The relationships between church boards and senior or solo pastors are challenging. In most congregations, the board and pastor have a complex, not-easily-negotiated relationship: All board members, including the pastor, are brothers in Christ, and equals before God. The board, in most cases, was involved in the hiring of the pastor and the writing or […]
QUICK GUIDE – Succession Planning For Pastors
Condensed from “Succession Planning”, NL Moore & Associates Planned or unplanned, every church will go through a pastoral succession. In the next 10 years, more than half of all churches in America will go through a pastoral succession. There are not enough students in seminaries today to fill the empty pulpits that already exist […]
Becoming A Leader
Some of you have heard my own leadership story. For those who haven’t, here’s a short version. In my first church planting attempt, right out of seminary, I thought that all I needed to do was to teach the Bible well and my tiny church would grow. It didn’t. In my second church planting attempt […]
Mission And Vision Contrasted: Why Pastors Need To Share Their Dreams
SUMMARY: Sharing your church’s mission is good, but also sharing what you believe God wants your church to become (your vision) is even better. Here’s why: You’ve probably heard management and leadership contrasted: “Management deals with what already exists; leadership deals with what will or should exist.” “Management deals with present realities; leadership deals with […]
Book Review: Pastor Unique – Becoming Turnaround Leaders
Pastor Unique is not just another indictment of the American Church or American pastors. Authors Lavern Brown, Gordon Penfold and Gary Westra have given us a roadmap for real change and it is practical and doable. One clarification: PASTOR UNIQUE is about turnaround pastors in the sense of long-term (not transitional or interim) pastors, who seek to lead […]
Falling In Love With Our Communities
Isn’t it amazing what love can do to a normal human being? Take the 16 or 17 year old guy. His whole life has been about himself. He’s never done anything very unselfish, let along sacrificical, nor has he given any lavish gifts to anyone. And then SHE comes along! He’s head over heels in […]
Church Boards: Coach Your Pastors!
The relationships between church boards and senior or solo pastors are challenging. In most evangelical congregations, the board and pastor have a complex, not easily negotiated relationship: All board members, including the pastor, are brothers in Christ, and equals before God. The board, in most cases, was significantly involved in the hiring of the pastor […]
Six Characteristics Of The Pastor Who Deserves To Be Followed (Revisited)
I received some pushback a while back regarding a couple of blogs I wrote about allowing pastors to lead their churches. I argued that most churches which are actually making devoted followers of Christ out of the raw material of lost people have pastors who are expected to actually lead. Actually leading means that these […]
Is Planning Unspiritual?
In a recent post, Ten Planning Principles From The Book Of Proverbs, I shared the results of a study I did on the subject of planning in that heaven-sent, down-to-earth book. I concluded at the end of my short summary that God commends planning which follows the principles found in Proverbs and He will bless pure-hearted, prayerful […]
Ten Planning Principles From The Book Of Proverbs
Is strategic planning Biblical? Is it wise? Is it helpful? The Book of Proverbs answers these questions with a resounding “Yes!” if we follow the following principles: 1. Planning, thinking deeply about our future work, is legitimate and wise. Don’t just “go with the flow” while claiming to be spontaneous or Spirit-led. (Somebody said that “Only […]
Six Things Struggling Pastors Don’t Need
Here’s what I mean by a “struggling pastor.” I’m talking about a pastor who, by his own admission, is neither happy nor effective. He’s not having fun. He’s bailing water and not keeping up. ‘Get the picture? Here’s what he doesn’t need: A new church I need to be careful here. Maybe he doesneed a new […]
Five Things Struggling Pastors Need
You may have read a post I wrote recently entitled, Six things struggling pastors don’t need. In it I defined struggling pastors as those who, by their own admission, are neither happy nor effective. They are not having fun. They are not feeling successful. Their churches are not making new disciples. Here’s what I said […]
Four Bottom-line Truths About Vision
Vision is like the weather: everybody’s talking about it but nobody’s doing much about it. Let’s try to de-mystify this a bit, and maybe we can do something about it. Vision is simply a dream, a mental picture, of a better future. As leadership begins with dissatisfaction with the current state of things and a […]
Three Occasions When Self-Awareness Is Vital For Leaders
“Know thyself. If I knew myself I would run away.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Self-awareness: conscious knowledge of one’s own character, feelings, motives, and desires The elder who met me at the café was discouraged and confused. How could things have gone so wrong? The small, rural, congregation which he served had gone through a […]
Four Ways Pastors Must Be Faithful
Impartial juries. Fair-minded umpires. Faithful pastors. Some things are just expected aren’t they? Everybody expects pastors to be faithful. But what does Scripture actually say about faithfulness and pastors? We must be faithful to the Triune God Himself. It all starts here, of course. There is a sense in which pastors are professionals who work […]
Three Advantages Of Leading By Following
Our usual breakfast group of pastors was commiserating, again, about the highs and lows of trying to lead our churches. At some point the older, wiser denominational leader who was a part of our group spoke up: “You guys need to get ahold of the concept of leading by following. Figure out how to lead […]
Book Review: The Nuts and Bolts of Leadership: Getting the Job done
This is a different kind of leadership book. It’s not about theory and it does not purport to be about Christian leadership. This new volume by my old friend, Jim Bohn, a veteran of several decades with a Fortune 100 company and a number of years of consulting in the business and academic communities, is […]
Three Places Pastors Can Find Real Fellowship
My title probably seems odd to some readers. Pastors are surrounded by people in their churches and churches exist, in part, to provide fellowship for their members. But most pastors find that experiencing real fellowship – socializing that is deeply satisfying and moves us along in our spiritual journey – is a challenge. The norm […]
Book Review: Permission To Speak Freely
Doug Crandall and Matt Kincaid’s secular, business world-oriented book, Permission To Speak Freely, makes a great, challenging read for Christian leaders. Here’s the bottom line premise of the book, from page ix of the Foreword (by Shann Ray Ferch): “By not only listening deeply, but encouraging those around us to speak freely, leaders can create […]
Three Great Expectations For A Leader
Individuals and organizations have all sorts of expectations for their leaders: good ones, bad ones, ugly ones. Our overriding concern with our expectations for our leaders should not be what we want or what they want. It should be for what works and what works should be defined in terms of the organization’s mission. If […]
Three Steps To Great Leadership In Your Organization
In an earlier post (Three great expectations for a leader) I’ve described some “best practice” leadership expectations for organizations that want to achieve real mission success: Expect your leader to dream – to pray down a vision from God for your organization. Expect your leader to design – to implement a strategy for mission fulfillment […]
