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Practical tips from 20+ years of consulting across 33 denominational families. What makes congregational consulting work, cautions for new consultants, and lessons learned.

The tension between craft (repeatable, honed skills) and creativity (improvisation and innovation) in ministry work. Planning systems should make space for both.

Returning to themes of mission, self-care, and sustainability after the exhaustion of the pandemic year. Explores questions of calling, personal renewal, and congregational vitality.

Challenges five common myths congregations use to explain or excuse failure to grow. Uses evidence to push back against comforting but counterproductive narratives.

Congregations serve two different customers — members and the broader community — and confusion between these leads to strategic drift.

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed a pattern in which congregations competed to be the least demanding rather than the most effective. A call for more intentional planning.

One unified leadership structure to lead both paid staff and volunteers effectively. Volunteers need the same goal-setting, supervision, and feedback as paid employees.

The most common leadership mistakes that get ministers into serious trouble with their congregations, boards, or denominations — boundaries, communication, delegation.

How clergy can navigate the mid-career challenge of releasing ego-centered ministry and embracing a more facilitative, empowering leadership role.

A congregation’s history and past clergy relationships powerfully shape the experience of clergy transitions. How incoming leaders can navigate the legacy of predecessors.