Rick Warren's Online Community for Pastors and Church Leaders
Scott Couchenour is a certified life coach and founder of Serving Strong, a resourcing and coaching service to ministry leaders. Serving Strong exists to eliminate burnout from the ministry equation. He is also VP of Operations for Cogun, Inc., a company that helps churches expand their ministry facilities through consulting, design coordination, and construction. Scott flies around in an empty nest in Ohio with his wife of over 26 years. He has two grown children. Scott believes in the local church and pursues a God-given passion to enable pastors to serve strong. You can visit Scott's website at www.servingstrong.com and follow him on Twitter.
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What would make a Father give his Son to a band of thieves and bandits to have their way with him?
Love
What would make a man give up a good name for ignorant ridicule and scoffing?
Love
What would make a mother bring her child into a world through scandalous appearances?
Love
What would make a Man give up his limitless …
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You are either CONSUMING or BEING CONSUMED
When you are Consuming, you are taking in needed energy. You are replenishing what you’ve given out to others in the name of Jesus.
When you are Being Consumed you are giving out energy. You are doing the work of leadership; of ministry.
(Note: In my experience, ministry leaders …
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“I can do it better myself.”
True, to an extent. But you can’t do everything better. And even if you could, where would you find the time? This phrase leads down the path of “I must do it all”. You can’t do it all. You are finite. You are rhythmic. You cannot sustain a fevered pace, going from one task to the next. You will …
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It’s almost Thanksgiving. Christmas is already showing up on the streets and in the stores. You’ve been here before. Choir rehearsals. Play practice. Band rehearsals. Gift shopping. Wrapping. Sermon prep. Decorating the sanctuary. Setting up the Christmas tree. These are just a few of the items on your “to-do” list.
But how …
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Leadership sucks (you can quote me on that.) When God taps the shoulder of a person for the purpose of leading a ministry, you can be sure they are in for a ride. Leadership is about taking people forward toward a vision of the future. Forward movement always involves change. Leading change makes lightning rods out of leaders – and that …
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Pete jerked into consciousness at the sound of his alarm clock.
6:00am… already.
He laid there in the quiet stillness. Meanwhile, all the little monkeys, who were sitting at his bedside, realized Pete was awake and they proceeded to jump back into his mind.
One monkey whispered, “You’re still alone in this …
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Dear Discouraged Pastor,
The God who hung the stars is big enough to hang a shining light of guidance over your staff challenges. Plus, He’s bigger than your church’s naysayers, no shows, and negative bank balance.
The God who raised Lazarus from the grave is more than capable of raising up the leaders He needs from your …
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Ministry leaders who serve strong are defined by 4 phrases:
I HOPE
“I put my hope and trust in Jesus Christ, the Saviour and Lord of my life. In Him I move and breathe. He is the sole source of my strength.”
I CAN
“Because I am called, I am empowered. Apart from Him I can do nothing. But with Him I can do all things …
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PASTORS: If you want to be effective today, try being ‘interruptible.’ Relationships matter.
This was a tweet I saw recently from a quality person I’ve come to know through Twitter, Ben Reed (follow Ben on Twitter for yourself). Your own personal Strongology demands that you have a life plan and employ certain techniques for …
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Ask a victim of burnout what led to their demise. Chances are, they will include some sort of interpersonal conflict with one or more other people. Unresolved conflict saps the energy from the best of us. It’s intimidating. It’s depressing.
For a lot of people, the problem is simply the fact that they don’t know what to say or …
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