Most congregations dramatically underutilize their leadership gifts. Stagnation of the leadership circle is neither healthy nor inevitable, and it does little to encourage the creativity that moves us toward God. Here are some ideas for expanding your leadership circle. Reflect…

Congregations can play an important role in helping individuals live as people of faith in today’s world, agreed two nationally recognized authorities on evangelicals during a recent Alban Institute event. Randall Balmer, professor of American religion at Columbia University’s Barnard…

While the suddenness and pain of a crisis often interrupts family, school, and work schedules, it usually does not disrupt worship itself. Worship goes on, but pastors and worship planners need to acknowledge the crisis in some way and answer…

What should a congregation do when confronted with embezzlement—either by a staff member or a volunteer? Congregations often are reluctant to prosecute such an offense. In some cases, they hope to work out a way, through the use of attorneys,…

I have worked with troubled churches for 20 years. I never cease to learn from these experiences. The list below includes some of what I have learned about congregations in times of conflict. 1. Most people are interested in relieving…

At a time when people of faith can find it difficult to discuss how their values and convictions impact their leadership style and vocational life, the Alban Institute gathered a group of leaders from across the metropolitan Washington, D.C., area…

A guest pastor from India commented after a Sunday service at Grace: “Dear brother, your beautiful Sunday worship service began with singing ‘Let all mortal flesh keep silence,’ followed by 60 minutes of uninterrupted speech.” He caught the irony of…

When I speak at seminaries about leadership and management in congregations, professors usually need to be somewhere else, and students tend to doze. To wake them up, I mention a favorite topic, “ministerial authority.” Seminarians love to talk about the…

Many of the people who participate in Alban’s national seminar on strategic planning would like to do planning in their congregation but somehow feel stuck, explains Dan Hotchkiss, Alban senior consultant and leader of the upcoming Shaping Holy Conversations: Pathways…

The ministry of encouragement is the primary way a pastor and lay leaders help a congregation discover and fulfill its call from Christ to make disciples. One of the advantages of evaluating ministry through the lens of encouragement is that…