If your church has plateaued it could be because you have tried to lead everything by consensus. There’s a colossal difference between pseudo-leadership (leading everything by consensus) and biblically-based, godly, unifying, strong, decisive, servant leadership. The Consensus Trap In Smaller Churches I see this occur most often in smaller churches where a leader has … [Read more...]
Tasks For Senior Pastors Between Easter And Mother’s Day
Take advantage of the decreased church-wide activity at your church over the next six weeks to prepare your congregation for it's best Fall season ever. Perform A Church-Wide Evaluation I’m convinced that the time between Easter and Mother’s Day is the best time to evaluate the overall effectiveness of you, your staff, and your church’s ministries. There are three reasons for … [Read more...]
Senior Pastor Administrative Assistant Job Description
So many Senior Pastors I’ve coached over the years haven’t had the administrative support they’ve needed, not because there isn’t help available (both paid and volunteer), but because they’ve never taken the time to completely flesh out all the ways other people can help them. Below is an exhaustive list of all the administrative tasks I need support for. I shared this list … [Read more...]
How To Break The 100 Barrier
If your church has been stuck at 25, 45, or 75 for more than three years and God has laid it on your heart to reach lost people in your community, you have two choices that lay before you: take massive action or find another job. There is no third option. Trying to break the 100 barrier is more akin to making it through Navy Seals basic training than any other ministry … [Read more...]
A Month By Month Guide To Understanding Your Listener’s Mindsets
All great communicators begin with focusing on their listener's mindset, not their topic. Senior Pastor’s who are great preachers are no exception to this rule. Below is a guide that our Teaching Team created a few years ago to help us when planning upcoming sermon series. Over the years we had found that oftentimes what seemed like a great sermon series in January, wasn’t … [Read more...]
How To Handle Critics, Complainers, And Mean People
The one thing all Senior Pastors have in common is that we are constant targets for critics. Sometimes we get criticized for very good reasons. We need to own that. While constructive feedback can often be delivered in misguided ways, too many of us mistake solid leadership feedback as backbiting. Many times its legitimate, helpful, and constructive advice that we need to … [Read more...]
When Should I Hire An Executive Pastor?
One of the questions I get asked a lot is, “At what point should I hire an Executive Pastor?” This is an easy one to answer. Let me briefly sketch the challenges that must be addressed at every stage of growth up to 1,000 so you can see the natural place this hire should occur. 200 Barrier – Senior Pastor and Congregation Breaking the 200 attendance barrier is all about … [Read more...]
How Your Building Is Killing Your Growth (and what to do about it)
Senior Pastors typically underestimate the impact their building has on their church’s future growth. Building Too Late Church planters believe the lie that they don’t need a building to grow, ignoring the fact that your chances of survival begin to plummet drastically after year six outside of a permanent facility (whether owned or leased). We will always find growing church … [Read more...]
28 Tips, Tricks, Apps and Hacks for Senior Pastors
If you‘d like to get more done in less time, here are a number of my favorite time saving tips, tricks, apps and hacks for Senior Pastors in the trenches. Brian’s Productivity Rules 3 Sentence Email Rule – Except in rare circumstances, I never respond in email with more than 3 sentences. If something warrants a longer response I’ll say, “See me Sunday” or “Bring this up at … [Read more...]
5 Reasons I Believe In Short-Term International Mission Trips
Championing short-term international mission trips has unquestionably been one of the best things I have ever done as a Senior Pastor. Short-term international mission trips have sparked more spiritual growth in the hearts of people at the church I serve than everything we have ever tried to do combined. When people ask why I think CCV has grown so rapidly and impacted … [Read more...]
The Senior Pastor Checklist (5 Things To Master Before Starting ANYTHING New)
Senior Pastors are notorious for starting new initiatives without fully shepherding into reality the ideas they've previously put into motion. Why does this happen? Sometimes we get bored. But more often than not, we’re grasping for anything that will move our churches forward, so we’ll “throw things out there” in hopes that something will work. Many are visionaries … [Read more...]
Here’s To The Pastors
Here’s to the Pastors The ones you’ve never heard of. The custodians of 30 million secrets for 30 million heavy souls. Those worn down by time and place. Walking, no, limping besides those they are pushing towards glory. Here’s to the Pastors who with futures uncertain, mark their days by tasks largely unseen. To the ones who serve churches with stories rarely … [Read more...]
Sixty Things I Wish Someone Had Shared With Me Ten Years Ago
Years ago I had an opportunity to do a training event with Senior Pastors and Worship Pastors throughout the Mid-Atlantic region. I ended my morning session by sharing, rapid-fire, sixty things I wish someone had shared with me ten years ago. It’s a rag-tag assortment of things that has helped our church growth and has helped keep me sane in the process. Here they … [Read more...]
An Open Letter To Missions Organization Leaders (From Senior Pastors Everywhere)
If you need money, do the work. That’s what we need to tell you. Not that you aren’t already overworked, underpaid, and stressed to the hilt. We get that. But that there’s no shortcut around it. You must do the work. You must not give up. You must believe in your work. And you must convince us and bug us relentlessly to put you in our budgets. The missions that get … [Read more...]
Why Senior Pastors Must Be Scholarly And Pragmatic
My very first ministry internship was with a pastor who, by his own admission, wasn’t really into scholarly study. “Brian,” I remember him telling me; “you’ll find that the guys out there leading the big churches are pragmatic leaders. That should tell you something.” When Church Fads Backfire What I remember most about him however was his penchant for getting carried away … [Read more...]
Criticism Is The Price Of Growth
If you are going to attempt to lead your church in growth, you will be criticized. Period. If the Apostle Paul was ruthlessly criticized at every step of his journey, you can pretty much assume that you will be too. What I tell Senior Pastors that I coach is that the good news is that criticism and leadership pretty much go hand in hand, so no matter what you do you’ll be … [Read more...]
How To Pick Which Missions To Support
One of the things I usually discover when I’m brought in to coach a Senior Pastor is their church has a convoluted mission’s strategy. Most churches don’t understand why they support the missions they do, nor do they have a clear process for adding new works. Recently a good friend of mine at CCV actively involved in helping a school in the Dominican Republic emailed me … [Read more...]
Why Senior Pastors Have Affairs (And How To Prevent Them)
In 1995 my wife and I helped launch a new church in Dayton, Ohio. Five and a half years later when we felt called to move to Philadelphia, the church was thriving, in its own building, and looking at very bright future. Finding the right pastor to follow me was essential. After an exhaustive search we felt God brought us the right replacement. He was a leader, full of … [Read more...]
7 Must-Do Items For Your Church Growth Calendar
One of the essentials for leading an outreach-focused, growing church (and likewise RARELY present in a stagnant one) is a detailed 12-month church growth calendar created six months before that calendar year begins. What I mean by this is the Senior Pastor and team must create a roadmap for the congregation to follow, which, when executed, will ignite church growth. I … [Read more...]
How Churches Actually Grow
If you’re at a loss as to why the church you serve is no longer growing, you’re in good company. Every week I hear from highly gifted Senior Pastors whose churches have grown in the past, but for some reason have stalled. When I get permission to look under the hood and poke around a bit, asking questions and analyzing data and trends, I tend to hear the same response to … [Read more...]
