Professional
Tools
by Doug Lawrence
Nelson Mandela's 8 Lessons of Leadership Nelson Mandela’s eight lessons of leadership are truths that work well for world leaders, and also pretty well for church leaders...
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7 Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Speak Ministry usually involves a lot of talking. We should see to it that our speaking meets our highest personal values and articulates our character well. Doug Lawrence gives good advice about how to do so.
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Can Teams Plan Worship? Is worship planning with a team possible? Doug Lawrence provides a 7 step plan to make it work.
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Renewing Your Thinking About Transcendent Worship... If we want people to have an opportunity to discover the inexplicable God, we have to create moments of reflection and awe
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5 Observations about Worship I spoke recently on the subject Worship Wars Today: 7 Ways to Protect Your Church from Collateral Damage. (Is this still a hot button? Oh yes, STILL!)
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4 ways to Get Along with Colleagues you Wouldn’t have as Friends Don't like the people you work with? Here are four ways to get along
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4 Things You Must Never Do in Ministry A list of four critical things to never do in your ministry...
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7 Questions about Job Interviews Are you ready for the interview that might land you the perfect church job?
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We Aren't So Faithful The Hartford Institute for Religion Research documents, from various sources, that church attendance may be less than we thought it to be
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4 Important Ways to Be Yourself in Leadership Four important things to do when you are giving leadership
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6 Thoughts About Surviving Criticism Every church musician will face criticism—guaranteed—but how you handle it will determine whether you learn from it or it defeats you.
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For whom do you work? Establishing for whom you work can lead to more success in your ministry. Here's some help for your decision process...
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7 Rules for Being a Good Leader Seven rules for leadership provided as an encouragement for you to be God’s person wherever you find yourself leading and ministering to people...
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7 Questions about Using Media Tech in Your Worship Every church employee needs to have at least a working knowledge of how this equipment can enhance ministry. These questions will help you gain a "critical mass" of that knowledge...
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Should Every Church in America Rethink Itself? Doug Lawrence provides 5 resources to help churches rethink themselves. Use these resources to keep looking around regarding your POV and to shed light in the dark places.
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7 Questions I'd Like to Have with God about Worship I’ve always wondered if God sent His Son to visit one of our churches, would He have stayed until the end of the service
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The "Great Majority?" Humbug! Are you weary of “one size fits all” worship? You may, as it turns out (thank God), not be part of “The Great Majority!” The good news, however, is that you may just be a leader!
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Don't listen to me…whatta I know? Many pastors and their musicians are like oil and water (that’s not always true—thank God). Yet, they are incredibly fortunate to learn from each other. Learning to applaud differences is at the heart of a good relationship between Pastors and Church Musicians
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7 questions you might ask to see if you suffered a failure to worship 7 Questions to help you avoid worship fail
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Pass it on... Doug Lawrence says his greatest hope is that each generation of church musicians will love and support the next, without rancor, selfishness, or complaint about lost eras. If that’s what actually happens, imagine how many thousands of people will be encouraged, enlightened, and blessed as they pursue God’s call...
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7 Ways to Manage Change in Ministry Change is inevitable in life, and in ministry. Here are seven ways to manage change.
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7 Questions to help decide whether multisite is for your church 7 Questions to deal with cautions that churches might consider before leaping into the multi site paradigm
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Getting Groups to Collaboration Collaboration always and uniquely suggests that something will be created—something will come into existence. This is a very different process than working together toward the same end...
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Let Your Voice Be Heard...Sometimes Every church musician has been through the frustration of trying to articulate vision for other members of the pastoral team or elders who are charged with oversight of worship programs. Whether the topic is re-building the organ or hiring a drummer for this week's worship band, often times there is an element of embarrassment or even ridicule for musicians who "don't understand" the issues involved (usually money). We know that church musicians participate in a wide variety of discussions, so here are some important suggestions to let your voice be heard.
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Building a Worship Portfolio How to build a portfolio of worship that sustains you on the days when you find it difficult to worship
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7 Questions to Individuate Your Church's Vision 7 questions that address the issue of the "cookie cutter" syndrome which turns many churches into Xerox copies of one another. These questions are designed to stimulate conversations about how churches can individuate themselves in a time of renewal, outreach, and missional passion...
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Jesus Habits You can learn a lot from what Jesus taught, but even more from practicing what He did. The more you devote yourself to emulating Jesus' habits, the more God will bless you.
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7 essential questions about the whys 'n stuff of worship 7 essential Questions to explore the whys and stuff of worship more deeply
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Life Insurance—Get Some Today When we leave the churches where we have served, we become a “dead” person. We loved the family, but we can no longer participate in their future. We should take out some “life insurance” or “legacy insurance” before we go, in order to make sure people say, “He/she really cared about us.”
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7 Questions about Basic Creativity and Imagination Our imaginations are our chief tool for creating vital and engaging services, but in our “follower” culture, we may be losing our ability to imagine
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Why I Won't Go to a Church that Labels Me We are naive, in my opinion, to assume that people will come to our churches because we advertise that such and such a service is traditional or contemporary, as though those were the only two meaningful words that describe our intentions for those worship services...
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Constructive Waiting in Worship Ministry Our job when waiting is to let God be our waiting room. It is not a time for isolation. God designed us to wait on Him, not to wait for Him. A non-anxious worship leader is just that—non-anxious.
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What Christmas Teaches Us About Leadership Doug Lawrence presents 5 leadership lessons that can be learned from Christmas
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7 Questions that will Lead to a Stronger Relationship with your Senior Pastor Seven questions that can help define working relationships (and facilitate better ones) between a church musician and a pastor
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7 Questions to Help Revitalize a Church Staff Longevity on any team is often a rare commodity, but where it exists, complacency can easily find the necessary window to enter. It's not hard to start doing things by rote and lose the "fire in the belly." Here are 7 Questions to revive the "tired" staff.
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7 Questions to Ask about Your Church's Worship Health Is worship the net result of what we're actually doing? These questions should function as a reality check for those of us involved in helping other people to have an encounter with a living God...
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Hearts of gold, feet of clay... The sheer weight of ministry can be mind numbing. You work and work and work, and then it’s Monday again. One’s heart can be numbed too in this process and often is...
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When Jesus Comes! Doug Lawrence says he's still anticipating the second coming of Christ with great expectancy, although he knows he may have to wait a long time. But there are some things he simply don’t want to wait for...
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I’ve always cried at Christmas Doug Lawrence says that Christmas reminds us that our leadership is at it’s best when it’s at its softest and most humbly adoring
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Music Ministry Excellence on a Small Budget Doug Lawrence provides some basic ways to assist excellence in music ministry with whatever resources you have available
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Love or Legalism We need to let our volunteers be imperfect in order to encourage humility and the seeking of redemption every time we enter God’s presence to lead worship
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