The pandemic changed a lot of the ways we structure our services.

Prioritizing the online experience became essential for any church to thrive during that time.

But now most churches are back to some type of in-person services (depending where you are, of course).

This does NOT mean we should go back to "normal." Instead, we should still seek to engage the people attending online and make them feel part of what we're doing.

In this episode, I'm going to share one thing you can do to keep virtual attendees (those watching online) just as engaged as those attending in-person.

Should your church's focus be on reaching the lost (evangelism) or helping believers grow (discipleship)?

Believe it or not, this is a debate churches can get caught up in. Some churches pride themselves on being discipleship oriented. Still other churches place a high value on aggressively reaching the lost.

I think this whole debate has been framed wrong, and in this episode I'll explain why there's a much better way to approach this question.

Greg Atkinson joins me for episode 23 of the Preaching Donkey Podcast.

In this episode, we discuss the importance of capturing imagination when you preach, the role first impressions play in the effectiveness of your sermon and virtual church best practices.

There is so much packed into this conversation, I know you're going to get a ton of value from it!

As I've worked with and coached preachers over the years, and in my own ministry, I've found that church leadership and preaching is tough work - it's not for the faint of heart.

New challenges are always surfacing; the joys are elating and the lows can be devastating.

At the same time, to remain sharp in my preaching and leadership, I need ongoing training.

I know I'm not the only one! We all need continual training, but many pastors only have their seminary training to fall back on (if they went).

Unfortunately, seminary often isn't adequate to deal with the rigors of day-to-day ministry. And while it's no doubt valuable, it's not designed to help pastors continue growing throughout their ministry careers.

All pastors need three vital things to continue growing throughout their ministries:

1. Ongoing, practical training

2. Personalized coaching

3. A community of like-minded pastors

But so few pastors actually have these three vital resources in an ongoing, intentional way....

If Jesus didn't rise from the dead, preaching is a waste of time, but if he did rise from the dead, it's among the most important things we could ever do.

Every preacher is susceptible to pitfalls. We have to intentionally navigate around them to ensure that we stay healthy.

In this bonus episode, I want to jump into the first of three pitfalls and then invite you to join in on The Preacher's Journey Workshop which is a FREE workshop this week at Preaching Donkey. 

The ministry landscape is always changing and we must be prepared for those changes. What we relied on to work yesterday might not work tomorrow.

This is why I love Carey Nieuwhof's blog post on five preaching trends that will shape the future. In this episode, we'll examine each of the five trends and see what we can discover and apply to our preaching and leadership.

The ministry landscape is always changing and we must be prepared for those changes. What we relied on to work yesterday might not work tomorrow.

This is why I love Carey Nieuwhof's blog post on five preaching trends that will shape the future. In this episode, we'll examine each of the five trends and see what we can discover and apply to our preaching and leadership.

In this video, we'll explore how to make sure that our communication is leading toward next steps. To do this we have to be careful that we are using the right language in our calls to action.

Equipping our people with the tools they need to understand and defend their faith is an ongoing task we have as pastors.

Many people in our churches do not know how to their faith stands up to skeptics. Sadly, this can result in Christians who do not know how to respond when their children reject the faith because they can't reconcile it with post-modern thought.

On this week's episode of the Preaching Donkey Podcast, apologist Lori Morrow joins me to discuss her ministry to women which seeks to help them live out and speak about their Christian convictions with confidence and courage, so they no longer have to feel frustrated or intimidated by the influence of our increasingly secular society.

There is so much packed into this interview, and I know you're going to benefit from it.