Pastoral Leadership

Have you ever had a “Holy Hangover?” “What is it,” you ask? Well, it’s a numb euphoria mixed with exhaustion and shepherding stress. For years, as a senior pastor, I used to hate Easter. Part of it was because, every year our church would experience record “low attendance” on Easter – partly because 70% of…

As we continue our series on the mistakes of rookie leaders, we’ve talked about how I underestimated spiritual warfare, or how I idealized that promotion, authority and resources would make my life simpler and happier.  And if you’ve missed these lessons, go and read part one and part two now.  But before I start with…

Recently, some delightful members of Substance gave me a “Thank-you” book filled with affirmations from our congregation.  People wrote little testimonies and encouragements.  And every time I see it, my heart fills up with God’s love.  And I have to say: Those encouragements have meant a LOT to me this year.  This last year has…

As many of you know, Substance is always trying to test the boundaries of church.  Over the years I’ve always been testing a new hypothesis… like:  How large can we grow our church without having offices?  Turns out that our number was 1700!  Of course I’m not saying we’re “wise” to experiment as we do. …

We have some exciting news to share.  Substance is going to be launching a brand new campus coming up this August.  For some of you this doesn’t come as much of a shock.  After all we keep setting new attendance records at each of our locations.  But, as we announce this joyful expansion, I thought…

People at Substance are always asking me:  “Peter, where did you fly this last week?”  And I love to talk about it because:  Much of the coolest ministry that Substance does happens outside of the Twin Cities.  And even though this fruit isn’t as visible as the stuff that happens locally, it’s nonetheless powerful to…

As many of you know, Jeff Zaugg and his wife Michelle (on our elder-board) have been hanging out at Substance for quite some time.  And like everyone who’s been with us since the beginning, he’s heard me endlessly rant about the power of Christian friendships.  After all, (here I go again) the single greatest statistical…

“Oh no you didn’t.”  Oh yes we did!   Substance just finished it’s very first vision and financial update magazine. I realize that it might not be that exciting to you. But it’s just that most churches give such small reports (thus, nobody cares).  Or just as sad, many churches give out these complicated profit and loss…

Every year or two, there’s always a trendy little gadget that steals our hearts.  My wife gave me an Ipad as an early birthday present (next Wed).  At first, I thought it’d be just another toy.  But I have gotten totally and completely hooked.  And I’ve had a boatload of pastors/lecturers ask me:  “Should I…

  Whenever we get a shout out from a national or regional publication I love to give you guys a peek.  Well this month we got a cool little feature in Charisma magazine as being a “Trendsetting Church” (April 2010).   So hats off to all you wonderful leaders at Substance… after all, you guys are…