My life’s passion has been to help the church become healthier and more effective. I have lived out that passion through working with youth, leading small groups, helping to launch and lead an inner city ministry, serving on staff with two denominations, and now as a pastor at Hilltop Urban Church in Wichita, Kansas. For fifteen years I devoted full-time to writing and editing for Christian publications. For more than twenty years I have been consulting with churches as Senior Consultant with the amazing team of Living Stones Associates.
As consultants, our team has helped hundreds of churches of many denominations throughout the US and Canada remove barriers to healthy growth through strategic planning of ministries, staffing, facilities, and finances. But these years have also exposed the limits of strategic planning.
I have seen that it is almost impossible for a church to become healthier than its core leaders. The most important way a spiritual leader leads is still by example. No amount of education or giftedness or strategic planning can take the place of Heart Work that the Spirit must do in us for us to be able to lead a a community of disciples in living out together the Way that Jesus lived and taught.
A new season
And so in this new season of my ministry, I am turning my focus to the Heart Work that God is eager to do in our hearts as Christian leaders to make us more fruitful as shepherds, teachers, small group leaders, student ministry workers, children’s workers, ministry team leaders, worship leaders, church board members, leaders of non-profits, and more.
I pray that some of these nuggets of insight will encourage–and challenge–you and the leaders you partner with to grow in Christlikeness and more effectively disciple those you serve.
2-Minute Power Nuggets
When you subscribe to HeartWork (free, of course), one morning a week (perhaps occasionally two, if I’m particularly inspired) you will receive in your inbox aPower Nugget. I will keep the posts short and quick–500 words or less–so that you can read them in two minutes or less on your phone or at your desk as you start your day.
But short does not mean light or fluffy. I am distilling into nugget form some of the most important–and challenging–life lessons I have learned through 50 years of ministry leadership. Each post climaxes with questions or suggestions to Engage with the day’s Power Nugget. You can read them in 2 minutes, but some may take days, years, or a lifetime to live out.
An occasional “big rock”
Every month or two I’ll also post a full-length article. I’ll usually do this when I have a series of blog posts on a theme and I have a related article that goes into more depth on that theme. If you want to stick to the two-minute Power Nuggets that you can read as you start your Tuesday morning, and ignore the longer articles, you won’t hurt my feelings. But it will be there for you if you’re interested.
Join the conversation
My prayer is that these short, punchy posts will spark lively, encouraging conversation among ministry leaders, birthing an online community where we can build each other up and learn from one another. If you find HeartWork valuable, I encourage you to share your favorite posts with other Christian leaders in your circle and invite them to join the conversation.
If you find yourself wondering how to more fully apply HeartWork insights in your current ministry setting, you may want to consider hosting a HeartWork retreat for your ministry team or explore one-on-one ministry coaching.