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Read the latest blog post from the PLI team.
Vision Traction: Be Catalytic for Activation
We can help you be intentional in your gathering for the purpose of the sending, all while making sure it is unique to you, your church, your community, at this time, with your staff, empowering everybody, everywhere, everyday.
Vision Traction: Your Context and Mission
When the people in our churches walk out the doors Sunday morning, do they see themselves as active participants in the mission? This has to be a primary motivator for almost everything we do.
Vision Traction: The Need for Change
Change makes us aware of the risks. We fear what might happen if we have to change. We must also ask: What are we risking if nothing changes?
In Community
To punch through a well-guarded status quo mentality, leaders need to stay engaged relationally in community.
Looking to the Future of PLI
Dear PLI Family, Next week, Ben Haupt joins the PLI team as its next executive leader! Ben and I will have two months together before I retire from PLI on August 31 and begin to...
Leaders Go First
If our churches are going to navigate forward and take on their greatest challenges, then the leader needs to go first.
Listen Well
Leaders well practiced in adaptive change learned a long time ago to listen to the voices that aren’t being heard, the voices that are missing.
Adaptive Leaders Dig Deep
My guess? It’s time for you to dig deep and do the hard work of working out these foundations or refreshing what you discovered 5 years or 15 years ago.
Lead with a Humble Spirit
The prerequisite need in a well-formed character of an adaptive leader is humility! A humble spirit that attaches itself to the mastery of necessary, new skills for today.
5 Things Leaders Need in an Ever-Changing World
Change is happening at an unprecedented rate, leaving leaders of churches and Christian organizations asking, “What do we do?” Here are five things leaders need to practice to lead in this ever-changing world.
Stating the Obvious about Discipleship Today
Nehemiah stated the obvious: The walls are broken down. Jerusalem is at risk. Noah stated the obvious: Repent; it’s going to rain. Nebuchadnezzar stated the obvious: I’ve got the...
Do I Have What It Takes?
When someone starts a small business, the organizational chart looks a bit like this. Many church leaders function the same way! The vast majority of congregational leaders have...
3 Reasons Leaders Question their Ability
Do I have what it takes to lead? It can hit leaders at most any age, most any season. It has hit me... In my early years, when harsh realities met naive overconfidence. Through...
6 Energy Outputs for Top Level Leaders
Leadership takes energy. However, if you’re like me, you don’t have a never-ending supply. Here are six places to focus your energy that will multiply your efforts. 1 Enter New...
Where Leadership Development Happens
Every church leader needs mentors, coaches, guides to flourish. (For short, we’ll call them mentors.) Remember this? Think of “3” as spiritual apathy and distrusting of church...
There’s Still Good News in Your Congregation
Of course there's still good news… right? The Bible is being taught. The Gospel is being proclaimed. The Sacraments are being administered. Plus, you and other folks like you are...
Reaching People…Why it’s so Difficult Today
It’s much more difficult to reach the average American with the Gospel today than it was 50 years ago. Let me illustrate with a variation of the Engle scale…popularized by Dr....
Leading Change: I Lived to Tell about It!
This week I'm continuing the storytelling I began last week about my experience in leading change. I shared about two of my early seasons of leading through change, and now move...
My Experience in Leading Change
In the past weeks: We’ve compared remembering the past for the sake of future vision or for nostalgia. We’ve reviewed some of the common mistakes leaders make when navigating...
5 Killers of Courage
There are 5 things that will kill courage that any leader, woman or man, needs to know and confront. They’re embedded in who we are. (And they’re adapted from Heifetz, Grashow...
7 Common Mistakes Made When Leading Change
Last week we compared remembering the past for nostalgia or for future vision. Practically speaking, most of us are not able to pursue a compelling God-inspired future vision...
Vision vs. Nostalgia
PLI is marking its 25th anniversary of training leaders to be healthier, better leaders for the sake of the mission of God. God wants His lost people found! And He invites us and...
The Wind of the Spirit Fund
Over the last few weeks, I've shared my conversation with Cheryl Gieseke, a champion for PLI and young pastors and spouses. Last week we discussed the process Cheryl used to...
“PLI Checked All the Boxes”: Continuing the Conversation with Cheryl Gieseke
This week I'm continuing my conversation with Cheryl Gieseke, a champion for young pastors and spouses. But first, a word from one of the young pastors who has benefited from...
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