Church planters, fight the urge to empower people too quickly.
Some planters, desiring to expand their plant team and move ahead in their mission, will dole out leadership responsibilities to people they barely know. Many even counsel this: “Give ’em a job, and they’ll stick around,” as the logic goes. Yet that “logic” is suicidal.
Good versus Great Leader (10 things to consider!)
There are no perfect leaders…except for Jesus. For the rest of us, we each have room for improvement. Most of us live with flaws in our leadership. Good leaders learn to surround themselves with people who can supplement their weaknesses.
There are, however, some leadership traits, which a leader can never delegate away. If the leader can’t work through them, in my opinion, his or her leadership will be crippled. With these traits, the best the leader has to offer will never fully materialize.
I recently wrote an article that offered ten questions to help you diagnose the evangelistic health of your church. A couple of the readers asked insightful questions related to the culture of a church. Specifically, they wanted to know how a church could create a culture to become more evangelistic.
While the creation of an evangelistic culture cannot be reduced to a simple formulaic approach, I can offer four suggestions of a more practical nature.
I wish I could tell you that most pastors are preaching the Word. I can’t - some are not. Here are five things we may choose to do instead of preaching the Word.
1. Entertaining
“Music, drama and video, felt needs, topics, more stories”
I have the incredible opportunity to interact with pastors regularly. In recent conversations, I asked two questions. First, have you ever experienced burnout in your ministry? Second, what do you do to prevent pastoral burnout?
Interestingly, every pastor with whom I spoke had experienced some level of burnout. And so they spoke from the voice of experience when they shared with me what they do to prevent burnout today. I aggregated their responses to seven keys to preventing pastoral burnout, not in any particular order or priority.
“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.”
2 Corinthians 4:16–17
