My blogging muscles have been tired lately, so here’s a short post linking to some articles I wrote recently that were published in byFaith, the magazine of the Presbyterian Church in America. These two articles are excerpts of a longer article I use in our officer training curriculum, and that longer article is a summary of an even longer (and possibly less readable) dissertation I wrote a few years ago on leadership and teamwork among ruling elders in mid-sized Reformed churches. (Yes, it’s very relevant to our church and was actually inspired by both our elders and one of our former assistant pastors.)

The first one focuses on building trust and was published in July.

The second one focuses on power and influence as leaders and was published today.

These principles might be more applicable to leaders, in particular, but I hope there are some good pearls in here that might benefit anyone.

Also, much thanks to Andy Jones, editor of byFaith, who helped me edit and reorganize my longer article into two short, more readable pieces.

With that, happy reading. I’m going to rest my blogging muscles now, and I hope to return to regularly scheduled blogging soon.

-Pastor Matt, 11-06-25