Brentwood Baptist Leadership Blog
Insights, strategies, and stories to help you lead your church staff effectively.
Healthy Churches Start With Healthy Pastors
Ask most pastors how their church is doing, and they'll have an answer ready. Ask them how they're doing, and the answer usually comes a lot slower. That gap matters more than it gets credit for.
Stop Filling Holes. Start Developing Leaders.
Most pastors know the feeling: there's only one of you, and Sunday's always coming. That's a real constraint, not an excuse. It's also shortsighted to think you'll just do the ministry yourself, because that's how a leader stays stuck in a rut for good.
AI Won't Replace Your Calling. It Might Free You for It.
Ask ten church leaders what they think about artificial intelligence, and you'll get ten different answers. At least one of them will tell you it's the devil.
Fifth Grade Isn't the Finish Line. It's the Beginning of Leadership.
Every kids minister knows the moment. A fifth grader who used to sing every motion and color every craft suddenly folds their arms during worship...
How to Build a Student Missions Program That Lasts
Every student ministry wants students who live on mission. Far fewer know how to build the strategy that gets them there.
Giving Is a Transaction. Generosity Is a Condition of the Heart.
Most churches use the words "giving" and "generosity" as if they mean the same thing. They don't. Giving is a transaction: something of value changes hands from one person to another.
What Is Elevate? A Conference Built for Your Whole Team
Most church conferences are built around one seat: the lead pastor's... What if a conference were designed so a pastor could bring their whole team?
More Prayed Up, Not More Researched: Where Sermon Research Ends and Faithfulness Begins
No generation of preachers has ever had more resources at their fingertips. Commentaries, study Bibles, sermon archives, and now artificial intelligence all sit one search away.
How to Use a Sermon Illustration Without Losing Your Point
Every preacher has felt the temptation. You are deep in preparation, and a story surfaces, a memory, a headline, something a friend said last week, and it is too good not to use.
Why Your Sermon Isn't Finished Until Someone Lives It
Every pastor knows the moment. The exegesis is done, the big idea is clear, the sermon feels tight, and then Saturday night arrives, and there hasn't been nearly enough time spent on the one question that determines whether any of it matters: what do I actually want people to do with this?
The Case for Planning Your Preaching a Year Out
Most pastors live on a three-day calendar. It's the day before Sunday, it's Sunday, and it's the day after Sunday, and then the cycle starts again.
Called to What, Exactly? A Practical Path to Helping People Serve
What does it actually look like to help every person in your church discover and use their gifts? A practical look at assessments, coaching relationships, and the leadership work behind an empowered culture.