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Leadership in The Lord's Churches
By Dr. Lester Hutson
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Leadership in The Lord's Churches: Marks of True Leaders Click on the links below to read the chapters!
Leaders are not leaders just because they're called leaders. A snail would be the same if you called him a racehorse. Preachers are notorious for gloating in their position when they're doing nothing to earn their wings. Like many husbands, they want respect and a great following, but they're doing almost none of the things that identify true leaders. Click here to read more...
Leadership in one of the Lord's churches demands courage, backbone, and the will to stand. It takes backbone to tell the truth, especially when the truth is not popular and when it would be easier to just keep silent. A position of church leadership, especially the pastorate, is no place for the weak and faint-hearted. Meekness? Yes. Weakness? Never. Pusillanimous chickens don't make good pastors. Stand up! Click here to read more...
Some pastors and other church leaders don't really care. To them, their role is just a job. They see themselves as rather aloof from the people. They don't sympathize with the people's situations. They have an "it's their problem" attitude, and in helping people with their needs, they take the attitude that they're kind of being used and they don't like it if it's after hours or at some inconvenient time. Click here to read more...
Let a pastor, deacon, teacher, or other church leader throw his heart and hands into doing things that help the church, and help the individuals personally who make up the church. You'll see people start rallying behind that leader. Nothing builds support and confidence and trust like service. Churches are thirsty for leadership that does, not just says. Click here to read more...
I think there are three major ways in which good pastors and those who lead with them serve the people of a church. One way, especially the pastor, is to feed the flock well. This involves the pulpit ministry, and the importance of every sermon being of a good, top quality. Face it folks, too many sermons are too shallow and watered down. Pastors and teachers are too frequently unwilling to spend the time and effort doing the research and hard study necessary to produce sermons of a consistently high quality. Click here to read more...
There's a great element of truth to the old saying, "You can please all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time." There'll always be somebody in even the best of churches with the best of leadership, who'll get out of step with the leadership. Sometimes they get back in step, and sometimes they don't. Click here to read more...
Remember that a true church leader is not a one-dimensional person. The fact is, a leader can be strong in several areas, yet severe weakness in just one area can be his undoing. For example, he may really stand up for the church, have a great servant's heart, truly care, and tell the truth, but if he can't deal successfully with adversities and conflicts, and get along in harmony with the people, he will fail, like a cake a baker tries to make that leaves out baking soda. Without all of the ingredients, the cake doesn't work. True success in leadership requires strength in many areas. One is the area of communicating effectively with the people. Click here to read more...
In many a church, there's really no place for imperfect people. The more idealistic people are, (and church leaders, especially pastors, tend to be very idealistic) the more they expect out of those around them. In many struggling or dying churches, the leadership usually expects the membership to be very near perfect. The leadership isn't, but it expects the membership to be. Click here to read more...
True leadership is largely an attitude. Men live in a state of victory or defeat in their hearts. Those who don't think they can usually don't. Once a man is whipped in his heart, the external battle will soon be over. Just because one thinks he can win, doesn't mean he will, but it's almost certain that he won't, if he doesn't believe he can. Click here to read more...
A good many people have a very wrong mental picture of church leaders, particularly pastors. They see them only as a rather wimpy, half feminine, weak lot. Some see them as borderline sissies who are in the ministry because they don't want to get their hands dirty or get an honest job. Even Jesus is viewed by some as being somewhat weak and effeminate. Somehow society has come to associate brawn with masculinity and brains with femininity. Click here to read more...
Good leaders are not only tough enough to take blows and go on, they're also flexible in their approach to getting the job done. One way or another they get the job done, and if they can't get it done one way, they'll do it another. Lesser sorts back off and quit. This is often a major reason why some fail while others succeed. Click here to read more...
In a very real sense, leaders are path finders. They are there first; they're the explorers. Most of the time they're the first to see the way. In their mind's eye, the Wright brothers got a glimpse of what it would take to fly. Henry Ford saw the car. Names like Edison, Bell and Newton immediately bring to mind men of vision, men who saw what others had never seen. Those who would successfully and consistently lead others must have this quality. Without it the people perish. That's precisely what Proverbs 29:18 declares. "Where there is no vision, the people perish." Click here to read more...
One of the hardest things in life to teach others is initiative, but all good leaders have it. It's especially important to pastors since they do not have an earthly boss to dictate their activities. If they do not have the personal initiative to order and structure their lives effectively and stay on track, they will surely fail. Click here to read more...
A leader can be a fine person with plenty of heart, backbone and rawhide, but he also needs some "know how." However good the intentions, incompetence will kill effectiveness. So, we're going to talk here about how vital and important competence or qualifications are to leading others. Click here to read more...
Nothing moves people quite like seeing it in someone else. Some become heroes, but mostly because of their example, not because of what they say. David, Alexander the Great, Robert E. Lee, Audie Murphy, John Wayne and Clint Eastwood are all men whom vast multitudes have held in high esteem and status. Without solicitation grown men and little boys have tried to dress like them, talk like them and act just like them. Why have so many so tenaciously tried to follow in the footsteps of these people? The answer is example. Be they good or bad examples, their examples have had charm, appeal and glamour. Click here to read more...
Surely responsibility is one of the very greatest requirements of effective leadership. People quickly lose their will and motivation to follow irresponsible people. Being responsible is vital to the leading of souls to Jesus, the success of any ministry, the well-being of every Sunday school class and choir, the health of every home, the pastoring of every church and the building of every business. Without responsibility, governments ultimately crash, businesses sooner or later fail, families flounder and sometimes break, Sunday school classes stagnate and usually die, ministries plateau and decay, churches reach zero or negative growth, and individual testimonies and reputations become laughingstocks and points of scorn. Click here to read more...
Oh, consistency, thou art a rare jewel! It is extremely hard to be consistent, and it is doubtful that any of us are fully consistent. Very few people follow for long those who often and unpredictably reverse themselves without rhyme or reason. Consistency is a basic component of all good leaders. It should be noted that we are speaking here of consistency in a good sense. One can consistently do wrong and keep things in trouble. One can be consistently inconsistent. A broken clock is very consistent, and there's amazing consistency in a graveyard. So, this discussion is about consistency in a Godly approach and holy lifestyle. Click here to read more...
The really top leaders of the Lord's work all possess a spirit of excellence. In the churches where they serve, they tend to inspire a climate of excellence, a climate that is so important to the welfare of every true church. Click here to read more...
Every church, family, business or other enterprise will stop where the leadership does. Stagnation of leadership is the main reason churches plateau, reach a zero or negative growth rate. Accountability for such stagnation and dormancy lies first with the pastor, but all others, in areas of condescending leadership, must also share part of the blame. Growth in leaders is not an option! It is a must! Click here to read more...
God forbid that the false illusion be created here that true leaders, especially church leaders, are virtually perfect people, who are all things to all people. They are not. Yes, they are quality people in many regards, but they have their flaws, and they are not miracle-workers. They can't solve all the problems, and it's not their job to do so, though many followers think it is. They don't have all the answers, and can't do all the thinking. It is self-destructive to a church, or other enterprise for that matter, to have such a misconception of leadership. Click here to read more...
I am going to talk about the most important ingredient of all in a Christian leader. I am going to talk about an utter dependence upon and true communion with God. All true Christian leaders have it. Click here to read more...
Copyright Steven L. Davis www.SteveDavis.org |
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