More Tweaks for Preachers

1. Don’t assign giftings.  Identify them.
2. Misdiagnosis of people’s negatives or positives lead to problems.
3. Set people free to pursue and express their talents. 
4. Gush sincerely over people.  They love it.
5. Be careful who you make a hero.
6. Articulate your vision clearly to your ministerial staff.  They are your mouthpieces.
7. More than anything, people expect spirituality out of you.
8. “Flying off the handle” refers to an axe head.  Collateral damage ensues.
9. Produce proof, receipts, and guarantees even when they’re not requested.
10. Be like Jesus.  He was the first and the last.
11. Eventually, you get paid not just for what you do, but for who you are.
12. Extreme makeovers of your person make people nervous.
13. Fanaticism is mindless devotion.  Authentic devotion is based on sound theology.
14. Celebrate intentionally.
15. Make sure people know you are trying to help them.
16. It’s what you do with the church’s money that counts.
17. Decibel level bears no proportional relationship to veracity.
18. Truth is powerful, whether whispered or shouted.
19. From Oscar Wilde: “True friends stab you in the front.”
20. You cannot alienate everybody.
21. Inadvertency kills.
22. Preach to your people’s needs, not your own.
23. Better to preach thirty minutes than one minute thirty times.
24. Words are like water: too much can drown.
25. If you fail to create the church’s atmosphere, someone else will.
26. Always give people a reason to come back.
27. Deliberate quietness permits the Spirit to work.
28. Don’t preach through the altar service.
29. Leading in worship means leading people to worship.
30. Feeling isn’t everything, but it’s not bad to feel good.