CNN reports on the rift between the two megachurch pastors:

Andy Stanley walked into his pastor’s office, filled with dread.

The minister sat in a massive chair behind an enormous desk. He spread his arms across the desk as if he were bracing for battle. His secretary scurried out of the office when she saw Andy coming.

The pastor had baptized Andy when he was 6, and groomed him to be his successor. But a private trauma had gone public. And Andy felt compelled to speak.

The minister stared in silence as Andy gave him the news. The “unspoken dream” both men shared was over.

After Andy finished, the pastor looked at him as tears welled up.

“Andy,” he said, “you have joined my enemies, and I’m your father.”

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From the Mars Hill Church resource website:

Artists are like ants. Ant / artist colonies send out scouts to scope out new territory and report back their findings. If you squash the scouts or have nothing for them to sink their teeth into, they move on. Identify and create opportunities in your church for musicians. If your church has no platform for artists to grow, create, and contribute, then don’t expect them to stick around. Music is not the purpose of the church, but it can be immeasurably effective in communicating the message that is the purpose of the church, as evidenced by both the word of God and church history.

It’s essential to appoint someone who can be leader and liaison to musicians in your community. When selecting a leader over musicians, pick someone who understands the gospel, artistry, and the specific calling of your local church. Musicians should be held to the same standards as other leaders, but know they typically have their own culture—including language, behaviors, motivators, strengths, and weaknesses.

Continue reading.

Rick Muchow on having too many musicians in your ministry:

The question here is really about stewardship.

Why is God giving us all this talent? This is a common predicament for those who find themselves in a position of great wealth. Believe it or not, there are some people who don’t want to steward great wealth. With it comes great responsibility. It takes a lot of work and effort to manage great resources of any kind.

In my position as my church’s Worship Leader, I’ve always thought of myself as the manager of God’s musical resources within this church. I take this responsibility very seriously, realizing that all these people belong to God. He created them for a purpose. There is a fine line between our perceived needs and the church’s needs. My goal is to help people fulfill their place in ministry. I am not familiar with your exact situation or season, but I would encourage you to examine your paradigm here.

Let’s look at Romans 12-1:8 (NIV.) Every believer in the church has a contribution to make in the body of Christ. Romans 12:1 says, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.” This verse is about the life of worship and about using our gifts. Everyone needs to worship with their life. Part of that worship is using our gifts for the glory of God, to fulfill the Great Commission and the Great Commandment.

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Thom Rainer on Megachurch trends:

The fascination with megachurches is, at least to some extent, related to the sociological impact on the community in which it resides. Outreach magazine, in partnership with LifeWay Research, just released its annual “Largest and Fastest Growing Churches in America” issue. In addition, the magazine includes a fascinating section devoted to megachurches. I have used some of the information throughout this issue in this blog.

Some of the major trends in megachurches I note were mentioned in the past. But others are new. All are fascinating to study and ponder.

Trend #1: Further consolidation of people attending church in megachurches and other large churches.

There continues to be a shift of members and attendees from smaller churches to larger churches, particularly megachurches. While megachurches account for less than one-half of one percent of all churches in American, more than ten percent of church attendance is concentrated in these churches. We see no signs of this consolidation abating. For example, more than 50 percent of church attendees attend the largest 10 percent of churches. Continue reading.

Ron Edmondson on church burnout:

This is a hard word for some pastors, but after a recent post I was asked about how I protect my Sabbath. That’s a great question, because many pastors struggle in this area. In fact, many pastors I know who would teach their church to observe the Sabbath, seldom do so personally. This fact alone is one of the leading causes of pastoral burnout, in my opinion.

Protecting my Sabbath has proven to be crucial in protecting my ministry.

I observe my Sabbath day on Saturday most weeks. It’s my day with Cheryl. It’s not a day where I do nothing. That’s not how I rest. It’s a day where I do what I want to do. On my Sabbath, I don’t work. I play. I rest. I recharge. I clear my head and prepare for the week ahead.

Here are 7 ways I protect my Sabbath:

Recognize the value – I have to realize there is a reason to observe a Sabbath. It’s almost like God knew what He was doing. If I value it enough, I’ll make it a priority. The value of a Sabbath is not only for myself, but it aligns me with God’s design for mankind. “On the 7th day He rested”. Have you read that somewhere? We were created with a need for the Sabbath. That makes it valuable.

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Building and maintaining good, useable websites are a struggle for churches of all sizes. Large and small alike have websites that don’t accurately represent who they are and don’t help people better connect with their church. There are many reasons why websites don’t reach their potential, but here are three things I think churches commonly underestimate about the web.

1) Pictures Have Power

There is little doubt in my mind that visually-driven websites are becoming more important. As the quest continues to build simpler, easier to use websites, the need for visuals becomes more important.

The easiest thing you can do right now is to add more pictures showing the real people in your church in action. From a visitor’s perspective, this is how you show them who you are. All of us are more aware of stock photography. We see it every day in so many places. So if a visitor comes to your site and sees a bunch of clearly fake people, they’ll wonder what you’re hiding. Or they’ll question your authenticity if you care more about showing perfectly posed people than your real members.

Continue reading.

Scott McClellan on worship planning:

Churches everywhere should be thinking carefully and critically about how their local bodies worship week in and week out because, according to the triple-lex, our worship practices and patterns have lasting affects on individuals, families, and communities.

But maybe, instead of thinking first about what kind of worship services we ought to create, we should put that on the back-burner for a bit. Maybe one implication of the triple-lex is that we should start with what kind of lives we want to lead people to live. Maybe we should start at the end of the triple-lex and reverse-engineer our worship services. Here’s what I mean. Continue reading.