As we walked the streets of our community this weekend giving away small bags of Valentine’s candy, my heart almost broke as I thought about all the people near our worship facility. Who are they? What’s their story? Do they know Christ? What aches and pains do they carry? “Hi, we’re your neighbor and wanted [...]

Posted in Becoming Like Jesus, christian life, Discipleship, Leadership Blog, Missional, Multi-ethnic / Urban No Comments »

By Dr. Matthew Lee Smith Over the course of the past 2 years I have been thinking about the alarming statistics concerning the American Church. My friend, Len Sweet, says that 75% of the churches in America are dying, 23% of them are plateaued (often taking those from dying churches) and the remaining 2% are [...]

Posted in Leadership Blog, Multi-ethnic / Urban No Comments »

By Dr. Matthew Lee Smith   As they did renovation on the old building not far from my house recently, I noticed that the frontage of the building was, in reality a façade! While it appeared to be a very large structure, it was, in reality a much smaller building, hiding behind a false front [...]

Posted in christian life, Leadership Blog No Comments »

By Dr. Matthew Lee Smith   As the Christmas season came to a close, I can remember how the focus for many was on themselves. They were interested in what THEY were going to get, what parties THEY were going to and what things THEY were going to be doing. In contrast to this was [...]

Posted in Becoming Like Jesus, christian life, Leadership Blog, Multi-ethnic / Urban No Comments »

By Dave Ferguson We welcome our good friend Dave Ferguson back to Eagles in Leadership today. We know this article could change your 2012 in ways only God can imagine. With that in mind, we submit this great idea to you for your consideration: My good friend Bob Bouwer was having lunch with the campus pastor [...]

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Visit most any urban church in America and you will often find a small group of people rattling around in a large facility. The “glory days” for the church have passed them by and things are currently being held together by the barest of means.   If you look and listen carefully, you will find [...]

Posted in Church Health, Leadership Blog, Missional, Multi-ethnic / Urban 2 Comments »

It seems every time Eagles In Leadership is asked to come and help an urban church, one of the key issues strangling the life out of that faith community is their church governing structure. Notably, you will find the current version of their constitution dating from the 1940s or 1950s – usually the post-WWII years [...]

Posted in Church Health, Leadership Blog, Multi-ethnic / Urban No Comments »

Photo Credit: medicaltipsinfo.blogspot.com   You probably know the feeling – life was supposed to turn out differently, but it didn’t. You thought God would rescue you, but he hasn’t. You know the dire hopelessness as God has stopped speaking and no one seems to be able to tell you how long the situation will continue. [...]

Posted in Bible Reading, christian life, Just Read It!, Leadership Blog, Suffering No Comments »

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather [...]

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Artwork Credit: smallbiztrends.com “And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have [...]

Posted in christian life, Discipleship, faith, God's will, Leadership Blog, Missional No Comments »