The Master Carpenter’s Blueprint for Making Disciples
What is the relationship between making disciples and carpentry? To those who are unfamiliar with... Read more

Making Disciples in an Entitlement Culture
Call me old school. Throughout my education, I worked hard to achieve. Academic and athletic... Read more

Two Painful Requirements of Constructive Change
Every individual, group, organization, and certainly, every church periodically faces the challenge... Read more

An Enemy of God Who Had the Skill Set to Plant Churches
On the road to Damascus, Paul had an encounter with Jesus and experienced a radical transformation... Read more

The Leader’s Script for Self-Defeat
Self-defeat, the dysfunctional activity of harming oneself, manifests itself in many ways. Some are... Read more

Put to the Test: Gideon’s Case for Behavioral Assessment
Have you ever made a bad hiring decision? Enthusiastically selected someone to a responsible... Read more

Church Planter Assessment, Ridleys 13 Characteristics and Test
What does it take to be an effective church planter? Dr. Charles Ridley conducted a study of church... Read more

On the Art & Spirit of Church Planter Assessments: A Reply to Linda Bergquist
In her thoughtful blog of December 17, 2012, Linda Bergquist made the following observation:... Read more

Old Testament Leaders to Emulate
In the Old Testament, we find a number of leaders who led with distinction. Joseph, Joshua, Esther,... Read more

Contextual Assessment: An Irrefutable Principle of Leadership
Joseph, Joshua, Gideon, and Nehemiah, four Godly leaders in the Old Testament, each faced seemingly... Read more

The Biggest Lie Leaders Tell
Saul, David, and Solomon, the first three kings of Israel, had more in common than their positions... Read more

Dysfunction Gone Viral: Two Questions Leaders Must Ask
Power mongers holding churches hostage to their personal agendas, intimidated membership too scared... Read more

Complicit Leadership: A Reason for Outrage
Whenever corruption, divisiveness, or dysfunction arrives on the scene, we justifiably shine the... Read more

Reframing the Problem
In the mid-1980s, I was approached by Carl George, who at the time was Director of the Charles E.... Read more

Backstage Drama in the Making of a Disciple
In two previous blog posts, I wrote about John Mark. I admire this disciple of Christ, not only... Read more

Creating Ownership of Ministry
The Church Planter Profile has been used widely as a tool for selecting church planters. As the... Read more

X = T + E
How many times have you filled in those little square boxes or circles next to items on test forms?... Read more

Making Disciples: Implications from Successive Approximations
B. F. Skinner, arguably the most renowned research psychologist ever, taught pigeons how to play... Read more

Making Disciples: Does One Size Fit All?
Jesus said, “Therefore go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of... Read more

Professor Studebaker
I quaked. Whenever I neared her classroom, fear and trepidation besieged me. My reaction was... Read more

Mindset, Heart Set and Skill Set: Ties that Bind Doctoral Students, Gideon’s Warriors, and Church Planters
As a graduate professor, I have determined that students in Ph.D. programs fall into two basic... Read more

Assessing the Assessment of Church Planters: Do We Measure Up?
The formal assessment of candidates for church planting is now well established. A number of... Read more

John Mark Revisited: Subjectivity in Personnel Assessment
It was the best of decisions. It was the worst of decisions. In my last blog, I questioned whether... Read more