Category: Leadership
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Failing Forward
The character Wit, from Brandon Sanderson‘s novel, Oathbringer, makes this keen observation about success, failure, and life: “Failure is the mark of a life well lived. In turn, the only way to live without failure is to be of no use to anyone. Trust me, I’ve practiced.”
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6 Ways Ministry Spouses Get Hurt By the Church
Researcher Thom Rainer identifies Six Ways Ministry Spouses Get Hurt. I have listed them below, slightly reworded: Complaints About Their Minister-Spouses Complaints About the Children Unreasonable Expectations About Ministry Involvement Gossip & Murmering Isolation Attacking the (non-Staff) Spouse to Get Desired Results Every non-staff church leader should be aware of these. Every church member should…
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Chrysalis Factor
There are times I feel somewhat like a sea captain who took charge of a ship that had experienced unprecedented prosperity under the direction of his predecessor, and then sprung a leak a few months into his tenure. Don’t get me wrong, I love the church where I serve, but some of the challenges came…
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Leading in the Construction of Christ’s Church
As one who has benefited from reading Jim Collins, John Kotter, Stephen Covey, and several other leadership gurus from the business world, I found this quote from Tony Morgan‘s Developing a Theology of Leadership to be a very helpful reminder and convicting corrective: It is true that we church leaders can learn from business leaders,…
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5 Things Church Members Wish Pastors Knew
Anyone who has ever served on a ministry staff for any measurable amount of time knows the twin realities of the incredible joys and the exhausting difficulties. Perhaps this tension is part of the reason why there is such large drop out rate among pastors and other ministry leaders in the American Evangleical Church. Ministry is a tremendous privilege,…
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Ministry Diagnosis Questions
As a pastor it is not only requisite to be a student of God’s Word, but it is also essential to be a student of the people to whom I preach and teach. This is true for any church or ministry leader. If we do not know the Bible, and sound doctrine, we have nothing…
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Growing People for Service
by Daniel Radmacher Have you ever wondered why we are not born as adults? Probably not, I would wager. Seriously, though, have you ever considered the fact that God could very easily birth us as grown-ups? We could come out of the womb fully formed intellectually and spiritually, with only our physical dimensions to catch…
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10 Differences Between Leaders & Cheerleaders
Philip Nation distinguishes the difference between genuine leaders and cheerleaders, or what he calls the difference between those in leadership positions who use buzzwords and those who actually lead. Think for a moment about this vital distinction: I think that a key facet of leadership is knowing the difference between a strategy and a collection…
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8 Questions to Diagnose Your Leadership
In his booklet, Leadership: How to Guide Others with Integrity, Stephen Viars asks these instructive, recalibrating questions: Do people understand more of God’s mercy because of the way I respond to their mistakes? Do people understand more of God’s holiness because of my high ethical standards? Do people understand more of God’s patience because of the time I give to grow and develop? Do people…
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What If We Omitted Gospel, Community, or Mission?
The refrain from an old song says: “Two out of three ain’t bad.” But would this be true for a church, or a Christian, who incorporates 2 out of 3 of the core values: Gospel, Community, Mission? Consider these thoughts, framed as a mathematical equation: Gospel + Community – Mission If we have a Gospel…
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Christian Leaders Learn to Think Theologically
Here is an important thought for my fellow pastors, and other ministry leaders. It is also important for shaping what church members should value in and expect of their pastors and Elders: Few ministers and priests think theologically. Most of them have been educated in a climate in which the behavioral sciences, such as psychology…
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10 Warning Signs of an Inwardly Obsessed Church
Researcher Thom Rainer warns of signs of a church that is so inwardly focused that it has ceased to be the church of Jesus Christ and has become, at best, a museum to (assumed) past glories, in which the membership makes up the board of directors. Rainer writes: Any healthy church must have some level…
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7 Habits of Highly Ineffective Leaders
I am a fan of the Covey‘s, Jim Collins, Thom Rainer, and several other experts who have made it part of their life mission to enhance leadership effectiveness. But still, it is about time someone looks at things from the other perspective. And now, Steven James helps us out by providing us a simple list…
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10 Signs of Approaching Meltdown
Perry Noble reveals and responds to a stunning statistic: My counselor shared a statistic with me two years ago that floored me – 90% of the people entering ministry do not retire from ministry. They either quit or have some sort of moral/ethical failure that disqualifies them. Jesus did not call us to this or…
