Ralph Moore

“If you ain’t reading, you ain’t leading.” Those were the wise words of Roy Hicks Jr., a friend I considered an older brother. Just two years older than me, Roy led a youth group before I did, planted a church before I did, and pioneered church multiplication before I did. He always forged the path…

Back during the pandemic we heard a lot of complaining about “Zoom fatigue.” People were forced to work from home and meet online and they didn’t like it—as opposed to very different feelings today. After we got back into church buildings most of us reverted to old patterns often overlooking the power we gained through…

A friend recently asked me to state, in one word, what I thought could kill a movement. As I reflected on that, my mind went to Acts chapter 15, where the Jerusalem Council met and struck down the whole issue of circumcision. This isn’t about circumcision, but it is about rules. That was my one…

A friend recently gave me reason to pause. He was talking about a tendency many of us have as leaders—to over-strategize. Sometimes, in our passion for progress, we fail to wait for our people to catch up. Instead of walking in the light we already have, we chase after new light, new revelations, new ideas.…

One of the ongoing struggles in church leadership is learning to separate vision from strategy, especially when leading people toward change. Too often, we focus on the how—how something will be implemented, who will be involved, where it’s going to happen—but we overlook the deeper question: why are we doing this? If we don’t understand…

Did you ever stop to consider that at the heart of everything Jesus did was mobilizing His followers to do ministry? I believe the purpose of the Church—the “big C” Church—is to equip its members to do works of ministry. This follows the Apostle Paul’s teaching that each believer is God’s masterpiece, created for good…

Once upon a time I enjoyed surfing. Not that I was ever good enough to call myself a surfer but I did catch quite a few waves. It was the small ones that confounded me. Foolishly brave, I actually rode a few “freight trains” while struggling to catch their smaller siblings. Friends would quickly catch…

I recently had my apologetics turned upside down by a book that I read dealing with, of all things, near-death-experiences. I’ve always written NDE off as a folklore or psychotic episodes – until my brother had one. This was two years before he went to be with Jesus and after him lying in a coma…

Jesus sent his disciples into the field in pairs. This underscores the need for ministry partners. Our first church plant was a partnership, with my wife and I being the only partners. It worked but took a toll on our home life. In Bible college, I was taught to avoid personal friendships with church members…