Tag: Church

The Emotionally Intelligent Pastor | Book Review


If you are a pastor, you know that people are your “business.” We’re not the CEOs of widget factories or the purveyors of goods and services. Instead, we have a heart like the apostle Paul’s: “My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19).

That heart is intensely relational. Paul’s analogy of his ministry to the “pains of childbirth” is apt. Pastoring brings the great joy of bringing new Christian life into the world. However, it involves great pain too. Serving others in this way is not easy, but it is worth it.

Because people are our “business,” and because our “business” is both worthwhile and difficult, we need to be wise in the ways of people. The Bible is filled with wisdom in this regard. So is the discipline of psychology, which has coined the term emotional intelligence to describe it. In The Emotionally Healthy Pastor, Jeannie Clarkson brings the Bible and psychology into fruitful dialogue.

Clarkson is a Christian psychologist. Her doctoral dissertation researched, in the words of its title, “Pastoral Burnout: The Results of a Study Examining the Relationships of Emotional Intelligence and Performance-Based Self-Esteem with Burnout among Pastors.” She founded and operates Christian Care Connection, a counseling service in and around Toledo, Ohio.

Clarkson defines emotional intelligence as “the ability to (1) understand the ways people (including you) feel and react, and (2) use this knowledge to wisely avoid or smartly solve relational problems” (p. 36). She goes on to demonstrate why emotional intelligence is crucial to pastoral ministry and explain how to develop greater emotional intelligence.

Her book utilizes the framework of Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence, grounding it in Scripture and showing its applicability to pastoral ministry. In addition to real-life anecdotes from her own experience and that of others, she uses the fictional experiences of three pastors—megachurch Jim, midsize church Bill, and smaller church Susan—to illustrate the kinds of scenarios where emotional intelligence can improve pastoral health and effectiveness.

For Clarkson, emotional intelligence consists of four elements (p. 42):

  1. Personal Insight: Highly emotionally intelligent [EI] pastors possess a better understanding of their own emotions than do others.
  2. Personal Mastery: High EI pastors control and regulate their own emotions and reactions better than others.
  3. Relational Insight: EI-savvy pastors read, understand, and empathize with the emotions and reactions of other people better than most.
  4. Relational Mastery: Pastors with high emotional intelligence are better at emotional reasoning and more skilled at effective, persuasive communication than others.

While some researchers lean toward understanding emotional intelligence as an inborn trait, Clarkson, like Goleman, leans toward interpreting it as a developed skill.

She devotes most of The Emotionally Intelligent Pastor to explaining what each of the four elements is and how to develop better skillfulness with it. A chart on page 40 helpfully summarizes her advice:

Sixteen Skills and Habits of Emotionally Intelligent Pastors

Personal Insight Personal Mastery Relational Insight Relational Mastery
Monitoring your emotions Resetting your mind-set Listening attentively Building trust
Tuning in to self-talk Managing emotional triggers Tuning in to others Managing expectations
Identifying emotional triggers Communicating directly Knowing your team Empowering others
Asking for feedback Maintaining your passion Learning the landscape Managing conflict

 

Although Clarkson’s overall framework is based on Goleman’s, her book is more helpful to pastors than his for two reasons: First, it cuts quickly to the basic elements of emotional intelligence and how to develop them without getting lost in the research details. Second, it applies emotional intelligence solely to pastoral ministry.

I conclude with a statement that Clarkson calls “the big promise of emotional intelligence”: “Greater emotional intelligence leads to reduced stress and increased influence.” If in your current ministry, you’re experiencing the opposite—increased stress and reduced influence—I encourage you to read The Emotionally Intelligent Pastor. I think it will help.

Book Reviewed
Jeannie Clarkson, The Emotionally Intelligent Pastor: A Guide for Clergy and Other Church Leaders (Indianapolis, IN: Wesleyan Publishing House, 2019).

P.S. If you like my review, please click “Helpful” on my Amazon review page.

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The Coming Revolution in Church Economics | Book Review


Tithes and offerings are the standard model for financing a church’s ministry. Sure, a congregation may rent its sanctuary for weddings and funerals or its fellowship hall for community events, but the revenue generated by these rentals is tiny fraction of its income. In the coming years, argue Mark DeYmaz and Harry Li, that tiny fraction will need to grow. That growth is, as the book’s title puts it, The Coming Revolution in Church Economics.

DeYmaz is founding pastor of Mosaic Church of Central Arkansas, cofounder of the Mosaix Global network, and a leader in the multiethnic church movement. Li is senior pastor of Mosaic Church of Central Arkansas. Their church’s budget derives 70 percent of its income from tithes and offering and 30 percent from other sources, including a non-profit charity that receives state and local grants and a for-profit business that rents out a portion of the church’s facilities to businesses.

If you’re like me, you’re probably wondering why the authors think tithes and offerings need to be supplemented. I was raised as a pastor’s kid in what became a megachurch. I worked in several megachurches as a staff pastor. All three churches generated income through the standard model.

Only when I became the senior pastor of a small congregation did I begin to understand the need to cultivate additional revenue streams. We had declined significantly in attendance over the years, but we had the largest evangelical church auditorium in the city. During my years there, we rented our facilities to a much larger congregation without a building, then later to a smaller one in the same predicament. We needed that revenue to pay for much needed, but long deferred improvements to our physical plant.

I mention my personal experience because I was initially skeptical of the book’s proposal until I realized that what I had done out of necessity was something the authors were recommending as sound financial sense. In the coming years, DeYmaz and Li point out, tithes and offerings simply may not be enough to sustain a church’s ministries. The middle class is under increasing financial stress, people are increasingly giving to charitable causes other than religious ones, younger generations give differently than older ones, and the American populace is growing older and more diverse, all of which trends put downward pressure on the amount of money available to churches.

In response to these trends, DeYmaz and Li enumerate seven “directives” to prepare American churches for the future:

  1. Free your mind.
  2. Stop begging for money.
  3. Create multiple streams of income.
  4. Leverage church assets.
  5. Become a benevolent owner.
  6. Monetize existing services.
  7. Start new businesses.

The authors have implemented all of these directives at Mosaic Church with some success, as well as a few false starts along the way. Lest you think their advice is coming from a suburban megachurch, you need to know that Mosaic is a mid-size church with approximately 600 in weekly attendance. It was intentionally planted in a multiethnic, economically depressed part of Little Rock, Arkansas. It repurposed an old K-Mart with the idea of providing space for the congregation but also space for start-up businesses. In other words, the church is ministering to both the soul and the body of its community, to its spiritual and economic needs.

I’ll be honest and say I’m not sure that I buy the book’s argument 100 percent. I’m worried that its funding model may drag pastors into businesses for which they have no training or expertise. There are tax implications to churches owning for-profit businesses and receiving government grants for its separate non-profit charities. And the tension between religious liberty on the one hand and employment nondiscrimination and public accommodation laws on the other raise several caution flags in my mind.

DeYmaz and Li are mindful of these worries too and address them in the book. They recommend that your church not do anything without first performing due diligence with regard to the tax and legal implications of its decisions. I second that recommendation. Before you do anything, consult a knowledgeable attorney and accountant.

Still, The Coming Revolution in Church Economics is a worthwhile read, eye-opening in its description of trends and thought-provoking in its recommended responses to those trends. Like me, you may not agree with everything the book says, but it will help your church get ahead of the curve, financially speaking. Of course, the standard model of tithes and offerings must always be the main source of your church’s income. God’s people must support God’s work faithfully. But as economic trends continue to put downward pressure on voluntary giving, good and faithful stewardship requires that we invest our talents with an eye toward a profitable return.

Book Reviewed
Mark DeYmaz with Harry Li, The Coming Revolution in Church Economics: Why Tithes and Offerings Are No Longer Enough, and What You Can Do About It (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2019).

P.S. If you liked my review, please click “Helpful” on my Amazon review page.

P.P.S. Also, check out Mark’s article in the September/October 2019 issue of Influence magazine: “Move Over Generosity,” which is also available in Spanish.

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Free to Believe | Book Review


Religious freedom is one of America’s most cherished values. It is enshrined in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and protected by a thick web of statutory laws and judicial decisions. The same holds true at the state level.

Yet religious freedom is also one of our nation’s most contested values. Many American Christians believe religious freedom is under attack. According to Luke Goodrich, they’re not entirely wrong.

“We’ve long lived in a country where religious freedom was secure, and we didn’t need to give it much thought,” Goodrich writes in the Introduction to Free to Believe. “Now we’re realizing the country is changing and we might not enjoy the same degree of religious freedom forever. If we don’t start thinking about it now, we’ll be unprepared.”

Goodrich knows whereof he speaks. He is a lawyer with Becket Law, a leading nonprofit, public interest legal and educational institute with a mission to protect the free expression of all faiths — “from Anglicans to Zoroastrians,” as Becket lawyers like to say. He was part of the legal team that won four major Supreme Court cases in as many years: Little Sisters of the Poor v. Azar, Holt v. Hobbs, Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, and Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC. He also is an evangelical Christian, and in Free to Believe, he aims to prepare Christian readers for “the battle over religious liberty in America,” in the words of the book’s subtitle. He does this by answering three questions:

  1. What is religious freedom?
  2. What are the most serious threats?
  3. What can be done?

In Goodrich’s definition, “religious freedom means the government, within reasonable limits, leaves religion alone as much as possible.” It is, in other words, an expansive but not absolute right. As a general rule, government must leave religion alone; it should step in only “to protect other rights.” Just as the right to free speech does not entail the right to libel and defame others, for example, so the right to exercise religion does not license child sacrifice. Government must “balance many competing rights.”

Religious freedom is worth protecting, Goodrich argues, because it is a secular good. It “benefits society” through the promotion of good works, the protection of dissenting opinions, and the reduction of social tensions. It “protects our other rights” by limiting the scope of governmental action. And because it is “rooted in human nature,” it is a “fundamental human right,” intrinsically worth protecting.

But religious freedom is not merely a secular good. It is a spiritual good, too. Goodrich argues that religious freedom is “rooted in God’s original design for humanity — in the way God created us (for relationship with Him) and in the way God relates to us (giving us freedom to embrace or reject Him.” A genuinely loving relationship is non-coercive. Because even God does not coerce religious belief or practice, neither should government. Consequently, “religious freedom is a basic issue of biblical justice, rooted in the nature of God and the nature of man.”

Having defined what religious freedom is, Goodrich turns to the five most serious threats to it: religious discrimination, abortion rights, gay rights, Islam, and the naked public square. My guess is that you are probably acquainted with some of the current clashes revolving around these threats. These clashes center around questions such as:

  • Can a religious organization use religious criteria for hiring and firing employees?
  • If a law requires businesses to provide contraceptive coverage to employees, but religious business owners believe some of those contraceptives actually induce abortion, can they refuse to provide them?
  • Can religious florists, bakers or photographers refuse to provide goods or services to an LGBT couple getting married?
  • Should the law accommodate Muslim religious practices, and if so, to what degree?
  • Are religious symbols permissible on public monuments or public property?

Goodrich argues that the answer to each question is, or should be, yes. He has litigated several cases before the Supreme Court that arrived at affirmative answers. But neither the Constitution nor federal and state laws guarantee that the religious freedom side will win every legal contest. Remember, religious freedom, while expansive, is not absolute, and U.S. courts must take up cases that involve balancing the rights of the religious with others who claim a contrary legal right.

The section on threats to religious freedom is the longest part of the book. I won’t further describe those threats here because you’re probably already acquainted with them. What these chapters will do is deepen and complexify your understanding of the relevant legal issues, even as they clarify the case for religious freedom in each instance.

This is essential reading for any Christian who is concerned with the state of religious freedom in America today. Indeed, I believe Free to Believe is the best Christian primer on American religious freedom currently available.

Knowing what religious freedom is and what threatens it, Goodrich concludes Free to Believe with suggestions about how best to advance its cause. He is a lawyer, so litigation is obviously on the table. But Goodrich is also an evangelical Christian, and it is as one Christian to others that he offers this important word of wisdom: “before we address what we’re going to do about religious freedom, we need to reconsider what type of people we’re called to be in the midst of religious freedom conflicts. Only if we become those people can we ‘win’ religious freedom fights in any meaningful sense.” In other words, “We’re called not to win but to be like Jesus.” Win or lose, we must imitate our Lord.

Goodrich goes on to outline seven biblical principles that American Christians find difficult to live out, even though our brothers and sisters around the world do so in environments with far less religious freedom:

  1. Expect suffering (Matthew 10:16–25).
  2. Rejoice when it comes (Matthew 5:11–12).
  3. Fear God, not men (1 Peter 3:14–15).
  4. Strive for peace (Romans 12:18).
  5. Continue doing good (1 Peter 4:19).
  6. Love our enemies (Luke 6:27–28).
  7. Care for one another (Hebrews 13:3).

As someone who is deeply committed to religious freedom, I believe we should be vigilant about threats to it in America and abroad. And to be honest, those threats often feel like they’re growing.

Even so, I believe Goodrich is right. The ultimate question is not how much religious freedom we have, but how well we freely use the religion we have. As the apostle Paul enjoined Christians at an earlier time and in another place, “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love” (Galatians 5:13).

If you’re looking for a long-term solution to America’s contests over religious freedom, I’d suggest that loving, humble service of others is the best place to start.

Book Reviewed
Luke Goodrich, Free to Believe: The Battle over Religious Liberty in America (Colorado Springs, CO: Multnomah, 2019).

P.S. If you liked my review, please click “Helpful” on my Amazon review page.

P.P.S. I wrote this review for the November-December issue of Influence magazine. It is posted here by permission.

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Shepherding God’s People | Book Review


Dr. Siang-Yang Tan is professor of psychology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, and senior pastor of First Evangelical Church in nearby Glendale. In Shepherding God’s People, he examines “biblical and theological foundations for pastoral ministry” (Part 1) and “areas of pastoral ministry” (Part 2). The author himself describes the book this way in the Preface:

The book presents a biblical perspective on pastoral and church ministry that emphasizes faithfulness and fruitfulness in Christ (John 15:5), through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8; Eph. 5:18; 6:10–18), made perfect in weakness, brokenness, and humility (2 Cor. 12:9–10) rather than in success or excellence of the wrong kind … . Each chapter includes a substantial review of the literature available on the topic as well as my own biblical, theological, psychological, cultural, and personal reflections.

Baker Academic published the book, and I imagine its intended readers are seminarians preparing for ministry. Although it is well, clearly, and simply written, it at times feels like an introductory survey rather than a how-to guide. Being nearly 25 years out of seminary — I attended Fuller but did not have Dr. Tan as a professor — I found this off-putting at first.

But as I kept reading, I realized that I was benefitting from the author’s extensive reading of the relevant literature, especially as it was focused through the lens of his own pastoral ministry. I came to regard the book as the equivalent of a refresher course on the theology and practice of pastoral ministry. An added bonus is that each chapter includes an extensive list of recommended readings. You can use the book as an introduction to best practices and the recommended readings as a guide to what you should read next, should a specific topic interest you.

As a Pentecostal minister, I appreciated Chapter 2 especially. It is titled, “The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit as Crucial and Essential for Pastoral Ministry.” Though Dr. Tan does not write from a classical Pentecostal perspective, this chapter reminded me of the breadth of the Holy Spirit’s work as well as the many points in common between Pentecostal and evangelical theologies of the Spirit.

Book Reviewed
Siang-Yang Tan, Shepherding God’s People: A Guide to Faithful and Fruitful Pastoral Ministry (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2019).

P.S. If you like my review, please click “Helpful” on my Amazon review page.

P.P.S. I wrote this review for InfluenceMagazine.com. It is posted here by permission.

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Make Your Church Safe for Kids! | Influence Podcast


In a recent article for InfluenceMagazine.com, Mark Entzminger wrote: “[A] poorly designed or implemented safety plan can not only damage the church’s reputation in the community but, more importantly, it can also damage the heart and spirit of a child for a lifetime.”

I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host. In this episode of the Influence Podcast, I’m talking to Entzminger about why churches must put child safety first and how they can do so. Entzminger is national director of Children’s Ministries for the Assemblies of God (USA).

Richard Hammar’s checklist to prevent child molestation can be accessed here.

This episode of the Influence Podcast is brought to you by My Healthy Church, distributors of Balanced Budget, Balanced Life.

People don’t plan on having money troubles, which is exactly the problem: They don’t plan! In Balanced Budget, Balanced Life, Rollie Dimos shows you how to make a biblically sound financial plan and stick to it. Get back the time and resources you need to stop stressing out about money, and start enjoying the balance of a truly abundant life.

For more information, visit BalancedBudgetBalancedLife.com.

P.S. This podcast was recorded for InfluenceMagazine.com and appears here by permission.

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Best Practices of Conversion-Growth Churches | Influence Podcast


“Many churches in America are stalled in their conversion growth, but it doesn’t have to be that way,” writes Rick Richardson in his new book, You Found Me. In this episode of the Influence Podcast, I’m talking to Richardson about the best practices of congregations that are “effectively reaching people and having an impact in their communities.”

I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host.

Rick Richardson is director of the Billy Graham Center Institute and its Church Evangelism Initiative. The institute is the research arm of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College, where Richardson also serves in the graduate school as professor of evangelism and leadership. He is author of You Found Me: New Research on How Unchurched Nones, Millennials, and Irreligious Are Surprisingly Open to Christian Faith, published by IVP Books.

P.S. Check out my review of You Found Me here.

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Best Practices for Developing Women Leaders | Influence Podcast


Women constitute a majority of church attendees but a minority of its pastoral leaders. In the Assemblies of God, for example, women and girls account for 55 percent of all Sunday morning attendees, but only 25 percent of credentialed ministers. This is true even though AG theology affirms that “God pours out His Spirit upon both men and women and thereby gifts both sexes for ministry in His Church.” This raises the obvious question: How can we do better at developing women leaders?

That’s the question I’m exploring with Kadi Cole in this episode of the Influence Podcast. I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine, and your host. Kadi Cole is author of Developing Female Leaders and president of Kadi Cole & Company. One of the first women leaders to serve in an executive role at a large, multisite church, she is now a leadership consultant for both ministry and business. She is a founding member of the Women Executive Pastors Group and the founder of MinistryChick.com.

P.S. I reviewed the book on Amazon here. As always, if you like my review, please click “Helpful.”

P.P.S. This podcast is cross-posted from InfluenceMagazine.com with permission.

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Why Honor Is Key | Influence Podcast


“The stories of honor contained in the Word of God start from the first verses in Genesis and continue to the last words in Revelation.” So writes Rich Wilkerson Sr. in his new book, I Choose Honor.

In this episode of the Influence Podcast, George P. Wood, Influence magazine’s executive editor, talks to Wilkerson about why honor is the key to relationships, faith, and life.

Rich Wilkerson Sr. senior pastor of Trinity Church in Miami, Florida, and founder of Peacemakers, a Christian, nonprofit social services organization. His book, I Choose Honor, is just out from Charisma House.

P.S. This podcast is cross-posted from InfluenceMagazine.com with permission.

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How the Church Can Serve the City | Influence Podcast


On the Day of Pentecost, the first Christians preached the gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. Soon after, they also organized ministries to help the poor. This combination of evangelism and compassion is a biblical hallmark of Spirit-filled ministry. It’s also a template for action today.

In this episode of the Influence Podcast, George P. Wood, executive editor of Influencemagazine, interviews Dave Donaldson and Wendell Vinson about how the local church can serve the city through compassionate ministry.

Dave Donaldson and Wendell Vinson are editors of CityServe: Your Guide to Church-Based Compassion, just published by Salubris Resources. Donaldson is co-founder and chairman for CityServe International, whose visionis “to see the local church fulfill its calling to be a stronger catalyst for healthier communities and the restoration of broken lives.” Vinson is also co-founder of CityServe and pastor of Canyon Hills Church in Bakersfield, California.

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Developing Female Leaders | Book Review


As a Pentecostal minister, I support women’s leadership in the church. I believe the Holy Spirit calls and empowers women to exercise their spiritual gifts, just as He does for men, whether those gifts prepare them for service as a lead pastor, a leading volunteer, or something in between. And I am grateful to be an ordained minister in the Assemblies of God, a denomination that affirms women’s leadership in both its theology and governing documents.

Even so, I recognize that women continue to face obstacles on the road to fulfilling their God-given callings. One major obstacle is theological: Too many evangelical churches and denominations value women’s congregational ministries but continue to cap their leadership at the point where women might exercise authority over men. The other major obstacle is practical and common even in churches and denominations like mine that affirm women’s leadership. Here, the problem is that such organizations make inadequate provision for the recruitment, development, and retention of women leaders.

Kadi Cole’s Developing Female Leadersdoes not weigh in on the theological obstacle to women’s leadership. Instead, she focuses on the practical obstacle. Whatever a church’s theology of women’s leadership, she argues, all churches can do better at developing women to serve at the highest level that the church’s theology allows. This is a shrewd move on Cole’s part, given the intractable debates among evangelicals about gender roles in church and society. It allows her to help all churches, whatever their theologies of women’s leadership, improve their practices of developing women leaders.

Here is a synopsis of the eight “best practices” Cole recommends in her book:

  1. Seek to understand. “Take the time to have a conversation with the female leaders you have on your team and in your congregation. Ask them about their stories and how they have impacted their view of themselves as leaders.”
  2. Clearly define what you believe. “Even if you have confidence that your [theological] stance is extremely clear, there have likely been mixed messages in how this has played out for [women] in your church and in [their] leadership. In my experience, most godly women are very aware there is a line somewhere, and because they are concerned about overstepping that line, they will often stay way below what you believe they have an opportunity to do. This gap is one of the places where you have incredible untapped leadership potential.”
  3. Mine the marketplace. Professional women “have been given projects to manage, a staff to lead, and initiatives to implement. They have received formal and informal leadership development and have withstood the rigors of the business world.” Consequently, Cole advises, “Never assume that an established, professional female isn’t interested in working with or for you. Many incredible leaders would love the opportunity to use their marketplace skills in the kingdom.”
  4. Integrate spiritual formation and leadership development. “Integrating spiritual growth and leadership development is a critical component of developing healthy, strong, and capable female leaders within your church. A woman cannot lead from a healthy soul if we do not help integrate her relationship with Christ with the gifts and calling He has given her.”
  5. Be an “other.”“Being and providing quality ‘others’ in the form of male mentors, male sponsors, and female coaches will give your female leaders the supportive connections and authentic relationships they need to learn, grow, and develop into the capable leaders your church needs and the fruitful leaders God has called them to be.”
  6. Create an environment of safety. “Creating a safe work environment free from harassment or predatorial behavior by anyone is imperative to the development of both male and female leaders who are godly, healthy, and trustworthy.”
  7. Upgrade your people practices. “In everything from recruiting practices to retirement benefits, making sure female leaders receive equal and ethical treatment for the work they contribute was an important issue, not just for women, but as a statement about how churches function as employers within our communities.”
  8. Take on your culture. “By reevaluating your stated values and use of language, redefining borders, and integrating strategic symbols, you can help your culture shift to an environment that not only welcomes and supports new female leadership, but creates an opportunity for many more leaders to grow and thrive.”

While this synopsis accurately summarizes the best practices Developing Female Leadersrecommends, it fails to articulate the wisdom, empathy, and granularity of good advice that runs throughout each chapter of the book.

If you are a male church leader, you really need to read this book. It will open your eyes to the obstacles that the more-than-half of your congregation which is female routinely face as they seek to perform their ministries, whether on staff or as volunteers. More importantly, however, it will give you a detailed plan to clear those obstacles and develop women leaders better. My guess is that as your leadership development practices for women improve, the overall quality of your leadership pipeline will improve too, for both men and women. Finally, for women leaders reading this book, it concludes with a bonus chapter titled, “Best Practices for Female Leaders.”

I cannot recommend this book highly enough!

Book Reviewed
Kadi Cole, Developing Female Leaders: Navigate the Minefields and Release the Potential of Women in Your Church(Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2019).

P.S. If you liked my review, please click “Helpful” on my Amazon review page.

P.P.S. This review is cross-posted at InfluenceMagazine.com.

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