Between Monday and Sunday

You may view my message from Sunday, December 27, 2009. The main scripture passage was Matthew 6:10: "Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

I get a periodic e-newsletter from Provident (they promote Fireproof and the other Sherwood movies). They have posted links to five free Christmas songs! For some of these you go to a website and have to give your e-mail address and other you have sign in to Amazon. Tenth Avenue North: Go Tell It On The Mountain Jars of Clay: God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen Matt Maher: Silent Night Annie Moses Band: O Come O Come Emmanuel Brandon Heath: The Night Before Christmas Thanks Provident!

We published a series on How to Avoid the Top 5 Reasons for Pastoral Terminations. This series by Conflict Management specialist Bob Sheffield springs from the 2006 Forced Termination survey conducted by the Church Minister Relation's Directors network in cooperation with LifeWay Christian Resources Part 5, Who Runs the Church? Part 4, The Church is Resistant to Change Part 3, Poor People Skills Part 2, Leadership Style Part 1, Church Already in Conflict

I've just published a new article in the Pastor's Area of LifeWay.com by Keith Hamilton. He offers 9 Ways to Lessen the Chances of an IRS Church Audit . This is from the introduction to the article ... One of the greatest fears of a church treasurer is that of an audit by the Internal Revenue Service. Understandably, an IRS audit would scare every church treasurer. At least one sales organization plays on this fear in their advertisements by depicting a church financial leader going to jail over these issues. In spite of this misconception, the exact opposite is true. A church treasurer rarely faces jail time or harsh penalties over an IRS audit. However, an IRS audit can be challenging and stressful. Keith offers several things a church can do reduce its chances of an IRS audit .

Do you ever get sick of your phone ringing? What about Facebook fatigue? Does Twitter sometimes give you stress headaches, making you occasionally wish you could just yank the plug on your online life? There's a good article on CNN.com here that offers a summary of some of the findings of new research from The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project. You can also take a quiz to learn what type of internet user you are. I found out that I am a "Digital Collaborator." This is what they say that means: If you are a Digital Collaborator, you use information technology to work with and share your creations with others. You are enthusiastic about how ICTs help you connect with others and confident in your ability to manage digital devices and information. For you, the digital commons can be a camp, a lab, or a theater group – places to gather with others to develop something new.

For those of you who follow this blog, I wanted to make sure you didn't miss my lead in the Pastors Today e-newsletter. This new article by Keith Hamilton is designed to help you as a pastor or church leader minister to your church family. I've posted Keith's 10 Tips for What to Do When You Get Laid Off Keith adds this in the copy so you may provide these as a ministry from your church ... As part of our church’s ministry, we want to help you through the coming days by offering some practical financial helps for you to follow. These are just some tips that have made a difference in other lives facing the same thing you are facing. Be sure to grab the free PDF download that is formatted to fit on one page!

Pastor Craig Groeschel posted an excellent question for pastors and church staff on swerve.lifechurch.tv today you can read his post here ... Should I Stay Or Should I Go? I wanted to respond to his post by sharing two articles in the pastors area of LifeWay.com on this subject. These have been some of the most popular articles on lifeway.com in the past couple of years. The first article is 10 Factors to Consider Before Leaving Your Church by Conflict Management specialist Norris Smith . In this article, Norris says you should consider the following factors: Calling Circumstances Competencies Depletion Conflict Conduct Tenure Doctrine Environment Livelihood View the full article here 10 Factors to Consider Before Leaving Your Church The second article is How to Know When It's Time to Go by Calvin Wittman (Sr. Pastor of Applewood Baptist in Colorado). In this article, Calvin says we should look for "a compelling sense of call, an overwhelming certainty that God is call...

I preached this sermon on Sunday, January 11, 2009. The background passage is Colossians 3:5-17. Thanks to Jodi Brown and Juliet Winchester for their work on the "What Not to Wear" skit. What Not to Wear from Craig Webb on Vimeo . We are trying the Vimeo Plus service to load our sermon videos. View other Gladeville Baptist Church sermons at http://vimeo.com/gladechurch

Howard Dayton, Crown Financial, offers excellent overview of important biblical principles of financial management . He says, "If you're a Christian and you haven't been following God's biblical financial principles, isn't it time that you did ? After all, "Who you gonna believe," bankrupted businesses and folded financial institutions -- or God?" In this article he deals with ... CHRISTIAN COMMITMENT CHRISTIAN CONTENTMENT CHRISTIAN CONCERN Read the article by Howard Dayton here ...

For those of you who are familiar with Essential Church? Reclaiming a Generation of Dropouts by Thom and Sam Rainer, I wanted you to know about the new manual, Tools for an Essential Church . It is co-authored by Dan Garland, Thom Rainer, and Sam Rainer. Tools for an Essential Church takes leadership through a detailed step-by-step process to implement a strategy for becoming an "Essential Church." An "Essential Church" is defined as a place members see as an essential part of their lives. The manual is designed to help church leaders and staff develop strategies and processes to lead their churches to be more effective in carrying out their God-given mission. Content provides research and the basic premise of the Rainers’ book Essential Church? Reclaiming a Generation of Dropouts and takes leaders through all four phases of the Essential Church model: Simplify, Deepen, Expect, and Multiply . Simplify by implementing the principles of Simple Church Deepen thro...

I've been playing with a website called Issuu.com which allows anyone to publish PDF files so persons may view them online. And it's free. You may have to disable your popup blocker. Check it out ... Get your own - Open publication You may also see how I embedded it online on our church website ...

While almost two-thirds of Southern Baptist pastors have preached on stewardship in the past year, a new study shows that few of those pastors believe members of their congregation have a significant amount of debt – revealing a serious disconnect with the realities of American family life. The survey of 3,500 Southern Baptist senior pastors was conducted by LifeWay Research on behalf of the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention between November 2007 and February 2008. The study revealed that 65 percent of pastors had preached on financial stewardship during the previous year but only 25 percent said their church members have "a significant amount of personal debt." That stands in stark contrast to national statistics about the debt load American families are carrying, said Scott McConnell, associate director of LifeWay Research. Highlights from the findings: Pastors disconnected from reality of congregational debt load Church members often look to pastors...