Tag: Sam Rainer

What to Say to the Worst Critics

Keep calm and use facts. Maintaining a good reputation is a biblical requirement for pastors. I can understand the visceral reaction of defensiveness when faced with a public attack. Most want to defend their good name. The problem is you escalate the issue when you respond emotionally.

Caution: Using a Remote Office

You can listen to each instrument of a symphony independently, but the expression and emotion of the song are absent unless you hear everyone playing together. There is a creative energy that is lost through a screen.

What Is Your Church Doing to Help Children in Need?

The church is not designed to be a shield protecting the Christian bubble of safety. Rather, the church is a vehicle engineered by God to send people into the darkest corners of the neighborhood.

Who’s In the Driver’s Seat?

While much power comes from formal positions with legitimate authority, a different kind of power is found in leadership roles with informal authority.

Churches Are Receiving Less of Total Charitable Giving

Churches are getting less of the total charitable giving. Overall, charitable giving is on the rise in the United States, but churches are receiving a smaller and smaller portion. The bottom line is simple. People who give see the church as merely one option among many places to give.

How Can Weaknesses of an Extroverted Pastor Become Strengths?

Partly because they are more outgoing, I believe extroverted pastors will get the benefit of the doubt—more so than introverted pastors. Many have tackled the subject of how introverts can overcome weaknesses, but I haven’t noticed as much written about extroverted pastors.

What Does a Servant Leader Look Like?

pastors and church leaders should have a default posture of service. If you’re not willing to be a servant leader, then you are not fit to have authority and influence within the body of Christ.

Tips for Being More Unguarded as You Lead

A misguided vulnerability will add too much anxiety into the church culture and has the potential to destabilize the congregation. You can be vulnerable without freaking out your church.