Tag Archives: leadership

Can your congregation change?

Posted on September 5, 2019 by Mark Love

In my consulting work with congregations, I’ve learned a few things about the capacity of a congregation to make significant changes. I am of the mind that a hopeful future for most congregations will require deep, adaptive change. All congregations … Continue reading →

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Moving beyond the 20/80% rule: competency five, finding and empowering new leaders for mission

Posted on November 3, 2014 by Mark Love

I say this all the time to congregations: “the 20% who do 80% of the work.” I have yet to meet resistance to this characterization of church life. Not a single person has expressed skepticism about this or insisted their … Continue reading →

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“Christian leadership” is not an oxymoron

Posted on July 1, 2014 by Mark Love

Sorry for the long delay between posts. Since my last post, I got married, honeymooned in San Francisco, and took three weeks to recover from a nasty bout of bronchitis. Hopefully, I’m up and back at it now. My friend, … Continue reading →

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Your focus becomes your life

Posted on May 29, 2014 by Mark Love

I know how easy it is for church life to get derailed by the silly or the peripheral. Someone’s hobby gets loud enough to dominate the collective energy of the church. A lot of time, this occurs because the church … Continue reading →

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More Metrics for a Post-christendom Congregation: multiple paths to “citizenship”

Posted on June 4, 2013 by Mark Love

I’ve been talking to multiple congregations as of late concerning how new members came to join their church. In nearly every case (limited sample), new members belonged to another congregation before joining. That is, they were informed consumers (used in … Continue reading →

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Discerning and Joining: Movements in Leading God’s People in Power

Posted on April 4, 2013 by Mark Love

I’ve been thinking a lot about the tasks related to leading in congregations lately. More to the point, I’ve been thinking about how to create a culture within congregations in which they can act, or express their life powerfully (I … Continue reading →

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Process as Grace: why institution matters

Posted on November 6, 2012 by Mark Love

I voted today. Someone provided a place for me to say yes and no to things. I’ve held myself out of the vitriol that has been our public discourse knowing that I would be able at some point to darken … Continue reading →

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The Divine is in the Details: Why are congregations bad at processes

Posted on October 31, 2012 by Mark Love

Here’s my assumption. Congregations stink at processes. They stink two ways. Most don’t have processes they dearly need. And the processes they do have do not embody adequately theological beliefs or commitments. I’ve got some pretty big church horror stories, … Continue reading →

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The Divine is in the Details: Process and the Leading of God

Posted on October 30, 2012 by Mark Love

As with so many things, Luke Timothy Johnson says it right. “If we identify the church as a community of faith, the process of decision making ought to make the structures and implications of this response to reality called ‘faith’ … Continue reading →

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Reflections on the Arab Spring, Current Unrest, and the Dynamics of Change

Posted on September 21, 2012 by Mark Love

Last year’s Arab Spring seemed to suggest a seismic shift of sorts in that part of the world. Dictators were being thrown over and replaced with people’s movements, fledgling democracies forming right before our eyes. One of the things most … Continue reading →

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