How do we live in THIS season of discipleship, while preparing for the NEXT one? Do we ever take time to pause, to both zoom in on our hearts and zoom out to assess our ministry efforts? And… what is ‘discipleship’ supposed to look like during the summer, with its ups and downs, vacations, and more!?

Daniel Yang answers these questions and more in this free, online video workshop.

What happens when these universal struggles with mental health and mental illness occur in the context of ministry? The phrase in ministry distinguishes and intensifies the words mental health and mental illness. Experiencing any mental health struggle, from mild depression to bipolar disorder, in the middle of spiritual ministry to others complicates how such mental struggles play out in our lives. If we could experience our mental health issues in a vacuum, if they didn't affect others around us, we could navigate them with fewer complications. That is, in fact, why, at the most intense moments of mental anguish, people are advised, or even forced, to remove themselves from their normal contexts and relationships to a place dedicated to their recovery. 

As we approach Easter weekend, we want to pause and remember that the life, death, resurrection, and reign of Jesus is truly “good news” – on Easter, yes, and also in everyday life, all year long. But amidst competing worldviews, everyday busyness, and a context that prioritizes values over beliefs, it’s easy to relegate that “good news” to Sundays (or perhaps for some, this one Sunday annually), and live as if other forms of “good news” are better, more impacting, and more applicable to Monday - Saturday life, the rest of the year. 

This experience shaped the past nine years, as I have led national church planting residencies for various organizations. In 2019 and again in 2023, we did a full-scale revision of our residency work. On one hand, The Equipping Group is collaborating with more organizations, churches, and planters than ever before. On the other hand, these revisions came from many lessons learned in training dozens of residents, from many states and beyond, who are now ministering in five countries.

As I reflect on the past eight years and look to the future, I wanted to capture and share five lessons we learned.

Fear and fire shone within this man’s eyes. He sat at a table with fellow Christian leaders. The pastor had asked that I speak to their leadership team about how to follow Jesus in our political moment. It was slowly dawning upon me that by “weapons,” this brother meant physical ones not spiritual.

What if we've missed the point of "church leadership"? Why are so many Christian celebrities who "rose," now "falling"? Could it be that words like "celebrity" & "high profile" are never intended to refer to those leading God's people in the first place?

JR Woodward answers these questions and more in this free, online video workshop.

What do you do as a leader, when things feel like they’re falling apart?
What’s your default response when you feel stretched too thin?
What happens when you can’t “fix” the thousands of things that people want you to fix?

Historically in seasons like these, my default response was to double down, to pile things on my plate, and to take a stronger hold on the things I could control, during the (many more) things I couldn’t.

But that posture only works for so long. Or more truthfully, it only even feels like it works… as I discovered the hard way.

Recently, I was asked to speak to a group of pastors from various countries in Africa. They sent me a series of questions that they wanted me to address, and I sensed that at the heart of a few of their questions was they were measuring of themselves with each other regarding the size of their church. I wonder where they got that from?

A promise of the Bible is that none of us are “everything enough” — because no human but Jesus was ever intended to be enough. No church is “everything enough” to accomplish the beautiful, weighty, spiritual task of sending — because no church without God’s Spirit can accomplish what only God can accomplish. Another promise of the Bible is that “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:27-29)

This year, many churches and leaders will wring their hands in worry about the political process in the United States. One way or another, on one side of the aisle or the other, Christians will be convinced that the destiny of Christianity, the existence of our country, and the state of our world will hinge on the contents of ballot boxes on the first Tuesday in November.

Do we actually know how Jesus sounds like good news to people today? Do we know how to share the gospel in a way that it addresses peoples' true needs, problems, questions and situations?

Join Jerram Barrs as he answers these questions and more in this Free Online Workshop.

This year, many churches and leaders will wring their hands in worry about the political process in the United States. One way or another, on one side of the aisle or the other, Christians will be convinced that the destiny of Christianity, the existence of our country, and the state of our world will hinge on the contents of ballot boxes on the first Tuesday in November.

We all hear many pastors and preachers in churches or on radio and television who seem to think their calling is to condemn the sinners of our world and who encourage Christians to hate and avoid the people around them whose lives and ideas are not Christian.  But Jesus shows us another way!  Do we listen to him and love our neighbors, both believers and unbelievers?  Do we do good to those who hate us?  Do we bless those who curse us?  Do we pray for those who abuse us?  The one who saves us daily from our sins is indeed the best model for us if we desire to make the gospel known today.

Christians throw out the word “gospel” and the phrase “good news” a lot: “The gospel is good news; Jesus is good news.” But to keep these words from being empty, we play a game sometimes in our church gatherings to see if we know how various aspects of Jesus are actually, specifically “good news.” For example, a question I like to ask people regularly is “What was it about Jesus that made the gospel sound like good news to you?”

How do we balance our finite humanity with the seemingly infinite demands of our callings? And how does the gospel intersect with our lives when depression and anxiety seem to be driving the ship?

Wendy Alsup answers these questions and more in this free, online video workshop.

As the height of the 2020 presidential election season approaches, many Christians are asking important questions about our political responsibility: What policies should I support? Do I vote on party lines or on the issues most important to me? In the midst of a global pandemic and racial tension splintering our society, the stakes feel different this year. But important questions about parties and candidates can easily obscure another question at the heart of our political and spiritual lives: What story am I buying into?

Much has been said about Christianity in the West and the need for the Church to rethink its approach, so I won’t belabor the point here. But I will say this: if the studies are correct and our current models of church will only reach about 20% of a given city at best, we must ask how we can reach the other 80%. We need a definition of church that allows us to go anywhere and reach anyone, with possibilities as expansive as the mission of God it’s called to participate in…

What's the difference between a missional community and a microchurch? Are they the same thing with two names, or are they distinct philosophies of ministry? How is each more helpful than the other... and does it really matter!?

Jeff Vanderstelt and Tomy Wilkerson answer these questions and more in this free, online video workshop.

Should you pursue a Bible degree, or a formal residency process? Maybe (I’m biased!). But whether you do or not, if you have a desire to plant and/or lead a church, don’t waste your current situation. Live in the present. “Bloom where you’re planted.” Make use of the time, season, and church God has you in. Because if you want to plant and/or lead a church one day, your training starts today. Look around you: everything is a residency.

I want to submit that Barnabas was a far more vital leader in the early church than we give him credit for — at least in a western, “leaders-are-those-with-the-best-stage-presence” mentality. Without Barnabas, the Jerusalem church would have struggled financially -- and the Antioch church might not have existed….