Book Reviews

Book Review: The Character of Leadership

The Character of Leadership: Six pillars of a leader’s character is a book that is easy to read, probably won’t take you long to read, but will challenge you to build up who you are before you seek to increase what you are. A primary thought behind the book is this: “Leadership will destroy the man whose character is not prepared for it.”

I was introduced to Pastor Gregg Johnson at our Maritime District fall pastor’s conference. He had made the journey from New York state, was our guest speaker for the event, and he had the opportunity to share on some of these thoughts. It was obvious that Pastor Gregg was not writing and speaking about leadership so he could make a lot of money. He never once mentioned the size of his church, how many leaders he led or how many he had groomed over the years. Pastor Gregg’s goal was to challenge pastors and church leaders so that their ministries, families, even their personal lives, would be protected and blessed by God. So when we all received a copy of the book at the conference, I was excited to read it.

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Ministry

Before You Delegate – 2

In a previous post, we talked about how we should never delegate before taking the time to train, and some of the problems that arise if we forget to follow that rule. There are a couple of other issues to consider before we start training a staff member, ministry leader or other volunteer.

bird from cage

The first of these issues deals with us, the pastor or leader who is planning on handing over a task or ministry to another person. We have to make sure that we have prepared ourselves to let go.

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Ministry

Leading with Care

We are in the midst of our first Christmas season in a new pastorate. This week my wife spent an extra day or two buying and arranging decorations for the church. Last night we had our midweek Bible study, and many were glad to see the sanctuary looking so nice.

While I appreciated their joy at the decorations, a comment was relayed that broke my pastoral heart. My wife was told that the church hadn’t looked so beautiful in many years. During one of the decorating days, we heard ladies in the church say that it was so refreshing to have a pastor and wife who cared about how the church looked, because the people were so used to doing it on their own.

Leadership means many things to many people. We lead through vision-casting, administration, calendar setting, ministry creation and development, staff and leadership meetings, facilitation of seminars and workshops, or even assigning a book to read as a team. I know a pastor in his early seventies who told a group of fellow pastors, “I still don’t know what leadership is.”

How many of us think to lead by caring?

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Ministry

Before You Delegate – 1

Have you heard the news? When you are the “senior,” “lead,” or only pastor at your church, you do not have to do everything. Isn’t that great news?

So many of us have learned to be a jack-of-all-trades: preaching, counseling, Bible study, youth group, worship, kids’ church, home/cell/life groups, finances, building repair, janitor . . . The list can get long when you stop to put it all together. One of the loudest messages for leaders in the last several years is simply this: Do what you do best, and delegate the rest.

We’ve heard a lot about teams, teamwork, delegation of authority and responsibility, and everyone focusing on their strengths instead of dragging themselves through the mud of their weaknesses. Our offices have filled with rejoicing over the chance to work less than 80 hours a week, to spend time with our family, to enjoy life, and even to have a few hours to ourselves each week.

However, there is a key element that we can forget to implement before we delegate: training. To help us and our team members, we must learn to follow an important rule: Never delegate before taking the time to train.

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Ministry

Can’t Wait for Sunday?

I recently attended a conference with fellow pastors, and part of the day involved group discussions around tables. During these discussions I started talking about elements of our current preaching series that were pertinent to the discussion. At times I had trouble keeping the previous sermon separate from the one to follow the next day, and eventually said, “I can’t wait to preach tomorrow.” Several lay leaders were encouraged by my . . . enthusiasm. One or two of the pastors at the table just looked at me blankly.

What about you? Are you excited to preach your next sermon? What about the coming installment of your weekly Bible study? If you’ve lost the fire in your bones to speak, you may be in serious trouble, or on the verge of it.

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Christian Living, Faith

The Sound of Heaven

A good friend of mine in life and ministry, Andrew Duncan, posted these thoughts on his Facebook a few days ago. I truly appreciate Andrew, and am blessed to be included in the long list of musicians and worship leaders he has ministered with. Besides his involvement in music, Andrew travels and speaks, and God follows him wherever he goes, even onto the Facebook chat room. Be encouraged and challenged by his thoughts on “The Sound of Heaven.”

(P.S. Thanks, Andrew, for letting me repost this here.)

So I’ve been in the Kingdom now for almost a decade and I must say it’s been a sweet ride. With playing in various and mixed denominations there’s been a consistent topic that keeps coming up. The topic that we aren’t supposed to be receiving during worship, we are supposed to be giving God everything we’ve got. To a small degree I agree; on the most part, forget it.

In order for proper Levites to help the Holy Spirit lead others into worship, we first must create the musical atmosphere that Heaven can say amen to. If this atmosphere is missed and an order of service takes precedence over the spirit moving, we have not done the proper duties as Levitical worshippers.

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