Minister's Toolbox

You have more material than most professional authors. You spend multiple hours per week writing sermons to bless your congregations. Each sermon is potentially a chapter for one or more books. You can write, design and publish a book in a matter of days with the simple tools of today’s technology. During today's podcast I share the simple steps you can take to publish it at little or no cost. Thousands of new authors give up after receiving a boatload of rejection letters. With Amazon, those days are gone. You can write your book in Microsoft Word and download it to Amazon. In moments, you will have a formatted book ready to publish. In addition to a paperback and Kindle, you can also create an audiobook for free as well.  Since we are talking today about writing books, I would be remiss to not mention my first book entitled, When A Good Church Goes Bad. It contains both my testimony and help for anyone who has been hurt by their church experience. It is a great book for people in your church who have t

Change is at the heart of what we do as church leaders, but you remember I said this is a bit ironic. The irony is, that by and large, church leaders are typically people who don’t change at all! What if you were an alien from another planet who visited your church. What would you see and experience? Would the report you give to your superiors reflect New Testament Christianity? Principles must remain unchanged, but methods ARE changeable to intersect with the culture we want to reach. We can easily get stuck on doing things because they have always been done that way. During the podcast, I look at some things to examine in your ministry that may need an update. Getting stuck in traditions you prefer rather than traditions scripture teaches is the fastest way to get old as a minister and old as a church.  Winston Churchill said, “To improve is to change. To be perfect is to change often.” On today's show, I spoke about my book, When A Good Church Goes Bad. You can learn more about it here. If you prefer

I am always amazed, particularly at national restaurant chains and how they operate. Millions are spent to get a franchise, build a building and open for business. Before you walk in the door, literally millions have been invested by seemingly astute businessmen. What amazes me in many of these establishments is first: the employees. In many fast food places, you can see dirty floors. You can see into the kitchen and notice sweating workers with shirts unbuttoned handling food.  All that money and you will never return because someone did not think it was important to clean the floor or train the staff to present themselves properly. During the podcast, I contrast restaurants with local churches.  What happens when your guest uses the bathroom and finds a dirty floor and the most inexpensive toilet paper? We spend sometimes hours crafting the best sermon, but if your guests or members either cannot hear you or the sound is distorted, what happens next? I also share how you can order my new book When A Good Ch

If I asked pastors what their most important ministry is, many would say family. A great answer, but wrong. Your most important ministry is to the Lord.  Now before you roll your eyes and think, “O brother, that is obvious,” listen to the podcast and allow me to explain myself. This is crucial to your present and future ministry.  David ministered to the Lord. That single dynamic caused scripture to identify him as a man after God’s own heart. Time and time again, we see him in battle, pulling away from the army and inquiring of God. During the podcast, I mentioned that you could order my new book, When A Good Church Goes Bad on Kindle. Click here to order.

Have you noticed that reports of the miraculous are much more plentiful in third world countries than in the U.S. or Europe?  For our part, we pretty much dismiss most of it as ignorance, superstition and unimportant. A philosophy governs society and permeates our educational system. It affects how we view ourselves and the world. To a large extent this philosophy deeply hinders gospel efforts by both churches and leaders. The worse thing is, the vast majority of us are not even aware of this. It occurred several hundred years ago and now thoroughly dominates the lives of millions of people. The Enlightenment proposed that science and logic give people more knowledge and understanding scripture. I discuss how this philosophy has hindered the effectiveness of our members during the podcast. I mentioned that you can listen to the first chapter of my book, When A Good Church Goes Bad, but now that it is published, you can read the first three chapters here.

Numerical growth is one gauge people use to determine the effectiveness of any ministry. It is a legitimate gauge, providing we are talking about actually reaching lost people. Throughout the United States and other parts of the world, growth tends to be cosmetic. Only about 5% is due to new converts. Without realizing it pastors can unwittingly become the ringmasters of a circus. Our time is spent trying to keep the crowd happy by the next trapeze or clown act, not realizing that much of the effort is fruitless. Pastors burn out and waste a lot of church resources trying to keep the excitement level up, but is that what Jesus honestly asked us to do with our ministries? Last time I checked, there was something there about making disciples, but I could be wrong. There are dangers in striving to make our church the biggest, the best and the greatest. During the podcast, I share about how to keep things real. We mentioned MileIQ on the show today. Here is the link if you would like to try the free app.  You can

Most pastors do a lot of things in ministry. By the end of the week or year, we look back and wonder if all the preaching, counseling, budgeting, seminars and meetings were actually productive. Ephesians 4:11-16 states that there are five specific leadership callings in the church: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. We talk about what this means in present-day terms during the podcast. At the end of the day, the number one question we all must answer when we stand before Christ and give an account of our labors is: did we train the people God gave us to do the work of ministry? If you want to see Christianity in action, sneak into a restaurant sometime and observe how Christians act. In general, Christians often are the most disagreeable and demanding patrons! Something is broken in how we train people for ministry. I wrote a study guide designed for individuals or small groups. The guide will help people in your congregation discover and then function in their gifts under your supervisi

How much of what we do or practice as a church is sending the opposite message of what we are trying to convey? Is our church saying, "All Are Welcome" outwardly, but in reality, saying, all are welcome if you become like us as soon as possible? About 80% of people come to your church through personal invitation. Included in that statistic is checking you out on the web before they come.   During the podcast we attempt to look at your church through the eyes of guests. Other than telling people to come again, have you thought through why people should? Is your church actively thinking about how to attract your guests to return again and again and again? “You never have to advertise a fire. Everyone comes running when there's a fire. Likewise, if your church is on fire, you will not have to advertise it. The community will already know it.” During the podcast, I offered two chapters of my (now published) book, When A Good Church Goes Bad. You can read THREE chapters for free here.

Christians tend to move around.  They come to your church from another church across town because they are searching for something they haven’t found elsewhere. When people come from other churches, we can be faced with several ethical dilemmas. For example, what about people who come to us as victims of spiritual abuse? What if it is a pastor we know? During the podcast, we delve into solving these ethical questions and offer real solutions. I can attest from personal experience that coming away from a spiritually abusive environment is not easy. Here is the reason: To become genuinely free of spiritual abuse, you must address what attracted you to it in the first place. I republished a book about this experience I had more than 30 years ago and it is now available on Kindle, as a paperback and also on Audiobooks. It is entitled Spiritual Abuse: How To Break Free From Toxic Churches Without Losing Your Faith. The book shares my journey as both a congregant and a leader over 15 years of my Christian life. If

Someone says, “How are you doing?” Our #1 answer is: “Busy.” Busy is a great word because it means absolutely nothing. People who are not in ministry honestly don’t understand fully what it means to work for God. You decide on what activities will be productive towards reaching the goals heaven has set for your life, family, and ministry. I have always worked in non-denominational settings, so for the most part; I am master of my own time. That can be great or disastrous if a person is not disciplined. Perhaps it is time to pull that blue tooth out of your ear and get your life back. You are not a machine after all. God did not create you to be June bug, bouncing off the wall of one crisis after another. During the podcast, I share the three tips to help you become more productive together with a free download. Chinese proverb: “He that chases two rabbits catches neither."   I also mentioned a free To-Do list download that you can access here. 

How does a hate-filled young man, mixed up in Kung-fu Karate and eastern mysticism find a path to Christ? Today, I share my journey that eventually led to full time church ministry. During the podcast, I mention a free offer. You can get a free audio of the first 3 chapter of my (now published) book, When A Good Church Goes Bad. Listen here or get the entire book free at audible.com

In this second part of a two-part series, we address heresy INSIDE your church. How do you address people who intend to siphon people away from your church to build their own? We offer a free download today, How To Address Heresy In Your Church. I also mentioned MileIQ which is a great free tool to help you track the miles your drive to take advantage of legitimate tax breaks from the IRS. More information about MileIQ here.

Heresy inside and outside our churches is a serious responsibility all leaders must face at one time or another. How do we address it biblically? I spoke of a national ministry that serves as an example of heretical teaching. I also mention a website you can use to verify whether rumors are true before you pass them along on social media. It is called, Snopes.com. I also invited you to submit a question for future podcasts on a new feature on our website at www.ministerstoolbox.com.

Can church leaders "fake it till they make it?" For a while, but our ministries can never truly have impact unless they are authentic. We are called to deliver fresh bread to our audiences, not stale sermons. How do we do that week in and week out? I will be doing a survey to our email list. Please sign up to get a free eBook on how to be more effective with social media.

Church leaders often do their work unnoticed and under-appreciated.  How do you respond to people who fail to acknowledge the hard work you do month after month or year after year? Some insights on today's podcast. I also talked about a new affiliate tool that can be helpful this coming year for your taxes. It is called MileIQ. Click on this link for more information.

What did Jesus mean when he said, Judge not, or you will be judged? Does that mean we cannot judge under any circumstances? How can we do our jobs as leaders if we are not allowed to judge? Does this even make sense? Today we mentioned the best seller, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. We also mentioned Audible books where you can get a 30-day free trial.

The majority of people in western countries believe in Jesus, but see no connection between belief and participation in a local church. Why? Has the gospel lost its relevance or are our church services at fault? During today's show, I recommended a book by Watchman Nee entitled, The Latent Power Of The Soul. Click here to read a chapter on Amazon.

We do a great deal of praying in public, but does it really impact anyone?  Is there a way to make a difference when we pray and ditch formal prayers that are quickly forgotten? We offer a free download on today's show that give you the salient points from both this episode and last week. You can get it here.

Ministers are often called on to pray at public gatherings. Do these prayers ever impact anyone? How should ministers pray in public? A book I recommend for personal prayer devotions is The Complete Works of E.M. Bounds. Very practical and inspirational.     

As church leaders, we are called to know, understand and be led by God's voice, but what does He sound like? How can you tell if you are hearing Him or just your imagination? Today, we chat about 3 sure ways to hear God speak. I also mention a free download which sums up each point that you can get here.