Tips for Old Eyes, and Remembering Names Yes, I’m getting older, but “THEY” are also making things harder to see and find! I have a beautiful 17″ laptop with a high resolution screen, –but darnit if I can’t regularly find my MOUSE … Continue reading

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Confessions of (an Old) Youth Minister

This article posted at http://sundayresources.net/neil/2010/02/18/confessions-of-a-youth-minister/ I’ve been leading youth groups in one way or another for over 30 years. Started when I was 17 helping out with the Jr. High group in my church. For many years, I thought I … Continue reading

Posted in Advice & Ideas for Pastors, Staff and Leaders, Christian Education ~ Ideas and Advice | Tagged , | 1 Comment