A Note from Luminex: Throughout the Advent season, our Monday blogs are centered on the Advent theme of the week (Faith, Hope, Joy, Love, Christ), and about how the theme in some way informs our mission to multiply. Today’s post is on Joy, and comes from Andy Bossardet, Coordinator for Equipping Thriving Congregations (for the Reformed Church in America). “The secret source …
Faith: Wait for It
A Note from Luminex: Starting today and extending through the next four weeks, our Monday blogs will be centered on the Advent theme of the week (Faith, Hope, Joy, Love, Christ), and about how the theme in some way informs our mission to multiply. We begin our series with Dan Ackerman sharing thoughts on faith. Embracing faith is never easy. I …
Developing Next Generation Leaders
A Note from Luminex: The blog post below comes from Rev. Dr. Tom DeVries, who serves as General Secretary of the Reformed Church in America. We are blessed to have Tom share critical insights about developing next generation leaders. Enjoy! Bobb Biehl has done some of the best work around strategic planning for leaders and organizations. His strategic planning arrow is the …
A Wholehearted Courage Story
A Note from Luminex: The blog post below comes from Pastor Jess Shults, and was originally published in August 2013 on natepyle.com. We are grateful that Jess has given us permission to republish her post, and that she has added a few additional reflective thoughts at the end. While this is her story alone, we trust that you will find it …
Show Your Work
Today, we have Rick Veenstra share with us about the importance of “showing your work.” Recently, our team was asked to read a book titled Show Your Work. As a result of reading that book, we became convinced it was important to do the kind of thing we are doing right now. We believe that because we are Christians, we …
My Problem with Airline Travel
I don’t like to wait. It’s one of the reasons I find airline travel to be a challenge. To me, few things are more frustrating than checking in, going through security, arriving at the gate only to sit around and wait for an extended period of time. I’m frustrated because I’m ready to go but I have to wait on …
Reactive Management to Adaptive Leadership
Mike Gafa presents some steps to move a consistory from managing to leading in today’s Whiteboard Wednesday. Everyday brings a new crisis for church leaders. In turn, too many consistories find themselves playing “leadership whack-a-mole” as they attempt to solve the latest crisis. Similarly, leadership in the church can sometimes feel this way, but this is not a good method …
Five Aspects of Vision
In my experience of working with churches, I have found that discerning and articulating a church’s vision oftentimes brings pronounced confusion and high frustration to pastors and leaders, with much of their angst stemming from misunderstanding what vision is – and isn’t. What follows are five aspects of vision that help pastors and leaders to understand, discern, articulate, and live …
“Go into all the World”
Christ’s command to his followers is simple and profound, calling them into something great and global. It immediately conjures up images of passports and airports. It is a monumental task that reflects the true vision of the Kingdom – every tribe, nation, and tongue. But what if every word in that command had equal weight? Certainly we would have that …
Institutional Management to Missional Leadership
On today’s Whiteboard Wednesday, Mike Gafa shares a few thoughts about the importance of missional leadership for moving a consistory from managers to leaders. To move from managing to leading, we must pull away from institutional management and embrace missional leadership. What do we mean by “institutional management?” Institutional management encompasses the daily operations of a church – staff management, …