Bud Brown

Church vision statements: how the interim pastor sells ’em

Church vision statements are like diet and exercise. Everybody knows its good for you but relatively few muster up the discipline to stick with it for long. How many well-crafted vision statements end up gathering dust in a neglected file jacket? How many failed because they weren’t properly communicated and executed? It turns out that

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Pastors nurture organisms and lead organizations

“Pastor, you’re building your own kingdom. Shame on you!” “This church has lost its soul. It’s become just another corporate provider of religious goods and services.” “I long for the days gone by when everyone pulled together. We were all on the same page and life was grand.” Certainly you’ve heard these laments if you’ve

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Interim pastors must prepare for the Missional church

[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/55323627[/vimeo] If you are an intentional interim pastor it’s time to prepare yourself to minister in the Missional Church model. It’s just a matter of time before you’re approached for guidance and consultation. Are you ready for this? This 30 minute video presentation is prepared with you in mind. In it you’ll discover a concise comparison

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Can megachurches be church visitor friendly?

A colleague of mine once visited a mega-church in southern California while on vacation. The 6,000 seat auditorium was filled to capacity that Sunday morning. He was quite surprised when, during the ritual exchange of the secret Churchman’s handshake, an elderly lady made her way down the aisle from several rows back to greet him

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Hope for the wounded pastor

Pastors who have been scarred, wounded and bruised – often the result of a forced exit – may wonder if they’ll ever again be used in the Lord’s service. If that describes you, take cheer. PIR Ministries stands ready to receive you for recovery and restoration. It is a long, slow process, but there is

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Book Review: Revitalizing Congregations

Interim pastors, permanent pastors for that matter, will enjoy reading William Avery’s Revitalizing Congregations: Refocusing and Healing Through Pastoral Transitions (affiliate link) for its clear, simple style, for its useful information and for the mirror it holds up for us to look at our ministries. In the preface the author identifies his target audience: The

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What does John Maxwell know about growth?

There’s an interesting thread developing at Charles Specht’s website. He poses the question, “What is Personal Development (According to John Maxwell)?” In the comments section I posed a lengthy comment that approaches his question at an oblique angle. I think you’ll find that this is going to be a provocative and stimulating thread. I hope

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1 great new coaching resource for pastors

Check out MinistryCoach.tv. If the content is half as slick as the design this should be a real winner. We’re all in for coaching at Transition Ministries Group. Time and again we’ve had seasoned, experienced pastors finish their first interim with us and, in one of the final coaching sessions, tell us, “Why didn’t somebody

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Church visitors’ gifts that surprise and delight

Church hospitality is a vital ministry. This is especially true for congregations with a very low church visitor retention rate. To offer anything less than superb church hospitality is sad. To neglect turning visitors into members puts the church in a death spiral. One element of a rich experience that leaves church visitors going, “Wow.

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