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- Advice & Ideas for Pastors, Staff and Leaders
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- Christian Education ~ Ideas and Advice
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- How to Be a Successful Teacher
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List of 25 Last Posts
- Creating Free Online Sign-up Forms and Questionnaires
- How and When to Direct Mail Your Neighborhood
- Google Reviews Your Church? (Yes they do!)
- Looking for a new church ~ Part III
- Looking for a New Church ~ Part II
- Looking for a New Church ~Part I
- Making a Church Website using Google’s Blogspot
- On the Loose in Sarasota
- Ten Characteristics of a Healthy Youth Ministry
- Tashlikh -A New Year’s Ritual
- Rethinking Youth Ministry
- O that crazy perfect Teen Brain
- What the Pastor Shouldn’t Say
- Installing a “Fav” icon in your church website
- Problems with Pastoral Prayers
- How to open many websites with one click
- The Rising Cost of Driving to Church
- Memories, the Science of Commitment, and Rebalancing Teaching vs Worship
- The Problem with Teenage Sunday School Class
- The Christian Athiest (and online church)
- Performing Church Cleanup
- “Priming” -the science behind Sunday School
- Good Stories Really Do Get Inside Your Head
- Scanning the Congregation for Malware & Trojans
- More Ways to Cut the Church’s Utility Budget
Category Archives: Advice & Ideas for Pastors, Staff and Leaders
Reinforcing People’s Memories in Preaching
Background: For many years now, I’ve been an avid follower of the ongoing research into how the brain works, and how our memory works. As a teacher, minister and software developer, I’m interested in how our students and listeners can best … Continue reading
The Pastor’s Personality
Do Pastors and their Congregations start to look like each other? I think so. And obviously, this can become unfortunate! Most pastors that I know WANT to be leaders, but do NOT want to lay claim to just how much … Continue reading
7 Tips to Better Children’s Sermons
Note: This article has been updated at www.sundaysoftware.com/articles/chsermon.htm ——————————————– You can buy books with children’s sermons in them. Most are ho-hum or antiquated. Most also don’t discuss “how” to deliver the children’s sermon. And that may be the most important thing … Continue reading
Your Pastor the “Twitter”
There’s a relatively NEW form of communication spreading rapidly over the internet and cell phones. It’s called TWITTER (www.twitter.com) and every pastor who believes in staying in touch with parishioners should CONSIDER using it. Is it hype? Nope, it’s a tool … Continue reading
“Hack” Who Leads Your Church -and how they lead
One of the problems facing the church is the quality of leadership available to lead them. The skill sets needed to move the church forward are often not the skill sets we look for when selecting leaders. We need to … Continue reading
“The View from the Pew” …what I think every pastor needs to know
It has been an eye-opening experience sitting in the pew these past 14 years being a seminary-trained preacher and pastor. …..and I wish I knew then what I know now. Which is to say, the congregation and worship you experience as “the … Continue reading
Staff meetings, management, development, and inspiration
This post discusses “Team Huddles” and what I’ve learned from the 6 church staffs I’ve worked with. It concludes with some good books to read. I enthusiastically recommend that church leaders make it a habit to read books and magazines from the business world… … Continue reading
Advice from the Business World
This post shares a few insights I’ve collected from various business sources, and encourages church leaders to learn from the vast amount of leadership and organizational literature that’s out there. I’ve always been something of a eclectic reader. And especially in … Continue reading
Lead Better Meetings
Meetings are boon and bane in the church. How you lead a meeting, and how you train your chairpeople to lead meetings, can make the difference between success and failure. Better meetings are more productive. Better meetings are a way … Continue reading
Pass the Peace, -and the Hand Sanitizers
I am NOT a Germ-a-phobe or hypochondriac. I just have serious concerns about an age-old practice that creates problems in this day and age: the extent to which we pass BUGS around on Sunday morning. I’m particularly concerned about pastors: they shake EVERYBODY’S … Continue reading
Move Meetings into Homes
Meetings are often dreaded by staff and members alike. But I’ll bet we’d all agree that some of the BEST church meetings are those held in member homes rather than at the church: = The more personal setting encourages bonding and fellowship … Continue reading
Be a Better more Effective Manager
Most church staff members I’ve met are faithful people, creative people, and decent leaders, but they are poor managers. …of time, of people, of talent. Few pastors receive management training in seminary. Nobody shows a pastor how to organize their week, … Continue reading