Off the Agenda: Conversations for Building Church Leaders

On every apple tree, there are 1000 Mackintoshes to choose from. It’s sort of the same with the leadership tree. There is enough fruit to write a thousand books and schedule ten thousand conferences.

So here are a few pickings for church leaders from today’s tree:

First commandment first
Te first and greatest commandment is “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” The second is also great, but is definitely second: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Leaders who serve people risk getting so caught up in loving neighbors that the can easily put the second commandment first. Doing so will wear you out and take you down. Love God and then the others.

Diversify
Get a hobby. Find a second job. Teach a class. Write an article. Go back to school. Just don’t limit yourself to your primary leadership role. We should think of our lives as mutual funds that invest in different stocks. When some are down, others are up. None are up all the time. Leaders who don’t diversify can spiral out of control when the ministry isn’t going well. We all need something going well to keep us sane.

Be good at the basics
Some leaders are brilliant visionaries with spectacular ideas. But they crash like a cartoon bird that lost its feathers, because they don’t give themselves to the basics. Preach a good sermon every Sunday. Show up for board meetings fully prepared. Return phone calls and answer email. Be on time for funerals. Smile at weddings. Do the basic stuff and your visions will have a better chance of becoming reality.

Control your schedule
It’s easy to let everyone else control your schedule until you can’t get your work done, you feel manipulated, and life is out of control. Be respectful of others, but say, “Tuesday morning won’t work for me, but I could meet the following Thursday afternoon.” Book birthdays, vacations, study days, and prayer time a year in advance; you can always make a change. Control your schedule or everyone else will do it for you.

Don’t reward dysfunction
Churches and other religious organizations attract some highly dysfunctional people. Strangely, many reward the dysfunctional for being weird. Bad idea. If the guy is nothing but trouble, don’t nominate him for the church board so you can keep an eye on him. When people are sinful, they need loving confrontation, not encouragement of their behavior.