For most of us, surprises are overrated. Just ask your fellow board members how much they really enjoy surprise parties. Life as we like it thrives on certainty. We are better able to sleep at night if we expect to awaken to a world that...
Our post two weeks ago, on the fact that most Americans feel like they are on “the losing side” of politics, garnered many responses. Pastors and lay leaders told us they are struggling with the ways tribalism is causing tension and division in their churches. ...
Entering our local gym, we hear the same instructions every time. “Stretching helps prevent bad things and enables good things – lean into it!” Despite this regular refrain, stretching remains an underappreciated practice in exercise, in life … and in how pastors and church boards guide...
Church boards have limited time and energy after addressing staffing, budgets, buildings, schedules, and the semi-regular concerns coming from members. However, congregational leaders do have the opportunity, upon occasion, to change the categories of conversation within a faith community. This election year may present one...
Digging a Deeper Well has taken an extended holiday break. What started out as a few weeks off over Christmas and New Year’s became one month, and then two, thanks to work, travel, the ACC basketball schedule, and other essential events. But somewhere in the...
Under the Wall Street Journal headline “Have You Checked Your Mailbox Today? Neither Has Anyone Else” comes more data on changing patterns of life that we have, for so long, taken for granted. Today, only three-quarters of Americans check their mail daily. Some go weeks—or months—without...
We offer two cultural data points today for consideration, alongside the congregational information your church board will be reviewing as it prepares for the new year. We don’t want to make too much of either data point, but together they seem to suggest something about...
The last two weeks we have posted about how to evaluate as a church board, and what to evaluate and why. But one question remains: what should you do with the information you collect? Now that your board has actually conducted a thoughtful, imaginative evaluation...
(Following last week’s post, this is the second of three pieces on church boards and evaluation.) Ask a church board how it knows whether its ministry is succeeding, and you will likely hear two or three of the following data points. Total pledges Number of pledges Total members Number...