Pastors can have two personas: one the congregation sees and one the staff sees. While the goal is to be the same person around everyone, it often does not play out. The reality is you act differently around staff you work with for hours on end each day, compared to other congregants you may see in passing once or twice a week. This dichotomy is not necessarily bad, but it can be when the pastor plays nice with the congregation while poorly leading the staff. Maltreating the staff places them in the …

As a grassroots agent of outreach, I like to naturally connect with people. Often, this progression of relational evangelism is good and fruitful, but sometimes it can impair the supernatural move God desires to make at any given moment.

The first time I experienced this miracle was in the late ‘90s. Fresh out of college, I moved to Atlanta to work with a Boys and Girls Club in a housing project called the Perry Homes of Atlanta. Back then, the place was notorious for poverty and crime. I spent most of my days there …

There’s a reason most companies and non-profits look for outside help when it comes to making major changes.  It’s simply very difficult and often impossible to spawn new thinking in-house.  As a result, leaders often bring in outside ideas and advice to spur change inside.  That’s not to demean the value of your in-house ideas or creativity.  The issue is perspective.

In fact, here’s a few key reasons that making real change happens usually takes an outsider:  

1. It’s difficult for in-house employees (especially long term employees) to get an objective view of the organization.  …