Becoming a Leader is Hard Work!
Becoming a Leader is easy right? Just get a bunch of people to do what you say and then bask in the glory of a job well done…If you believe that, I have a classic restorable Ford Fiesta for only $20,000. For those with common sense however we know that it isn’t the great things that make a leader. It is the day to day work! One of my friends, Dean, is a pastor of a growing church that is just about to hit the 1000 mark. It is exciting to watch what God is doing in the lives of the people in his church. There are other things that are exciting too. Like that for the first few years, he showed up to the office alone, worked on all the things that had to be done alone, scheduled his meetings himself, was the janitor, preacher, counselor, youth pastor, associate pastor, senior pastor…alone. Now, I believe they have a staff of 6 or 7 with a couple of those being part time. That didn’t happen overnight. If you are that pastor in a church of 40 people, and you don’t have a staff to help you, just remember that most pastors of large churches with great support staff didn’t start that way. They put in the time alone…then developed leaders to come along side of them who believed in the vision God had given them for that congregation. Your support staff doesn’t have to start as full time staff with a complete benefits package. My first paid staff job as a youth pastor paid about $400 a month, and I have known plenty who worked for wages like $25 a week just to be able to help. That isn’t knocking the value of volunteers either! Volunteers that you invest time in can become great volunteer leaders who will help in invaluable ways!
Another friend, Will, has a thankless job in our church. We are a mobile campus, and his job is to lead the volunteers who take down everything on the portable stage and load it into trucks after the service. Will remembers to be a great leader! He isn’t the senior pastor, but his ministry is obviously important! He is quick to congratulate! When something goes wrong, he doesn’t explode, he uses that moment to teach someone how to do the job correctly….even if they have been taught before. He remembers the little things like following up, not just when someone is missing, but the volunteers who are faithful, he calls to let them know they are appreciated or sends a card or thank-you note. He is building and mentoring leaders under him. (Disclaimer-I do volunteer on Will’s team, so I am a little biased about his leadership ability.) Invest in the people you want to be leaders in your church, and soon you will have other leaders to come along side of you so that you won’t be doing the job alone!
Reading to Lead!
I didn’t come up with this quote, but I love it. “Leaders Read and Readers Lead.” Today, I just want to share some of the things I read on a daily basis other than the Bible. (If you are in Christian Leadership and your Bible is dusty, you NEED to start there!)
ONLINE
Pastor’s Blogs
Perry Noble – Pastor of NewSpring Church in Anderson, SC. Writes a great blog that mixes encouragement for Christians and for other pastors.
Dean Herman - Pastor of 5 Point Church in Easley, SC. His church is the fastest growing church in Pickens County, SC and he has a lot of great ideas.
Business and Marketing
Seth Godin – It is no secret that this guy writes one of the best marketing blogs in the world! Great thoughts and many of them can apply to the church.
Publishing and Leadership
Michael Hyatt – He is the CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers and writes a great blog about much more than the publishing industry.
News and Current Events
Drudge Report – a quick news feed to keep you up to date on what is going on in the news.
ZoeCity – A great feed of news and blogs from a Christian Worldview perspective.
IN PRINT
Non Fiction
Andy Stanley – One of the best writers on pastoral leadership and christian leadership.
Seth Godin (yes, I know I already mentioned his blog, but he is an accomplished author as well.)
John Maxwell – Another great writer on Leadership. Not as focused on pastoral leadership as Andy Stanley, so if you aren’t a pastor, you might get more out of Maxwell.
Joseph Ransom – I wish he had a blog! I would read it! I have read every book and play he has written. The pastor of Shady Grove Baptist Church in Sparta, MO is a great inspiration! He is blind and still pastors a church, has completed a PhD, teaches in a Bible institute and unfortunately doesn’t have spare time for things like blogging…but Joseph, if by chance you read this, I would love it if you did have a blog!
Fiction
John Grisham- Ok, not deep stuff, but I love reading his work.
Robert Ludlum- International Crime and intrigue.
I know this list didn’t impress anyone, but it might give you an idea or two or challenge you to read something new. (If you want a list of the stuff I read in Spanish, let me know…I have some favorite authors but they are all in the fiction genre.)
In Search of the Great Pastor Conference
Just a reminder that spots for the In Search of the Great Pastor Conference are filling up. I do want you to go! If you are a pastor and can share one thing that you are doing right in the leadership of your church that God is blessing, we want to learn from you! If you have one thing that you feel like you are failing as a leader or that you are beating your head against the wall and struggling to overcome, then we want to help you!
Have you taken a Look Around Lately?
Filed under: Church Planting, Church Revitalization, Encouragement, Random Thoughts, church growth, community, evangelism, leadership, ministry
When Church planters enter a community, they usually do some research first. They figure out where the people are, where they can meet the needs of the people they intend to reach etc… In established churches, sometimes the community changes while we aren’t paying attention. Maybe we need to take a walk around the neighborhood with some new eyes. Plant a new church within the established church! Rose White (Sorry Rose, I don’t have a link to you on the internet) recently did some incredible research into the idea of the “Christo-centric Walkabout” finding where people would and wouldn’t go in a city and why people might find certain areas or even churches “inaccessible”. Has your church become inaccessible to the people of the community where it is located? Do changes need to be made so that you can meet the people where they are in order to create relationships in which the Gospel of Jesus can be shared? Maybe it is time for a Walkabout…or even just a walk around the neighborhood with your eyes open to how God would have you reach the people there.
Are Programs Killing Your Church?
Filed under: Church Revitalization, Direction, Encouragement, Random Thoughts, Vision, leadership, ministry, volunteering
In the church world, there are so many great programs/events/studies/classes that can help your church. At what point do they become a detriment? One question to ask is, “How many staff and volunteers do we have?” and then secondly, “What is the very best use for these people?” If we try to do everything, we will accomplish nothing well. There are traditional programs like Choir, Vacation Bible School, Sunday School, Special Music, Men’s & Women’s ministries…each of these take someone to lead them and people to be involved in them. Each of these serve a purpose and can be good for the church. Sometimes though, it is important to choose between them so that a smaller number of programs can be done with the excellence that is due worship presented to the King of kings and Lord of lords! If you are having trouble getting volunteers for an area of ministry in your church, you could berate the congregation about why they aren’t serving the Lord…OR you might take another look at that area of ministry and ask if it is really vital to the core mission of the church? It might be time to kill it before it dies a long painful death.
Would you ask your church?
Filed under: Church Revitalization, Encouragement, Random Thoughts, church growth, leadership
Last night, as I thought about the sermon for this Sunday, a question popped in my head, really a series of questions. It is a survey of sorts. Since I am not the pastor of this church, just a guest speaker, my feeling is that if they hate me for it, that is fine. If the question gets some attention from them, then it was worth it. Here is the question series.
- How many of you have come to Christ in the last month?
- Last 2 months?
- Last year?
- Last two years?
- Last 5 years?
- 10 years?
My guess, sadly, is that in the first few questions, there may not be many hands going up. My second question then is “Why not?” If people will really ask that question and then do something about the answer, I believe we could have real revival and watch God do some incredible work in this country! Would you ask your church these questions? Would you be thrilled with the results, or does the idea terrify you? Oh, and like a boy scout, be prepared! God is doing AWESOME things in churches that are willing to actively take the gospel to the unbelieving and unchurched around them! You may have to get uncomfortable if/when you start dealing with the “Why not?” question. I can’t wait to see what God is going to do!
Henry Didn’t Invent the Automobile, but He Was Still a Success!
Filed under: Church Revitalization, Direction, church growth, creativity, leadership
Henry Ford may not have invented the automobile, but he was quite successful in his creative “new” way of building them. He had an idea to have men specialize in one part of building a car and then pushing it down the l
ine to the next guy to do his part. Back in 1913, it was a brand new idea! Think if car companies hadn’t updated at all since then what we would be driving! The model T was a great car for its day, but most of us would be quite disappointed with going 20 miles per hour on the open road now! In the church, we must be constantly begging God to give us new creativity! We don’t change the message that God has given us! We do change the method in which that message is conveyed. Just as I am sure Henry wouldn’t be content with still cranking out the model T in 2010, we shouldn’t be content to just do things the way they have always been done. I heard a quote recently, “Your organization is perfectly suited to get the results you are getting.” If you don’t like the results your church is getting, then something needs to change, or you will keep getting the same results. Change is scary! Some people won’t like it! Even a model T can be changed to be a hot rod!
Something is Missing!
Filed under: Church Revitalization, Direction, Encouragement, Random Thoughts, Vision, church growth, community, leadership, ministry
Today, my wife left for Seattle. The house hasn’t changed any. Life around me is more or less the same, but there is a little something missing. She is only one person, but in my life, she is a VERY important person! Are you a part of someone’s life enough that you would be missed if you disappeared for a while? Someone other than your spouse/kids? In church leadership we can ask that question both of ourselves and our church. If I disappeared from this ministry, would anyone care? Would it affect anything? The same with our church! If my church disappeared off the face of the earth today, would anyone outside of the staff & maybe the members even notice? Are we making a difference in the community? Do people outside see the life change that is going on in people’s lives because we are here? Or are we just that building on a hill that has a few cars outside it on Sunday mornings for an hour or so? Tough question to ask, but one we should be asking regularly. Just because you would be missed today, doesn’t mean you have that status forever. We must constantly be seeking the Lord and HIS vision and direction for our churches. When we step outside of HIS will, we are just a community club that will soon lose members and die off. Seek God’s grace that your church will be one that would be missed if you weren’t there!
What are YOU reading?
Filed under: Book Review, Direction, Encouragement, church growth, discipleship, leadership
There is a statistic I have heard thrown around in business that the average millionaire in America reads at least one non-fiction book a month. They are constantly learning and improving by finding mentors in people who may not be in their area or even still alive, but by reading what they wrote they can learn from them. In the church world, we should be spending time improving our ability to connect to people with the gospel of Jesus Christ! Of course we must be reading the Bible! What else are we filling our time with though? Are we reading books that can help us be better leaders? Better teachers? Better communicators? Better managers? If millionaires can spend time reading a minimum of a book a month just to make a few more dollars, how much more should we be willing to continue our education to be able to more effectively engage this world in a conversation that leads it toward Jesus? For sake of transparency, Last week, I finished reading Can we do that? by Andy Stanley and Ed Young and Trevayne by Robert Ludlum. I am also reading Promotion Strategies for the Local Church by Wayne Kiser and re-reading It by Craig Groeschel. Some of you are thinking, Wait, Trevayne isn’t about the church?? It isn’t – Robert Ludlum writes fiction…and I enjoyed it. Also, he wrote it in 1973 during Watergate, but many of the truths in the book apply equally to the corruption of our current administration. Read for fun, but also to be better at what we do!
Is Creativity Evil?
I occasionally hear gripes from Christians about how this or that church is just a show or a concert and isn’t really a church. This usually really means, that the church they are referring to doesn’t do church the same way they are used to. I would like to remind people that the Bible starts with these words…”In the beginning, God CREATED”. HE wasn’t afraid to do something different! When planning your sermons, think about how they have been going. Maybe you haven’t done anything new in a while. As you are planning your sermon..hopefully not Saturday evening, think about what can be done to add some creativity to the sermon. People remember much more when something is new and different. They tend to zone out if things are the same. FYI, that is true for contemporary churches too. Just because your band is rockin’ and you have smoke and lights and videos, doesn’t mean that it can’t become old and boring and uncreative if you let it. If that is your church, try just having your music minister lead with a stool and an acoustic guitar. OR, if you traditionally start out with a hymn, try starting the sermon first, and not singing at all until after the altar call. Maybe you use videos all the time, try not using one for a Sunday. If you have never used a video to enhance your sermon, give it a try. I am not talking about revamping your service for one Sunday and then going back to the same ol’ same old. Nor am I saying that you have to change everything forever. My suggestion is that we constantly look for a way to change things up with some creativity. Have fun!
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