5 Ways to Make Your Church Irrelevant

Of all the organizations that have been hit hard by the pandemic, the church stands out as being particularly devastated.

The longer this goes, though, the more the struggle appears self-inflicted.

In the early days of COVID, pastors showed incredibly flexibility, agility and even some entrepreneurial drive as they pivoted to online ministry, started showing up on social, and really reached out to people where they found them.

Then, as church buildings reopened, it’s like almost overnight someone turned off the innovation faucet. The chant quickly became, “Everybody back in the building.”

5 Ideas on Effective Leadership

Leadership is both a responsibility and a privilege. Here are five ways those of us who have the honor of leadership can be more effective and Christ-honoring. I hope these will provide you some food for thought as you reflect on where God has you and who he has under your care.

Are We Building God’s Kingdom or Our Own?

I entered the ministry with the same ambitions many young pastors do. I sincerely wanted to reach people for Jesus, but I was also pretty interested in making a big name for myself. I wanted a large church, and I was pretty sure God was into that, too, because it seemed like a win-win for both of us.

The Never-Ending Need of Multiplying Leaders

Pastors of growing churches know all too well the old adage of there being two sides to every coin. The excitement and energy of a growing congregation comes brings with it new needs and a constant demand of more people to help carry out the ministry.

16 leadership lessons I learned the hard way

Normal teenagers don’t read leadership books. They play baseball, chase girls, and wait on their budding mustache to bloom into all its glory. But as my wife continually reminds me, other than my sweet mustache, I wasn’t normal.

In my defense, I came by it naturally. Our home was filled with leadership books. They were left on bedside tables, stuffed in briefcases, and alphabetized near the theology section of our home library. As a young businessman and civic leader, Dad devoured anything that helped him wrap his mind around his growing responsibilities. As his only son and namesake, I followed suit. By the time I graduated high school, I could quote John Maxwell and Peter Drucker like a seasoned executive.

But it was all theory. As I soon found out, leadership in the real world is complicated, contextual, and hard. To grow beyond my theories, I had to immerse them into real organizations with real people and real problems.

Here are several leadership lessons I’ve learned the hard way.

The Seven Traits of a Healthy Church Leader

I am encouraged.

I am really hopeful.

I see more signs of healthy church leaders today than I have seen at any point in my 30 years of ministry. This trend portends well for the future health of our congregations. Healthy church leaders will lead churches to greater health.

4 necessary mindsets for developing transformational leadership

I am convinced that gifted and well-equipped leadership is absolutely essential for every church. Biblical leadership is taught clearly in the Scriptures but perhaps often lost in the application of the local church.

Second Timothy 2:2 says, “And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” Here we see the transference of the core teachings of our faith to new leaders who will teach others.

This is biblical leadership development.

5 Ways to Elevate Evangelism

Evangelists are hard to come by these days. Although the gift of evangelism is listed with several others in Ephesians 4, it seems like evangelists are few and far between. Peter Wagner, a longtime professor of church growth at Fuller Theological Seminary, first estimated that 10 percent of Christians are evangelists. However, more recent studies have suggested the percentage of a congregation who are gifted as evangelists to be closer to 1 to 4.

Interestingly, the word evangelist only appears three times in Scripture, which supports the idea that it may be somewhat rare (Acts 21:9; 2 Tim. 4:5; Eph. 4:11). What are the marks of an evangelist? How do you know if you are gifted? Here are several indicators:

7 principles to lead as Jesus led

Jesus did not come to be your leadership guru. He came to die on the cross, for your sin, and in your place.

Yet, he did lead. And we can learn from how he led. If we look closely, we see that his leadership was wrapped in humility and servanthood. Even for those in high leadership positions, we all ultimately submit to one Person, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus also led perfectly. Now of course we are not perfect, but nonetheless Jesus’ model guides us toward Spirit-led leadership that honors all those under our care. The more we follow Jesus, the more ‘perfect’ we can be in emulating and taking on the characteristics of a good leader. And when we lead like Jesus, we leave a legacy that is shaped around Jesus.

Ministry is partnership with God

As ministers and leaders, we often see ourselves as the chief builders. But we need to be reminded that we are not the chief builders. God is. Our role is to make disciples. God’s role is to build His kingdom. We labor, but ultimately, God builds (see Psalm 127).

We are not called to work for God; we are called to work with God.

In fact, ministry is partnership with God. We are not servants. We are not contract labor. We are sons and daughters working with our Father in His harvest field.

When we truly understand that ministry is partnership with God, three things will happen:

Attracting Crowds or Making Disciples?

Observing the life of Jesus in the gospels is often an abrupt and painful reality check, especially in our social media saturated do-anything-for-fame ministry culture. I can’t imagine Jesus being obsessed with how many people “liked” his latest pithy post or how many people “friended” or “shared” his content.

His only obsession was to please the Father. We should be likewise obsessed.

Leadership Tests: No one likes them, we all go through them

God tests leaders. In the scene from Jesus’ ministry to the multitudes in John 6:4-6, Jesus asks a seemingly innocuous question to test Philip. Later in the Gospels, we learn that Philip was most likely an accountant, a man who dealt in exact numbers and precise records. When Jesus tested Philip, if we listen carefully, we can hear an unwarranted response from Philip to Jesus: “We don’t have enough money to do this…we only have two hundred denarii and besides, this is not in our budget.” What Philip did not say is, “I trust you, Master.”

Great Leaders Don’t Lead Alone

The original disciples were called to walk and work together as a team. They were not called to be Lone Rangers for God.

"And He called the twelve TOGETHER and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal." (Luke 9:1,2)

Ten imperatives for Christian leadership development

When it comes to developing as a leader…specifically as a Christian leader, here are ten imperatives for development. Though not an exhaustive or infallible list, these challenges will help develop you as a leader.

The Great Commission is completed through multiplication, not addition

Jesus’ vision of the church was not a group of people gathered around one anointed leader, but multiple leaders going out in the power of the Spirit. It’s a claim that very few of us take seriously: Jesus literally said that a multiplicity of Spirit-filled leaders would be greater than his earthly, bodily presence (John 14:12).

The Most Important Leadership Characteristic

In their landmark leadership book The Leadership Challenge, Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner share that the most important leadership characteristic is credibility. Based on extensive research over two decades, they boldly claim that “more than anything, we want leaders who are credible. People must be able to believe in their leaders.”

7 good reasons for a leader to say "No"

I hate disappointing people.

And, every time I say the word “No”, someone isn’t happy with my answer.

That’s reality.

Seven Traits of Pastors Who Lead Breakout Churches

If you want to experience an “aha” moment about revitalizing churches, this research may be the near the top.

Most of you have heard the dire information and statistics about congregations in North America. Indeed, I have been among the purveyors of the negative news. For sure, the overall picture is gloomy. There is no hiding from that reality.

Words of Advice for Young Church Leaders

Last week, a friend asked me what general advice I would give to young church leaders. I’m sure this list is not complete, but here’s a start.

Six surprising traits of effective pastors

This blog has looked at characteristics of effective pastors from different perspectives over the past few years. But this information may prove to be a bit surprising.

A couple of caveats are in order. First, the idea of “surprising” can vary from person to person. I think you might be surprised at some of these traits, but you might not be. Second, the term “effective” is nebulous. I am not speaking of size of church or level of fame. I have subjectively noted several dozen pastors whose ministries have been consistent and whose impact in their churches and communities has been positive.