Tuesday, August 04, 2015

Issues in Church Leadership: Four Articles and a Video


The Crucial Difference Between Managing and Leading

It’s been said many times by many different people that everything rises or falls on leadership. I don’t think that’s ever truer than in ministry. Charles McKay, a former professor at California Baptist College, used to tell us if you want to know the temperature of your church, put the thermometer in your mouth. That’s a good statement. You can’t ever take people farther than you are yourself, spiritually or any other way.

I remember when I was interviewed on the Acts television network by Jimmy Allen, and he asked me about starting new churches. He said, “How important is location?” I said it’s very important, the second most important thing. But the most important thing is not location, but leadership in a church. I see churches in great locations that aren’t doing anything and I see churches with good leadership in poor locations doing great things.

Leadership is the key.

You don’t have to be a charismatic leader (in the emotional sense) to be a great leader. Some of the greatest charismatic leaders of this century were also the worst — Stalin, Mao, Hitler. They were all very charismatic people, so personality has nothing to do with dynamic leadership. Keep reading

10 Attributes of a Humble Leader

Almost a decade ago I recruited a mentor. He was more than 20 years older than me, had been widely successful, and was extremely respected in our community. I admired his business success, his family life, and his standing in the community — but I didn’t ask him to mentor me in any of these areas.

I wanted him to mentor me because of the humility I observed in his life.

If you didn’t know he was successful — you would have never known it from him.

Humility is a desired, but often neglected characteristic of good, servant leadership. It seems in the day of platform-building and social media the more we promote ourselves online, the more the characteristic of humility is being forgotten and certainly is less celebrated. (As one who has an online presence, I consistently sense God reminding me that I’ve been on the bottom and I can return there.)

Pride is a struggle for many leaders (author included), but we must strive to bring humility to our leadership roles.

What is humility in leadership? What are some characteristics of a humble leader?

Of course, the real example of humility is Jesus. And, as I already knew, He was the mentor of my earthly mentor. Spending time with this mentor I learned a few things I am still striving to live. I haven’t mastered them, but I have better targets. Keep reading

The Church Is a Leadership Factory

The church ought to see itself as a leadership factory that stirs up the gifts of God in people, not an auditorium that gathers people behind a leader. Jesus did not build his church by recruiting the 12 brightest from the rabbi’s list of “up and coming stars” and platforming them in large stadiums around the world. His disciples were mostly blue-collar workers with little to no formal theological training.

Yet through his Spirit, Jesus uses this ragtag group of misfits to turn the world upside down. Peter, the disciple with a foot-shaped mouth who wilted before a teenage girl, became the church’s most courageous leader and premiere preacher (John 18:15–18). When Jesus chose Peter, he was not a star. He was a man in desperate need of development. Jesus made him into a star.

If developing leaders is what Jesus got most excited about in the church, isn’t that what we should be most excited about, too? Let me suggest four important implications for how we should approach ministry. Keep reading

4 Ways to “Flip the Classroom” in Your Church

Common leadership dilemmas:
  • When’s the last time 100% of your leaders showed up at a training event?
  • Do you ever find yourself summarizing training for those who missed it?
  • How frequently do you hold orientation training for new leaders?
You wouldn’t have these problems if everyone just cleared their schedule for your training events (like they should!), but sadly this just isn’t the case. So what’s the solution? Is it to hold additional training events? Or is there a smarter way to train all of your leaders?

The purpose of this post is to introduce the concept of “flipping the classroom,” as well as provide you with ways to use this in your church leadership. Keep reading

Training Leaders by Flipping the Classroom [Video]

Do you have trouble getting volunteers to your church’s training events? Are you tired of covering the same information over and over again? Wouldn’t you rather be coaching them and helping them grow? Daniel Im, LifeWay’s church multiplication specialist, explains how flipping the classroom is the perfect solution for you. Watch now

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