Category: Church Leadership

There’s a lot of leadership language flying around church circles these days.

I’m at the point where I find the irony too much to bear.

My definition of a leader is, “Someone who takes you where you otherwise wouldn’t go alone.”

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“I can’t get in schools. It’s a no-go in our town.”

I have heard some form of this phrase a million times. Go to any gathering of youth workers, ask about public schools, and someone will say it.

Guaranteed.

“I’ve never had a school say no.”

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Researchers in Sweden have found a link between kids who get in trouble and kids who grow up to become entrepreneurs.

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Hiring a staff member is not Moneyball. That’s what Google has learned. Adam Bryant of the New York Times sat down with Laszlo Bock, Google’s SVP of People Operations and asked what they’ve learned at the Goog about hiring people. (source)

• The ability to hire well is random.
• Forget brain-teasers. Focus on behavioral questions in interviews, rather than hypotheticals.
• Consistency matters for leaders.
• GPAs don’t predict anything about who is going to be a successful employee.

Let’s infer a couple of learnings from this for churches in the hiring process

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We exist for all people to know Jesus.

That’s an oversimplification for most church vision statements. On paper, they are for all people.

But in a brick and mortar reality, churches make decisions every day which largely determine who they reach.

The Vision Compromise

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Do you have friends? Maybe that sounds like a weird question.

But the truth is that I know a lot of people who really don’t have many friends.

• Friends with whom they can be really, truly honest. 
• Friends with whom they have shared significant stuff.
• Friends with whom they’ve known a long time, through the ups, downs, and monotony of life.
• Friends outside of their marriage.
• Friends outside of their family.
• Friends outside of their workplace.
• Friends with people who don’t give a crap about who you are or your fancy title or your work responsibilities.

Scott Rubin summed this up in his rant at the Middle School Ministry Campference last year… “Do you have people in your life with whom you can put your worst foot forward?”

And the result of not having enough friends?

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@mclanea #MoodyPC is primarily intended for #pastors. #refocus #refresh #equip church leaders. Praise God for other conferences #Heprovides

— Moody Conferences (@MoodyConference) May 15, 2013

Some backstory…

11 years ago this week I graduated from Moody Bible Institute. The moment of walking across that stage, shaking Joe Stowell’s hand, and knowing that I had done it, goes down in history as one of the greatest accomplishments of my life.

I had defied every odd stacked against me.

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I’m always impressed how much retail space exploits psychological advantage to prepare people to spend money. I can run into a corner store and quickly grab the 5 items I need. But the same 5 items in our local grocery store? It’s at least 15 minutes as I walk from end to end of that building.

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I think most would agree that the church is one of the last places around that you’ll still see the primary/sole mode of teaching/transformation be a lecture-style sermon, monological preaching. Folks in education have been experimenting with different forms of pedagogy for years, and have moved past the “talking head” format for quite awhile now. Sure, there are times in a large lecture-format course where it still makes sense to give information that way – but most students would probably tell you there are more engaging ways to learn and actually have the information stick, than listening to a lecture.

Yet, it’s a safe bet that you can show up at church on a Sunday morning at your typical church, and expect, for the most part, to sit back, listen, hear and be a passive recipient of a worship service, particularly during the sermon.

Source

Why do people go to a church service?

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While I totally miss being on staff at a local church– there’s one thing I don’t miss at all.

I don’t have to filter my interactions with students through the grid of “what I’m supposed to say because I work at this church.”

3 Easy Examples

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