Hustle beats strategy every day of the week. When we've stopped growing, 99 times out of 100 it's not because we don’t know what to do next, it’s because we've grown complacent. Senior Pastors come to me all the time looking for the silver bullet to church growth, to preaching, to leading their congregation to become generous. I’m going to let you in on a little … [Read more...]
Why You Must Discover Your Senior Pastor Archetype
For Senior Pastors to thrive they must discover, and then operate within, the framework of their unique God-given style of doing ministry; in what I call their "Senior Pastor Archetype." Most leaders, I’ve discovered, spend YEARS fighting against their natural archetype because (a) they’ve never taken the time to discover who they are, (b) the way their mentors modeled … [Read more...]
Why Senior Pastors Should Quit Social Media (or, what Cal Newport can teach us about sermon writing)
In his book Deep Work, Cal Newport warns about the danger of what he calls “attention residue,” the lingering effects of switching back and forth between tasks. We sit down to study for a sermon, then we check our email. We sit down to study for a sermon, then we check social media. We sit down to study for a sermon, then we are interrupted by a knock at the door. We … [Read more...]
How To Staff Churches Under 600
For Senior Pastors, the PROCESS we follow for how to staff churches under 600 is just as important as the PEOPLE we hire utilizing that process. To be perfectly honest, in the early days of my ministry, I had no staffing process to follow, and consequently the churches I served gained very little kingdom traction. I had no clue what I was doing. But once I developed an … [Read more...]
Enhance Your Hiring With A Ministry Staff Questionnaire
My goal when hiring someone is to get as much information ahead of time to help me decide whether or not I want to take the next step with them. I accomplish this by giving all candidates a lengthy questionnaire to fill out before we move to face-to-face interviews. Part of the reason for giving this to people is to get actual information. I want to know everything that is … [Read more...]
Creating Executive Limitations For Senior Pastors
Purpose The purpose of this policy is to establish and communicate certain limitations to the authority of the Senior Pastor as set forth by the Christ’s Church of the Valley (CCV) Leadership Team. Scope The Senior Pastor is empowered with the responsibility and authority necessary to conduct the day-to-day affairs of the church, including the establishment of a strategic … [Read more...]
The Power Of Vision
I believe churches only grow when their Senior Pastors have a crystal clear vision of where God wants to take their church, and that vision is broadly shared, and owned. Here is a three-year snapshot of a twenty year plan we believe God has set before us as a church. It contains specific, actionable shifts that must be made and opportunities that must be capitalized upon to … [Read more...]
Your Church Needs A Church Discipline Policy
Your church needs a written church discipline policy outlining how you will deal with church members who are divisive, unrepentant of immoral behavior, or teaching unsound doctrine. Unfortunately I can tell you that virtually none of the Senior Pastors I've coached had such a policy in place; or at the very least did not have their policy documented and agreed upon. Both are … [Read more...]
Why Consensus Is Killing Your Church
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...]
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...]
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...]
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...]
