Leadership

My church. For too long you have wandered the desert looking for Me. Good that you reflect upon My Word, but ill that you do not believe. You reduce My Word to simple platitudes; slogans for billboards and Internet memes. You prop yourselves up by them in your times of distress instead of remaining in grace through faith.

In the past several years, the church technology industry has undergone many changes that have encouraged some, while discouraging others. As technology advancements continue, new companies start up and newcomers to the church tech industry enter and acquire firms to consolidate and rebuild. More recently, private equity firms have entered the space getting involved in acquisitions and shifting resources to various technology firms in order to position for growth and financial gain. All these moves cause disruption - to tech companies as well as the churches they serve; change is never easy.

Bob Goff founded a law firm, wrote a New York Times best-selling book and serves as the honorary consul for the Republic of Uganda. The guy gets things done. But every Thursday he quits something. We could learn something from Bob. Maybe your church needs to quit: Quit that social media account with three followers. Quit locking up your Wi-Fi with a password. Quit pretending email isn’t important. Whatever your church is struggling with, give yourself permission to quit.

Leadership styles can vary greatly from person to person, depending on the organization and its structure. Churches are not exempt from the leadership styles of the senior pastor and leadership team. The best organizations smoothly guide their church staff and volunteers; the worst organizations have disgruntled pastors and leaders who aren't so happy about the leadership under which they work. Here are five leadership styles along with an insightful infographic to help educate you about leadership styles that exist:

We all know that volunteers are the lifeblood of any church. If churches had to pay each of their children's ministry teachers, small group leaders, women's and men's ministry leaders, and vacation bible school teachers, they'd be up a creek, fast. Some churches keep their staff incredibly lean and rely predominantly on volunteers while other churches have more robust staff members and fewer volunteers; either way, volunteers need to be screened, training, and thanked. Below are five resources aimed at helping your church lean in to the volunteer management process.

The mission of ChurchTechToday is to provide technology resources for today's church. Over the past few months we've been wondering as a staff how we could do that better. We've wrestled with questions about... What should we cover more? What should we cover less? What technologies are we missing? Our goal is to provide resources that meet the needs of the local church, without adding noise to an already busy life. To do that better, we need your help.

Recently I took thirteen Christian undergraduate students on a field trip to Southern California. One morning, after our buffet breakfast at the Best Western, we got together in the hotel foyer and chatted about faith and technology. It provoked at least three observations for me. 1. Technology makes information more accessible and learning less common.

A megachurch is a church that consistently draws more than 2000 people. While not exclusive to the United States, there are about 1600 churches nationwide that fit the profile. While each church is diverse and different, several similarities appear between them. The following infographic looks at some of these commonalities; attendees, campus type and leader.