Between Monday and Sunday

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

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...

Today in staff meeting at Gladeville Baptist Church I began the meeting by sharing some insights from Dave Ramsey (he shared these at Catalyst '08 ). He discussed the unbelievable power of unity for a church staff team or any type of staff team. He stated that few churches or organizations experience real unity and shared five enemies to unity on a church staff team ... Poor Communication Dave stated " when the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing, strife sets in " Gossip Ramsey said gossip is when a negative comment is discussed with anyone who can't help solve the problem Unresolved disagreements He said "this happens when a leader doesn't know they exist or avoids confrontation" Lack of shared purpose Dave said "this happens when the leader doesn't restate the goal, the vision, and the mission early and often" Sanctioned incompetence Ramsey defined this as "keeping an inefficient team member because we feel sor...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--New research into several questions that often dominate Southern Baptist debates -- from the rise of Calvinism and prevalence of elders in congregations to speaking in tongues and baptism practices -- offers some hard numbers to inform those discussions. The issues in question, and the results uncovered by the survey, show that Southern Baptists have strong opinions in several areas. LifeWay Research , a division of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention, conducted the study during the spring among a sample of 778 Southern Baptist pastors. CALVINISM LifeWay Research previously reported a rise in the number of self-identified five-point Calvinists among recent seminary graduates. In the new survey, LifeWay Research asked Southern Baptist pastors if they were "concerned" about this increase, asking them to agree or disagree with the statement, "The rise of Calvinism among recent seminary graduates concerns me." Among So...

I just read a news text update on my phone: "Russians withdraw from Georgia, leave as much destruction as possible as they go." How I hurt for the innocent people hurt by this conflict. I thought about how we are tempted to do the same thing when we are backing out of a conflict, leaving a job after quitting or being fired, or leaving a place of ministry. I was reminded of an article I posted by Pastor Calvin Wittman titled, " How to Leave Your Church With Grace ." If you find yourself in the position of having to leave or wanting to leave very badly and finally getting the opportunity here are a few things to consider. Recognize that the church still belongs to God and only He can make it what it should be. Forgive those who have wronged you. Let your parting words reflect the grace of God not a grudge of the flesh. Who you really are is best seen in the midst of difficulty. As you leave, even if you are leaving under fire, make a conscious choice to leave under gr...

Wayne Oakes, minister/church relations consultant for the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, says uncertain times bring anxiety into the church. When everything around them is changing, Christians often cling to an unchanging local church for security. So, when church leadership suggests change, the anxious member feels the last leg of security kicked out from under him. Read this practical article excerpted from BPNews.net by Norman Jameson .

I had the chance to go through the new online webcourse: Simple Church - Next Steps and was blown away by the five practical training videos featuring Eric Geiger (co-author of Simple Church) as well as the PowerPoint training session on Managing Change and Conflict featuring LifeWay Lead Consultant, Barry Campbell . I plan to purchase this online training for our church staff and other key leaders as we continue to pursue the Simple Church model. I encourage you to buy and complete this webcourse as well . You will also want to view a video interview with Dan Garland, Director of Pastoral Ministries and Church Consulting here at LifeWay and Scott Kerr. Scott Kerr is pastor of Valley Creek Baptist Church in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. They discuss the process of a traditional church becoming a Simple Church. Access the Webcourse Simple Church - Next Steps here Download a Sample of the book Simple Church here

The final article in our series on Pastor Terminations launched this morning. "Pastor, this is our church and not yours and it is about time you realized this." If you've heard this statement, you know the potential conflict it represents. "Who runs the church?" and the power and control issues coming from that question is the number one reason for pastor termination. You can help to avoid this by understanding the following five truths about power and control issues and by heeding the following five suggestions to neutralize these issues. Read The Number One Issue for Pastor Termination: Control Issues Over "Who Runs the Church?"

I've just posted a new article by Bob Sheffield . In this article he says that when your church is resistant to change there are congregational, personal, cultural, as well as fear / faith issues that need to be examined and considered. In the article he offers a list of things to consider for each. He then offers five ways to deal with a church resistant to change: Properly assess the church’s attitude toward change. Honestly evaluate your own motivation in suggesting change. Practice good change agent principles . Educate yourself in the skills of a good change agent by attending conferences and reading appropriate resources . Remember that your role in the change God wants to bring in the church you pastor may be that of starting a change process that someone else completes . Read How to Respond When Your Church is Resistant to Change This is the fourth in a series of five articles dealing with the top five causes of forced terminations as identified in the 2006 Forced Term...

I've just posted the latest in a series of five articles on Pastor Terminations. This article deals with the sensitive issue of a pastor's people skills. Bob Sheffield defines people skills as “the ability of a pastor to minister effectively to and through people.” Sheffield shares four reasons he believes pastors struggle in relating to their church family and follows them with six practical tips for better people skills. I've added links in the article to other resources that I believe will be helpful. Read the Top 5 Reasons for Pastoral Terminations, Part 3, Poor People Skills And, if you missed the first two in this series .... Pastoral Terminations, Part 1, The Church was Already in Conflict When the Pastor Arrived Pastoral Terminations, Part 2, The Pastor's Leadership Style was Too Strong

I've just posted the second article in our series on Pastor Terminations. We are counting down the top five reasons they happen. Bob Sheffield says church leaders and members may think that the pastor has a leadership style that seeks to have everything his way. In some instances, this is more reality than perception. Bob says that we pastors walk a fine line between exercising too little and too much leadership authority. In this case, the number four reason for pastor termination is that " The Pastor's Leadership Style Is Too Strong ." Read five reasons your leadership style may be perceived this way and five ways to guard against it .

I've just posted a new article on LifeWay.com . This is the first in a five-article series where retired pastoral ministry specialist Bob Sheffield will share the top five causes of forced terminations (from the 2006 Forced Termination survey conducted by the Church Minister Relation's Directors network in cooperation with LifeWay Christian Resources) and offer several prevention strategies for each. The cause he deals with in this article is cause # 5: The Church Was Already In Conflict When the Pastor Arrived Bob shares three important but often overlooked facts about this type of destructive church conflict. He then answers the question, "What does a pastor or staff member do to help prevent this type of forced termination from happening?" Read the article: Avoid the Top 5 Reasons for Pastoral Terminations