If smaller-church pastors are to lead their congregations into greater influence, they must think rightly in order to lead well.
How well does the following statement describe your church? “We enjoy an abundance of gifted, deeply committed, and skilled laypersons.”
That quote comes from Lyle Schaller1, whose consultations with over 4,000 congregations helped him identify elements of effective, big-impact churches. The truth, he says, is that most churches have far more people who match that description than most pastors realize. Many are likely present in your church, even if some of them are still in the rough. Your role in identifying, empowering, and supporting them is essential for the vitality of your church.
Foursquare pastor Wayne Cordeiro discovered this reality in the early years of the first church he pastored. Six months into his ministry in Hilo, the southern-most island in Hawaii, Cordeiro was at a churchwide picnic. He was having a great time until a man with a condescending tone struck up a conversation. “Do you know what kind of people you have in this church?” the man asked.
“Nice ones?” Cordeiro responded with a smile.
The man didn’t laugh. Instead, he replied with a growl. “They’re sick,” he said, explaining he had lived in the community for a long time. “I know them,” he affirmed.
He then gave Cordeiro a verbal tour of the congregation. He pointed to a teenager. “That girl was raised by a mentally handicapped grandmother because her own mother abandoned her,” he said. “She does strange things.”
Then he pointed out someone else. “That guy is on crack,” he said, “and that one is on probation. He has to go back to jail each weekend. Better watch him.”
Pointing out another cluster of people, he said, “That guy has a swindling problem. He can tap the church till, and you’ll never know it.”
After offering a similar commentary on other members, he looked at Cordeiro and sighed, “Your church is full of sickies.”
Cordeiro didn’t know what to do. Until recent moments, he thought they were wonderful people. After this narration, he started looking at them through different eyes. That girl does act a bit strange at times, he observed. He also began to wonder about the guy standing near her — the one on probation. His eyes are shifty.
After whining to God about all these “sickies,” he sensed that God reminded him that all people, including, Wayne Cordeiro, need the restoration of the Great Physician (Mark 2:17). God also reminded him that God’s power is “made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9), and that the church is a place for people to be restored into God’s image (Romans 8:29; 1 Corinthians 15:49; Colossians 3:10).
Cordeiro began to perceive his job as seeing God’s potential in people. He concluded that not only his church, but every church, is full of people being developed to receive a huge spiritual inheritance, as described in Galatians 3:24–26 and 4:1–7. Cordeiro’s job, along with the leaders of other churches, is to develop cultures in which believers, especially emerging leaders, can mature to the point where they can steward the inheritance of Christ.
Cordeiro’s conclusion about the people in that Hilo church? According to his account in Culture Shift, “If you have the eyes of a pessimist, your outlook will affect all you see. If you’re insecure, you will not see many options for empowerment. If your congregation embarrasses you, it will affect how you see them. You will treat them differently as a result. The culture you create will be largely a product of how you see those whom God has placed you with. You have to think rightly in order to lead well.”2
This perspective enabled Cordeiro to learn to recruit, resource, and refine big-impact volunteers, and to develop that small church into a healthy congregation that influenced its community far beyond what its size would otherwise have warranted. Read more
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