5 Key Websites for the Christian Leader

I've been researching resources over the past week or so and have found, what I believe are, some key web-sites for Christian leaders to bookmark and return to often. With the ready availability of leadership resources today, there is no excuse to go under-resourced. The greatest challenge today is narrowing down that ever-growing list to find those that are the most helpful. I hope this blog post helps with that.

Church Planting
Ed Stetzer - The Lifeway Research Blog. Ed Stetzer is an author, speaker, researcher, pastor, church planter, and Christian missiologist. Stetzer is a contributor to the North American discussion on missional church and church planting.

Ministry/Leadership
ChurchLeaders.com - This great site has resources for ministry leaders from Lead Pastors, to CM, Youth Ministries, Worship Pastors, etc... It also provides a compilation of blog posts relevant to ministry. There's something for everyone and is worth a daily visit.

Coaching For Pastors
ServingStrong.com - Scott Couchenour provides some great encouragement and coaching for pastors who need some help. If you're stressed out or feeling close to burnout, spend some time with Scott. In his own words: "I’m a recovering burnout and depression sufferer." His blogs are short and sweet and helpful.

Pastor's Perspective
RonEdmondson.com - Ron is the pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Lexington, KY. He is also a consultant to church leaders, a church planter and founder of Mustard Seed Ministry, which provides devotionals, family resources and leadership materials. Lots of great material to glean from here.

Church Administration
InsideNorthpoint.org - I stumbled on this site which provides an inside look at how one of the most successful churches in America - Northpoint Community - runs the business side of things. You'll find sections on Budgeting, Facilities, Committees, Church Structures, etc... Lots of stuff to keep the admin minded leader occupied.

These are just a few that I have found to be helpful. What sites are you using to help you in your ministry?

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Cool Link of the Day #6

I've long been a fan of Andy Stanley's ministry at North Point Community Church in Atlanta. I've found many of their resources very helpful in my own ministry and in my leadership development. They've just created a page to put all of their on-line content on one web-page for easy access! So this easily qualifies for my Cool Link of the Day. I hope you find this as helpful as I have. Here is the link.

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Resources: Top Ten Lists For Canadian Christian Leaders - Part II

Last week I posted a blog showing the results of a survey of Canadian Christian leaders. This is a follow-up to that. The Leadership Centre Willow Creek Canada was intending to discover what resources Canadian leaders were using to develop their leadership skills and resource their ministries. The previous post looked at favorite books, authors and podcasts. Today's post gives the results for the most popular blogs.

Interestingly, other questions regarding social media like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn didn't receive enough feedback to produce a result. The measurable scale of impact has not been there for those services as of yet. I'm going to add my own top ten for Twitter just because I've found some helpful ones. (The survey only found three that rated a mention). But before we get to that, here's the first question.

Which 3 BLOGS, Christian or secular, are currently having the most impact or relevance to your ministry?

1. Seth Godin
2. Rick Warren
3. Steven Furtick
4. Andy Stanley
5. Catalyst
6. Ed Stetzer
7. Mark Driscoll
8. Rachel Held Evans
9. Relevant Magazine
10. Scot McKnight

The next question only had three results. I'll list those first and then fill out the list with my own suggestions. If you have suggestions, please feel free to leave a comment.

If applicable, what 3 TWITTER accounts do you find most relevant to your ministry?

1. @RickWarren
2. @CSLewisDaily
3. @PastorMark (Mark Driscoll)
4. @erwinmcmanus
5. @DailyKeller (Tim Keller)
6. @MichaelHyatt
7. @ChristianPost
8. @garyhaugen
9. @RaviZacharias
10. @craiggroeschel
11. @tdbok (Tony denBok) - Hey, it is my blog!

Let me encourage you to plug into these online resources, but to keep a balance. That can be difficult to do as we can find ourselves overwhelmed by content. It may help to set time limits daily in order to keep from getting out of synch. I hope that you find these resources helpful.

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Cool Link of the Day #2!

Resources: Top Ten Lists For Canadian Christian Leaders

Recently The Leadership Centre Willow Creek Canada conducted surveys of Canadian church leaders to find out what was impacting their ministries. I know that I'm always on the prowl for resources that can help me with my leadership so I thought I'd share in one place for you what I found in a series of Scott Cochrane's blogs.

I was pleased to find that I already use many of these resources (so I'm not completely out of touch). I also was pleased to find that there were a few that I haven't checked out yet. Links to the applicable sites are also included  for your convenience. If you have some others that you've stumbled on and would like to share, please leave a comment. So here goes...

In answer to the question:
Which 3 AUTHORS, Christian or secular, are currently having the most impact or relevance to your ministry?

1. Tim Keller
2. Bill Hybels
3. Andy Stanley
4. N.T. Wright
5. Francis Chan
6. Dallas Willard
7. Eugene Peterson
8. Henri Nouwen
9. Brian McLaren
10. Patrick Lencioni
11. Ravi Zacharias - Wasn't on the list but I added him because it's my blog. : )

In answer to the question:
In 2011, what were the 3 most ministry-impacting BOOKS you read?

1. Sun Stand Still, Steven Furtick
2. Radical, David Platt
3. The Power of a Whisper, Bill Hybels Find book review here.
4. Surprised by Hope, N.T. Wright
5. Humilitas, John Dickson
6. Prodigal God, Timothy Keller
7. Sticky Church, Larry Osborne
8. Disappointment With God, Philip Yancey
9. Leading on Empty, Wayne Cordeiro
10. Simple Church, Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger
11. What Good is God? Philip Yancey - Again... it's my blog. See review here.

Final question:
Which 3 PODCASTS, Christian or secular, are currently having the most impact or relevance to your ministry?

1. Andy Stanley
2. Timothy Keller
3. Mark Driscoll
4. Bill Hybels
5. Craig Groeschel
6. Focus on the Family
7. Ravi Zacharias
8. Mark Buchanan
9. TEDTalks
10. The Meeting House
11. Erwin McManus - It's still my blog.

These are great resources for leaders. I hope that you take some tome and check them out. Remember to do something - every day - to help yourself grow as a leader.

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Cool Link of the Day #2!

I found this link while surfing the web today. It has some nice resources for Christian leaders, including a free on-line assessment of your leadership style. You'll find a lot of helpful things here for leadership development.

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