Off the Agenda: Conversations for Building Church Leaders

Rick Allnutt, the pastor of Faith Evangelical Covenant Church, where I attend, preached Sunday on Colossians 1:15-20. While the message focused on the supremacy of Christ in our lives, I was struck by this passage on a somewhat different level.

Verses 17 and 18 particularly stood out because I find them to be great encouragement to church leaders during the hectic schedule of the holidays. Christmas pageants, outreach events, soup kitchen service days, parties, and so on loom during the next 3 1/2 weeks. So do the inevitable conflicts, mishaps, and other offenses great and small that occur whenever a team must lead and coordinate so many things at once.

No doubt there will be a moment or two when it feels as though everything is coming apart. When those times come, and they most likely will, remind yourself that Christ reigns supreme in every place:

"(Christ) is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy."

What a reassurance to know that the very God of the universe holds all things together, including your church and mine.

Matt Branaugh is manager of the Ministry Team with Christianity Today International’s Leadership Media Group, a role that involves editing and leading BuildingChurchLeaders.com and FaithVisuals.com.

And then divine lightning strikes. You have an epiphany that can change the course of the week, the year, your church, perhaps it can even usher in the kingdom! You raise your idea, excitedly presenting what is no less than a revelation. As conversation begins, enthusiasm mounts; others are buying into your vision.

And then someone older and, possibly, wiser begins to speak. He (or she) judiciously probes the weaknesses of your idea; soon it is no more impressive than a deflated birthday balloon.

Bad memories and emotions aside, the moments in which a good idea dies are some of the worst for team morale. My church recently conducted a business meeting in which a great idea (in my opinion) met vigorous opposition and soon gave up the ghost. The main weakness of the idea had nothing to do with the concept. Rather, it became palpable early on that the groundwork of highlighting the need for this new idea was virtually untouched. Without a foundation, the idea had nothing left to stand on, and it soon fell to strong—and at that point justified—resistance.

In the spirit of protecting your next idea to fight another day, here are three structures that General Henry M. Robert built into Robert’s Rules of Order. They won’t get a bad idea through a committee meeting (I hope). But they can give a good idea a fighting chance—whether you rigorously follow the book of order or not.

Continue reading "When a Good Idea is Under Attack"...

Chris Blumhofer is associate editor for BuildingChurchLeaders.com, where he began working in February 2006. In his role, Chris coordinates and edits many of the articles and training downloads that reach Building Church Leaders customers.

I’ve taken leadership tests and evaluations in the past, so I know how they usually work. They shape a better understanding of our strengths and weaknesses, giving us a boost of encouragement in the areas where we do well, and dispensing a healthy dose of reality in the areas where we lag. But they shouldn’t typecast us. Just because I rate strongly as an administrative leader one day doesn’t mean I can’t be called to become a visionary leader the next. Assessments merely provide guidance; they do not cement our destiny.

Yet I can't help but read into results. It's just my nature, and I suspect it's the same way for a lot of other people. The descriptions and rating criteria for this particular assessment were based on a Leadership journal article written several years ago by Bill Hybels, Willow Creek Community Church’s founding and senior pastor. It isn’t scientific, nor is it meant to be, but I respect the veteran perspective Hybels brings to any discussion on leadership. I feel reasonably good about the insightfulness of this assessment’s results.

Which brings me to my reaction: I scored strongest as an encouraging leader.

While it wasn’t a surprise—in a recent Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, my personality almost perfectly fits the traits of Hybels’s encouraging leader—it was a disappointment. Big time. At first, anyway.

Here’s why: In terms of the leadership landscape, my style is a lot less sexy than others. When is the last time you saw—in a secular or Christian setting—a best-selling book focused on the effective practices of the encouraging leader? The irrefutable laws of encouragement leadership? Better yet, try to think of a book written by a well-renowned leader best known for their encouragement savvy?

Continue reading "Leadership-Style Envy"...

Matt Branaugh is manager of the Ministry Team with Christianity Today International’s Leadership Media Group, a role that involves editing and leading BuildingChurchLeaders.com and FaithVisuals.com. He lives in Wheaton, Ill.

A few short generations ago, it could rightly be said, Information Is Power. That was true when there wasn't enough of it. Today, the motto should read: Information Is Fatigue. We get too much information, and a high percentage of that information is inane, meaningless, enervating. Do I really need to know whom Britney Spears is dating?

Writes Richard Saul Wurman, in Information Anxiety 2 (Que, 2001): "Information was once a sought-after and treasured commodity like a fine wine. Now, it's regarded more like crabgrass, something to be kept at bay."

No, information alone is no longer power. What is power is the right information, a limited amount of information—the information you need, when you need it.

Continue reading "How Leaders Can Survive Information Overload"...

Kevin A. Miller is editor-at-large of Leadership journal and executive vice president at Christianity Today International. Kevin writes for Leadership journal and PreachingToday.com, and he is a featured speaker for Preaching Today Audio. Kevin is also the author of several books, including Surviving Information Overload (Zondervan). Outside of publishing, Kevin serves as assistant pastor at Church of the Resurrection in Wheaton, Illinois. He is married to Karen, and they have two college-aged children.

BuildingChurchLeaders.com asked Bruce Bugbee, president of Network Ministries International (www.networkministries.com) and coauthor of Network: The Right People in the Right Places for the Right Reasons (Zondervan).

Building Church Leaders: Every church has certain essential ministries, such as nursery and Sunday school. What do you do when you can’t get enough people for those?

Bugbee: There’s a difference between a “unique contribution” and a “community contribution.”

Continue reading "A Better Way to Recruit and Retain Volunteers"...

The transportation business is, in fact, a commercialized impatience. Impatient people might be difficult at times, but too much patience would mean the bankruptcy of many companies. (Compassion, p. 90)

Nouwen and his co-authors aren’t only implicating our culture and economy for feeding the idol of impatience. They are warning the church about the threat that impatience poses to discipleship.

Continue reading "Effectiveness at What Price?"...

Chris Blumhofer is associate editor for BuildingChurchLeaders.com, where he began working in February 2006. In his role, Chris coordinates and edits many of the articles and training downloads that reach Building Church Leaders customers.

Church members notice whom the pastor chooses to spend time with. They appreciate pastors ministering to the chronic dependents, but they lose respect if the emotionally needy or the "squeaky wheels" are able to dominate. Worse, they begin to assume the pastor is the designated minister, and valuable opportunities for building an active lay ministry are lost. A breeding ground for dragons begins to develop. Even if the solid, ministering lay people are not taken for granted, often they aren't given the time they deserve.

Continue reading "Stop Oiling Your Church's Squeaky Wheels"...

Marshall Shelley is editorial vice-president of Christianity Today International, and editor in chief of the Leadership Media Group, which includes Leadership journal, PreachingToday.com, BuildingChurchLeaders.com, FaithVisuals.com, SmallGroups.com, and ChristianBibleStudies.com.