Submitted by Anonymous on Sunday, Jan 11 @ 7:13pm
By Dick Loizeaux
It’s the time of year we pastors think strategically. Maybe you preach a stewardship series to create generosity, you plan a sermon series calendar to create spiritual growth, or you preach a Vision series to create momentum. Maybe you are already planning your Easter outreach. All good stuff. But if we aren’t careful, we can overlook the one thing that may be the deciding factor...
Submitted by Anonymous on Friday, Nov 6 @ 3:01pm
By Dick Loizeaux
On October 22-23, 254 Converge MidAmerica pastors, wives, and staff, trekked from 7 different states to “Encourage, Equip, Connect and Celebrate” together. We had a lot to celebrate! A record number of states represented, a record number of workshops and network gatherings, a record number of new pastors welcomed, and a record number of Prevailing Pastors recognized. The host church, Calvary Community in...
Submitted by Anonymous on Monday, Jul 14 @ 11:58am
By Dick Loizeaux
Often I hear pastors say something like “I am fried (exhausted, weary, burned out, etc.). I can’t wait for vacation.” When I check in with them after their vacation they tell me how rejuvenated they feel. That’s good, right? Maybe not. Because often they are back to “fried” before Thanksgiving and longing for their Christmas break. They get renewed after Christmas. But then they are fried after Easter. Does...
Submitted by Anonymous on Sunday, Feb 8 @ 3:34pm
By Dick Loizeaux
When it comes to leadership development I confess there were times when I became so concerned with methodology, technique and curriculum, the latest seminar or latest book, that I neglected the most important part of leadership development. Not instruction
but imitation.
We learned it as children: “Monkey see, monkey do.”
We learned it from our parents: “You can...
Submitted by Nate Baggett on Wednesday, Sep 26 @ 10:14am
By Dick Loizeaux
You are loved.
Submitted by Anonymous on Tuesday, Nov 17 @ 3:41pm
By Dick Loizeaux
“All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”
(2 Corinthians 5:18)
Just hearing the words gets our hearts pumping to reconcile people to God through Jesus, doesn’t it? That is our calling. We love being ministers of reconciliation for God!
But the Bible doesn’t let our...
Submitted by Anonymous on Thursday, Aug 14 @ 2:01pm
By Dick Loizeaux
Dallas Willard has written: “…non-discipleship is the elephant in the church; it is not the much discussed moral failures, financial abuses or the amazing general similarity between Christians and non Christians. These are only effects of the underlying problem, the fundamental negative reality among Christian believers now is their failure to be...
Submitted by katie.nelson on Monday, Mar 16 @ 11:51am
By Dick Loizeaux
Recently, as I was struggling to keep up with the unrelenting pressures of ministry, I found I was running low on spiritual fuel.
You probably know the feeling. You’re physically tired, emotionally drained,
and your spiritual reserves
are running low.
Since I didn’t have time to either slow down or take a break from ministry I had to resort to “in-flight refueling.” For me...
Submitted by katie.nelson on Monday, Mar 4 @ 2:52pm
By Dick Loizeaux
Generosity Summits are designed for pastors to bring their elders, deacons, finance or missions team members. One pastor who attended said the Generosity Summit transformed his finance team “from being counters of money to becoming cultivators of generosity throughout the church.”
We are excited to announce that Scott Ridout will be coming to our region on three different occasions. Scott Ridout is a turnaround pastor who led a church of 200 to become one of the fastest growing churches in the country. Scott is a sought after speaker on generosity and...
Submitted by Anonymous on Tuesday, Dec 15 @ 1:16pm
By Dick Loizeaux
Recently I had a heart attack on the side of a mountain 1000 miles away from home. It came as a surprise since I didn’t have high blood pressure or a cholesterol problem. But it shouldn’t have been a surprise. Later, when I talked to the doctor, we identified clear symptoms of coronary heart disease as early as 7 months before the attack. See, I knew something wasn’t quite right but was too busy...
