4

How the Lead Pastor and Executive Pastor roles Work Together

Sunday, July 29, 2018

The relationship between the Lead Pastor and Executive Pastor can make or break a church staff team and has profound impact upon the overall ministry of the church. Get this right and you’ll end up getting a lot right. Get it wrong, and well, it’s going to be tough sledding.

There are some basic no brainer things that make a great Lead and Executive Pastor partnership and of course trust is at the foundation of it.

  • You can’t allow triangulation; the Lead and Executive Pastor need to stay connected and on the same page. I’d recommend a weekly touch base meeting to help solve this.
  • You can’t have a “good cop / bad cop” situation. You don’t want the staff to love the Lead Pastor and fear the Executive Pastor. Executive Pastors remember that fear doesn’t make people want to follow you. On the other side of the coin, Lead Pastors can’t delegate all of the tough decisions and execution to the Executive, the church needs your leadership not just your direction.
  • A better analogy for a healthy partnership between a Lead and Executive Pastor is more like a mom and a dad leading a family together through mutual submission to one another. Leading in their area of brilliance and submitting in their areas of weakness.
  • The Executive Pastor needs to support the Lead Pastor publicly and when needed appropriately challenge them privately.

And if you’ve ever wondered what the basic lanes are that the Lead Pastor and Executive Pastor should be running in here are 4 things that each role can’t delegate away:

There are 4 Things the Lead Pastor can’t Delegate

  1. Leadership
  2. Teaching
  3. Vision
  4. Culture

There are 4 Things the Executive Pastor can’t Delegate

  1. Strategy
  2. Execution
  3. Leading the Sr. Leadership Team
  4. Daily Train, Develop & Coach the Culture
Posted in Leadership

0

New Leadership Coaching Networks this Fall from the Unstuck Group

Sunday, July 22, 2018

It’s Time to Take Your Next Steps as a Leader

Leadership Coaching Networks with Tony Morgan and The Unstuck Group equip you with tools, best practices & peer support to help you lead more effectively.

Now Reviewing Applications for Fall 2018
This fall, we’re inviting you to join Tony Morgan and the team for a coaching experience to help you lead an unstuck church.

Two of our most popular coaching network topics—Unstuck Church and Unstuck Multisite—are back this fall, with cohorts in multiple locations. But we’re also introducinga brand new coaching network to help you build healthier, higher performing teams. Learn more and apply below.

Each of our Fall 2018 Coaching Networks is a 7-month, collaborative coaching experience that includes 3 group gatherings, 2 exclusive webinars, 2 one-on-one coaching calls and ongoing access to a private Facebook Group.

Space is limited! We will only accept 7 churches in each cohort. Read on to learn more about each network.

Ask yourself a few questions:

  • Where do I feel stuck? 
    If some aspect of ministry leadership has left you feeling stuck, you’re not alone. That’s the whole reason why we do these networks! We will equip you with what we are learning is working in churches across the country. And we’ll help you put what you learn into action.
  • Do I know my next steps to grow in effectiveness as a leader?
    Effectiveness is developed, not gifted. Even champion athletes have a coach. Inviting an outside perspective is the best way to pinpoint the areas where you need to grow and take a next step.
  • Am I being discipled myself?
    Teaching, modeling and coaching—according to Scripture, it takes all three to make disciples. Churches and ministries routinely rely too heavily on teaching. Books, conferences and podcasts provide great teaching and models, but where are you being coached?

We’re only reviewing applications at the early bird rate until Aug. 3. Take a look at the networks and feel free to email with questions.

Join a network of 350+ other church leaders who have participated in one of Tony Morgan’s coaching networks. You get priority access to Tony and other consultants from The Unstuck Group—during the coaching network and beyond.

But can we be honest? That’s not even going to be your favorite part.

We probably haven’t stressed enough the value of the peer network in years past. We always ask for feedback from participants at the end of the experience. Every single time, participants tell us that the community they built with fellow church leaders was a defining component.

We’re leaning into that this time. Can’t say why we didn’t think of this sooner—We now have a private Facebook Group to connect our coaching network participants and facilitators for ongoing community and access even after the network ends.

Posted in Leadership

0

[FREE Webinar] The Campus Pastor Role: What Makes it Work?

Thursday, July 19, 2018

July 24, 2:30 p.m. EST
45 min. webinar + 15 min. live Q&A

Webinar hosted by Tony Morgan, Jason Anderson (Eagle Brook Church),
Jeff Henderson (Gwinnett Church) and Chris Surratt (Lifeway)

Far too many churches find themselves “multistuck” because they don’t hire the right leader for the campus pastor role.

Or even worse—many end up splitting into multiple churches (unintentionally) as the result of misunderstanding how this role should function in a healthy multisite church. We’ve mentioned before that we’re seeing too many churches fail with their multisite strategy because they don’t get the campus pastor role right.

And it doesn’t have to be that way.

We’d love to share what we’re seeing working—best practices, pitfalls to avoid—and technology lets us do that. Let’s circle up on a free webinar.

We’ve even invited a few friends to join us for a practical discussion:

  • Jeff Henderson is lead pastor at Gwinnett Church. That’s one of the North Point Ministries campuses.
  • Jason Anderson is a campus pastor at Eagle Brook Church in Minneapolis. (He’s also married to Amy Anderson, The Unstuck Group’s director of consulting. That couple has a lot of multisite leadership experience between the two of them.)
  • Chris Surratt is one of our consultants at The Unstuck Group. He also serves at LifeWay, and previously served in two large multisite churches—SeaCoast in South Carolina and Cross Point in Nashville.

Plus! We’ll dig into the reasons why our team almost exclusively recommends video teaching in multisite churches, personality types and strengths that are really well-suited for this role, and red flags someone isn’t a good fit long-term.

And, we’re saving the last 15 minutes of the webinar for live Q&A—which always proves to be a fun, candid and practical part of the event.

Tony Morgan and all three panelists have experience as campus pastors in churches with decades of success using a multisite strategy to reach more people in more places with the Gospel.

Register today to join us! You can download a free Sample Campus Pastor Job Description immediately after registration.

Posted in Leadership

0

How to Shorten your Leadership Recovery Time

Sunday, July 15, 2018

Leadership requires a tremendous amount of energy. When things go poorly it’s easy to become discouraged and emotionally drained. When things are going well the momentum of winning can mask the amount of personal leadership fuel that you’re burning through. In both good times and bad times, high times and low times leadership requires a tremendous amount of energy.

That’s why you need a plan to shorten your leadership recovery time.

Think “Energy” not “Effort”

Effort is too simple a way to look at things. If you’re a successful leader then of course you’re going to give a good effort. You need to think more about managing your energy than your time or effort. Make a list of what (or who) gives you energy and what takes it away and respond accordingly with your schedule. It’s possible to work hard and give a great deal of effort and time to something and afterward feel great because you gained energy from doing it.

Determine your “Finish Line”

Every day set a finish line for yourself. It may be different each day but set a finish line. It may be after a project, a particular meeting, a particular time or an end of the day routine you have. It’s a moment where you’re going to set it down, push it aside and turn it off. A moment where your family and those you care about the most get your attention instead of your work. Win the day by getting to your finish line each day.

Take Personal Ownership

The quickest way to recover from a leadership misstep or failure is to take personal ownership. Don’t shift blame or point fingers. Simply shoulder the responsibility for what went wrong. Even if it was someone else downline that made a mistake, you’re the one who put them in that situation by hiring them, training them, resourcing them and communicating to them about the initiative. The first-place great leaders always look when things go wrong is to themselves and what they could have done differently to make thing more successful. This also shortens their recover time dramatically because they aren’t shifting and searching for someone to blame and they get on the solution side of things quickly.

What’s your Personal Replenishment Cycle?

Once you’ve determined what gives you energy the next step is to calendar it. The two most spiritual documents in the world are the Bible and your calendar.  The Bible is where you learn about what God wants for you and your calendar is where you put it into action. What are the 3 – 5 things that you are going to calendar weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly to replenish yourself? After all the Church is not responsible for church staff burnout the church staff are.

Talk “With People” not “About Them”

Nothing creates more sideways emotional energy in organizations and churches than talking about people instead of talking to them. You can’t do anything about a problem that’s not in the room.

Posted in Leadership

1

What makes Emotionally Intelligent Church Leaders Different?

Sunday, July 8, 2018

The best church leaders don’t simply spend time learning new stuff about the bible, praying 24-7, discovering new management techniques or understanding organizational theory. They spend time on becoming better at the art of leading through relationships. After all relationships are both the glue and the grease that make work, happen.

And before you blow this post off and chalk it up to a bunch of business stuff being applied to church world…think again…this is all rooted in the Bible.

Emotionally Intelligent leaders are great at building effective interpersonal relationships with their team. Which is essentially the combination of being simultaneously self-aware and others focused.

But what are some things that these leaders actually do differently?

The Art of Timing

It’s a gift to say the right thing at the right time. The Bible puts it this way in Proverbs 15:23 “Everyone enjoys a fitting reply; it is wonderful to say the right thing at the right time!”

Emotionally intelligent leaders are disciplined with their words and craft their words intentionally. Not in a manipulative manner but in a way that serves people well. They don’t always say everything they see or feel for that matter. They are wise about giving people what they can handle or need at the time to help them move in the right direction.

Others Focused

Emotionally intelligent leaders are others focused. Both Jesus and the Apostle Paul linked spiritual maturity to living an others-oriented life. Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

While Paul put it this way in Philippians 2:3-4 “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”

Emotionally intelligent leaders don’t focus on themselves they focus on the team, because they know that the team out performs the individual every time.

Self-Awareness

The best leaders I’ve ever been around are quick to take personal responsibility when things go wrong. Instead of looking outward and shifting blame they choose to shoulder the blame themselves. This takes a tremendous amount of confidence and self-awareness. And of course, the enemy of self-awareness is self-deception. Self-deception can be a dangerous thing. It can make you believe more or less about yourself than you should. You can even fool yourself into thinking more or less about others than you should. Emotionally intelligent leaders are sober minded, they know who they are, and they know who they’re not, and they do what’s best for the team. They are quick to take personal ownership when things go south and give out praise when things go well.

Jeremiah 17-9-10 “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? But I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.”

Posted in Leadership
Page 14 of 202« First...10«1213141516»203040...Last »