Cornerstone Pastors Network

For many church leaders, this time of the year can be filled with financial anxiety. Time to make budget is running out. Year-end excitement can be replaced with last-minute angst. Your end of year giving can be lackluster, routine or exceptional. Let’s make it exceptional.

Year-end giving is an important part of an overall stewardship strategy. Taking advantage of this natural on-ramp to giving provides the opportunity for you to highlight your vision, celebrate your church’s generosity, and add crucial financial resources allowing you to expand your God-inspired vision.

This Pastor Resource Call will give you five easily implemented steps to guide your planning and execution around year end giving. Start 2017 with more financial resources for your ministry and church.

Brad and his wife Lisa have two delightful adult daughters, Laura and Sarah. Both are married to incredible men who have made their family even better.

Brad earned a Masters in Theology degree from Dallas Seminary and a B.S. in Economics from West Virginia University. He has professional certifications in church risk management and human resources with diverse experience in financial analysis, adult education, cross-cultural missions and strategic planning.

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Many Christians today feel overwhelmed trying to live faithfully in a culture that seems increasingly hostile to their beliefs. As our communities feel the pressure to divide around race, politics, economics, sexuality and an ever-growing list of contentious issues, believers find it harder than ever to hold on to their convictions while treating their friends, neighbors, coworkers, and even family members who disagree with respect and compassion.

During our conversation Gabe will share key insights about how to lead with love instead of fear. How to hold to conviction and demonstrate courage while respecting those with whom we disagree. It’s his belief (and the research bears this out) that the majority of Americans are looking for leadership on how to get along, despite differences. This is an incredible opportunity for the church, but will we be prepared to take the lead?

Gabe Lyons is co-author of Good Faith: Being Christian When Society Thinks You’re Irrelevant and Extreme and founder of Q Ideas—a learning community that mobilizes Christians to advance the common good in society. Called “sophisticated and orthodox” by The New York Times, Q represents the perspective of a new generation of Christians. Additionally, he is author of The Next Christians: Seven Ways You Can Live the Gospel and Restore the World and co-author of UnChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity and Why It Matters, a bestselling book based on original research that revealed the pervasiveness of pop culture’s negative perceptions of Christians. Gabe speaks on cultural issues where faith intersects public life. He lives in Nashville with his wife, Rebekah, and their three children.

When’s the last time you said a definitive “no”? Or, is that two letter word simply not a part of your vocabulary? Many of us in ministry don’t know how to utter or stutter the word. Why is it so hard? If we did say no, who would understand, affirm, and/or accept our response? Much of the time when a “no” is stated it comes out of our anger and frustration about one too many requests for our time and energy. Or, we say no because we’ve run out of time to say yes once more. So, when have you said “no” for a good reason, a thoughtful reply that comes from a place of wisdom and strength deep within? We can’t build margin in our lives without a clear sense of calling, giftedness, and reasonable expectations. Let’s dialogue about when, how and why a “no” might be best used a majority of times rather than rarely, or worse yet: never.

The Rev. Dr. Stephen A. Macchia became the founding president of Leadership Transformations, Inc. (LTI) on July 1, 2003. LTI is a ministry which focuses on the spiritual formation needs of leaders and the spiritual discernment processes of leadership teams in local church and parachurch ministry settings nationwide. He is the author of several books, including Broken and Whole (IVP, 2016), Outstretched Arms of Grace (LTI Publication, 2015), Path of a Beloved Disciple (LTI Publication, 2014), Wellspring (LTI Publication, 2014), Crafting a Rule of Life: An Invitation to the Well-Ordered Way (IVP, 2012), the Baker Best-seller Becoming a Healthy Church.

Many of the statistics today have the church in decline. We read about the “nones” (those who choose not to identify with any faith tradition) and the exodus of the “dones” (those 2.7 million per year who have been faithful and active church members in the past but now are de-churched by choice). Recent surveys also point to the fact that people attending church only twice a month consider themselves regular attenders. So are there any churches shattering these trends and seeing success in people coming to faith in Christ? You might be surprised.

Eric Swanson is missional lead specialist for Leadership Network. He has a passion for engaging churches worldwide in the needs and dreams of their communities. His passion is seeing local churches impact spiritual and societal transformation. He is adjunct professor at Denver Seminary and is co-author of four books including The Externally Focused Church and To Transform a City, along with numerous articles.

Eric and his wife Liz have three married children and eight grandchildren, and live just outside of Boulder, CO.

Having mediated hundreds of church splits and forced pastoral exits, I’ve never seen a pastor lose his pulpit because of poor Hebrew skills. Poor technical skills (exegesis, preaching, leading, etc.) can certainly weaken pastoral ministry, but they will seldom destroy it. When a pastor is forced to leave a church, it is almost always because of conflict and relational failure, either with a leadership team, a spouse or a church faction. In this Pastors Resource Call  we will look at six core relational skills that can help pastors get upstream of conflict and build a relationship in their family and church that restore the joy of ministry and provide a compelling witness to the transforming power of Jesus and his gospel.

Ken Sande was the founder of Peacemakers which he led for over 30 years. In 2011, he sensed that God was calling him to shift his focus from resolving conflict to preventing conflict by building healthy relationships. He began to develop and teach a concept called“relational wisdom” or simply “RW.”

He also had the privilege of serving as an Editorial Adviser for Christianity Today’s Building Church Leaders, Managing Your Church, and Church Law and Tax panels. He is a Certified Christian Conciliator™, as well as a Certified Emotional Intelligence Instructor, trained through TalentSmart.

In his free time, he enjoys reading, running, hiking, and skiing in the Beartooth Mountains just south of his home in Billings, Montana. He and his wife Corlette are members of Great Plains Gathering (PCA), a church plant dedicated to bringing the hope and peace of the gospel to the Native Americans in our community.

Everyone wants to enjoy their ministry team environment! Whether your ministry team is all volunteer, all paid or a mix, it should operate in an environment that is healthy spiritually and conducive to leading the church in a healthy way. Sometimes as leaders we forget how important it is for us to be proactive about caring for our team’s spiritual well-being.

On this PRC, Lance Witt will share practical ideas and strategies for building spiritually healthy teams. What kind of leadership does it take to raise the spiritual temperature of your team? What does true team community look like? How can you build a team covenant that gives guidance to your work together? You won’t want to miss this conversation with Lance!

Lance Witt, founder of Replenish Ministries is often called a “Pastors pastor.” He has served for over thirty years as a pastor, twenty as a senior pastor. He also served as an executive and teaching pastor at Saddleback Church. Lance helped develop and lead the 40 Days of Purpose and 40 Days of Community campaigns.

We Should Be Bringing A Revolution To Our World!

Doing good can be the enemy of being good. Neil Cole has always been one of our favorite PRC guests. He always pushes the envelop in causing pastors to think about their trajectory as pastors and leaders. In today’s world it is more important than ever to stay on mission. Neil’s new book One Thing is all about staying on task. He will interact with many different cultural mores and provide thoughtful guidance into how the scriptures ask us to live in the world today.

As author Neil Cole dramatically points out, it’s all about One Thing. It’s a revolution of love! Grounded in the love found in the new covenant, this book passionately calls the church back to its true spiritual roots and provides tangible examples of how that was done in the past and how we can do it today. One Thing offers an alternative that is biblical, effective, subversive, and loving all at the same time.

Neil Cole is a prolific author. He describes himself as the father of three, the husband of one, author, coach and spiritual director. He makes his home in Long Beach, CA and is a UCLA Bruins fan.

Leaving a legacy of young people involved in ministry is one of the greatest gifts you can give.

A big concern of every pastor today should be the lack of young people missing in ministry. How do we engage young people to have a passion for the lost and His church? What does a godly relationship look like to a young person? How do we mentor and develop future leaders for ministry? Bill Staffieri, lead pastor at Beachpoint Church of Huntington Beach, CA will share his thoughts and ideas on how to pick, develop and mentor young leadership for ministry.

Bill has a great passion for young people and wants to see them become leaders and Christ followers. Under Bill’s guidance and mentoring there have been dozens of young people who have gone on to be everything from youth pastors to missionaries.

Bill Staffieri has been the Senior Pastor of Beachpoint Church for the past six years. Over the past six years the church has grown from 300 to over 900 and planted a new campus. Prior to that he served as the church’s youth pastor for 17 years. He is also an adjunct professor of Christian Leadership at Biola University and recently completed his Doctor of Ministry focusing on intergenerational ministry. Bill is a product of ministry mentoring, pastoring the very church he became a Christian in and interning at for several years.

“Whether it’s a church of hundreds/thousands in a developed community or a church of 50 illiterate farmers in a developing community the biblical principles are the same.”

This is a great opportunity to learn and hear great stories of what God is doing in the world today. I have known Mike Constantz since we were in grade school together. He is a great leader and has incredible experience in following God’s call to the far corners of the earth. You will appreciate Mike’s heart and particularly the stories he has about what God is up to.

Mike Constantz: The Pastor of PEACE at Saddleback Church since December of 2003. Mike graduated from the University of Colorado and studied at the International School of Theology. Mike served as a medical missionary in the Philippines and then as the Sri Lanka Country Director for Campus Crusade for Christ. Mike then served as the Int’l Community Director (the adult ministries of Campus Crusade for Christ). Since moving to Saddleback Church late in 2003 he has helped with the sending of over 26,000 Saddleback members to all 197 official countries of the world. Mike is married to Cathy and their daughter Tali is living in Sri Lanka.

Mike will be speaking about a four step process to help engage your people in mission. Don’t miss out on this unique experience with a leader who has a proven track record with a global perspective.

Fresh insights into crafting sermons that connect with peoples lives and hearts…and open the door for God’s transformative work.

Join us for an hour long conversation with Mike Breaux! Mike is Teaching Pastor for Heartland Community Church in Rockford, IL. Prior to Heartland, Mike was on the teaching team at Willow Creek Community Church, Lead Pastor at Southland Christian Church in Lexington, KY and prior to that, Lead Pastor at Canyon Ridge Christian Church in Las Vegas, NV. Mike currently also preaches regularly at Real Life Church, Valencia, CA and Mission Church, Ventura, CA. All of these experiences have sharpened Mike’s ability to develop thought provoking, challenging and life change oriented sermons. He gets regular requests from pastors all over the country to provide mentoring and coaching regarding sermon crafting skill sets.

This is a very special opportunity to interact with a leader in the field who can provide specific, actionable suggestions that will elevate your ability to communicate the Word of God. Don’t miss this special opportunity!