Pastoral Leadership: Every Church Wants It, Until They Get It

Mar/Apr 2019 Vol 6 Issue 2

THE

CHURCH

Revitalizer A Revitalization Retreat in Every Issue

“The only magazine dedicated to Church Revitalization.�

From The Editor Welcome to the Church Revitalizer Magazine: Do Churches Really Want a Strong Leader Who Can Revitalizer their Church?

In this edition we will look at the need for a strong leader to bring about the revitalization of a church. Yet, the very thing most churches want in a declining church is often the item that threatens them the most. As I travel all over this country many church revitalizers have remarked that declining churches need a strong leader but often do not want one once they have one. It is traumatic for those who are comfortable with the status quo within many declining and dying churches because a strong leader of revitalization must bring about change. There is a fear associated in long time church members with the new growth that comes with revitalization. One church member in a church I was working with told me that he would rather see his church slowly die then to see it be radically changed and filled with new people who were not part of the declining church. New growth is a threat to existing memberships because they will eventually lose control and have to acknowledge the actual decline they were responsible for. New participants weaken the agenda of the patriarchal powerbrokers.

These powerbrokers will embrace the negative new member if they feel they will add to their power base to force out the strong leader of revitalization or at least cripple his actions. Churches in decline need a strong leader who will not back down from the potential abusive laity who want to destroy the efforts towards church revitalization and renewal. Being a church revitalizer requires you to be a strong leader.

Within this edition we want to look at: Pastoral Leadership: Every Church Wants It - Until They Get It. Stay connected, more is coming!

ChurchRevitalizer.Guru

Dr. Tom Cheyney is the Founder and Directional Leader of Renovate National Church Revitalization Conference and Executive Editor of the Church Revitalizer.

Contents

From the Trenches Tom Cheyney

p. 10

Church Revitalization and Situational Leadership

What Great Leaders Do The Missional X-Factor: Part 1

Lee Kricher

Ken Priddy

p. 14

p. 16

Children’s Ministry Growing Pains Bill Hegedus

p. 18

Ron Smith

p. 28

The Ghosts of Leaders Past Pete Tackett

p. 31

Also in this issue: The Revitalizer

Book Review Rob Hurtgen

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p. 78

•Turn the Ship Around!

A True Story of Turning Followers Into Leaders • Great Commission Revitalization: God’s Strategy for Reaching Your Community, Making Disciples, and Infusing Your Congregation with New Life

March/April | Vol 6, No 2

Effective Leaders: The Jethro Model George Thomasson

p. 34

Why Churches Don’t Like Revitalization Leaders Bud Brown

What Boomers & Xers Must Do Differently to Lead Millennials Bob Whitesel

Rethinking Past Leadership

Wearing the Right Hat

Kenneth Priest

p. 62

p. 46

J. David Jackson

p. 67

p. 44

Pastoral Leadership and the Effective Small Group Ministry Fred Boone

p. 74

What Type of Leader Will Your Church Receive? p. 22

The Leadership Link: A Leader Worth Following p. 59

Tracy Jaggers

Michael Atherton

Steve Smith

Steve Sells

Bill Tenny-Brittian

Mark Weible

Jim Grant

Rob Myers

Walter Jackson

Rodney Harrison

Being the Leader Your Church Needs p. 38 The Role of the Senior Pastor Today p. 40 Be Careful What You Ask For p. 50 Are You In? p. 52

The Killing Factor of Distrust p. 72 Getting on the Same Page p. 80 Leading and Being Liked p. 82 Revitalizing Your Ministry: One Decision at a Time p. 84 5

THE

CHURCH

Revitalizer Volume 6, No. 2

The Church Revitalizer Is published bi-monthly by Renovate Publishing Group 1906 West Lee Road Orlando, FL 32810 Email: ChurchRevitalizer.guru

PUBLISHER Executive Editor Dr. Tom Cheyney Associate Publisher Mark Weible Associate Publisher Circulation & Marketing Ashleigh Cheyney

The Church Revitalizer Q&A: What is The Church Revitalizers purpose?

To help churches that need to be reinvigorated and renewed effectively receive help in issues that revitalizers face everyday. Articles, resources, and information are gathered from authors all over the country who have been through, or may currently be in, the revitalization process and we want to share their knowledge.

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Checkout our lineup of resources that will help you revitalize your church.

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From the Trenches Leadership Lessons Learned from Forty Years of Pastoral Ministry

By Tom Cheyney I have been a church planter, pastor, and church revitalizer for over forty years now and there are some leadership lessons that I have learned from more than four decades of ministry. Let me begin with the most important one.

Not Everybody is Going to Like You!

If you are doing a great job, not everybody is going to like you. Decision making as a church revitalizer cannot be a popularity contest. Mediocrity is when you as the church revitalizer try to get everyone to like you as you seek to not offend anyone. A good revitalization leader will at times tick off those who are desirous of a casual Christianity light on repentance. Stop placating everyone.

Embrace the Big Ideas of Your Committed Followers

Embrace the “BIG” ideas of your faithful followers. Revitalization leaders must work consciously to stay in touch with the best ideas of the people they lead. These leaders should constantly be on the lookout for great ideas.

Ideas become a pipeline to the advancement of the work of ministry in the local church. They unleash a flood of interesting and useful insights. But realize the ultimate goal is to inspire your people and also to figure out how to solve the problems that will arise in the renewing of the church. Do not just voice the problems.

Stand Up, Stand Out, and Stand For

Display integrity in all you do. Practice what you preach and live it out daily for others to see. Set high standards for yourself. Practice selflessness. Display empathy to others. Arouse curiosity in others for what you are doing

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and where you are leading. Do not be boring, because boring pastors drive away potential followers and stifle church members.

Pick the Right Peck of Pickle Peppers

Pastors often pick staff members because they need a buddy. In order to accomplish great things, you must pick the right people to be with you on the team. If you pick the right person for the team good things will happen. If you pick the wrong person, bad things will happen. Be sure they align with your values and vision. Great pastoral leaders have the ability to get more than the “best” out of their staff and laity. They have the ability to summon from these individuals the greatest return on the church’s investment in staff. It accomplishes more than appears possible. A good church revitalizer will surround himself with people who complement his skills. If you will honestly assess your abilities, you will know what to look for in other staff to supplement your gifting’s.

Institute and Exhibit the Big Five

Establish and practice the big five trust attributes. These big five are: competence, character, courage, constancy to others (loyalty), and confidence. You follow someone worthy because you trust them. Church Revitalizers must not assume that people trust them but work towards ways to demonstrate they can be trusted.

Stop Being Hoodwinked

Church Revitalizers must become adept at detecting spin over substance. You need to probe, dig a little deeper, and keep a clear eye on the issues that come your way. Complacency is a church-wide virus and if it is left

unchecked it will immobilize your membership.

Stop Looking for Prepackaged Solutions

We have built many a denomination with this method and it has come back to hurt most of us. Today church revitalizers are in search of the magic pill. Start trying to develop a solution which is unique for you, your people, and your church. Learn how to change quickly if needed.

Start thinking on your feet and let go of the magic box you got from the local Christian bookstore.

Simplicity Wins in Revitalization Not Complication

Move out of the murky waters that have been created over decades and keep it simple. Simplicity is your friend as the revitalization leader. Church Revitalizers must cut through the things we want to argue about in doing the work of ministry in our churches. Be clear and present ideas which are easily grasped and held on to. Seek consensus towards the future and not towards the past and let the mission drive you.

Invest in Your Mavericks, Not Your Rebels

Church Revitalizers need to do a better job at developing their mavericks, which will achieve more. People of habit do not achieve other things. Mavericks do. Mavericks will speak out and challenge the status quo. Always tolerate these out of the box thinkers.

Walk with Your Frontline Volunteers

The wise church revitalizer cultivates a spirit of initiative and leadership among the church membership. Revitalization leaders know that those who work Sunday after Sunday in the trenches are closer to everything that is working and is not working. The front line knows how to fix things so let them. The Revitalizer needs to stay involved and supportive of the front line.

Revitalizing a Church Is Lonely at Times

If it was easy, we would call it softball! Leading a church is often lonely. Get ready for that at times. Develop friends outside of the church which will help balance you. Success in the work of the church often rest squarely on the church revitalizers shoulders. Accept the responsibility you have been given. Lead by example. Know when to buckle down and when to leave the work for the next guy.

Do Your Work and then Go Home

Pastors’ and ministers’ have unbalanced schedules sometimes. There is no prize for working on vacations or sacrificing your family on the altar of a lazy laity at church. I have been guilty of that. Pastors should take their weekly days off. They should use their vacation times up each year. Stop clocking hours for hours sake. Church Revitalizers should slow down and stop running at a breakneck pace. Do not allow your ministry to become the whole of your existence.

There is often a poison which surfaces in rapidly declining churches that keeps the local church from achieving the much-needed success in church renewal. It is a series of behaviors that will kill any effort towards a church turnaround. Some individuals within some of these churches are so stuck in the past that they are incapable of being part of the church’s effort towards the future.

When these individuals collide with the now growing number of individuals willing to embrace change, they often lead efforts to hurt the church as a whole, the new influential lay leaders supporting change, and the pastor who is operating as the change agent for church revitalization. Remember that almost every leader of a revitalization effort must deal with at least one or more of these difficult people.

Live in the Present and Not the Past

Get thoroughly immersed in the here and the now! Effective revitalizers are immersed in the here and now and not in the past. They understand the situation at hand and work daily towards a new future. They are vigilant and willing to make strategic shifts when necessary.

Their tactics and processes are open to reconstruction if the need arises. If you ask former pastors they will tell you they fought the fight in the past rather than fighting it in the future.

Make Ministry Fun Again

Learn to be more playful as you make work fun. Successful church revitalizers know how to make the work of ministry fun. Leaders who model fun at church and fun in the ministry have a greater chance to lead others towards something new and exciting. Model working hard and playing hard. Create fun at church. Minimize the stress associated with so much of the work of ministry.

Tom Cheyney is the Founder & Directional Leader of the RENOVATE National Church Revitalization Conference (RenovateConference.org).

Some of Tom’s books include: The Church Revitalizer as Change Agent, Slaying the Dragons of Church Revitalization: Dealing with the Critical Issues that are Hurting Your Church; and Church Revitalization in Rural America: Restoring Churches in America’s Heartland. Tom lives in Orlando, Florida with his wife Cheryl and travels all over North America assisting declining churches by bringing revitalization and renewal to the congregations.

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Church Revitalization and Situational Leadership

By Lee Kricher Church Revitalizers realize that we do not dishonor our church’s past by considering changes to the way we will do things in the future. After all, we do not advocate changing core beliefs and values. We advocate changing church programs, ministries, and practices to better reach the community and fully engage the next generation.

Unfortunately, church members typically are not quick to embrace change. Some actually become change blockers. In their book Replant: How a Dying Church Can Grow Again, Darrin Patrick and Mark DeVine write about a common predicament that paralyzes churches from becoming what God intends for them to be.

“Well-meaning members lose sight of their role as servants and become increasingly focused on controlling the very church they are called to serve.”

Given the natural tendency of people to resist change, there are times during any church revitalization that the pastor needs to lead with boldness. There are times we especially need to take to heart the words God spoke to Joshua, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:8) It is about practicing what some call Situational Leadership – adopting a leadership style that is appropriate for the church’s current season and situation.

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Situational Leadership In general, I am a big believer in “High-Involvement Leadership.” Since involvement builds commitment, the more you can involve people in deciding what changes will be made or how those changes will be implemented, the more they will be committed to making the changes work. That being said, a High-Involvement Leadership style is not the right approach in every situation. Aaron’s High-Involvement Leadership approach with the people of Israel while Moses was on Mount Sinai was disastrously foolish. He followed the consensus of the people and it resulted in those same people worshipping a golden calf.

In the first two years after accepting the call to pastor Amplify Church, an aging, dying church in Pittsburgh, I adopted a more “leader-driven” approach to change as opposed to a high-involvement approach. I actively championed the key strategies and related actions that I was convinced were necessary to turn things around.

I did not passively stand by hoping that people would naturally come to consensus about these changes. I led.

I know that some pastors are more comfortable providing care in a shepherding role than leading organizational change, but people need their pastor to lead them into the future. If you are a pastor, do not shy

away from leading change even if you feel, “That is just not who I am.” Your love for the people and your passion for the future of your church will provide the necessary motivation for you to step out of your comfort zone and become a leader who is a catalyst for change.

Asking and trusting God for the wisdom, favor, and courage you need is not presumptuous.

you and your Change Leadership Team to reach a prayerful consensus on the nature and timing of changes the church should make. This coach could also serve as a sounding board during the most crucial months of decision-making and change implementation. Don’t be afraid to invest in hiring such a person who can bring much-needed perspective and insight.

Consider this: if the role of change leader is delegated to someone other than the pastor, the congregation will naturally wonder about the pastor’s commitment to change. Moreover, whoever is appointed to lead the change may steer the process in unwanted directions, especially if that person is highly opinionated and has gained credibility because of the pastor’s deference to him or her. I have seen such scenarios undermine the pastor, derail the change process, and even split the church.

Conclusion

If you are the pastor of a church in need of revitalization, you must step up. You cannot allow people to decide that the appropriate course of action is to do nothing and maintain the status quo. You also cannot allow people set a pace of change that is woefully inadequate given the rapidly changing world in which we live.

Change Leadership Team Being a bold leader does not mean you are a lone ranger. You need to find people you can trust who will partner with you. In his classic book about organizational transformation called Leading Change, John Kotter writes, “No one individual, even a monarch-like CEO, is ever able to develop the right vision, communicate it to large numbers of people, eliminate all the key obstacles, generate short-term wins, lead and manage dozens of change projects, and anchor new approaches deep in the organization’s culture. Weak committees are even worse. A strong guiding coalition is always needed—one with the right composition, level of trust, and shared objective.”

The “guiding coalition” of Amplify Church was our Change Leadership Team, a team I formed of influential people in the church who were passionate about the vision and excited about helping to implement the changes that were needed to better achieve that vision. I was the clear leader of the team. Having been commissioned by our church board of directors, I worked with the Change Leadership Team to identify and implement changes that enabled our church to experience a dramatic turnaround.

Depending on your situation, it may be wise or even necessary to identify an external coach who can help

When our church was an aging church in steep decline, I adopted a leader-driven approach. The situation has changed. Given that our church has now become a healthy, growing church, I have adopted a high-involvement approach to leadership. Pastors (and corporate executives) who maintain a strong and ongoing leader-driven approach eventually wear out the people who look to them for leadership. But as the pastor– change leader, don’t be afraid to take a leader-driven approach for a season if that is what it will take for your church to become healthy again.

Decades ago I was told by a seasoned pastor, “Someone is going to lead your church. If you abdicate that role, there will always be someone who is happy to take your place.” When you look at Moses, Joshua, Deborah, Nehemiah, Peter, Paul, and other leaders who are profiled in the Scriptures, you don’t see people who led with timidity. Though they initially may have been hesitant to take on the role of leader, they ended up leading with God-inspired boldness. Bold changes seldom occur without bold leadership. As the pastor, you are the change leader, and you need to be willing to embrace whatever leadership style is necessary to lead your church to become the church God intends for it to be.

Question for your consideration: In what ways may you need to modify your approach to leadership to best serve your church?

Lee Kricher is the Senior Pastor of Amplify Church in Pittsburgh, PA, a church that experienced a dramatic turnaround from an aging, dying church of under 200 people to a church of over 2,000 people with every generation well represented. Lee is the author of For a New Generation: A Practical Guide For Revitalizing Your Church and founder of Future Forward Churches. You can contact him at lee@futureforwardchurches.com

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The Missional X-Factor: Part 1

By Ken Priddy How important is pastoral leadership in a local church?

Studying, observing, and working in dozens of churches with dozens of different pastors tells me that pastoral leadership is a critical factor, in fact, perhaps the most critical factor in terms of health, growth, and multiplication effectiveness in a local church. I’m surely not discounting the grace, blessing, and power of God and I am not suggesting that a pastor should dominate and discount the input of a plurality of leaders, such as elders, deacons, staff or other lay leaders, but the pastor is uniquely qualified and positioned to be the person behind the wheel. I refer to this critical factor of Great Commission pastoral leadership as the Missional X-Factor.

Why is it that some churches seem to thrive with vitality while others are caught in plateau or decline? Why is it that some churches are very effective at promoting the Gospel and see significant conversion growth while others rarely see a profession of faith? Why is it that the people of some congregations are mobilized for neighborhood ministry while the people of other congregations remain passive and are more spectators than participants? Many factors contribute to the condition of a given church, some internal and some external, but there is one factor that is clearly a difference maker, a catalytic game changer; one that could be a bright hope in an often-resigned ministry culture. That X-Factor is the pastor’s strong commitment to Great Commission ministry coupled with solid leadership skills. These skills can be learned and sharpened over time

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as pastors are equipped, encouraged and empowered to fulfill the important pastoral role of Great Commission leadership, but actionable commitment has to come from a pastor’s heart.

Most evangelical pastors have a heart for seeing people come to Christ, but, in many cases, the commitment to Great Commission ministry is more aspirational than real.

Other ministry priorities push the Great Commission aside and congregational expectations pull pastors toward inward over outward ministry. Pastors, it seems, are often the ones being led rather than the ones leading.

One simple way that leadership might be defined is this: Leadership is taking people where they ought to go instead of where they want to go. Revitalization tends to require leading people without affirmation because the place where church folks want to go is often quite different from where they ought to go. If their churches are in long-term plateau or decline, they hope for better growth outcomes without embracing change, but that, of course, won’t happen.

Consider the ministry of Judge Deborah as revealed in Judges 4 and 5. In brief, the people of God were once again under foreign domination and had fallen out of His favor.

Deborah challenges them and their military commander, Barak, and leads them to a military victory and back into God’s favor. This is celebrated in Judges 5 with the Song

of Deborah. The opening lyric reads, “That the leaders took the lead in Israel; that the people offered themselves willingly, bless the Lord,” (Judges 5:2 ESV). Two dynamics worked in tandem. First, leaders truly led and, second, people truly sacrificed. I suggest that this is as close to a biblical formula for revitalization as we will ever find. However, in many situations where revitalization is needed, leaders fail to provide strong leadership and people fail to sacrifice.

The Missional X-Factor is pastoral leadership that moves leaders and congregations toward Great Commission ministry. This takes Great Commission skill and often those pastoral skills haven’t been developed. What skills are we talking about? There are six particular skills that I have identified that equip a pastor in becoming an effective Missional X-Factor leader. The Missional X-Factor: Part 1 will offer the first three of those skills to be followed by the remaining skills in Part 2.

Skill 1: Discerning & Developing Vision Churches don’t become missional by accident. They become missional when strong leadership commits to Great Commission vision and develops that vision strategically.

The key leader is the pastor, so the pastor must be a person who is truly committed to ministry according to the Great Commission. Vision in the church is not about creativity, it’s about discernment, and it’s reasonable to discern that God has a vision of a church that goes and makes disciples. It’s God’s vision that compels us in a missional direction, not our own.

Firmly rooted in a commitment to the Great Commission, the strategic question becomes, “What does ‘going’ look like for our church in reaching our community?” Answering this question is foundational for turning a Great Commission vision into action, a first learned and then practiced skill.

Skill 2: Casting Vision & Creating Ownership Most churches have a document that provides a vision or mission or purpose statement, but often this statement is just words on a page and is not truly driving the actions of ministry. For vision to move forward it must be widely cast throughout the church and ownership of the vision by other leaders and the congregation at large must be garnered. This is largely a function of effective and consistent communication that is more conversation than presentation. Pastors and leaders must recognize that just because an announcement was made or a platform presentation was delivered, it does not mean that people understand the vision or are on board. Vision is an acquired taste that must be skillfully nurtured if it is to be owned and folded into the culture of a church.

Skill 3: Setting Objectives & Establishing Accountability Churches tend to evaluate ministry on the basis of busyness. If everyone is as busy as possible, we reason that we’re doing all that we can. If the calendar is chocked full of services, activities, meetings and events, we’re satisfied that the work of ministry is being done so we repeat this busyness week after week, month after month, year after year. Then we’re surprised when ministry turns flat and decline sets in. What are we missing?

We’re missing objectives that are set in order to move missional ministry forward and we’re missing accountability to reaching those objectives. We’re adrift in ministry as usual and fail to make real progress toward missional goals. Skill is needed to turn grand concepts such as making disciples into achievable, measurable action steps, and skill is needed in holding ourselves accountable to reaching the objectives that have been set in place. In other words, we must skillfully identify what we are trying to achieve, by the leading and grace of God, and have the courage to hold ourselves and others accountable to doing what we say rather than allowing ministry to languish in vague, unmeasured routines.

The Missional X-Factor Triangle These three skills work together as the three points of the Missional X-Factor Triangle: Discerning & Developing Vision, Casting Vision & Creating Ownership, and Setting Objectives & Establishing Accountability. They establish vision and strategy, garner support and commitment, and put benchmarks in place to track progress. Part 2 will examine the contents of the triangle as three nuts and bolts skills, Managing Ministry Time, Working with Staff & Leaders, and Leaving a Gospel Footprint. Stay tuned!

Ken Priddy (D.Min., Ph.D.) is Founder and Executive Director of the GO Center, a training and consulting ministry committed to church vitalization and revitalization. Ken also directs LEADERTOWN: A Laboratory for Organization & Leadership Development. His thirty-plus year journey in church planting and revitalization has grown into a national presence among evangelical leaders. He’s an effective trainer and consultant, but perhaps his most significant contribution is his extensive development of training curricula. Ken has published several books, most notably The Leadership Ladder: Developing Missional Leaders in the Church, co-authored with Dr. Steve Ogne, and the accompanying Leadership Ladder Workbook.

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Children’s Ministry Growing Pains

By Bill Hegedus Week after week we all get the privilege to serve the families of our church and community. The heart to share the Gospel should reside in every church. We want to see lives change and people come to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. The churches biggest mission field is the next generation. In fact, one of the fastest ways to grow a church is by focusing on the next generation of children and students. I have said this before, and I know you have heard it from others as well, “Children are our future.”

I know this first hand. When I started out in ministry as the children’s pastor of a church plant just outside of Philadelphia, we had four children. To top it off we would meet in the hallway of a banquet facility. We knew that was just a starting point and we had faith that God was going to grow it. By being extraordinarily strategic and intentional, we focused on the young families of our community and how we could serve them best.

Those four children grew to thirty-five, then to 100, and in just three years we were running a program of over 300 children on a Sunday morning. 80% of our adult congregation had children. This is not to say that we had it all together and did everything right. We made some pretty big mistakes along the way.

Such fast growth caused a lot of growing pains in the process. I want to share with you some of the lessons that I have learned to help keep the momentum of a growing church and I also want to point out the things that can kill that momentum.

Every pastor loves to see their church grow but can sometimes be unaware of the changes and challenges it brings. These are the best kind of problems to have. The first lesson I learned is that you can never have enough volunteers in your ministry. Volunteer recruiting is one of those things that will never end. But taking it one step further can help your best volunteers develop into coaches and coordinators over other volunteers. You need to make sure you have a leadership development strategy. Our job is to equip the saints for the ministry of the church (Ephesians 4:11&12).

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What I want to focus on is the changes and challenges that happen to us personally as a result of growth.

Growth is beautiful and painful all at the same time. I think Dr. Samuel Chand, said it best in his book Leadership Pain. He states that growth leads to change and change leads to pain. This is such a real and indicting statement. The funny thing is that it is right for us physically, but also emotionally, and professionally. Over the years I have experienced pain in all three of these areas.

As a child, I went through a growth spurt between fifth and sixth grade. I believe I grew four inches that summer.

I remember experiencing growing pains in the middle of the night. I would wake up screaming and in tears from the cramping I had in my legs. Many of you remember that pain as a child.

In Ministry, these growing pains can wake you up in the middle of the night too, but for different reasons. When you are leading a thriving children’s ministry, you receive more last minute call outs and no shows. You have multiple environments and services. At times it seems overwhelming, but it is also more rewarding. You get to see more families connect with the church, kids coming to know Christ, and more opportunities for people to plug in and serve. Now with every thriving and growing ministry, the enemy definitely takes notice. This is a great thing because it means we are taking ground away from the enemy and claiming it for Christ.

Let’s look at these challenges that can arise in a growing children’s ministry and the strategies you can use to help ease these growing pains. The first growing pain is not having enough volunteers to do ministry at the level you want. When you are growing in the number of kids you minister to, week after week, it can be hard to have enough volunteers to cover each room. When this happens, our natural response is just to fill all the holes and make it through the Sunday. Take heart, these Sunday’s will happen. Some Sunday’s you will have to combine classes and stretch your volunteer to child ratio to the max. Everyone at some point in time experiences this.

The thing to guard against is allowing this to become a pattern. You have to move your mindset from volunteer

placement to leadership development. It is all about replacing yourself. Now, this takes time and will only come to pass if you are intentional and consistent about making it happen.

When I first started out in ministry, we only had four kids. That was easy; I could do it all on my own but I also wanted to reach more children than the four that I had.

To grow the ministry I had to invite and recruit more people to join me. I had to think two steps ahead, but

even when I did that there were times when we were growing faster than I could recruit. I needed someone else to come alongside and partner with me. I was intentional about developing one person to be another me.

I looked for my best volunteer and cast the vision God gave me for the children’s ministry and how she could help make a real difference. She was a huge help. She took on one area, and I took on the other. Our recruiting efforts doubled, and we both began to find right-hand people to help us. We went from two leaders to four in just six months. Now that may seem like a long time, but it is not. You can’t rush the leadership development process. You need to find the right person to lead. Do not settle for someone who is just available. Here is why this is important.

Over a six month period, we went from fifty kids and a Sunday to 100 kids in each service and that was a massive challenge for us. We had never had that many children but it gave us a great opportunity. We were able to divide up ages and offer classrooms that were more age appropriate. If we hadn’t taken the time to develop leaders, we would not have been able to seize the opportunity God was giving us. Throughout the next year, the children’s ministry had grown to 350 kids a week. We took over every area of the church except for the adult auditorium. We even moved the church offices off-site and converted the old offices into classrooms.

Through this simple practice of intentionally multiplying our leadership, we were able to lessen the pain that comes with growth. Everything did not always go perfect, and we had some crazy days but we were a team, and we never had to face it alone. If I tried to do it alone, I would have burnt myself out and never been able to accomplish what God had in store for us. So don’t do it alone. Build a leadership team to help you achieve what God has in store for you and your church. Always anticipate and be ready for the harvest God brings, especially when it comes to the little ones.

Bill Hegedus is the Family Pastor at Bethlehem Church in Atlanta. Bill has over 15 years experience ministering to kids and families. His heart and passion is to help kids understand and live out a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Often described as a big kid himself, Bill uses laughter and innovation to do ministry in an exciting and memorable way kids enjoy.

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What Type Of Leader Will Your Church Receive

By Tracy Jaggers What kind of leader would get your vote? One with an “S” stamped on the chest plate of his armor?

One with a cape who leaps tall buildings in a single bound? That human doesn’t exist! There is no Superman. But I fear many churches are searching as though there is one is out there, just waiting to lead them to peace, unity, hope, and victory.

I have taught Pastor Search Committee training close to fifty times and I never cease to be amazed at the lack of community awareness of the team.

They have little to no definitive information about those who live in the community and they cannot even verbalize who THEY are. Yet, they want a leader who is sold-out to their church and community.

They envision the prefect pastor who is on board with their Mission, Vision, and Purpose statements (which they can’t recall or repeat). In short, it’s like trying to find a captain to pilot a ship to the Bermuda Triangle. Failure is most likely assured.

In this article, I will present several leadership styles and give my thoughts on which type(s) best describe a strong revitalization leader.

THE BOSS – this is the person who let’s everyone know, “I am in charge! You will obey.” This type causes others to fear the consequences of creativity and honest ideas. This type receives little or no contribution, insights fearful participation, and gains no healthy feedback. With the “boss,” it’s “my way or the highway!” Don’t be deceived into thinking this is the leader you will love.

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THE FATHER-FIGURE – This leader may echo the message of Darth Vader – “Luke, I am your Father.

You must join me and become a part of the Dark Side.” It could also go the opposite way – true fathers are willing to die for their family. Family is the body Christ rebirthed us into. A dysfunctional group might have some favored children and a lack of loyalty to the family might even jeopardize your position/job. If you do a great job, you will likely be rewarded, but if you fail, “go sit in time out!”

THE ATTENTIVE, DECISION-MAKER – This leader truly listens. They care what every member of the group has to offer, but they are solid enough to make the final decision for the good of the entire church, business, or the many. They are open to new ideas, variant thoughts, and suggestions that may be counter to their plans and strategies.

This leader is one of my favorites, but could benefit from having a little of THE BOSS when progress slows or too many plans dilute the goal.

THE DISTANT/ABSENT LEADER – This one is the Sean Connery leader. When explaining to Indiana Jones why he didn’t offer helpful leadership to Indy in his formative years, he replies, “I wanted you to make your own decisions; I taught you self-reliance!” This type of leader can be a powerful guide, but it would require all the followers to be self-motivated and highly-skilled. This leader gives you an assignment but doesn’t offer accountability. If you fail, it’s on you. This type is rarely about teamwork.

THE INTENTIONAL CHEERLEADER – This leader offers a balance between strategic leadership, team-spirit intensification, and effective encouragement. The mantra of the intentional cheerleader is, “Let’s go team!” The only downside to this type is they can become one who strives for fun and misses the goal of productivity. One advantage to working with this leader is that there is rarely a dull moment. It is almost always a joy to labor with the cheerleader.

THE EXPERIENCED COACH – “Hey team, what do you think about this option,” is the regular question of this leader. They reveal what can be done when we work together. The results occur with greater speed, significant effectiveness, and superior productivity. This type aids the team to excel beyond their perceived limitations and known weaknesses. They get the best out of every individual and multiply the outcome by the entire team.

This leader is charismatic and considers everyone valuable and presses others toward greatness, not mediocrity.

The Experienced Coach is one of the very best. I also like to call this type, “The Change Agent.” The team always functions better with an Experienced Coach who is not afraid to modify and adapt.

There are two other types I have encountered. I avoid giving them any merit, other than to mention them. They are not worthy of further investigation or discussion:

A church that says they must have a strong, commanding leader and gets THE BOSS, will soon feel crushed, disregarded and devalued. The church that gains the FATHER-FIGURE can find themselves being appreciated for making the leader look good or being scolded for their disloyalty.

The congregation that finds themselves with the ATTENTIVE, DECISION-MAKER may be heard but may not always see their ideas or values incorporated into the whole. The group that has THE ABSENT LEADER will probably always be functioning in a vacuum. The flock with THE INTENTIONAL CHEERLEADER will have loads of fun but may never get to the heart of the renewal process. Revitalization is not always fun! The body with THE EXPERIENCED COACH will work hard, work fast and work together, but they must always remember to allow seasons of solace and refreshment. Jesus got away from the crowds at times to rest, pray and recharge. A candle burning at both ends will meet at the middle twice as fast as one burning at only one end.

It has been my experience that a leader that exhibits a combination of leadership styles will lead the worshippers to a balanced lifestyle in Christ. I am striving in my own life to be that Experienced Coach, Listening Decision Maker, Exuberant Cheerleader, and loving Father-Figure to those with whom I am called to minister. May a balance in leadership styles shape us into the leader our congregation will both receive and respect.

The Arrogant _______ (blank on purpose) – “It’s all about me and for me.”

The Obsessive-Planner – all organization and no implementation.

The most effective leader in revitalization and renewal, in my opinion, has a combination of types.

No one person has all the types mentioned above, but a combination makes for a well-rounded shepherd and a confident change agent. I am intrigued with the prospect of mixing the Experienced Coach with the Attentive Decision-Maker and the Intentional Cheerleader with the Father-Figure.

If you are willing to incorporate confidence and character with care and significance, you will be admired and trusted. Then add encouragement, gratitude and heart with a leader that gives responsibility, empowerment, and friendly accountability, and you will have the attributes of a powerful guide.

Tracy Jaggers is the Associational Director of Missions of Gateway Baptist Association, Edwardsville, Illinois. He has held the Senior Pastor, Associate Pastor, Minister of Music, Youth Pastor and Minister of Education roles. He is a contributing author for the book entitled, Practical Tools for Reinventing the Dying Church. His website is: www.churchoverhauler.com

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What Great Leaders Do

By Ron Smith The following are Seven Developmental Steps I have learned during my time in ministry for becoming a successful leader.

1. Develop COURAGE in order to deal with fear and uncertainty Courage is pushing through the fear.

Leading the charge to move a church to be on mission for Christ will always involve an element of fear and uncertainty. The work of ministry in areas of revitalization, church growth and church planting will have elements of fear. I’m not talking about the spirit of fear that we know the Bible speaks against (I Timothy 3:7). The fear I speak of is environmental fear. You cannot find a servant of God in the Bible that was not the least bit timid of the task before them. We are not immune to the same feelings of fear. We fear things like finances, opinions, direction, and provision. You have to know that Noah faced these fears. Noah must have asked questions like these: - What if the townspeople are right?

- What if it doesn’t rain?

- Will this thing float?

- What if only one animal out of a pair shows up?

We, like Noah, fret over things in ministry. Fear and uncertainty are part of the path we walk as we follow God’s direction. God repeated to Joshua – “Do not fear…” God

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knew that along the way Joshua would encounter things that challenged his trust in God. Never break one of God’s laws out of fear. Fear will paralyze you and cause you to second guess God and sidestep His path. Fear seeks to intimidate so it can permeate your thinking.

2. Develop TRUST and RESPECT Nothing you can learn about leadership is as important as earning trust.

Trust is earned and established with consistency and quality of character. Great leaders must first be great men. The standards of our calling are in print for all to read. We can find them in I Timothy 3:1-7. Strength of character and depth of trust carry a pastor when a bold declaration of direction or vision is stated.

Being able to say, “Trust me, this is the direction we need to go” is important. Often the church will follow the man they trust more than the direction they see.

Leading a church requires bold tenacity to make hard decisions. Almost anyone can make hard decisions. Making hard decisions the right way with the right heart is what sets you apart. People will follow a leader they trust. When the time comes to step out on a decision as a leader it will be character and trust not charisma and talent they follow.

Trust is earned in ministry. As our lives line up with scripture the people will instinctively know they can follow you.

How is trust earned? I Thessalonians 5:12 says, “…as we labor among…serve over…and admonish them.” Roll up your sleeves, get knee deep in renovation, lead them, and love them.

3. Develop the STRENGTH to take risks Courage is most obvious when choosing between what is popular and what is right.

We like the early church face three futures. Every year thousands of churches close their doors. As a minister you must show the church the choices before them. Our three futures: 1 - Risk-takers 2 - Caretakers 3 - Undertakers To step out in faith is to take risks. Again, we know that having faith in our God is not risk but if you were Daniel in the lions den wouldn’t it feel risky? If you were Gideon, Moses, or even more so, one of the twelve disciples that were told to never mention the name of Jesus again – wouldn’t you feel like you were risking life, family, and future?

As believers, if we aren’t a people of faith then who are we? We don’t need reasons why it can’t be done, we need reasons why we should do it. The worst decision is indecision.

4. Develop the KNOWLEDGE to equip people for ministry You can’t lead very well from the rear.

This one does not need a lot of words. As leaders we must boldly ask people to serve, give, and go. It’s our job! Yet too many pastors are not equipping people for the work of ministry. Get out from behind the desk and ask people to come alongside of you and serve.

5. Develop CLARITY Leadership is an action verb. Don’t just talk about the vision lead them to it.

Communicate the win, define the result, cast the vision, and lay out the direction. As ministers it is our job to show them the Father and the Frontier.

Discipleship is not a circular process of “ever learning and seldom serving.” We are not called to make “spiritual porkers” we are called to develop active believers. Declaring direction and announcing a vision takes boldness. The more faithful you are in clarifying the “what” the fewer “why” questions you will receive.

6. Develop DISCIPLINES to train yourself “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching…”

1 Timothy 4:16 You must manage yourself before you can manage others. Focus on your call and everything else will come into view. A Pastor is a living example of what it means to move forward in Christ.

If everything rises and falls on leadership then the continual development of our call must be a priority. As ministers we must train ourselves everyday. As a Marine in the 80’s we were trained to be ready for a 48-hour deployment anywhere in the world.

Our calling as Ministers is to be ready for any season. We must be ready to be called upon to live out our calling.

Our calling is not a nine to five job. Our calling is a lifestyle.

“Follow me” were not words spoken of convenience.

Read books. Stay fresh, current, and relevant. There is nothing worse than stale faith and dry sermons. Everyday is training day.

7. Develop ENDURANCE The difference between victory and defeat comes down to endurance.

Look at the phrase repeated twice in Joshua 6:13, “…and they blew the trumpets continually.”

Don’t quit. Persevere. Keep praying, preaching, and ministering. As Ministers we hear the same words echoed in Paul’s writings. Paul, tells us in Philippians 3 verses 13 and 14, “This one thing… I press on…toward the prize…which God has called me.”

Vance Havner sums it up well, “A preacher should have the mind of a scholar, the heart of a child and the hide of a rhinoceros. His biggest problem is how to toughen his hide without hardening his heart.”

Ron Smith is the Lead Pastor of WaterStone Church in Longwood and serves as Co-Leader of Renovate One Day Training as well as serving on staff of the Renovate Coaching Network.

Follow Ron at RonBSmithJr.com for leadership material and sporadic blogs.

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The Ghosts of Leaders Past 30

By Pete Tackett You meet with the group seeking to fill a lead pastor vacancy and they settle in on you as their candidate. In your investigation of the church, you discover it has a roller coaster past of ups and downs, as all churches do if they have been around for any length of time. Chances are even better that if they are looking for a new lead pastor, they are in one of those down cycles. It is rare that pastors leave when things are going great - kind of a greener grass on the other side of the fence thing. Even when the former lead pastor left at a good point, months or years of interim period, if not done right, leaves them in a stagnant or declining state.

or real. If a strong, charismatic or popular leader was moving the church forward and pushing through some opposition to get some things done and then suffers a public moral failure of some kind, leadership gets suspicious of all pastors and feel it is their responsibility to protect the church from it happening again. Sometimes, that failure is not moral, but some key leaders stood with the previous pastor to make some needed changes, buy a piece of property, start a new ministry, or deal with an old issue only to see that pastor quit when the battle gets too hot. Those leaders are often once burned and twice shy and may seek to slow you down.

When you start asking questions, the team appointed to fill this position almost always say some variation of the following. “Our church is primed and ready to go. We know we need to make some changes and it won’t be easy, but we are just looking for the right person to lead us forward.” Most of the time, that is an honest appraisal from their perspective, but once the new leader shows up and starts trying to lead, the brakes go on and life gets tense.

How does the new guy avoid being equated with either of those guys? First, it is especially helpful to know if you have a similar personality and bearing as “that guy.” It seems foolish, but if you are always reminding someone of “that guy,” you are going to need to work hard to distinguish yourself from him in the way he did business.

Make sure you are above reproach in your business and personal interactions with church members. Choose your battles carefully on the front end. Over explain yourself. You need to win some smaller battles with your leaders before you try to lead them into a big one so they will know you are going to be there when someone pushes back. Ask yourself how committed you are to seeing this thing through before you start it.

Throughout this edition, there are many articles about what to do when that happens, but it also helps to understand why it happens. All of us know mean-spirited and unregenerate members that have percolated to positions of prominence just because they have been around a long time, but most people that oppose pastoral leadership have some legitimate reason to do so, at least in their own mind. They are not mean and negative just to be that way. There is something in the past that has them on guard against leadership and they feel some responsibility to keep their eye on things. Some churches as a whole take on this demeanor as evidenced by some of the prohibitions and rules in their constitution and bylaws.

What are some past events that make a church or a leadership group wary when a revitalizer starts making the tough decisions to move the church forward? I am sure there are many more but here is a partial list of the biggies and how you can avoid a bloodbath when you know they are in play.

The low hanging fruit you can watch for and seek to understand is past leadership failures, either perceived

A second area you need to understand carefully is the past leadership models that the church has progressed through. Churches routinely think they want a different model but as several leadership gurus have opined, culture eats strategy/vision for breakfast. A church that has been a patriarchal or family chapel model may find it necessary to change but they don’t know how to follow a different model. Conversely, a church may have progressed through a pastor-led model and encountered a bully, at least in their perception. Other churches adopted a “plurality of leaders” model and had those leaders do something that hurt some of the church members, even though it may have been necessary. Many of the churches I deal with have such a muddied leadership model, it is hard to understand, much less articulate.

Into this, the new revitalizing pastor needs to speak softly and lead carefully. If the model is a new one to the church or the team is talking about needing to make a

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change in the leadership model or if the revitalizing pastor knows it needs to change and no one else does, the first thing to do is to build relationships with the current leadership. During that time, you are working to see if they can be led to change or if they will need to be replaced. The goal is to help the people see and define the problem and work toward a shared solution. Some will never go with you on that and some battles will have to be fought, but take as many of the current leadership with you as you can. Don’t vilify people who can be won over. Be willing to fight but don’t fight first.

Finally, and this is a simple one, you need to know the past leadership language, both good and bad. Francis Chan said some years ago at a conference I attended that you will know people are buying into your leadership when they begin to speak your language. It is a simple point but over time, people start to pick up our language. When a pastorate ends poorly and you come in using some of the same language he did, they are wary, not because they don’t like you but because they have been hurt and much of their pain is held in containers of those words he used and you sound like him. Even simple words like vision, change, purpose, and pastor-led can cause them to think, “Oh, no, here we go again.”

Spend some time with your people learning what they loved about former pastors and what they did not love about them. Sometimes you will find that what one group loves about a former pastor another group hates, but you can pick out some key words and phrases to build on as well as some to avoid.

Revitalizers need to constantly remind themselves that we don’t work in a vacuum. We work in the context of all the leaders who have gone before us. Let’s learn from the past and avoid problems we don’t have to experience. There will be enough problems we do have to face as we lead change in our churches.

Pete Tackett is Lead Pastor of Antioch Baptist Church in Johnson City, Tennessee, and a Pastor Connector for the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board. He regularly partners with churches and pastors engaging in revitalization. He is the author of re.Vital.ize: Lessons Learned in a Recovering Church.

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Effective Leaders... The Jethro Model

By George Thomasson

W

ould you agree with me that North America is experiencing a leadership crisis? It is seen at virtually every level of society, the church not being the least obvious. Depending on which research firm you consult, between 65% and 85% of Evangelical churches in America are plateaued or declining. Most of these churches are in serious decline and many in danger of demise.

There is no simplistic answer for why this problem exists, but certainly a major contributing factor is ineffective, non-intentional leadership.

There are many models we could turn to in order to find help for leaders. I would like to site a favorite of mine – Jethro and Moses. You will remember that according to Exodus 18 Moses found himself in an impossible situation. “And so it was on the next day, that Moses sat to judge the people and the people stood before Moses from morning until evening.” (v. 13) Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, observed that even though Moses was leading God’s people his leadership was ineffective! “…He said, ‘What is this thing that you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit, and all the people stand before you from morning until evening?...The thing you are doing is not good. Both you

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and these people who are with you will surely wear yourselves out. For this thing is too much for you; you are not able to perform it by yourself.’” (vv. 14, 17b, 18) Jethro then proceeded to share a model for leadership with his son-in-law. He promised Moses that God would bless his efforts and that he would be effective. The “Jethro Model” for leaders is just as relevant today as it was in Moses’ day and it has the potential to produce effectiveness. Too many of us as Christian leaders, whether pastors of existing churches, church planters, or denominational servants, have a tendency to try to do it all ourselves – just like Moses did. What is the result? Burnout!

My friend, Dr. Ron Rowe, while serving as Director of Missions of the Jacksonville, Florida Baptist Association, says, “People burn out from doing trivia. Leaders don’t burn out pursuing their great passion.” Moses was busying himself with all of the trivia and minutia and he was headed for burnout. Many of us are as well, unless we change our leadership model.

Allow me to highlight five critical components of the “Je-

thro Model” in the hopes that you and I can become more effective leaders. In so doing we should not experience burnout but blessings.

1. Effective Leaders PRAY. “Stand before God for the people, so that you may bring the difficulties to God.” (v. 19b) Jethro suggested first that an effective leader should come before God and give the problems to Him! Do we need to be reminded that this is not our work but it is God’s? Nothing surprises God and He can handle all of our leadership problems. In Matthew 9:35-39 Jesus declared that our major problem in the church is a labor problem. “The harvest truly is plentiful but the labors are few.” What did he suggest as a solution to the labor problem? “Pray, therefore, the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth labors into the harvest.” John Maxwell says that effective leadership rises and falls on influence. There may be some truth to his assertion, but I believe it rises and falls on prayer.

2. Effective Leaders TEACH. “And you shall teach them the statutes and the laws, and show them the way in which they must walk and the work they must do.” (v. 20) I have observed that effective leaders love to teach and impart insights. Their passion is to invest in and develop other leaders. Obviously the foundation for all of this teaching is God’s Word. Jethro made that very clear. It seems as though Jethro outlines teaching in three (3) steps: a. Principles, b. Practices, c. Processes. He instructed Moses to teach the principles, show them the practices, and lay out the processes.

3. Effective Leaders ENLIST. “Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.” (v. 21) Jethro understood that effective leaders will not be threatened by other leaders who may even exceed their skills.

Neither can they make decisions based on the approval of others. An effective leader will identify the best candidates for leadership and enlist them on his team.

4. Effective Leaders DELEGATE. “And let them judge the people at all times…every small matter they themselves will judge…they will bear the burden with you.” (v. 22. a,c,d)

As an effective leader, you must see the big picture and break it down into manageable snapshots. Then you can delegate most of the work to the leaders you have prayed for, taught, and enlisted. Someone said that you can only expect what you inspect. So you will need to formulate a simple yet workable system of accountability to inspect the work of your team members. Whatever you do, delegate the work and allow others to share in the blessing of doing meaningful ministry.

5. Effective Leaders STAY ENGAGED. “Then it will be that every great matter they shall bring to you…so it will be easier for you.” (v. 22 b) I like to categorize my “things to do” list as A, B, or C items.

“C” items I can delegate immediately. “B” items I can delegate but with careful explanation and expectation. “A” items can only be done by me. Jethro told Moses to stay engaged with his team members by addressing “every great matter.” These are the items that are top priority and you must give them your best. You should also stay engaged by following up on the work of your team members and being an encourager. Brag on your leaders at every available opportunity. This will motivate them to go the second mile for you.

Concluding Thoughts: Jethro was concerned that Moses, the father of his grandchildren, was going to burn himself out and leave his daughter to raise the kids alone. He promised Moses that if he would implement his model for effective leadership two (2) things would result: 1. He would finish well. “If you do this thing, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure…” (v. 23a). 2.

The people would be happy. “And all this people will also go to their place in peace.” (v. 23b) I am certain that we all desire to finish well, serve among happy people, and hear our Lord say, “Well done good and faithful (effective) servant. Enter into your reward.” Consistently following the “Jethro Model” can lead us to this desired end as revitalizers of God’s church.

George Thomasson is a native of Arkansas but spent most of his ministry in Florida and Texas. He holds degrees from Palm Beach Atlantic University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is married to his high school sweetheart, Sandra. They have two grown children, Angie Gould and Greg Thomasson, who blessed them with two grandchildren each. He presently serves as Mobilization Pastor for Christ Place Church in Flowery Branch, Georgia.

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Bein

g th

e Le ade

r

r u Yo

h c r u Ch

s d e e N

By Steve Smith I was the pastoral search team’s fourth candidate. The previous candidates had turned them down for various reasons, mostly because the church was small and conflicted. I was a bit bemused when the chairman read one letter of rejection to the search team in front of me at my interview meeting. I wasn’t their last hope, but I certainly wasn’t their first choice either.

This church had only two goals. Build a new church building and find a pastor who could build it. Nothing about making disciples—just the building. I knew nothing about building church buildings. But since they were now scraping the bottom of the barrel, they had become a little less choosy.

I came to love this congregation, but this church had no idea where it was going. It was giving its best energy to other pursuits in place of the gospel and it was making no spiritual imprint on its tiny town. They were hoping the new building would be its statement of significance.

And to help them get what they wanted, they settled for a young, untried seminary graduate.

Fast-forwarding to the end of my ministry time there, the church had tripled in size and gained a reputation in the community for compassion for the broken. It was

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a church full of growing disciples who were living out the gospel. Eventually we did build that building. They got there because God worked through my leadership.

I wasn’t what they wanted. But I was what they needed.

You could also be what your church needs, although you may be fostering some doubts about it. You may be fighting other leaders for changes you know are needed.

You may be finding indifference instead of engagement by the congregation. You may be frustrated and planning your exit because you see nothing eternal coming out of your leadership. I understand, because I experienced all of these things too.

How do you become the leader your congregation needs? And how do you navigate through the inevitable pushback you will experience? Here are three lessons I learned that made it possible for me to be the leader they never saw coming.

Realize that God is the one who sent you there.

I wasn’t ready for the lack of maturity and biblical illiteracy I found when I arrived. I honestly felt that it was unfair of God to send me there—that was my immaturity showing. I had to learn what it meant to truly be a slave

of God. He sent me there to make better disciples out of the people who made up the church. But before He could use me in this, He had to prune me, ridding me of the notion that I could come and go as I please. When I got this through my head, I surrendered to stay as long as it took to bring spiritual depth to that congregation.

While the congregation may believe they are the ones who ‘hired’ you, you are at your church at this time because God sent you there. You are under His command. What you find may be miles away from the healthy church you yearn to lead. No matter. Initiating spiritual health is your purpose in being there.

pastoral failure or spiritual abuse. Don’t be afraid to bring this out into the open. These need to be addressed openly with both compassion for those wounded by the past and a humble desire to submit the past to God’s reign. A helpful book for this task is Healing the Heart of Your Church by Dr. Kenneth Quick.

Being sent to the church by God isn’t about what you think you know or the talents you think you have. It is impossible to do the assignments God gives us without humbling ourselves. Without admitting we haven’t finished growing. Without learning lessons we didn’t know. He will empower you to fulfill His purpose. And He is with you even in the disappointing days when you can mistakenly feel you are alone.

I spent time listening to Paul and Hazel, who had been founding members years before. They told me why they had helped start the church—what they had hoped for the church. Now in their 70s, they still wanted this church to be a witness to the town. These desires were faintly echoed by others, but I seized upon them as the theme I used to shape what I preached and taught in those first years.

Fix that firmly in your mind. God has given you a Timothy-size challenge to spiritually reinvigorate your congregation. You will live with less fear and offer better leadership by knowing this. You will also complain less and stop pining for a better opportunity.

I also began discipling men one-on-one. As I invested in them spiritually, I gained their trust. More importantly, they started wanting to be the church God intended them to be.

Do not become part of the problem.

I had no sooner hit ground zero when I was invited to participate in the exciting business venture in which almost all the attenders were participating. It had replaced the gospel as the focus of the church. The company was able to do this because it was a ‘Christian’ organization, which drew people in by its use of biblical themes and Christian worship.

I told the members I couldn’t approach community people as potential disciples and potential customers at the same time. Because I was a pastor, I chose to pursue making disciples. This astounded them, especially the church leader who had recruited all the rest to join him in this venture.

Your church’s problem may be very different from the one I faced. But here are the two steps you need to take to shift from being the outsider to becoming the leader they need. First, don’t take sides. Don’t attack anyone, but love them where they are. Second, take a godly position and stand your ground. Bring God’s perspective into the conversation. Neither give in to anger or to compromise. If you do this and are consistent, attenders will start considering your point of view and open themselves up to your leadership.

In numerous churches, the problem you will face is due to past spiritual brokenness, such as a church split,

Lead them where God wants them to go.

People will not follow your leadership if you only are trying to lead them away from something. They need to be led to something they will value more.

God has a reason for your local church to exist now. If you are going to be the leader it needs, make these two practices a part of your toolkit. Listen to the longings of your people—even if it’s only a few of them—to discover what they spiritually value. Then emphasize those longings. Second, make time to disciple. Sadly, after years now of working with numerous churches, I find that many church leaders push the church in the wrong direction because they have been poorly discipled. You can gain the ability to lead them where God wants them to go by taking the time to disciple them better.

Pastors fail in revitalization because they never became the leader their church needed. But you don’t have to be one of them. Set your heart on learning these life lessons. Even if you have been with your congregation for some time, you can still become the leader they need.

Steve Smith is the founder of ChurchEquippers Ministries, serving churches by training them in transformational discipleship and church systems. He is the author of several books including The Key to Deep Change and The Increasing Capacity Guidebook. He is a strategic thinker, a relational networker, a mentor and coach to pastors and young leaders. For more information, go to: www.ChurchEquippers.com

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The Role of the Senior Pastor Today

By Bill Tenny-Brittian When I stepped into professional church leadership after my ordination, I wasn’t totally clueless. I was green, young, and inexperienced, but I had the basics down on how to lead a church. Sadly, many of my fellow seminarians had and have been ill prepared for the challenges of the church in the twenty-first century. Instead of growing their churches, they were taught to care for their churches. To hold their hands in times of crisis. To marry them, educate them, and bury them.

They were taught how to prepare a homiletically and theologically sound sermon in only twenty hours a week. What they weren’t taught was what to do when they faithfully executed their training and as a result their church began to slide into decline while the only increase they experienced was an uptick in both church conflict and irrelevance to the unchurched community.

has been romanticized and twisted to accommodate today’s member-centric image of what a pastor is “supposed” to do.

Let’s unpack what a “real” shepherd does when s/he leads a flock of sheep.

There were three roles of a shepherd in Jesus’ day. First, the shepherd was responsible to ensure the sheep were in a safe place where they could feed. Second, the shepherd was responsible to ensure the sheep grew and were healthy so that they could reproduce more sheep. And finally, the shepherd was responsible to lead the sheep from one pasture to another so that there was always plenty to eat.

You’re probably familiar with the story. If you’ve not been there yourself, you know colleagues that have been. And so, I’d like to share with you some of the things I’ve learned about the role of a senior pastor in today’s world.

1. The shepherd didn’t feed the sheep – sheep have to feed themselves. The shepherd’s job was to make sure the sheep were in an environment where they could be healthy and where there was plenty of food.

2. Sheep beget sheep, shepherds beget shepherds. It’s the role of the laity to make more disciples. And it’s the role of the pastor to make more leaders.

3. Sheep need to be led from pasture to pasture, they’ve got to be mobile. In changing times, one of the responsibilities of the shepherd is to help the sheep adapt to a changing world.

4. Shepherds protect the flock. That includes not allowing dysfunctional sheep or goats to bully, inhibit, or control the ministry of the church.

There are three key metaphors that lay a solid foundation for the biblical role of the senior pastor: Shepherd, Midwife, and The Way. Each one speaks to a breadth of roles and tasks every effective senior pastor faces.

Shepherd

When Jesus reinstated Peter as the chief leader of the church, he had a conversation that went like this: “Simon, son of John, do you love me? … Take care of my sheep.” (John 21:16) I suspect every pastor on earth is familiar with this verse and with the metaphor of the pastor as a shepherd. The problem is, most of the time the image of the shepherd-pastor

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There are some significant implications we can draw from these three key roles … several of which belie what you may have been led to believe about the shepherd-pastor.

The Midwife

Midwives were once the OBGYN’s of the culture. They were the ones called when a woman was ready to give birth. Spiritual midwives step in to help the spiritually pregnant give birth to their spiritual gifts and to their life’s calling. This is one of the key roles of the pastor-midwife… to provide an

environment where followers of Jesus can birth their gift and fulfill their calling. However, that gift and that calling is at the heart of the spiritually pregnant, not at the whim or the needs of the church. The gift and the calling may, or may not, match anything the local church is doing.

Second, the spiritual midwife spends the bulk of their time with the spiritually pregnant. They don’t waste time with those who are dysfunctional or controlling and those who have little interest in birthing a healthy ministry. Spiritual midwives listen to these folks once if they discern they’re unhealthy, they stop listening to them and turn their attention back to those who ready and willing to give birth.

Third, midwives don’t ask the expectant if they want to give birth. These pastors don’t allow the church to decide whether or not they want to be involved in birthing effective ministries to reach the unreached. The mission to make disciples isn’t an option, any more than birthing a nine-month-old baby in the womb is an option. They give birth or they die.

Either the church is birthing mission or it isn’t a church.

There are three implications I’ve found in the pastor’s role as a midwife.

1. Pastors spend time with those who serve and with those who want to serve.

2. Pastors are on the lookout for those who are spiritually expectant but do not know it. These are almost always found outside of the church where it’s very easy to be spiritually ripe and unaware that the pain of life could be the pangs of labor.

3. Pastors are spiritual directors, not spiritual controllers.

They assist people on their spiritual journeys. The pastor succeeds when others have discovered and implemented the ministry that’s planted within their hearts.

The Way

Before Christians were known as Christians, they were knows as the People of the Way – they weren’t known as People of the book. They weren’t known for their profound knowledge of intricate (and largely irrelevant) theologies. Instead, they were known for the way they behaved, for the way they loved, and for the life choices they made.

Neil Cole once commented that church members are educated well beyond their obedience. It was Jesus who said that there were just two “great” commandments and neither of them had anything to do with orthodox beliefs, but down to earth daily practices.

The early pagans didn’t know that people were Christians because of what they taught or by the power of their arguments. They knew they were Christians because of the way they lived. Jesus spent the bulk of his waking hours pouring himself into only twelve others. He taught them the concepts. He showed them how to put concepts into actions. He sent them out to practice what they’d learned. And then he received them back to hear the stories of what they’d done.

Mentoring is a key role for pastors who are of The Way. Second, we learn more about spiritual leadership by “watching” what Jesus did yesterday than we do by memorizing scripture or by reading other’s interpretations. As helpful as it might be to be able to quote scripture or to immerse ourselves in scholarly studies, pastors on The Way spend time looking at the unvarnished Jesus of the Bible rather than the Jesus of the church or of Sunday School. They learn to emulate Jesus’ words and actions and see how Jesus treated the sinners and how he treated the so-called saints and how he preferred the company of the spiritually curious to the presence of the religious hypocrite.

And finally, Jesus never gave anyone a “job” or a “title.” Instead, he mentored, equipped, and invited people to join him in mission and then sent them out on mission.

I can see any number of implications in this, but I’ll share just three.

1. Senior pastors spend a large portion of their time studying the Jesus of the scriptures and then conspicuously model how to live life on The Way in the presence of others. They spend more time modeling and mentoring apprentices than they do preparing and leading Bible studies.

2. Senior pastors are passionate about their faith journey and actively invite others to join them in that journey and the journey of the church.

3. Because the faith journey is a community action (there is no Christianity without the church), this means that the church must be a safe place for even the neophyte to travel.

Therefore, these pastors ruthlessly root out conflict and deal with the dysfunctional people of the church by either transforming them or showing them to the door, thus making it safe for pre-Christians to explore the faith.

The role of the senior pastor today is significantly different than what it once was. In fact, if I could have my way, the word “pastor” would fall from our vocabulary because it is so laden with “pastoral care” kinds of baggage. The metaphors of the Shepherd, the Midwife, and The Way barely scratch the surface of what the lead minister must do in the church today in order to turn the church from its self-destructive ways.

However, by understanding these biblical metaphors, you should at least have a foundation on which to build.

Bill Tenny-Brittian is the managing partner of The Effective Church Group. For over thirty years, The Effective Church Group has been equipping churches and church leaders so they can be successful in reaching their mission. He is the co-author of The Role of the Senior Pastor and also teaches Pastoral Leadership for Phillips Seminary with an emphasis on leadership.

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Why Churches Don’t Like Revitalization Leaders

By Bud Brown After we had finished our business, my friend told me about the new pastor recently called to the church after a lengthy search process.

“Everybody loves him because he is an organizer who gets things done. Weak leadership from the two previous pastors stalled the church for years. Things are moving again!”

“It sounds great. I hope it works out,” I said. “Do me a favor? Call me in six months. Let’s see how things are going. I hope I’m wrong, but some unsettling turbulence may surprise you soon. Lucky for you, you know a church consultant who might help if the time comes.”

Every plateaued church loves a revitalization leader — until they get one.

You can’t blame them. Pastor search committees, boards, and members don’t know what they don’t know. They don’t know that the pastor they expect to lead them out of the wilderness into the promised land will send them into the Dark Valley of Change where danger, discomfort, and disorientation lurks in the shadows.

There are many reasons churches dislike pastors who lead. Here are four.

1: Leading Causes Change

Revitalization leaders lead and leading implies mo-

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tion, progress, and a change in the status quo. We might vote for a change in a weak moment or because we are incapable of giving “informed consent.”

When a revitalization pastor points and moves the church in the right direction, reality sets in. We don’t want a pastor who leads change. We want a pastor to attract just enough new folks to help keep the doors open and the church running the way it has always run.

2: Revitalization Leaders Are Assertive

Assertiveness is a crucial behavior that distinguishes revitalizers from maintenance pastors. Assertiveness is a communication style of stating your opinions, ideas, needs, and wishes clearly and firmly. Assertive people contend for their ideas, but welcome dialog and even spirited disagreement with others.

Don’t confuse it with aggression, which is very different. That is the attempt to impose your will upon another by force, by argument, or by threat. Aggression is off limits in ministry leadership.

Assertive leaders benefit plateaued churches by creating an environment of trust. When the pastor is willing to take the risk of being honest about opinions, feelings, and intentions, others will eventually take the same risk. The net result is that these churches make better decisions because previously withheld information (due to fear, passivity, or not feeling safe enough to speak honestly) flows freely and then the chances of making good decisions that bless the church will improve.

Some churches won’t like this. If they have a history of unassertive pastors, your preference for open debate and free exchange of ideas will feel awkward.

The church bully who browbeats to keep control will see the assertive pastor as a threat and the serious trouble starts when these folks realize their grasp on power is slipping.

3: Systems Resist Change

Churches have certain predictable patterns. One thing you can count on in every human system, including churches, is that they all operate to maintain the status quo. It’s as if systems intend to fend off attempts at change.

When a church and a revitalization pastor agree on the call, they understand it is a call for the pastor to lead deliberate change. The church may not know it, but the revitalization pastor realizes that resistance and even open conflict may occur.

This is because all human systems include status quo maintenance behaviors. In A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix, Friedman made a sweeping conclusion about how systems respond to leadership initiative.

For, whether we are considering a family, a work system, or an entire nation, the resistance that sabotages a leader’s initiative usually has less to do with the “issue” that ensues than with the fact that the leader took initiative.

Systems like the idea of leaders who lead, until they get one. Experienced revitalization leaders recognize this and rejoice over the resistance because it proves that change is settling in.

4: Human Nature Naturally Resists Change

There’s a fundamental neurological reason why we resist leaders who lead. We tax our brains’ limited processing capacity to the limit every waking moment. Massive sensory data bombards it every moment. It controls us as our bodies maneuver through space. Behind the scenes it governs pulse, respiration, digestion, temperature control, and dozens of other autonomic systems and it is always scanning the environment for threats.

The brain copes by looking for ways to reduce effort.

It ignores most sensory data unless a threat emerges.

It converts 80% of our daily actions into programmed behaviors we call habits. We run on auto-pilot from the moment our feet hit the floor in the morning, until our head hits the pillow at night.

Habits protect the brain’s narrow bandwidth of con-

scious thought for important tasks. Chaos, confusion, and anxiety reign when circumstances render those once reliable habits useless.

Try to recall your reaction when a habit failed you. For example, what do you do when traffic grinds to a halt on your usual route to work? Your first reaction may be confusion; you wonder if there’s a traffic accident or if a road crew is blocking traffic. Or you may react in anger; you’re frustrated because you’re already running behind schedule and the day has just begun.

You have to decide what to do with insufficient information. Do you wait it out to see if traffic moves again? Do you scout out alternative routes? Every driver caught in that traffic jam is confused and perhaps angry. If this goes on for long, tempers will rise.

People hate not knowing what’s going on, they hate it when habits fail, and they hate having to decide when they don’t know what they need to know.

Do you see why your church members get upset when you upend their routines? That is what change does, expected or not.

Have you asked them to invite visitors out for a meal?

They’ve spent years racing to beat the other church to the buffet line at the local diner. Do you want to scratch that sparsely attended Sunday night service so you can train small group leaders? They will no longer know what to do on Sunday evenings. You’ve challenged them to cultivate redemptive relationships with their neighbors? That will feel very awkward to people who have developed the habit of nodding at neighbors they can’t avoid!

Every time you initiate change that upends a habit, you throw people into confusion and discomfort.

Don’t flinch when the sheep try to bite.

This may shock pastors trying to lead their first turnaround but this doesn’t surprise seasoned revitalization pastors. When the crisis arrives, revitalizers stay the course. Rejoice at what resistance means. Things are changing and the people are feeling it. Stay the course and watch God do great things.

Bud Brown has ministered in a wide variety of settings, from small rural to mid-sized suburban to rapidly growing megachurches. He has trained and mentored international students, intentional interim pastors, doctoral students, and now serves as president of Turnaround Pastors (www.turnaroundpastor.com).

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What Boomers & Xers Must Do Differently to Lead Millennials

By Bob Whitesel I find it refreshing to return full time to my passion of coaching churches on church health and revitalization, after two decades of teaching graduate school and seminary students.

But my teaching and consulting worked well together for two important reasons: 1. I became especially attuned to how to lead millennials, because most of my students were in millennial generations (Generations Y & Z).

2. And, I became increasingly aware that older leaders (Boomers and Xers) must change their leadership styles radically to lead millennials, which led to my book “ORGANIX: Signs of Leadership in a Changing Church” (Abingdon Press).

You may ask, “Why must I learn to lead millennials, most of my congregants are older?” Though this may be true, you must lead millennial generations in order to create a new lifecycle in church revitalization.

Here are seven ways you must lead millennials differently.

Communication systems: In the millennial culture communication is increasingly electronic mediated. Twitter, Facebook, emails, instant messaging, Instagram, and Snapchat are all efficient ways for millennials to get their information.

If you’re trying to make them aware of what your church is

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doing to reach out, you must communicate through their electronic mediums.

Rx: Cross-cultural communication usually begins with oneon-one communication. Have your organization’s leaders each find and begin to mentor a millennial mentee. Ask the millennial to help you communicate to their fellow millennials what you are doing. A standard missiological method is to ask someone from the indigenous culture to help translate your message. They may not actually agree with your message yet, as they translate it they will be learning about it.

Reconciliation systems: Millennials have grown up in an age of outrage and cultural fissures. At the same time many want to bridge those divides. The New Testament reminds us the Good News traveled from Jewish believers to Gentile oppressors in a similar time of division and outrage. The Letter to the Romans is an example of the Holy Spirit’s ability to create a unifying Messianic subculture filled with Good News. Among my client and student millennials, I’ve found they want leaders who do not polarize the church, but rather foster a community where dialogue is accompanied by biblical fidelity.

Rx: Foster opportunities to dialogue, understand, forgive and reconcile people who have been polarized over differences. Paul said, “…we don’t evaluate people by what they

have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong… Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons!

Look at it! Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed to us the word of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:16–19). To Paul reconciliation is a dual process: “not evaluating people by what they have or how they look” (v. 16) and “anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! (v. 17).

Supernatural system: The Hebrew word “worship” literally means to come close to God’s feet and kiss them in homage. This is how worship should be measured, not in flow, performance or excellence. And though millennials have many worship styles, most millennials are united in their uncomfortableness with their parents’ quest for worship “excellence.”

Rx: The solution is to take the focus away from styles and excellence of worship, and put the emphasis back upon the biblical “purpose of worship.” Worship should be evaluated by how well it brings attendees into what I have called, a “face-to-foot encounter.”

Regeneration system: The Good News is news of salvation and change. Most church-es have a weak regeneration system. They often have seen few salvations and few changes in congregants’ attitudes. Because millennials have grown up in such an age of rage, they support organizations that help change people for the better. Millennials must find the church recapturing its rightful place as a place where people and communities are being changed for the better.

Rx: This requires praying for and allowing the Holy Spirit to work by liberating people from sins, addictions, abuse, bigotry etc. as well as changing the neighborhoods in which the congregants live. Programs that help people change their lives (e.g. divorce recovery, 12-step addiction recovery programs, grief recovery and most importantly the salvation experience) should be what a church is known for. While researching John Wesley and the power behind his methods, I found a key method was a requirement that every small group regularly help the poor, and so fulfill Matt. 5:16: “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Involvement system: Millennials expect to experiment with volunteerism, even before they have expertise. Because millennials have experienced a world of knowledge on handheld devices since they can remember, they learn by experience more than by long training sessions or wordy manuals.

Rx: Increase latitude on who gets to volunteer and what responsibilities they are given. This doesn’t mean giving peo-

ple responsibility for which they’re not qualified or suitable, for example I’m not suggesting a non-believer distribute the sacraments, etc. But in other areas millennials can be given opportunities to volunteer, even early on in their spiritual journey.

Unified system: Raised in an enraged and divided world, millennials seek a spiritual community that has a higher degree of unity than they have experienced in the world. As Jesus said in John 13:35, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Millennials don’t expect the church to be dissonance free, but they do expect it to be more harmonious than what they experience in the world.

Rx: Millennials look for a church where conflicted parties sit down and discuss their differences. Conflict resolution theories suggest the first step is to get the divided parties talking directly to one another. The second step is to ensure the leader does not get in the middle. This takes the leader out of being a go-between (who can be blamed by both sides) and gets people connecting directly with one another to understand and grow through face-to-face discussion.

Competent system: On the one hand, millennials often focus their churches on a few signature programs that draw people from across a region. On the other hand, Boomers and Xer churches often saturate a narrowly defined community offering a wide variety of programs (often with mixed results). Studies have shown that healthy churches have a specialized ministry competency that is appreciated by the non-churchgoing community. Not surprisingly, millennials have come to expect churches to know what they’re good at doing and to focus their time, talent and treasures toward what God has empowered them to do.

Rx: Ask community leaders what your church is known for and which of your programs the community most appreciates. Then with millennial mentees assisting, begin to sketch out what God has uniquely empowered your church to do well and that the community appreciates. Ask your millennials to help you expand on these signature ministries by slowly allocating more time, talent and treasure toward your God-given ministry competency.

Find more ideas for church revitalization at: www.7Systems.church Bob Whitesel is an award-winning author/consultant on church health and growth.

He has been called “the key spokesperson on change theory in the church today” by a national magazine, co-founded an accredited seminary (Wesley Seminary at IWU) and created one of the nation’s most respected church health and growth consulting firms: ChurchHealth.net

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Does God really set people free?

Or are we just talking?

Transformational Discipleship was developed to train leaders how to guide both brand-new and longtime believers towards deep spiritual change.

This training is foundational for every believer. It guides people who are stuck on their faith journey due to unresolved, often hidden issues in their lives towards true spiritual, emotional and mental freedom through intimacy with God.

“It’s not like anything I have been through before.”

Pastor John Wright, Titusville, FL “This is life transforming. I’m going to teach the socks off this thing.”

Dr. Phil Phillips, Ft. Myers, FL

The local church is the only organization that can facilitate eternal hope, lasting change, and total transformation in the lives of people and communities everywhere. Even so, today’s local churches are often in desperate need of renewal and revitalization themselves. In The Revitalized Church, Pastor Michael Atherton uses his firsthand experiences to show how a local church community can once again become vibrant. The Revitalized Church shares Atherton’s eighteen-month journey merging two church communities with a common vision and discusses the challenges and the victories he encountered. In addition, he examines the key biblical leadership principles that were used to help sustain the church community.

Be Careful What You Ask For

By Jim Grant

In Exodus 2:23-25, we find that the people of Israel are lamenting under the burden of Egyptian slavery.

Verse 23 says they sighed and cried out to the LORD. Israel cries out for help from the Lord and God hears their prayers. Verse 25 indicates that the prayers reached God and He took notice of them. This is a great affirmation that when the people of God pray, God hears our petitions. I would imagine they asked in deep sorrow to be delivered out of the bondage of slavery. We don’t know exactly the verbiage, but we can ascertain they wanted out of the current lot in which they found themselves. When we pray, scripture affirms that God will act – James 4:1-3 tells us we have not because we ask not; again Matthew 7 instructs us to keep asking, seeking and knocking. So, it is incumbent upon us to pray to God and let Him answer according to His perfect wisdom and will. Too many of my own prayers in the past have been loaded with my agenda. I wanted what I wanted. My prayers were meant to persuade God to see things my way.

When the Father in Heaven didn’t answer in the way I thought He should, I grumbled and complained like a little child that was told no.

Israel asked for deliverance, God already had His man in Moses on the backside of the desert. Moses through

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his own sin wound up herding sheep with his fatherin-law Jethro. We must remember before the burning bush event, God had spared Moses at birth, then provided for him in the house of Pharaoh. In those years [40] he had access to every subject available at the time. Moses was schooled in leadership, warfare, and combat tactics. Surely the Egyptians thought Moses was going to one day be their leader. Moses was afforded everything needed to become the leader Israel asked for and provided to them by the LORD. Sure, Moses was reluctant to go, but God had His plan, and Man for the occasion.

Well, the first attempt at leading the people was met with negative results. Instead of a quick deliverance, Pharaoh increased Israel’s labors. “You have made us odious in Pharaoh’s sight.” I wonder how many leaders/pastors have tried to be obedient to what God has prepared them for, only to be rejected? Surely, we respond the way Moses did – he questions God’s plan. We often look at the ten plagues as God’s way of getting Pharaoh to let Israel go; but I think it was also to get Israel to the point of being willing to go.

For hundreds of years this nomadic people had been urban dwellers. There was comfort in being settled on one location. God needed Israel to become sheep

again – ready to graze in new pastures.

We know the story; the last plague brings Pharaoh down and he charges Israel to leave. He relents the decision, and then chases after Israel. Moses leads the people according to God’s prompting – only to find that they are trapped at the Red Sea, and Pharaoh is approaching. The people asked for a leader, but at every turn they rebelled and questioned his decision and Israel is ready to go back at the first sign of difficulty. Many churches call a pastor, commission him to lead them, then when he tries, they balk at his leadership. If I am Moses, I begin to wonder as well about the plan of God. Here is the difficulty – the Pew is doubting, and now the Pulpit is questioning too.

If we were to read through the book of Exodus, we would notice that every time a difficult situation comes up – the people grumble and want to go back to Egypt. But this is what they prayed for – someone to deliver them, and now that they are out of Egypt, they want to go back because they don’t like what God’s leader is doing.

Over and over, Israel acts like the stubborn, stiffnecked sheep they are so often described to be. People complain when their comfort is jeopardized. Israel complained about water, food, and anything else that went against their idea of what should happen.

Churches need leadership. If the church could do what was necessary, they wouldn’t need a Shepherd/ Leader/Pastor.

Pastor Search Teams are notorious for looking for the perfect pastor to lead them. Except when the man that God has been preparing for the task gets on board, then the people rebel against what needs to be done. When we look at revitalization, the same attitude prevails. People didn’t want a leader, they just wanted comfort. Too often congregations think the Pastor/Leader is called to do the will of the people; wrong, he is there to do the will of God. You may even ask, aren’t they the same thing – Not even close!

People and Congregations are not committed to their leaders – now this should go without saying, but there is the necessity to be a leader that can be followed. It is difficult to be the leader in a place where people do not want to follow.

In Revitalization work there is always the potential for a volatile atmosphere of conflict, especially if the Church is not on board with the necessary changes.

Too often a Church is willing to circumvent the full revitalization process when they obtain some sort of return to status quo from their crisis. When Churches do not get their way, too often the first suggestion is to change the leadership; when in fact the problem is the church. In Exodus 32 we have the story of the “Golden Calf” idolatry. Moses has gone to meet with the LORD on Mt. Sinai; gone for 40 days, the people look to replace him. How soon people forget who is in charge. Israel wanted a leader so they picked one.

Aaron is the chosen leader of the people and he is their leader because he looks to satisfy them. A lesson in crowd control gone bad! In the absence of leadership, leadership steps forward, even if it is bad leadership. It is amazing that while the Man of God is in audience with the LORD, the people are impatient.

Instead of praying and lifting their leader Moses up in prayer, they quickly replaced him. Aaron gave them what they wanted – that is not a character trait of a leader. Tom Landry was a great leader of men. He was able to get men to do what they knew they should do, but were unwilling to do, and Tom was able to get more out of the men then what even they thought was possible.

Moses was God’s man for the people of Israel; yet they rejected him and caused great anxiety and stress on him. Israel was always meant to go to the Promised Land. When they had come to the brink of entering (thanks to Moses’ leadership) they balked at the opportunity. It is a difficult position to be in as a leader – prepared, called by God, and in place of service to accomplish the task before him and to find out people didn’t want what God wanted, they didn’t really want a leader – just their own comfort.

Jim Grant is the Executive Director of the Galveston Baptist Association. He is an Air Force veteran, retiring with twenty-five years of service. His extensive travels allowed him the unique opportunity to serve in a full spectrum of churches with various styles and ranges of spiritual health. He has a master of divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a Doctorate of Ministry degree from Midwestern Baptist Theological seminary with a concentration on Church Revitalization. Jim is also the Gateway Baptist Association Revitalization Team Leader.

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Are You In?

By Walter Jackson Since the Garden of Eden, people have tried to be in charge of each other. There are a lot of God-given powers on earth.

Let’s consider two powers - corporate and congregational.

Corporations should go from good to great1 and congregations from good to Godly. But people start heading to the exits of both when leadership becomes divided.

Corporate Leaders

Today, even corporations may be listening to God when it comes to who is in charge on earth. Corporations used to pyramid power with tall corporate ladders and big alphabets of chief officers, while the employees were positioned below.

It used to work well.

But in 2019 CEO’s, CFO’s, COO’s, CIO’s, CMO’s, and CTO’s are folding-up their corporate ladders and team working with their employees in people-centric power circles. The Blanchard Corporation has discovered that leadership trends have shifted to a teamwork, as old as a walk in Eden. Look at what is trending in 2019 according to the Blanchard group: Coach-like, open, cooperative, empathic, trusting, supportive, adaptable and service-oriented, managing change, listening and creating2 Today’s effective corporate powers are downsizing to alpha officers and employees circling-up and team working the 1 Jim Collins, Good to Great, Harper Business / 2001, pg.2 2The Ken Blanchard Companies, Executive Leadership Survey Report / 2019

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ABC’s (always be closing).

Congregational Leaders

Today congregations need to return to the Genesis of what it means to work as a team with God in charge. If corporations are listening to God in their leadership circles as to who is in charge on earth, certainly congregations must be. Congregations need to start trending again in their leadership circles with John 13:35 and Hebrew13:17.

Congregational fights over who is in charge of each other are as old as Eden. Again, how has that worked out so far?

In congregations, there is something far better than forcible take overs that send the people running for the exits and that is the love of Jesus packing the church.

Many congregations are “filled with people who love Jesus, but don’t love what Jesus loves.” 3 What does Jesus love? One thing. Are you in?

What Does Jesus Love?

Jesus loves his congregations using team work to lead unbelievers to Him. It is like He texted John 13:35 to a go-to-meeting-smart-board: By this (one thing), all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for (or team work with) one another. (NJKV) 33 Leonard Sweet, Carpe Manana, Zondervan / 2001, pg. 26

So congregations can biblically market to unbelievers only one thing, team work. Congregations have tried everything from CEO ladders to top down pyramids to Gregorian chants to rap music. But what God has asked us to do is Hebrews 13:17: Be responsive to (obey) your pastoral leaders (those that rule over you). Listen (be submissive) to their counsel. They are alert to (or watch out for) the condition of your lives (souls) and work under the strict supervision of (giving account to) God. Contribute to the joy of their leadership, its not drudgery (grief). Why would you make things harder (unprofitable) for them (and for you)? MSG, (NKJV) Why don’t we make things easier for unbelievers to find God’s love? Could we be about our Father’s business? Are you In? Hebrew 13:17 is clear in establishing one office that puts God in charge on Earth. One office that makes congregational leadership the responsibility of everyone. One office that makes congregations and pastors irreplaceable leaders. One office that encircles all other congregational offices. One office that can be illustrated in the shape of a circle. One office called the united office of the pastor.

Think of how Hebrews 13 can illustrate a circular office of the pastor. The congregation takes the position of the circular office wall. And the pastor takes the position of the office door.

Shoulder to shoulder is the only congregational way God chooses for us to lead – Zephaniah 3:9 (NASB).

Jesus is the authoritative center of this N.T. office. When the Holy Spirit moves and keeps the congregations in their office positions for the sake of the Gospel, the congregation succeeds and unbelievers are encircled by the love of Jesus. A united office of the pastor warms the heart of Jesus.

The United Office of the Pastor

The Jesus-centric authority of Hebrews 13:17 is the key. In Hebrews 13, pastoral leadership is basically about responsibility.

Pastors have the ultimate responsibility for the congregation because they are charged with the watch for souls. The key to leadership turns when the congregation steps up and helps the pastor be responsible to God. A congregation’s leadership responsibility is to make a pastor’s responsibility easier. Hebrew 13 teaches congregations succeed if they help the pastors. Pastors are to be guided by God’s supervision. The congregation is to be guidable.

Neither the pastor nor the congregation will succeed unless they teamwork their God given responsibilities. But their success is not even the point. The point of a leadership circle is to successfully attract unbelievers to the love of Jesus.

Unbelievers know they can always find hatred in the streets.

But where should they be able to go to find love? Jesus said in His congregations in Matthew 13:35 and Hebrews 13:17.

What Does Jesus Not Love?

What happens to unbelievers/believers if a congregation divides their leadership circle? What happens if “whoever” does what God hates and moves to divide the congregation? Unbelievers/believers are led away from the love of Jesus. Division becomes the public image and not the unity of the Gospel - Proverbs 6: 12-19. A divided office of the pastor breaks Jesus’ heart.

Who Unites Us Now?

Congregations and pastors say they want each other’s leadership until they get it. Who unites the balance of power in a congregation? The Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is the only one who can make a congregation’s leadership circle go from good to Godly. Congregations are responsible to join the Holy Spirit where He is working to make Jesus the center of it all and unbelievers welcome to it all.

One of the ways the early church illustrated the Father, Son and Spirit was not a pyramid but a circle. The Trinity was positioned in a leadership circle that welcomed everybody to join in a circle celebration of God’s love.4 A leadership circle that even today welcomes a bunch of imperfect congregations, pastors and unbelievers to come unite in the circle dance of salvation’s joy.

Just as corporations are to ABC (always be closing), congregation are to ABC (always be circling). Circling for the lost, the left out, the left behind, the locked out, the least is what we love to do with Jesus.

Eden is closed for business because they divided their leadership circle on earth. But God is still open to do business with any corporation or congregation who will unite in a circle to bless the people. Are you in?

4 Leonard Sweet, Aqua Church, / 1999, pg. 191 Walter Jackson has been pastoring for thirty-three years. As a pastor he has seen God use His people to turn around four churches in Tennessee, Alabama and Florida. His favorite thing about pastoring is that he gets to hang out with people in all kinds of communities and love on all kinds of people. Walter loves speaking the creativity and love of God’s Word into people’s lives. It is his hope that people can feel free to laugh a lot, cry some, and walk out of the church feeling loved by God.

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The Leadership Link:

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A Leader Worth Following

By Michael Atherton As I talk to my children about leadership, a statement that I regularly make to them is: “everyone is a leader, but not every leader is worth following.” When reduced to its most basic tenet, leadership is simply one’s ability to influence another. Sometimes a leader is found in a one-on-one engagement. At other times, a leader is engaging a large group. Regardless of the size of one’s leadership arena, what makes that leader a leader is the influence that one exerts over the others. A leader’s influence can impact a follower’s actions, thoughts, feelings, attitudes, speech, or perspective.

tive leader, but ultimately, the congregation decides such a leader is undesirable. Why? If we are honest, for as much as pastors may be guilty of leaving churches prematurely and using one position to gain the next position, the reality is that many churches go through leaders at a very fast pace. Sometimes the leadership personality of the pastor and the ministry personality of the church are simply not a good match.

But, I suspect that every person who reads this article has either seen or experienced a premature separation from a church for reasons less than honorable.

Why?

“Everyone is a leader, but not every leader is worth following.”

I can scarcely think of a single organization that isn’t interested in finding the very best leadership. Schools want great leaders, governments want great leaders, businesses want great leaders, and churches want great leaders. Corporate America seems consumed with leadership competency and efficiency. Better leadership will inevitably render effective personnel management, clearer vision, more productivity, better time management, happier customers, and increased revenue. All of these results positives, and therefore it makes sense to invest time and money in leadership development.

But, in the church, sometimes a various curious development emerges. There are times when a local church body will find or develop a strong and effec-

Though it is often unfair and usually unreasonable, there are times that church bodies just want to be left alone. They can’t say it out loud, but they don’t want to grow. They don’t want to be challenged.

They don’t want to add new ministries. The thought of new people threatens the status quo. When a new pastor comes in and helps to lead the church to move forward, the only way to preserve the status quo is to make it so unbearable for the pastor that he eventually leaves on his own. But, if that won’t work, then eventually those who hold seats of power step in and take care of matters themselves.

What’s worse is that this cycle can happen every 18 to 36 months, over and over again. Who loses? The church family, the pastor, the pastor’s family, the reputation of the church, and ultimately the Kingdom of God.

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Friend, I wish there were an ironclad theory that we could apply that would help churches break this unhealthy cycle. If that principle or theory exists, I certainly have not found it. When we find ourselves in a situation like this, though there may not be an all-encompassing antidote, there are principles that can help us weather the difficulty in the hope of seeing the rainbow after the storm. Situations like these can be helped by: 1. Develop a strong pulpit ministry. The pulpit is the rudder of the ship. The single greatest tool in church revitalization is a strong pulpit ministry.

2. Develop a strong heart of prayer. Beyond giving prayer a cursory nod of approval, when you are in a church where pastoral leadership is undercut at every turn, it is time to lead the church to her knees. Why? Because ultimately, in situations like these, God has to capture the hearts of the people. Give God space to work.

3. Crystallize God’s mission for the church. The church does not need another man-made vision. Seek God’s face and receive from Him what He desires for His Church. Remember this is not your church. It is God’s Church. He gets to decide the direction of His Church.

I am not saying that everybody wants to embrace God’s vision. But, I am telling you, fighting for your vision isn’t worth it. Embrace God’s vision and allow Him to fight the battle.

4. Develop the discipline of patience. Sometimes we get in revitalization environments and feel we need to fix every ill in the first 12 months. Most people can only handle so much change at one time. When leading through a revitalization effort, you need to plan on a minimum of 1000 days and often it is much longer. If you are unwilling to give that much time to this effort, then don’t start on the journey.

5. Shepherd the people. The people of God, in Scripture, are often pictured as sheep. Sheep need a shepherd; one who will provide protection, nourishment, rest, and guidance. Shepherds are committed to the sheep, love the sheep, and have a special devotion to the sheep. Don’t be a hired hand!

Ultimately, what is the greatest thing you can do as it relates to your leadership within an unhealthy church? Be a leader who is worth following! I recently

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returned from Israel, after helping to lead a group of folk who were touring the Holy Land. One stop on our teaching tour is EnGedi. EnGedi is a special oasis out in the middle of a dry and barren desert. The significance of this pocket of paradise amidst a desolate land is tremendous. Most notably, EnGedi was the location that David and his mighty men hid when Saul was pursuing him.

Scripture says in (1 Samuel 24:3) that Saul went into a cave in Engedi to relieve himself. It just so happened that this cave was the same cave that David and his men were hiding in. David got so close to Saul that he was able to cut a piece of Saul’s robe. David’s men were urging David to kill Saul. This was David’s chance…he could have, once-and-for-all, put an end to Saul. But, David revered Saul; not because Saul had earned such reverence, but because he was God’s man and David revered God. Many times people question why David was known as a man after God’s own heart, given he made numerous mistakes of monumental proportion. It is a fair inquiry.

But, I am convinced David was a man after God’s own heart and arguably one of the Bible’s strongest leaders because of scenes like Engedi. There, David proved himself to be a leader who was worth following. He didn’t do what was popular, but he did what was right.

In those situations where you have little control over the people around you and how they will react to your leadership, remember this: when you are a leader who is worth following, through the movement of God in the hearts of His people, folks will eventually start following. It may take time and will certainly prove difficult. But, stay the course and trust that God has a plan even when you may not understand the plan yet.

Michael Atherton has served as the Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church of O’Fallon, O’Fallon, MO for 15 years. Leading a church in a church merger, he has learned firsthand the challenges of a revitalizer. Mike is the author of The Revitalized Church. Mike leads a Mentored Master of Divinity program at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary and is past President of the Colorado Baptist Convention.

By Kenneth Priest In pastoral leadership, we often times get stranded using previous strategies and methods. I hear it often in conversations with pastors of declining congregations. “I am doing everything I have done for the past thirty years of my ministry, but it’s just not working this time.” Welcome to church ministry in the digital age! When we rely on past methods, which we had seen achievements from previously, we are stuck with many outdated ideas which might no longer work. We need to rethink our ministry practices. This is not to say what was previously done was wrong, most likely not, especially if you experience a growing church with transformed contagious Christians. However, methods and models of the 1980s are simply irrelevant and out dated. The rethinking needs to do is fully focused on understanding how to contextualize God’s Word and the work of the church in today’s ever changing culture.

The issue? Culture shift used to be a ten to twenty year process. Think about, ministry in the 1940s, after WWII, through the early 1960s was quite similar.

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Yes, new ministries were developed and campaigns were launched, but all progress within that twenty year time frame was structurally similar. Then we hit the Jesus Movement in the 1970s. This brought around a seeker mindset which stayed through the 1980s. Christendom then moved into a Church Growth mindset out of the seeker movement, which carried us into the late 1990s. During this time, we saw a technological explosion in culture.

The 1980s was when we saw personal computing take off. Mainframe computers were out dated and with the 1990s came the widespread use of the internet and personal email.

So what does all this have to do with the church and pastoral leadership? Everything.

The church is about people, therefore it is about relationships. However, we must begin to think about how we can leverage technology for the purpose of these relationships. As leaders we must rethink our strategies and methods which we have used for years. We must begin to ask, how does this function

in the digital age. Instead of me giving answers or insights fully in this article, let me ask some questions to get you to think on this in your context.

First, how is technology used in your community?

Do you visit stores, restaurants, or schools? Let me provide some examples of what I see as I travel.

Have you been to a Chili’s or an Applebee’s styled restaurant lately? A server takes your order but there is a touchscreen computer on the table to pay your bill when ready. Just indicate on the screen for your bill and slide payment right there. Some of them even have the receipts within to print out.

There is no more waiting for the bill to come.

Are you in a major market with an airport and have travelers in your church? Though not yet widespread, it is developing. Many airplanes actually have the monitors in the seat back, so you can watch television shows or movies for free. In addition to that, you can order your beverage of choice in the seatback, or even a snack or meal depending on the length of the flight. What’s my point?

Technology is changing what we have seen as “service” processes. Our servers in restaurants and flight attendants on planes, are moving to more of an on-demand model. If you want something, ask.

They may not be coming around and asking what they can provide. You have to decide to engage to receive service.

What about self-checkout at the grocery and hardware stores? This is another way for people to engage with technology and not with person-to-person interface. I am not advocating for the church to not have person-to-person interaction. I am saying that doing church the way you have in the past is not the answer for the future.

Rethink Church! The first step in rethinking is determining are you teachable as a leader? Any leader who is not teachable will struggle with revitalization. Are you open to rethinking church? This is not a time to worry if the congregation will go for it, the first step in this process is, will you go for it? Are you curious about what you could do today, different than the past, in order to impact lostness in your context? Do you believe there could be a better answer other than your own? Could there be a better alternative to your way? If you can answer yes to these questions, then you are teachable, therefore you are prepared to move forward.

There are immense challenges to rethinking church.

First, we must never waiver on our faithfulness to the inerrancy of God’s Word in all we do. With this as our foundation, we are prepared to step forward into a new way of church. The first step many churches take in being “21st Century” in practice, is livestreaming, or using Facebook Live, for their worship services.

We do this to connect with members who are traveling or as a way to reach those who will not come to church, or even a modern day convenience for the sick. When we are truly rethinking church, if we are in a major city where technology is rampant, we must begin thinking about how we can make use of technology in our church for the fulfillment of the Great Commission. This means it must impact our discipleship strategy. Are you offering sermon notes and additional commentary to your church members via digital platforms? If we want to rethink church, we must begin looking at what students advantages are, and start asking, how can we develop a discipleship path with a similar experience? Many schools are providing ipads and notebook computers for students to use during lessons. Online learning is available to all generations. However, when we come to church, we are sitting for a lecture/lesson. We are not engaging children in the same way that they are learning in schools and this is costly. I don’t have all the answers. I am simply asking the question. If we want to impact the culture today, if we are wanting to contextualize God’s Word to the emerging generations, then we have to rethink church. This will only occur when a pastor begins rethinking his past and addressing the church in the 21st century…contextualized for his community.

Kenneth Priest serves as the Director of Convention Strategies for the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention in Grapevine, TX. Kenneth has been leading revitalization endeavors since 2008 with the SBTC. He holds a Doctor of Educational Ministry degree with an emphasis in Church Revitalization from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (MBTS), Kansas City, MO. He serves as an adjunct professor of church revitalization in the doctoral program with MBTS and an adjunct professor of evangelism and church growth with The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, KY. Please contact Kenneth at kpriest@sbtexas.com.

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By J. David Jackson In the earlier years of my life, I had a mentor named Bob Brindle, who taught me much about life and ministry. In the formative days of my ministry, he had me accompany him on visits, to meetings, in planning and decision making, all in hopes of helping me glean experiential wisdom from someone who had been involved in ministry for many, many years. Personally and contextually, it was extremely helpful. Bob would shift from Decision Maker to Encourager to Counselor to Advocate as needed, and it was impressive to watch. He knew how to wear these different “hats” at the appropriate time with the appropriate people, and it made all the difference in the outcomes achieved.

If you, as a pastor in a local church revitalization situation, are going to exert the leadership necessary to bring out the desired result necessary—a reversal of the decline and an advance in growth and stability for the future—then you are going to have to master the art of wearing the right hat at the right time, like my mentor Bob. And that will require you to spend a lot of time with your people.

First, you have to acknowledge that the hat you need to wear depends on the credibility you have with the person or people you are seeking to lead. And the currency of credibility is trust. Without credibility, there is no trust. Without trust, there is no leadership and without leadership, there will be no change.

Many years ago, I was taught that all leaders have four sources for establishing credibility. Positional credibility comes from your title or role in the church or ministry of which you are a part. It is an acknowledged credibility from those both inside and outside the organization. For those on the outside of the organization, this may be able to garner their trust, albeit in a limited fashion, that doesn’t really affect their own behavior. For those inside the organization, this will be enough, as well, but only for the earliest portion of your ministry among the people. If your credibility doesn’t move to an additional source, especially when you begin to suggest changes to their behavior, it will be lost, and your leadership of no effect.

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Experiential credibility is the second type leaders will use. This draws from both their education and their lived out competence in the skills needed to lead. It is obviously demonstrated in action over time. It is hard to rush this kind of credibility and the influential impact it can have. Each time you use your education or competence and show your skill in an effective, productive manner, it adds to your credibility. This causes people to trust you more. However, for major change to happen, greater credibility than this is needed. This kind of credibility only moves the head, but not the heart. And for people to follow you into major change, a leader must capture the heart.

Relational credibility is the third type needed. This comes from rubbing shoulders with the people you lead, being a servant leader who cares, a person whose walk and talk “match up.”

Here is where people discover how genuine you are, and sense how much they mean to you. When you share their passions and dreams, invest in their lives and experiences, comfort their hurts and celebrate their victories, then people really begin to trust you even more. When they believe you will move heaven and earth on their behalf, they will follow you anywhere! But such trust takes time, once again, and is seen in action as you intersect their lives at those oh so important times of significance and of crisis. Miss these opportunities and it will hurt your credibility; be present and it will multiply your credibility, and their trust in you.

Finally, there is spiritual credibility. This comes from your walk with the Lord, not just your knowledge of Word of God. It is evidences by others when you speak of God, and for God. People hear the authority of God’s Word and will in your voice and see it in your life, demonstrated by “grace and truth,” because you’ve so obviously been in His presence and sat at His feet. It is palpable, and adds credibility in extreme measures.

A warning is needed here, though! If you attempt to maneuver or use spiritual credibility too early or in an inappropriate way to get your desired outcome, or justify your opinion, it will be received as self-righteous, Pharisaical, and judgmental. Relational credibility in most instances has to be established with others before they will recognize spiritual credibility for what it truly is, a heart of passion and obedience for God and His people.

Being aware of the source of credibility you have with your people will make a huge difference in when and where you can lead them forward.

Let’s face it: most churches want a chaplain, not a change agent.

But a chaplain is never going to move them out of the situation they find themselves in, regardless of what church members may think. To earn the right to be a change agent, you will have to establish greater credibility that is demonstrated over time.

How do you enhance the credibility you currently have, and build a richer, stronger base of trust for your leadership in the church? You wear the right hat at the right time.

Here are nine hats you will need to wear regularly: Listener. To learn what is in the heart and on the minds of

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the people, you must listen. Listening will reveal the fears and dreams in a person’s heart, and perhaps the key to unlocking the next level of relationship with them.

Encourager. Finding ways to affirm others always builds credibility. Look for the positive and reinforce it. The rule of thumb is no less than two encouragements for every critique.

Cheerleader. Remind them they can accomplish what is needed, with God’s guidance. Throughout whatever process or situation they are attempting or find themselves in, cheer them on, like their biggest fan.

Advocate. Have their back. This often happens when they are not around. Defend them as needed and use your influence to support them before others. This tells them they believe in you, or at least what God wants to do in and through them, and will likely be reciprocated later.

Equipper. Train them as needed, and as they show themselves teachable. This is a primary responsibility for every pastor, but one enhanced by trust as church members are eager to learn from you.

Coach. Help them achieve their God-given potential. This requires you know them well, and what God desires in their lives.

Acknowledger. Recognize them and celebrate them. Handwritten letters, platform recognition, awards, compliments, phone calls…how you do this will differ from person to person.

But the key is to do it; don’t neglect this integral piece of leadership. When you notice and acknowledge the difference people have made, it builds trust and followship.

Consistent Example. Like my mentor Bob, show others by example the skills and opportunities for their growth and development as a valued co-laborer in Christ. Spend time with them, and allow them to learn from you by observing your presence and gleaning from your wisdom.

Change Agent. Ultimately, this will largely depend on how you’ve worn the other hats, previously mentioned.

My friend and mentor, Bob, taught me a lot of things about ministry, for sure. But perhaps none of them were as important as wearing the right hat at the right time. For revitalization to take place in your churches, the people must buy into you, the leader. And that will happen when they experience you as trustworthy and credible to them.

J. David Jackson serves in New England and is the author of the book ReNEW: Traveling the Forgotten Path, which addresses the elements necessary for credible pastoral leadership in revitalizing a church. It can be found at amazon.com. Jackson can be reached at drjdavidjackson@gmail.com.

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The Killing Factor of Distrust

By Steve Sells In my many years of training Pastor Search Teams the number one prerequisite that has been voiced by the people is “any prospective pastor must be a good leader.”

Furthermore, that is the first thing on the list of any advertisement for a pastor… “Candidate must be a GOOD leader.” What I have found, however, is that every search team member and every church member has a different idea about what GOOD leadership really is. It is also quite evident that when these churches acquire a good leader that they sometimes do not recognize it because of personal bias and opinion. They want a good leader until they get one.

It seems that many churches have a problem with leadership because of past instances that have caused distrust to enter the equation. Many of the churches that I deal with as a church revitalizer struggle with the issue of trust because of some real or perceived failure on the part of a past pastor. Those failures can range from something minor to very severe, but they always “stick in the craw” of the people and it becomes difficult for the

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congregation to trust pastoral leadership again.

I have been working with a church for eleven months that had two consecutive bad experiences with pastoral leadership and the trust level was almost nonexistent.

This church had been a stable church for decades. It had been a thriving and growing church that experienced a wonderful fellowship. The pastor had been an excellent leader. It was when he left after a very long tenure that the church lost its direction. In their search for a new pastor, some very bad mistakes were made. They never effectively checked out the pastor they called, and he turned out to be a disaster for the church. His leadership style, if he had one, was much like a dictator. He changed things just to make changes. Much of what he did was done to rid the church of any past influence the previous pastor had left behind. He completely dismantled the existing church to place his signature on the church’s existence.

His signature turned out to be three years of disharmony, deceit, and strife.

Through a series of very traumatic events the church asked him to resign but he refused saying that it was his church and he was “going nowhere.” Of course, things escalated, and they asked him to leave again. That is when the congregation found that he had been trying to change all their incorporation documents to give him sole authority over finances, property and programs. The church finally had to take legal action against the pastor and, as a result, a mediator was assigned by the courts to mediate the situation. In the process, several disturbing facts came out and he quickly resigned and went down the road about two miles and started another church. He took 200 people with him leaving the affected church with half the congregation it had before the conflict. Of course, this left the church in a precarious financial situation and, tragically, initiated a mindset of distrust that became ingrained in the congregation.

When the church finally got through that traumatic experience, they began to search for another pastor. They found the man they thought was God’s man for their church. He began his work without any controversy or strife but not long into his ministry, a few untrusting people rose up and decided he had to go. These few did not speak for the entire congregation, but they could not get past the distrust that had resulted from the previous pastor and his lack of leadership. It wasn’t long until this pastor had enough and left on his own without being forced out. As a result, the church split again and left 60 people to carry on the work of a church that eight years prior had been averaging 425 in attendance.

I received a call from the leadership of the church to ask me to work with them as a church revitalizer. Immediately, I realized that the issue of distrust was killing the church. So, I began a process to help them work through their concerns and attitudes. It was a difficult task to lead people to trust leadership after previous leaders had created such havoc in the church.

The fact is that good leadership is necessary for a healthy church, but trustworthy leadership is an absolute must for the long-term health of a church. Good leadership will make or break a church, but trustworthy leadership will determine life or death in the church.

Congregations must understand that trustworthiness is developed through everyday interaction with people.

That involves how the pastor interacts with the people and how they interact with him. This determines the health of the church. How conflict is handled and how the leader responds to adversity will help develop trust on the part of the congregation. Leading as a trustworthy leader is a day to day matter in the small things as well as the important things. What leaders must remember is that they will not be the last leader the church ever has.

There will be a time when a new leader will come on the scene and how the present leader leads will determine the effectiveness of the next.

A trustworthy leader does not lead because of position but because of their day to day actions as a leader. It is what the leader does as well as who he is that makes him trustworthy in the eyes of the congregation. Being a better, more trustworthy leader does not just happen in the leader’s life. It is something the leader must work on every day as they lead out of purpose and not just personal feelings. Tenure as a pastor does not necessarily make him a better leader, it just makes him more of a fixture.

The right actions and attitudes make the leader a great and more trustworthy leader.

A trustworthy leader will always realize that credibility is a result of character. The story I just related to you was a story of a man’s broken character and how it affected a congregation for years after his demise. There are far too many stories like that in our churches. Stories of pastors falling to sins of immorality and ungodliness that leave the church in shambles, not trusting any future leader because of the failure of a past leader. To have trustworthiness in the church, the pastor and people must always pursue holiness and Godliness in their private and public living. There can be no substitute.

When a pastor is called to a church he must lead with uprightness, trustworthiness, and love for the church and the church must respond with support; putting aside past hurts and disappointments. Too many churches find themselves in chaos because of untrustworthy leadership and untrusting congregations. The untrustworthiness of one pastor can cause a church to falter and fall for decades and sometimes will end in death because of the actions of one leader who could not be trusted. Any pastor who leads without the trust of his congregation will fail and the congregation will fail as well.

In closing I remind the reader of John Maxwell’s famous statement, “Everything rises and falls on leadership.” I would only slightly change that statement and take it a step further to say, “Everything rises and falls, in the church, on trustworthy, Godly leadership.”

Steve Sells is the president and CEO of Operation Transformation church revitalization ministry in Salisbury, North Carolina. Steve has served in ministry for 43 years in North Carolina and Georgia.

Dr. Sells is the co-author of the book With Greater Power. He seeks to help churches of all sizes experience new health and growth.

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DYNAMIC Small Groups

Pastoral Leadership and the Effective Small Group Ministry

By Fred Boone The pastor’s role in the effective Small Group should never be under estimated. In a recent survey when the members were asked: “How important is the pastor’s support to the health of your Small Group ministry?”

The answers were quite interesting. Growing Churches: 97% said very important, Plateaued Churches: 96% said very important, Declining Churches: 96% said very important. As you can see all churches agreed that the pastor’s leadership was essential for the effective and healthy church. Thom Rainer in his book Effective Evangelistic Churches made this statement “… effective Sunday School had strong and vocal support from the pastor. Indeed, it was often the pastor who spoke most often about the importance of Sunday School. He did not leave the emphasis in the hands of a minister of education or a Sunday School Director alone. The pastor typically was actively involved in training, recruiting, and promotion in Sunday School.”

In 1 Peter 5:1-4 we find some key insights into the pastor’s leadership. Verse 2 says, “Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not

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by compulsion but willingly.” There are some tangible ways a pastor can express his leadership. Proclaim to your church your conviction about your churches Small Group ministry. You must embrace the value and importance of the Small Group ministry on a weekly basis. Give a brief, weekly Small Group report before worship begins. Share about new people that have been enrolled and how the ministry has impacted them. Have a commissioning service for Small Group leaders each year. Bring before the church the importance of this key ministry. Incorporate Small Group testimonies into the worship service. Regularly write about Small Groups in your newsletters, blogs and tweets. Personally enlist, train, and meet regularly with the Small Group Director. Let the key leaders know how valuable they are to the total work of the church. Develop a Small Group Planning team. Lead this team to be proactive in the expansion and development of the Small Group ministry. Preach occasionally on Small Group themes. There are many passages in scripture that emphasize the work and need for Small Groups. Some key scriptures you could preach

from: Exodus 18:17-21, Deuteronomy 31:12-13, Ezra 7:10, Nehemiah 8:5-8, and there are many New Testament passages. Seek ways to increase your personal expertise. Search for websites on Small Groups and read books on the subject. When you are studying don’t overlook material about Sunday School. Make Small Group Leader Training a priority in your church.

When you recruit leaders stress the importance of attending training when it is offered as part of their commitment to work in the Small Group ministry.

Once you have recruited and developed leaders for your Small Group ministry the pastor must become the chief cheerleader for the team. Creating momentum will require a hands-on leadership approach in the initial stages. The pastor can’t do this alone and will need a team to help him. Moses discovered this truth in Exodus 18. The pastor’s role is like that of a coach. Allan Taylor, Director of Sunday School & Education Ministry at Lifeway said, “The pastor is the leader of the organization, but he also stands on the sidelines and helps people to perform at their best. He sets direction, and, to some degree, the game plan; but he does not do all of the work.”

The pastor must model the type of leadership he expects from his key leaders especially the Small Group Director. It is easy for leaders to fall into the trap of being counters rather than being a leader. When the pastor talks too often about the attendance and how much it has grown without talking about changed lives, it is easy for other leaders to get the idea that numbers are more important than people. The wise pastor teaches his leaders that reaching people for Christ and developing them into “On Mission” disciples is our goal. Consider the contrast between a counter and a leader. Counters are concerned with counting and leaders are concerned with people. Counters associates with teachers and leaders motivate leaders.

A counter will assist the teacher and a leader equips leaders. A counter is maintenance minded while leaders are growth minded. Counters think concretely while leaders think creatively. The pastor must evaluate his own leadership ability and what he instills in the leaders he is raising up.

Pastors need to know that if they try to build a great Small Group Ministry they will encounter a spiritual enemy who wants to wreck and destroy it. When you try to do a great work for the Lord you can expect opposition. Satan will use many methods and distractions to discourage the church and the pastor. Some of Satan’s battle plans are more obvious than others. I

believe the number one strategy is “Discouragement” and there are many ways this can happen. The power of prayer can make or break a Small Group Ministry.

Satan knows if he can prevent the Small Group from praying he has won an easy victory. Prayer is the key to the power of the Holy Spirit and the blessings of God. Without prayer leaders will not be prepared to deal with the challenges of a Small Group. Chiefly they will not be spirit filled which is the bedrock to the effective Small Group teacher. Small Group leaders are strongest when they are on their knees. Satan knows that sincere prayers will bring great power and he will do everything he can to prevent that from happening.

Another attack comes by convincing members that attendance to their group is not important. He tells them that they will not be missed. His goal is to isolate the member so they become more vulnerable to his attack on them individually. He wins when members are convinced that they don’t need to be part of a group.

He will also do everything possible to convince Christians from serving through their local church. This is another victory that results in the discouragement of the leaders that are trying to recruit them to serve. The pastor needs to train and prepare key leaders in the Small Group Ministry for spiritual warfare. I have used two books to train my leaders: Discipled Warriors by Chuck Lawless and Spiritual Warfare by Jerry Rankin.

With the number of resources available this training should be a priority.

Pastoral leadership and endorsement is critical to the successful Small Group ministry. The pastors that have applied these principles have experienced Small Groups that have grown, thrived, and multiplied. I have had the privilege to serve in several churches where the pastor was the champion and principle promoter of the Small Group ministry. In each church we saw great growth, some doubled in size and two churches tripled in size. In each case the pastors attributed the growth to healthy Small Groups. Many of the insights that I shared in this article were gained from the Georgia Baptist Conventions – Sunday School/Small Group Ministries resources and their Sunday School Mentoring program.

Fred Boone is the Executive Pastor and LIFE Groups Pastor of First Baptist Church of Mount Dora, Florida.

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WHY SMALL GROUPS?

From the Old Testament to the New Testament small groups are used in very significant ways.

Small Groups have always been part of God’s plan to develop and grow believers. In modern times from Sunday School to the contemporary Small Group movement the churches that embraced small groups in a significant way experienced the most growth in evangelism and discipleship. Small Groups should be a fundamental strategy for every church that seeks to be a Biblically complete church.

OUR VISION – Why We Exist

To see every church develop significant small groups that are healthy and growing.

OUR MISSION – What We Do We come to the church and partner with the pastor and staff to evaluate the current condition of their Small Group Ministry and then develop a custom plan to renovate and reinvigorate their groups. Our plan includes developing comprehensive goals and strategies.

We also provide training and custom resources for the churches we serve.

www.DynamicSmallGroups.org

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L. David Marquet, Captain, U.S. Navy (Retired), Turn the Ship Around! A True Story of Turning Followers Into Leaders, New York: Portfolio/Penguin, 2012.

Turn the Ship Around! A True Story of Turning Followers Into Leaders is one of those books that was recommended by another church leader.

Until then Captain Marquet and the work were unknown. This reviewer quickly agreed with one of the jacket endorsers who said: “It’s The Hunt for Red October meets Harvard Business School.” Turn the Ship Around! is a book for leaders who want to develop and unleash leaders who desire excellence and achieving greatness.

Marquet’s book is a manifesto to reject the leader-follower model leadership structures. He takes his readers through the frustrations and failings of the leader-follower model. He relates his own narrative and freedom he found when he first experienced a leader-leader model early on in his naval career. He refreshingly exposes his failure to first implement his own leader-leader model and its quick digression to a leader-follower to near burnout and burn up model. The most substantial portions of Turn the Ship Around! focus on how Marquet built a leader-leader structure on one of the worst performing submarines in the United States Navy that ultimately transformed the crew of the U.S. Santa Few into one of the top-performing Naval Vessels.

Marquet is honest in his writing. He is admits his failures, fears, and a moment when he was allowed to be corrected by his

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crew. His book is full of practical experience that is transferable to the church. Marquet gives credit to those resources that influenced his thinking and where the reader can further expand their understanding of the concept he discussed in the chapter without filling the pages with footnotes. Captain Marquet comes across the pages with a sense of a humble learner who desperately wants to change how leaders are grown.

There were however several times this reviewer wondered how the concepts presented could be transitioned into the church. It is one thing to be ordered by your Captain to attend a staff meeting and participate in exercises to bridge the leader-follower hurdle. It is a different context transitioning all of the applications of the concepts into a volunteer sector. Marquet though is aware of this concern. He writes in his introduction, “You may be able to ‘buy’ a person’s back with a paycheck, position, power, or fear, but a human being’s genius, passion, loyalty, and tenacious creativity are volunteered only” (xxi). Much thought, even better group discussion, on applying the concepts in the church would be greatly aided.

This reviewer cannot say enough good about this book. The wealth of experience related to these pages is invaluable. If a Captain can take a group of sailors, many of whom were ready to “jump ship,” and transform them through a process of empowerment into the pride of the Navy imagine what these applied leadership concepts could do in the life a church that needs to turn around. Turn the Ship Around! is a must for the revitalizer’s library.

Mark Hallock, Great Commission Revitalization: God’s Strategy for Reaching Your Community, Making Disciples, and Infusing Your Congregation with New Life, Littleton, Colorado: Acoma Press, 2018.

Great Commission Revitalization: God’s Strategy for Reaching Your Community, Making Disciples, and Infusing Your Congregation with New Life is a short thesis – only one-hundred-eleven pages – on church revitalization drawn from the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18 – 20.

Hallock, grounded under the authority and upon the dependency of the Lord Jesus, is confronting and encouraging. A simple, straightforward, good work.

Hallock stresses the authority of Christ in the church. Hallock writes, “The bottom line is this: If our churches are to experience Great Commission Revitalization, we must be obedient to King Jesus and his command to make disciples of ALL nations, both locally and globally” (63). He stresses that the only way churches can be revitalized is if they place themselves “under the authority of Jesus and his Word” (72). Additionally, churches must humbly, dependent upon prayer, teach and preach the Word, and pursue the lost. Included with the manifes-

to’s appendixes are some practical tools for evangelism.

Critique of Hallock’s book simply raises questions for those who are fully surrendered to King Jesus, who are making disciples locally and globally, who are preaching the whole of the scriptures and are not seeing their churches revitalized.

Hallock presents a good, no, a great application of the Great Commission text to church revitalization but it falls short in its ease of expectation. The biggest piece missing from Hallock’s is that leadership is required for revitalization. Having the right attitudes, the right demeanor, and the right theology are all mission critical, but if the revitalizer does not possess the necessary leadership skill set to lead revitalization efforts then the church will continue to flounder.

Great Commission Revitalization is a good work to begin the conversation about why churches flounder, why churches struggle and why churches need to be revitalized. The short book is one piece that opens the door for a larger conversation, strategy, and methodology for church revitalization. Great Commission Revitalization is a good addition to the revitalizer’s library.

Rob Hurtgen is the Pastor of First Baptist Church Chillicothe, Missouri. He holds an M.Div from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Ministry degree in Church Revitalization from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

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Getting on the Same Page:

Identifying Your Corporate Core Values

By Mark Weible The new pastor sat down with a small group of whom he had determined to be the most influential leaders of his church. He asked them questions about the church’s heyday – her glorious past, and her recent decline. During listening sessions like this one, he discovered that each person had a tendency to point to different success indicators in the past and that they had a hard time agreeing on mile posts for the future.

He had his own ideas for the future, but he discovered that no one else shared his vision. He was not ready to lead them to the next level and they were not prepared to follow his leadership.

Leading has more to do with learning than lurching. Most church revitalization leaders enter the life of a church after much of the story has already been written. Therefore, it is wise to learn the history of the church before leaning into the future. By asking different groups of people to describe the greatest successes and failures of the church, a church revitalizer can discern the church’s actual core values. Often, these are different that any stated core values.

Core values are assumptions about how a church operates, what is important and how to measure success.

Ken Blanchard describes core values as, “those intangibles that will guide your journey and govern how you want people to behave in your organization.”1 As individuals, we have our own set of values. Organizations 1Blanchard, Kenneth H., Phil Hodges, and Phyllis Hennecy Hendry. Lead like Jesus Revisited: Lessons from the Greatest Leadership Role Model of All Time. Nashville, TN: W Publishing Group, an Imprint of Thomas Nelson, 2016. P. 148.

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have common values and communities often have shared values as well. Our values drive our behavior and if we seek to influence the behavior of others, it is important that we first understand what we value most. Then we must define the core values of the church, while keeping in mind the common values of the community as a whole.

According to research conducted by Taylor Protocols2, all humans share at least four core values and four catalytic values to varying degrees. While we may hold to hundreds of other values, we can each identity two pairs of values that really motivate us and drive our behavior. The Core Values Index is a scientifically valid tool that can be used to help individuals identify their core values, help teams to see where their values are clustered and where they lack input, as well as help organizations and churches to identify their corporate core values. Also, when we understand the core values of the people in our neighborhoods and communities, we can more effectively communicate the gospel, make disciples, grow churches and multiply the kingdom of God. The four value pairs identified by Taylor are: 1. Power and Faith 2. Love and Truth 3. Wisdom and Compassion 4. Knowledge and Justice3 2 https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/7ada30_59ebd48e3ff94c63b24e44b631951c80.pdf 3 Taylor, L. and Taylor, L. (n.d.). The core values handbook.

The first value in each set is a core value while the second is a catalytic value. The catalytic values are the motivators and drivers of the core values. For example, a person who has a high core value of Power is activated by Faith. Jesus said, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The core value of Love is catalyzed by Truth. Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). The desire for wisdom is spurred on by compassion. James said, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault…” (James 1:5). The core value of Knowledge is driven by Justice. David said, “Teach me knowledge and good judgment, for I trust your commands.” (Psalm 119:66).

As illustrated in this image, each set of values has its own learning style and conflict strategy as well as team contributions. The Core Values Index tool developed by Taylor Protocols can help individuals to identify their top core values and to understand their potential cor-

porate contributions. The CVI can also help people to understand their natural conflict strategy and the likely conflict strategies of others.

Renovate is a now a provider of the Core Values Index and the Renovate team offers core values coaching to individuals, churches, and other organizations. You can request a free CVI sample or get the full report at www.

CVI.report. You can request coaching by sending an email to Mark@CVI.report.

Mark Weible serves as the Church Planting Director of the Greater Orlando Baptist Association and the strategic Director of the Renovate National Church Revitalization Conference. Mark has a wealth of experience as a church planter and local church coach. Mark is passionate about church multiplication, renewal, planting, and coaching.

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By Rob Myers In 1994 Kevin Costner played the part of Wyatt Earp, that legendary lawman who cleaned up the frontier cities of Dodge and Tombstone. Costner was at the peak of his career and gave a new slant to the life of Wyatt Earp that I had not heard of before. The Wyatt Earp I had grown up with as a child was played on TV once a week and the main character had a very controlled and moral outlook and he was portrayed as the good guy.

Costner, who helped direct the movie, must have really done his background research on Wyatt Earp, because when I checked the story out on the Internet, Costner’s version was much more accurate than my whitewashed early 1960s version. Wyatt’s family had been killed and he was on a desperate mission to find happiness and fulfillment. He hooked up with his brothers, went out west, and became a gambler. The gambling led to the opportunity to own a saloon and there he lived a life of debauchery. He was known for running fair games and of course shooting anyone who cheated. His control of the gambling hall led him, by default, to be selected as the deputy marshal of the area. He took it upon himself to clean up the town and take on a group of ruffians known as the Cowboys. They had a habit of starting fights in town, getting drunk, and shooting at the businesses. There was an interesting moment in the movie when the Cowboys were trying to give retribution for the shootout. Ben was trying to convince Wyatt that he needed to be a more sensible and sensitive man and that he needed to think twice before he drew his gun on someone. Now in the most iconic part of the story, Wyatt turned to Ben and said, “Ben, you know what your problem is? Your problem is that you’re affable. You want people to like you. And someday that will cause you to get killed.”

When I was a young pastor, my wife always warned me that I wanted people to like me. It was important to me to get along with others. I gave them affection, love, and guidance, and I expected them to give me love and affection back. My first few churches were my learning churches. I had started a church in Northern Virginia by Dulles airport and was asked by that association to merge them with the church on the other side of town in Alexandria. I made a foolish move accepting the associational director’s invitation. My church planting corps was now traveling forty miles to go to church. If you’ve ever lived in Northern Virginia that’s not much. So the little church of forty-five immediately

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grew to over 100 and continued growing rapidly for the next year. By the second year we had filled up the little sanctuary to its maximum capacity of 260 people.

I thought everything was going great because I liked all those people, and I was foolish enough to think that they liked me. One night the chairman of the deacons invited me over for dinner with my wife. He served us steak and baked potatoes and I was on cloud nine thinking that these people really loved me as I loved them. At the end of the evening the chairman of the deacons said in a newly found solemn voice, “Rob, you’ve done a great job and our building is now full.

We’ve had a meeting with the deacons and we have decided that you do not need to place any more emphasis on getting more people into the church. We are satisfied with where you are right now and we just need to maintain this.” I could not believe my ears and I said to them, “Are we not a great commission church?

Are we not called to go into all the world and preach the good news of Jesus and into the harvest fields?”

They told me, in response, “Rob you’re just too evan-

promise to God that I would never allow a small group of people to cause me, as a shepherd, to leave my flock. After that I had a hard time getting a job, for as you know, it’s easier to get a job while you have a job then to get a job when you have resigned without a place to go. The people in the church were not good references for my resume and for years did everything they could to do damage to my name.

In the past forty years, this is one lesson I learned and did not need to repeat. The Lord spoke to me and reminded me, “How many people stuck with me while I was dying on the cross? …Did I not say to the people, father forgive them for they know not what they do?

Do you think that I did not know that they were going to do that?” (The quotes are to show when Jesus spoke to my heart) I had to toughen up. I don’t need anyone to love me in order for me to love them. A few years ago, I heard John Maxwell say this and thought it might be encouraging: People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered— love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives—do good anyway.

If you’re successful, you’ll win false friends and true enemies—succeed anyway.

The good you do today will perhaps be forgotten tomorrow—do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable—be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest man with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest man with the smallest mind— think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only hot dogs—fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight—build anyway. gelical, we just need you to pastor who we’ve got now.” People really need help but may attack you if you help I responded to them, “Did not Paul tell young Timothy them—help them anyway. as a pastor that he was to do the work of an evangelist?” Yet, that did not seem to matter to them and the tension rose in the room. I was told by the deacons, that I was either to do what they said, or they would Rob Myers is the Pastor leave the church in protest with their offerings and of Miami Baptist Church tithes. We left the meeting completely upset and dis- a turn around church loillusioned. The group became more vicious and vocal cated in the multi-lingual community in South Floriabout the attendance on Sunday mornings. da. Rob has been in minisI called up a friend and a mentor of mine, who worked try for more than 39 years. with me in church planting training back in Texas. He He has been in church proceeded to give me some of the worst advice I have planting and pastoral leadever received and I took it in wholeheartedly. He said, ership for 36 of those years, which includes 15 years “Rob, God made you a lover not a fighter. You need to as the Senior Pastor of Miami Baptist Church. His is resign and get out of there.” Within days I tendered my Adjunct Professor of Indiana Wesleyan University and resignation to the deacon body. It was a lose-lose sit- President of Baptist World Charities. Rob has an earned uation, but I was the biggest loser. My weakness was Doctorate in Ministry Leadership from John Wesley wanting people to like me. I was affable. The Holy Spir- University, a M.Div. from Southwestern Seminary and it convicted my heart at that moment and I made a a B.A. From Palm Beach Atlantic University.

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Revitalizing Your Ministry: One Decision at a Time

By Rodney Harrison The decisions you make impact every area of life. As a rural church planter with limited means, I undertook a habit of prayer prior to purchase. When my wife and I took our monthly shopping trip to Grand Forks, North Dakota, it was astonishing how many times I picked something up at the store, only to put it back on the shelf following a quick, “Lord, is this a wise purchase� prayer. Later, the practice of prayer prior to was applied to other areas of life and ministry with fruitful results.

In the book of Esther, the decision-making model utilized by the Persian leaders differs greatly from that of the stories protagonists, as seen in the following chart:

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As a young pastor, I was told, “Never resign on a Monday.” Depending on your personality type, Sunday might be the most emotionally draining day of the week. Not only is the pastor relationally surrounded by people each Sunday, preaching itself is both exhilarating and exhausting. For most pastors, Sunday is a anything but a “day of rest.”

Preaching, people, potlucks and prayer meetings fill the day. As Adrian Roger’s so rightly said, “If Satan can’t make you bad, he’ll make you busy.” Add in an antagonists whose comment yet stings and the stage is set for an emotional, knee-jerk decision on Monday.

Church leaders also need to be aware of the danger of decisions made from a lack of information.

Just as Haman told the king a half-truth (similar to Ananias and Sapphira), it is tempting to make decisions quickly rather than once one is fully informed. A co-worker once purchased a new Honda Civic over a Honda Accord (the car she really wanted) because it was $2000 less. However, at the time, the Civic was the most stolen car in America, which meant higher insurance rates were more than the purchase price savings during a five-year period of ownership. Leaders who blindly accept the lowest bid, by hearing just one side of a matter or failing to count the cost prior to making a decision, fall into this trap of failing to get all of the facts.

Fortunately, casting lots is no longer in vogue.

Nevertheless, pastors and church leaders are not immune to using bad methods in their decision making. We would all frown upon a pastoral search committee that looked at the stature of a candidate rather than his character. And yet, I have frequently worked with pastors and church leaders who assumed “school teachers” make good Bible teachers and “bankers” are qualified to be church treasurers. In the same way, we err if we default to our favorite commentary or Christian blogger

instead of Scripture when studying.

In my mind, the most tragic verse in Esther is found in 3:15, “The king and Haman sat down to drink, while the city of Susa was in confusion.” Bad decisions give birth to confusion. A few years ago, a pastor friend received a sizable cash Christmas gift from a member. Rather than use the money to pay down his student debt--a common complaint and sermon illustration--he purchased a bigscreen television set so he could “have the church men over for the Super Bowl.” The congregation and donor were perplexed over this decision. Later that month he canceled the evening service on Super Bowl Sunday, a unilateral decision that circumvented for established calendaring process.

This is an example of how bad decisions are often not immediately recognized and can snowball if left unsettled.

Take a moment to reflect on the chart provided. Would your church and family say your decision-making process is more like Haman and King Ahasuerus or Mordecai and Esther?

Dr. Rodney Harrison provides oversight to Midwestern’s doctoral programs, extensions, online programs and accreditation. He came to Midwestern following a fruitful ministry in church planting and missions in California, the Dakotas, and Minnesota. Prior to coming to Midwestern, he was New Church Extension Associate for the California Southern Baptist Convention. Rodney is the author of four books and has written material for LifeWay Christian Resources, The Revitalizer, and several academic journals.

“As the pastor you are called to lead the church but do not be surprised when you are looked at strangely because you are providing leadership for your church.”

-Tom Cheyney 85

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