Christianity 9 to 5 Magazine
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Issue 33: Teaching with Excellence
Seven Reasons Speakers Flop
Mark Sanborn
According to
Sanborn, a professional speaker, an essential
way to improve our speaking ability is to
anticipate and eliminate those behaviors that undermine our message
and our credibility. Here are seven of those behaviors.
Ten Disciplines for Transformational Teaching
Michael Zigarelli
For most people,
great teaching doesn’t just happen. Whether we’re in the classroom,
in the pulpit, on stage, on the radio, or anywhere else, to teach
people with excellence—and in a way that can change hearts and
minds—requires more than some good ideas and lots of preparation. It
requires that we engage in the kind of lifestyle and professional
habits from which outstanding teaching naturally flows.
Twelve Timeless Teaching Tips
Robert Harris
Christian educator Robert Harris
presents a terrific, back-to-basics collection of teaching
practices, generously seasoned with some insights you may have never
considered.
Editorial:
Teach the Whole Truth
Michael Zigarelli
Pastors and
Christian educators can suffer from two opposite but related
errors in their teaching. Pastors usually impart Biblical
revelation while ignoring scientific revelation; Christian
teachers usually impart scientific revelation while ignoring
Biblical revelation. We would all benefit if these leaders
broadened their epistemology—their understanding of what counts
as "knowledge"—and taught more often from the whole truth of
theology plus science.
Related articles from the archives:
Issue 32: Christian Leadership
Putting People First
John Beckett
According to
John Beckett, one of the great ambassadors of the faith in the
business world, “It is because of the Father’s great love for
each person that every follower of Christ is called to put
people first.” Despite the financial tradeoffs that may entail
in management, “from God’s perspective there is no greater
priority on this earth than people.” What does that mean on
Monday morning? This excerpt from John’s new book, Mastering
Monday, explores some of the practical implications.
A Curriculum for Developing Christian Leaders
Michael Zigarelli
Are you
called to train up people to become Christian leaders? There are
a lot of models for how to do that. This road-tested approach,
built on the ideas of Dallas Willard, can encourage not just
inspiration, but genuine transformation of the person into a
more faithful, more effective leader.
Leading from
a Christian Worldview
Nancy Pearcey
“The central
problem of our age is not liberalism or modernism,” writes Francis
Schaeffer—or even hot-button social issues like evolution, abortion,
radical feminism, or homosexual rights. The primary threat to the
church is the “tendency to do the Lord’s work in the power of the
flesh rather than the Spirit.” This paradigm-changing article, excerpted
from Pearcey's book, Total Truth, presents an
essential alternative for every ministry leader.
Essential Lessons from Peter Drucker (pdf file)
John Pearson
Of all the
lessons Peter Drucker taught us, what are the most essential?
And how can we continue to learn from this remarkable man?
Consultant John Pearson, former President of the Christian
Management Association, offers some insight in his practical new
book, Mastering the Management Buckets.
Toolkit: Managing a Micromanager
Michael Zigarelli
If the title
of this article caught your eye, you’ve probably known a
micromanager or two. Maybe you see the profile daily, in all of
its domineering, insulting, oppressive, control-freakish glory.
Most of the standard approaches to persuasion will not get this
person to back off. But here’s an idea that just might work.
Related articles from the archives:
Issue 31: Personal Change
A Pattern for Spiritual Change
Dallas Willard
Like all of Dallas Willard's work, this is an article to be
studied, not just read. Willard explains the general pattern for
how we can change and applies it to spiritual transformation,
giving us a much-needed road map for how to become more like
Jesus.
Pride: The Great Sin
CS Lewis
A "spiritual cancer," "the complete anti-God state of mind," and
"the chief cause of misery in every nation and in every family
since the world began." These are just of few of the descriptors
that C.S. Lewis uses to describe our pride. Here is his
penetrating chapter on "The Great Sin" from his classic, Mere
Christianity.
Gratitude: Pathway to Permanent Change
Michael Zigarelli
"Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, it is also the
parent of all the others." So said the ancient philosopher
Cicero. Two millennia later, our study of thousands of
Christians confirms that gratitude indeed spawns myriad elusive
virtues, like joy, inner peace, patience, forgiveness, and
self-control.
You Need a Leadership Coach
Andy Stanley
In the world of athletics, nobody performs his way out of
needing a coach. In the world of leadership, though, we operate
under the misguided assumption that because we are leaders, we
don't need to be led.
Editorial:
Why Discipleship Fails
Michael Zigarelli
Why is it that even when we know what's right, we often do
what's wrong? A lot of reasons, for sure, but the most basic is
this: We never really intended to do what's right, at least not
consistently. Indeed, that's a personal failure, but it's also
a failure of how we disciple people.
Issue 30: Persuasive Communication
Influence through Storytelling
Michael Zigarelli
Jesus used
stories all the time, but he used them for far more than
inspiration or entertainment. He introduced, through his
parables, a new way to understand and relate to God and to the
people around us. In fact, storytelling was arguably Jesus’
primary approach to persuasion. This article explores what makes
that approach so powerful and offers several practical tips for
improving our own storytelling.
Choosing the Right Story for Your Leadership Challenge
Steve Denning
Storytelling is an art, but there's also a science to knowing
when to use what type of story. In this excerpt from his book,
The Leader's Guide to Storytelling, best- selling author Steve
Denning advises leaders how to choose different stories for
different managerial situations.
The Best (and Worst) Practices for Sharing Your Faith
Tim Downs
With wit and wisdom, this article offers five powerful
approaches to becoming more persuasive with non- Christians:
Speak the Unbeliever's Language, Show an Understanding of the
Unbeliever's World, Be Intelligent and Credible, Use Tools That
Raise Good Questions, and Have a Reasonable Persuasive Goal.
I Was Suspicious of Christians Until I Met Arthur
James O'Donnell
1984. The hinge of my life. I found I believed in nothing. I
trusted no one. And no one I knew was worth trusting. That is,
until I met Arthur.
Ten Tips for Delivering Criticism with Care
Michael Zigarelli
By most accounts,
delivering negative feedback remains one of the greatest
workplace challenges, even for senior managers. And when a
Christian does this poorly, there's even more at stake since he
or she is quickly considered a hypocrite by the person receiving
the feedback. Here are ten Biblically-consistent tips to
deliver criticism with care.
Issue 29: Drifting
from God
Distracted from God: A Five Year Worldwide Study
Michael Zigarelli
Among the primary
obstacles to living well is today’s frenetic pace of
life. Busyness, hurry, overload, burnout—it’s known
by many names, but there are two common outcomes: this lifestyle distracts us from God and
undermines the abundant, joyful life God desires
for us.
That's not just speculation; it's the conclusion from this study
of 20,000 Christians in 139 countries.
How the Gospel of Evolution Steals Our Faith
Charles Colson and Nancy Pearcey
If Darwin's theory is right, then
the Bible is wrong. Notwithstanding, his ideas are usually presented as
facts rather than theory -- irrefutable facts that
"everyone" knows to be true. In this article, Chuck Colson and Nancy Pearcey tell an
eye-opening story about how this unproven but dogmatic gospel of evolution
steals our faith by subtly changing our thinking about God.
Maintaining a Christian Worldview: An Introduction to the Work
of Francis Schaeffer
Todd Kappelman
Francis Schaeffer (1912-1984) was one of the most
recognized and respected Christian authors of the twentieth
century. As a consummate scholar with a deep concern for the
average Christian, his books are both profound and
highly-accessible. Here's an introduction to some of his
greatest work.
Conquering Lust on the Job
Jeff Wright and Mick Bates
You understand
the problem, but you might not understand its many causes and
consequences – or what to do about it. Here’s substantive help for
one of our greatest battles.
A Better Way to Think About Prayer
David Steindl-Rast
For some of
us, saying prayers wholeheartedly may be the crowning achievement
after we have learned to make every other activity prayer. If your
prayer life is not what it should be, maybe it's time to try
something else.
Issue 28: Pursuing
Your Purpose
Devotional: Doing Your Job as Jesus Would Do It
Dallas Willard
Willard may be
to the 21st century what CS Lewis was to the 20th. He says more
in this brief devotional piece than most writers say in an
entire book.
Rediscovering Joy in Your Work (pdf file)
Nancy Pearcey
No Christian, says Nancy Pearcey,
can be truly happy at work when torn between a secular and a
supernatural perspective on that work. In this excerpt from her
profound book, Total Truth, Pearcey encourages Christians
to discover the joy of finally thinking rightly about their
work -- the joy of thinking about it from a biblical worldview.
The Mission of the Christian University (pdf file)
Michael Zigarelli
As secular
forces gain ground throughout the culture, what should Christian
universities be doing in response? How can they reclaim their
role as agents of redemption and transformation in society? This
article offers substantive advice for how Christian
schools can train-up students to think christianly and to engage
the culture as
influential ambassadors of the faith.
Should You Leave Your Job for Full-Time Ministry?
Tom R. Harper
If you're
sensing that God may be calling you into full-time ministry, read
this first. Based
on his study of 344 “crossover leaders” — church leaders who once
worked in the secular marketplace but then crossed over to
full-time ministry work — Tom Harper offers some clarifying
perspective.
What Drives Your Life?
Rick Warren
Without a
clear purpose, says the author of The Purpose-Driven Life, you will keep changing directions, jobs,
relationships, and even churches, hoping each change
will finally fill the emptiness in your heart.
If this describes you even a little, the timing of this article
may not be a coincidence.
Issue 27:
Double Issue
Designing Your Church for Maximum Impact
Churches that Develop the Christian Mind
J.P. Moreland
The church
– not the university, the public schools, or the media – has the
primary responsibility to teach truth, train the mind, and
properly orient our thinking. But you would never know that by
examining the structure, practices or goals of our local
churches. In this chapter from his path-breaking book, Love
Your God with All of Your Mind, philosopher and theologian
J.P. Moreland calls local churches back to this vital function
of developing the Christian mind and offers several practical
suggestions for how any church can do that.
Building a Simple Church
(pdf file)
Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger
Based on an
in-depth study of four hundred American churches, the authors
now share their breakthrough conclusion: "simple" churches --
focused, well-aligned churches with complete clarity of purpose
-- are more vibrant, more effective churches. Here's
chapter 1 from their award-winning book, Simple Church.
Marketing for Ministries: How to Win the Battle for Hearts and
Minds (pdf file)
George Babbes and Michael Zigarelli
Why should
a ministry care about marketing?
Because people do things for their reasons, not yours. And
because we live in a world of unlimited choices. To help you
win the battle for people’s hearts and minds, this chapter from
The Minister’s MBA offers a primer on ethical, effective
marketing.
The Gap Between Pastor Perceptions and Church Member Realities
George Barna
Based on
interviews with a representative national sample of 627
Protestant pastors, this Barna study discovered that pastors
believe the vast majority of their congregants deem their faith
in God to be the highest priority in their life. But when the
researchers asked the congregants to identify their top
priority, a very different picture emerged.
Why Men Hate Church (and what church leaders can do
to change that)
David Murrow
Here’s an
extended excerpt from the groundbreaking book,
Why Men Hate Going to Church. With poignant and humorous
insights, television writer and producer David Murrow explains
the problem and offers hope and encouragement. In this article,
he doesn’t call men back to church; he calls the church back to
men.
The Art of Leading a Small Group
(pdf file)
Michael Zigarelli
There’s been
a lot written on how to lead a small group and how not to lead
one. Here’s a compilation of some of the best ideas out
there — twenty tips that will assist you in leading your group to
a life-changing experience.
Related articles from the archives:
Issue 26: Simplifying Your Life
Profession or Obsession?
Bill Hybels
In this article,
internationally-acclaimed author Bill Hybels, founding pastor of
Willow Creek Community Church, describes the problem of
workaholism, its effect on the worker and his or her family, its
root cause, and its cure.
Escape the Bondage of Busyness
Michael Zigarelli
We live in a
culture that encourages us to work too much, to spend too much,
to do too much, and to strive for “the good life" through
accumulation and activity. The bitter irony, of course, is that
the pursuit of that sort of good life makes us miserable.
Excerpted from the author's book,
Freedom
from Busyness, here's some Biblically-based perspective on
how to escape, once and for all.
Simplify Your Prayer Life
Donald
Whitney
From
his refreshingly practical book,
Simplify Your Spiritual Life, Professor Whitney counsels us
how to strengthen our prayer life through simplifying it.
Devotional:
Courage, Character and Civility
Randy Kilgore
It was a
moment it took twenty years of sacrifice to
manufacture, and even then it would be another twenty-seven
years before the real celebration could begin. Still,
Wilberforce's moment was one for the ages.
Issue 25:
Training People to Think Christianly
The Challenge for Christian Higher Education
Michael Duduit
Today's Christian colleges and universities
must provide an intellectual bulwark against the secularizing
cultural trends that have swept through American higher
education. According to Duduit, if any institution is going to train America's next
generation of leaders that "truth" has meaning, it will be our
Christian universities. How can we insure that our church-supported
colleges and universities stand firm in these essential tasks?
Here are five ways.
The Professor's Task in the Christian University
David Gushee
Whether you're in Christian
higher education or secondary education, this is a must-read
piece from one of today's leading thinkers. Gushee, a Christian
ethicist and regular contributor to Christianity Today,
lays out an incisive framework for how to re-conceptualize and
restructure the work of Christian educators.
The Integration of Faith and Learning
Robert Harris
Harris,
a long-time Christian
educator, says that if
students do not learn to integrate faith and learning during
their undergraduate years, then it may not occur. In graduate
school and professional life, students may adopt the current
paradigms of the field without realizing that those paradigms
include a set of metaphysical assumptions, often naturalistic
and humanistic, that conflict with Christian truth.
Worldview @ Work
Michael Zigarelli
How people make decisions, what
they find persuasive, and their whole philosophy of right and wrong
is a function of their “worldview” –- their core assumptions about
God, about the world, and about the relationship between the two. In
this article, the author demystifies the concept of worldview,
identifies the predominant worldviews we see in the workplace, and
shows how to strategically use this knowledge for God's purposes.
Issue 24: Dealing with Trials
Adversity: How God Shapes a Christian Leader
Os Hillman
If you’re
experiencing significant adversity in your life, congratulations!
God has selected you to embark on the journey of a lifetime. He has
chosen you to join the select company of people like Job and Joseph,
Daniel and Paul—people who have undergone adversity to emerge with
stronger character and enlarged leadership ability.
Where Character Bottoms Out: The Over-extended Years of the
20s and 30s
Michael Zigarelli
Based on a
study of almost 2,500 Christians age 20 to 40, here are the
striking findings: Without question, this is the time of life when
God gets crowded out, character bottoms out, and life satisfaction
strikes out.
A Scholarly Look at the
Faith at Work Movement
(pdf file)
David Miller
Yale Divinity
School professor David Miller offers us a rare, erudite perspective
on the broad-based movement to live out our faith in the workplace.
If you're hungry for something deeper than what's typically offered
by workplace Christianity books, this excerpt from Dr. Miller's new
book,
God at Work, is just for you.
The Parable of the Janitor and the CEO
Buck Jacobs
A
brief but
powerful story that poignantly reminds us what’s really important in
our work life.
Editorial:
Dictators Masquerading as Christian Leaders
Michael Zigarelli
It’s a dirty
little secret in Christendom, but it’s becoming more and more
public. There are some Christian leaders who are veritable ogres.
And it's nothing short of scandalous.
For articles from Issues
1-23, please visit our
articles library
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