George Bullard's Journey

Every Congregation Needs a Little Conflict

Just posted to www.Amazon.com is my newest Amazon Short E-Book--Every Congregation Needs a Little Conflict. This is a teaser for the full book scheduled to be released during 2008 as part of the book series The Columbia Partnership Leadership Series.

Check out this e-book. You can download it for 49 cents. Let me know what you think about it.  Consider writing a review of this e-book on Amazon.

An Interview with Bob Pike

Download an Interview by Norman Jameson with Bob Pike, a plenary speaker at www.New07.org.

Download An Interview with Bob Pike

Your Personal Spiritual Strategic Journey

One key qualification for leaders seeking to help their congregations engage in a spiritual strategic journey is that they have a personal spiritual strategic journey. How is your personal spiritual strategic journey? Do you work on it regularly? Do you work on it with great spiritual passion?

Do you have a personal mission statement involving a clear mission, a specific purpose statement, an understanding of the core values of extreme importance in your life, an empowering vision, and accountability for seeking to fulfill it? If so, what is it? How did you develop it? With whom do you share it regularly? How do you hold yourself accountable for living into it?

What are your life and ministry passions that are part of your spiritual strategic journey? What are their contributions to your full personal ministry potential? In what ways are others able to see the expressions of your passions in the ways in which you practice ministry?

Who is your coach for your current journey? What contributions does your coach make to the fulfillment of your journey? What do you ask you coach to hold you accountable to do? How well is that going?

How is your personal spiritual strategic journey making you an excellent leader with an exceptional practice of the spiritual strategic journey of your congregation?

Your Personal Spiritual Strategic Journey is one of the themes in my book, Pursuing the Full Kingdom Potential of Your Congregation.

For a few more thoughts on Your Personal Spiritual Strategic Journey, keep reading.

An Interview with Ed Stetzer

Download Interview by Norman Jameson with Ed Stetzer, a plenary speaker at www.NEW07.org:

Download An Interview with Ed Stetzer

Vision Plus Intentionality

The essence of what it takes to move a congregation forward is Vision Plus Intentionality. This means a congregation has a clear understanding of God's spiritual strategic direction, and is intentionally living into that direction. While there is a whole lot more to it than just these three simple words, they are the essence.

Having Vision Plus Intentionality does not guarantee a congregation will reach its Full Kingdom Potential. It just means it is headed in the right direction. Having Vision Plus Intentionality is the difference between a congregation that is thriving rather than one simply surviving.

I recently spent a weekend with a congregation where their primary question at the beginning of the weekend was about surviving. By the end of the Congregational Assessment and Learning Experience, we were focusing on what are the pathways to thriving.

Having Vision Plus Intentionality implies a congregation knows who it is, what it values or believes, knows where it is headed, and is intentionally seeking to get there. It does not bind or box in the actual content of these factors. It simply implies a congregation must have wrestled with these issues within a Christ-centric, faith-based context, and be motivated by the clarity and empowerment of their answers.

How is your congregation doing with Vision Plus Intentionality?

Vision Plus Intentionality is one of the themes in my book, Pursuing the Full Kingdom Potential of Your Congregation.

For a few more thoughts about Vision Plus Intentionality and Congregational Assessment and Learning Experience, keep on reading.

Full Kingdom Potential

One core concept in the book, Pursuing the Full Kingdom Potential of Your Congregation, is Full Kingdom Potential. "Potential" refers to the excellence and effectiveness that is possible for a congregation. "Kingdom" refers to the reign of God in people's heart, soul, mind, and strength. "Full" refers to the complete or to the greatest extent.

Therefore, Full Kingdom Potential means the greatest possible excellence or effectiveness of the life and ministry of a congregation in the spirit of the reign of God among persons or a community. It happens when a congregation give itself completely to a focus on God's call in the life and ministry of the whole congregation.

It is for a congregation to be involved in a journey sufficiently spiritual and strategic for it to continually leap forward towards its Full Kingdom Potential.

Full Kingdom Potential is one of the themes in my book, Pursuing the Full Kingdom Potential of Your Congregation.

An Interview with Jim Harnish

Download Interview by Norman Jameson with Jim Harnish, a plenary speaker at www.NEW07.org:

Download Jim Harnish Interview

Signs of Health and Strength

One of the most important questions you can ask around your congregation on a regular basis is, "What are the current signs of health and strength in the life and ministry of our congregation on which we can build an excellent, effective future?"

Part of reaching your Full Kingdom Potential is to affirm what is good, right, and loving about your congregation, and seek to build on these characteristics.

Some approaches to organizational development and health seek to focus on what is wrong, unhealthy, or dysfunctional. While we should not have a "Pollyanna" perspective on our congregation, we should have a positive perspective.

It is what is good, right, and loving in your congregation that will form the basis of a future through which God can pull your congregation forward in ministry.

As author, teacher, and consultant Kennon Callahan shared many years ago, you can fix all the problems in your congregation and bring it right up to neutral. Fixing problems will not shape the future of an effective congregation. Building on strengths will.

Ask the question about signs of health and strength of your congregational leadership regularly. Focus on the top three to five. Build an effectiveness culture in your congregation.

Always be about FaithSoaring in the spirit of 2 Corinthians 5:7.

Signs of Health and Strength is one of the themes in my book, Pursuing the Full Kingdom Potential of Your Congregation.

Would you like a suggested exercise for working with a group of leaders to determine your signs of health and strength? If so continue to the next page by clicking on the link below.