One of the most fulfilling things I get to do as a pastor is preach. It is not easy, but it doesn’t need to be easy. I still love it. I’m sure you love it too. To celebrate the joys of preaching, this Thanksgiving Day I want to share four things I’m thankful for as a preacher:

 1. I’m thankful for getting to do what I love.

Preaching gives me an opportunity to do something I really enjoy. I love to inspire, challenge, motivate and encourage others. I love to be creative and think outside the box. I love to develop and present content that helps people. Preaching encompasses all of these wonderful things. It is an art that I love to work on and improve. I’m thankful for preaching because I love to do it. It’s exhilarating. If you preach you understand exactly what I’m talking about.

2. I’m thankful when I see how God used me to work in someone’s life.

I’ve written about how to get more helpful feedback on your...

I want to give you my list of the best 5 books on apologetics. I became passionate about the subject of apologetics in when I was in high school. I attended a leadership camp my  junior year, and the camp speaker was an apologist. At first I remember thinking, “What’s he so sorry about?” But “apologetics” isn’t about being sorry. Rather, it’s about being prepared and equipped to defend what you believe and why you believe it.

This particular apologist who spoke at the camp that week opened my eyes to a world I had previously known nothing about. I had grown up in church and believed Christianity was true, but I did not have good reasons for my beliefs. I had a lot of faith, but not a lot of substantial reasons to back up the claims of that faith.

That week I was exposed to the ideas and arguments for the existence of God, veracity of Scripture, reality of the resurrection and more. It was life-changing because I started to realize that...

Living things grow. If something isn’t growing, it’s dying. This is why a church that is not growing is a cause for concern. A church should be alive and one way to know if a church is alive is to look at the numbers.

Numbers aren’t everything, but numbers represent people and each person has a story and every story matters to God (I didn’t come up with that, but I love it).

Every church leader should be intentional about positioning their church for growth. I’ve pulled together my list of the best five books on church growth. Each one of these books will give you strategies and actionable best-practices to help grow your church. Here’s my list of the best 5 books on church growth:

 5. Breakout Churches by Thom Rainer

Thom Rainer writes about the common factors that result in forward momentum for churches. What makes a church move from mediocrity to exponential growth? What are the best practices that churches can discover to...

Change is inevitable. Everything changes … constantly. And the rate of change is not going to slow down. This is why every church leader needs to know how to lead their staff and congregation through change.  I’ve pulled together my list of the best five books on leading change. Each one of these books will help you navigate leading change in unique ways. Here’s my list of the best 5 books on leading change:

5. Who Stole My Church? by Gordon MacDonald

Let me first say I wish this book didn’t have to be written. I wish churches young and old were so mission-central and focused on the task Jesus has given to us of making disciples that they willingly embrace the changes necessary to reach the next generation for Christ. But, unfortunately we know that is not always the case. This book gives a glimpse of what it’s like for some who do not readily accept that the church must constantly change its methods without compromising its message. It...

It’s been said that leaders are readers and readers are leaders. I firmly believe this. This is why, in this post I include reading as one of the top three actions any preacher can take right now to improve their craft and become a better communicator.

 I love great books. My shelf is full of them. Yours probably is too. But I often find that I have more books than I have time to read. You probably have the same problem. This is frustrating because there is so much insight, knowledge, and wisdom that I miss out on simply because I don’t have the time to read every great book that comes out.

I found something that has solved this problem for me and has accelerated my ability to gain insight and develop as a leader. I want to share it with you because I think you’ll benefit from it as well. Ministry Library is a resource designed by my friend, Brian Beauford and his team. It’s simple, they take great leadership books, the ones you and I...

I recently met with a pastor who leads a thriving church in my area. He planted the church in 2003 and it has grown from three families to 2,500 people in attendance today. He spent an hour sharing a lot of fantastic insights about casting vision, setting direction, and bringing people along on mission to reach the community. I want to share with you one of the most valuable things he told me: Tell your church what they are.

Tell Your Church What They Are

Tell your church what they are and eventually they’ll become that. These words rang inside my head as he explained that his job as a pastor is to set the expectation high and let his church know he believes that’s who they are. Eventually, they will become that.

Great leaders set high expectations and truly believe their church is capable of meeting them. This principle is the same in school teaching. If a teacher expects a lot out of a student, the student will likely rise to the occasion and deliver. If the...

Anyone who preaches typically has a lot to say. You have more to say than you have time to communicate on Sunday morning. This is why so many preachers preach too long. But what you have to say is important. And, believe it or not, there’s a lot of people, beginning with those in your local church, who want to know what you have to say about a lot of things. You’re a spiritual leader in their lives and your thoughts, experiences, and opinions matter to them.

This is why you should blog. This is why I blog.

In my last post I shared my journey of blogging for one year. This post will explore two ways blogging can enhance your ministry. Then, I want to give you some simple steps to get started setting up your blog and writing your first post.

1. Blogging increases your influence and kingdom impact.

There are people who would read your blog because you wrote it. There are others who currently don’t know you who would find you, appreciate your...

One year ago today I published the first post ever on Preaching Donkey.com! Happy Birthday, Preaching Donkey! When I started this blog I had finally found a niche I was interested enough to stick with. There were plenty of resources on preaching available, but none that I could tell that focused entirely on communicating as preachers. I had plenty of ideas on the topic from experience, trial, and error. I wanted to share my thoughts on what works and what doesn’t when it comes to preaching.

After a few weeks of figuring out how to start a blog, Preaching Donkey was born. Next week I want to show you how to start a blog of your own. I think every preacher who has a message to communicate should blog with some consistency. In the next post I’ll show you how to get started.

I had no idea what this project would turn into in one year’s time. So for today, I want to share the progress with you. You are why Preaching Donkey has lasted a year....

My church has three Sunday morning services. As I reflect on what it takes to preach three times in a day, I have put some things into practice that help me preach at my best at every service.

 The biggest challenge for me is maintaining and sustaining energy for all three services. I arrive at the church at 8:00 am and hit the ground running with the first service beginning at 9:15 am. The second service is at 11:00 am and the third is at 12:45 pm. By the time the 12:45 service is over I have been going hard all day – preaching, talking to people, and pouring myself out. It can be a long day. A great day, but a long one.

Preaching is such an energizing activity for me. I’m sure it is for you too. I’ll have these huge adrenaline highs while I’m preaching, then I come off the high just in time to preach again which brings me back up. I repeat this process for the next service, then I go home and collapse.

But the people at the second service...

“What do you do for a living?”

This seems like a simple question. When normal people are asked this at a party or in some other social setting by a person they’ve just met it is an invitation to more conversation. There’s any number of acceptable answers:

“I’m a consultant.”  or “I work for a defense contractor.” 0r “I’m a web developer.”

When I’m asked the question, “What do you do for a living?” I know that what comes out of my mouth next, “I’m a pastor,” will produce one of the following outcomes:

1) It will kill the conversation immediately. We could be having a great conversation, even laughing, and then as soon as I come out with my man-of-the-cloth-ness, it’s over. They find a reason to be done talking to me.

2) The person I’m talking to will become the most religious person I’ve ever met. They’ll...