Presby-Musings

This past week I had the chance to attend the Newspring Leadership Conference at Newspring Church in Anderson, SC . One of the many speakers during the conference was Jud Whilhite, pastor of Central Christian Church in Las Vegas, NV . Jud shared with us some awesome advice on the seasons of ministry that I now commend to anyone who is in church leadership: 1.  Remember Tough Seasons Are Temporary God may just be getting you ready in this season for what is coming in the next, which might sound ominous, but it could also be awesome.  Jud told us that one of the most liberating things that he realized about his life in ministry is that he didn't have to survive it.   Dr. Andrew Purves has written about this extensively in The Crucifixion of Ministry , which I commend to you as well. 2.  Manage The Crazy Intentionally Sometimes the most devastating thing in our ministry is not to manage our "yes's very well.  It's easy to get overwhelmed with ever...

I recently attended the Newspring Leadership Conference and got the chance to listen to some of the greatest preachers in America for nearly twelve hours of worship and learning. I wanted to share some of the things I gleaned from this conference, and I thought I would begin with some straight up wisdom on preaching that Andy Stanley, pastor of Northpoint Church in Atlanta laid on the crowd of nearly four thousand. Northpoint Church was started some seventeen years ago with a particular focus:  to be the kind of church that unchurched people would love to attend.  Northpoint is now either the second or third largest church in the U.S. with multiple campuses and over 30,000 members, and still has that same focus. Andy Stanley has recently written a book entitled, "Deep & Wide: Creating Churches Unchurched People Love to Attend," that chronicles the journey of Northpoint, and offers some guidelines for church leaders who truly want to reach people who aren't act...