Monarch butterflies follow a very specific generational migration. Starting in Mexico, the first generation will fly to the southern United States where they will remain for life. Their offspring will fly to the central states, stopping somewhere around the Ohio River, where they will reproduce.
The title might strike you strangely, but stick with me. I think you'll understand. Leadership does not come with time. It comes with training. Never stop increasing your skills: as a thinker, a problem solver, and as a communicator. Proverbs 22:29 reminds us of this fact: "Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will stand before kings; He will not stand before obscure men."
Does your church emphasize, encourage, and value membership? In many places the notion of church membership has fallen out of favor. Rick Warren thinks that is a "serious mistake."
I've tried to learn as much as I can from my mentors, training opportunities and reading about leadership from those more experienced than I. Fortunately, I've been able to avoid some mistakes by learning from the mistakes of others. With the hope that it may be the same for you, let me share what I believe to be the stupidest mistakes I've made in leadership.
Good leaders affirm the potential of those they lead. They bring out the best in them by showing them what they can be. That kind of affirmation gives people courage - the kind of courage that can propel them further than they ever thought possible.
The reason many of us pastors keep returning to the same few quotes is that they are definitive for us. They so imbed themselves in our consciousness that they manage to define who we are. Somewhere I read--wish I could remember where--of a friend who accompanied Abraham Lincoln to church.
Are unbelievers regularly visiting your church and coming to Christ as a result? God wants to use your church as a powerful tool to draw others into relationships with Him. But, for that to happen, you need to make your church a place that focuses outward and does servant evangelism in the community every day.
The surprising impact when leaders tap the power of a generation of influencers. We'd all like to have churches that grow the way the church did in the book of Acts. It was explosive growth - from about 120 to possibly as many 100,000 in 25 years. Who wouldn't want that? But the real question is, are churches today as healthy as the one in the book of Acts? In the last issue, I shared with you three characteristics of the early church that we can apply to our congregations. Here are four more:
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