Redefining Success Without Lowering Your Standards

By Karl Vaters Pastors may be the hardest-working, most undervalued members of our society. And that goes double for the small church and bivocational pastors I spend a lot of time with. So why are we so dismissive of our own worth? I”m not talking about humility, which is always appropriate. I”m talking about a toxic mind-set that traps many of us. We tell people in our churches that God is interested in them for who they are, not for what they do. We tell them it doesn”t matter how much money they earn, how big their business is, what

March 5, 2016

Christian Standard

Church Leadership

Bigger Than “˜Bigger and Better”

By Chris Travis On the one hand, I get it. If you want a picture of what a church is like, then the number of people who come on Sundays fills in a lot of information quickly. But does it tell the whole story? I think we all know it doesn”t, and yet, we”re really not sure how else to define success. “What are you running on Sundays now?” Three different people asked me that question within five minutes. This was not at a church planting conference. This was at my home church! People didn”t ask how my wife was