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Category Archive: Pastoral Leadership

7 Practical Thoughts On Forgiveness In Leadership

Posted by on November 3, 2019

Leadership in a church culture is probably the most difficult challenge any leader can face. Your customers are your volunteer work force and financial investors all at the same time. Therefore, they have lots of power and they can use it to say hurtful things. This post by Steve Tillis is a must read for all leaders:

“Forgiveness in leadership is absolutely critical to leading people.

“You hate me! You pick and choose which members you love!” Years ago, those words were screamed in my ear over the phone by a church member who felt like I had not greeted them well on Sunday morning. In fact, they went on to tell me in the conversation that I only gave them one hug instead of two on that day and then they hung up on me. Maybe the moral of the story is always give your members two hugs on Sunday.

Seriously though, forgiving people and asking for forgiveness is tough work. Forgiveness is to the leader what oxygen is to the lungs.”

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10 Signs Your Leadership Is Driven By Selfish Ambition

Posted by on October 29, 2019

Great leaders can determine what needs to be done quickly and how to do it well. They can pick who needs to do the work and when it needs to be done. The most important question that should be asked on the front end is Why? This post by Carey Nieuwhof answers that question:

Let’s ask an awkward, difficult, and at times piercing question: What motivates your ambition?

That’s an important question to ask. Why? Because if you don’t ask it, I promise everyone else around you will. Mostly I don’t like that question because I don’t like the answer to that question.

Sometimes my motivation is selfish. I recently interviewed Gordon MacDonald on my leadership podcast (if you missed it, it was one of the best episodes we’ve done to date, listen here).

Gordon observed that most leaders in their thirties are driven by ambition. Gordon is a little more accurate than I want to admit.

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There Are No Bad Teams, Just Bad Leaders

Posted by on October 1, 2019

I read the book Extreme Ownership that drives most of the content of this post. I agree with almost everything in the book about leaders casting blame instead of assuming responsibility. I also know in some situations, their can be great leadership from the top and the failure is driven by others who either will not or cannot do their jobs. So you be the judge and see what you think of what J.D. Greear has to say:

“When we are involved in a group endeavor and something goes wrong, our natural instinct is to point the blame. Navy SEALs Willink and Babin recognize this from years of military experience, but we could just as easily arrive there through theological reflection. What happened after Adam and Eve committed the very first sin of human history?”

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10 Traits Of A Humble Leader

Posted by on September 30, 2019

When your significance comes from the approval of the crowd you will do almost anything to be liked and followed. Many leaders fall into the ego trap and eventually it always becomes more about them than the people they were called to lead. This post by Moses Y. Lee is a great read:

“Recent stories of celebrity pastors and worship leaders apostatizing has me thinking about the idea of Christian leadership. Whether leaders reluctantly fall from grace due to moral failure or publicly renounce their faith on Instagram to be more “authentic,” one thing is clear: humility is not a contributing factor.

Even though I don’t consider myself a humble leader—I can be brash and bigheaded (both literally and figuratively)—by God’s grace, I’ve been blessed to serve under many humble leaders. I’ve watched many more from a distance.”

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Why The Smartest Leaders Do This

Posted by on September 23, 2019

If productivity simply means that you are doing all the wrong things faster, then in the end it will be a waste of your life. Getting things done will never be as important as why you are doing them to begin with. Leadership today places a higher priority on the character of the person than the list of their results. This post by Carey Nieuwhof is a great read:

“But the longer I live and lead, the more I realize that you can accomplish all the tasks you set out to accomplish in a day or even over the course of your life, and still completely miss the point.

The news is littered with stories of leaders who were at the top of their game skill-wise, but who aren’t in leadership anymore, not because they weren’t smart, not because they weren’t skilled (some were arguably the best in their field), but because their character didn’t match their competency. Here’s the truth for all of us: Competency gets you in the room. Character keeps you in the room.”

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How To Lead With Compassion As A Leader

Posted by on September 22, 2019

In leadership today what was once considered soft skills have become hard ones. What I mean is that in areas of character: honesty, trust, integrity and compassion, these are no longer preferable personality qualities but required leadership competencies. This Forbes Coaches Council post will help explain:

“As an executive leadership mentor and coach for over 15 years, I have noticed that organizations that are managed and led by toxic leaders often experience discord among employees and a breakdown of their cultural norms, which may lead to a dysfunctional working environment. On the other hand, organizations with compassionate leaders at the helm tend to experience harmony and cohesiveness among employees, which leads to a prosperous, harmonious, efficient and effective working environment.”

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Pastors Don’t Be Afraid Of Good Leadership

Posted by on September 17, 2019

Pastors lead in a context where their customers are also their volunteer workforce and financial investors all at the same time. No corporate context is that challenging and yet we have to step into taking the risk of our leadership being rejected. Leadership in the church is not easy but extremely biblical. Ron Edmondson has led in different cultures and has some great insights:

“Over the years of writing this blog, the more I have written about leadership and tied it to the church the more critics would email to say I shouldn’t. I shouldn’t tie leadership and the church together so closely.

People have said I focus too much on leadership and not enough on Jesus. (They likely never heard me preach. I mention Him a lot.) People have said I am too business-like. I once got criticized as a pastor for using the word “revenue” instead of “tithes and offerings” when mentioning church finances. Some of my terminology may come from spending over 20 years in the business world prior to vocational ministry.”

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The Secret Of Successful Leaders

Posted by on September 13, 2019

The tipping point for the source of successful leadership starts with how well you lead yourself, not the results you accomplish. Getting the right things done is critical but if you lose touch with why you are doing what you do everyday, you will eventually crash. Today must be self-awareness day and this post by Jenni Catron is outstanding:

“Today’s leaders have the tools to grow things rapidly but lack the emotional and intellectual health to sustain it all. And the fallout is killing us.

Our culture has minimized the responsibility and elevated the celebrity of leadership and with this I believe we’ve lost the realization that leadership is a sacred privilege.

Leaders have the power to change or affect the lives of others and therefore leadership is sacred work.”

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Five Healthy Ways To Run Your Church Like A Business

Posted by on September 2, 2019

All great leadership principles come from scripture and many leaders draw too hard of a line between the secular and sacred. Integrity and productivity are equally as important in the church as they are in the corporate market. So lets not draw inappropriate hard lines between the two leadership worlds that have more in common that we think. This post by Thom Rainer is great:

“One of the most common responses we receive at ThomRainer.com is something like this statement: “You can’t run your church like a business.” I get it. Our goal is to glorify God. Our goal is to make disciples. Our goal is to be faithful to God’s Word.

Our goal is not to make profits. Our goal is not to adopt secular principles in place of biblical principles. So, when someone insists we not run the church like a business, I understand his or her heart and intent.

But there are indeed some business principles that correlate with church practices and biblical truth. To say we don’t run our church like a business carte blanche may be a signal that we are ignoring sound and, at least indirectly, biblical counsel. Here are five examples:”

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8 Reasons Pastors Get Fired

Posted by on August 23, 2019

The painful reality for me is that most of the pastors I have watched be fired had nothing to do with bad theology. It had to do with a character failure or a lack of leadership ability and training. Leading a church is extremely difficult and we should prepare these pastors for the leadership challenges that lie ahead. This post by Chuck Lawless is very helpful:

“Over the past several years, I’ve paid more attention to reasons pastors—including some of my acquaintances and former students—have been fired. In some cases, the congregation has been a “knucklehead” group of people who’ve treated a leader poorly; but, I’ve also seen some leaders who invited trouble by doing the following:”

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