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Matt Steen loves seeing the church thrive. Currently serving as a Church Concierge with Church Simple, Matt has served as an executive pastor, youth pastor, and planted a church in Baltimore. Matt lives on Long Island with his wife Theresa where he secretly leads a resistance movement against the New York Yankees (this might be the Orioles year... or not). You can follow Matt on twitter (@matt_steen) or at ChurchThought.
On November 13, 1989 a thirteen year old boy came home from school to find his father home. Knowing his father was home several hours early, he instantly realized that something was up… and his father told him something that would have a significant impact on the rest of his life. That was the day that I learned my aunt had killed my …
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A few weeks ago I was a part of The Nines conference. During my presentation, I spoke on the importance of social justice in the church, and how it really is an evangelistic effort. Last night, while sharing dinner with our community group, a friend shared how he thought that recent events on Long Island gave the church an incredible …
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Two weeks ago, while at Catalyst, Andy Stanley rocked my world.
Talking about how we define our “wins” in the ministry world, he shared that for North Point a win on Sunday morning is when an unchurched person shows up, is helped, and comes back next week with a friend. He went on to share that there are people who have an issue …
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With all the difficulties of last week, Theresa and I got to watch something pretty cool happen.
Every night last week, somewhere around sixish, a car would pull up in front of our house, and out would come one of our friends carrying a culinary delights. While the food was amazing, the best part of the experience for us was that we …
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A couple of weeks ago I was given a copy of Tony Morgan’s new book to read and post a review for today. Last week was the first time in two years that this blog has gone dark for more than a day or two. My life changed significantly last week, and I look forward to sharing some of what has happened, and will happen over the course of …
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The idea of clarity, simplicity, and the gospel has been following me around lately:
Last night in one our coaching cohorts (FYI, a couple spots are available for the next cohort) we were discussing the idea of clarity in ministry, and the need to refine our defining values before we can share them with those we are leading.
A few …
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Many of you know that I helped to plant a church in Baltimore called The Garden Community. Planting a church was an incredible roller coaster ride, teaching me about dependence on God, effective leadership, how to care well for people of different backgrounds, and my own spiritual condition. A friend of mine once told me that everyone …
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Recently I started posting a short series on leadership lessons that I learn from my garden. While I would love to say that my intention was to unpack the great mysteries of leadership that only gardening can reveal, I have to be honest and say that a big part of this is an attempt to show off my ability to grow wonderful vegetables, …
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Several weeks ago I stumbled upon an article on Fast Company’s site about David Marquet’s book Turn the Ship Around!: How to Create Leadership at Every Level. Marquet is a retired Captain in the Navy, and is best known for engineering the remarkable turn around of the USS Santa Fe. Upon taking over the boat, David became the captain …
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I love getting things in the mail. The other day, I got a copy of Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller’s book Great Leaders Grow: Becoming a Leader for Life, compliments of Michael Nichols (whose blog you really need to be reading). The book is short and sweet, I read it in a little over an hour (120 pages), and while we all know that we …
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I want to share my best ideas with you each week, along with a ton of great content, fresh ideas, downloadable resources, and more... all for FREE!
