Coaching Christian Leaders

How do you develop trusted leaders to take the work forward - even in your absence? Adam Hussey shares his expertise in leadership development.

Today we sit down with Adam Hussey. Adam is a missionary with Action International. He and his wife Alei serve in the Philippines. Much of their work is centered around developing local church leaders. 

Also, Adam has some unique ideas on how missionaries can raise financial support in these tough times. 

The best way to contact Adam and to learn more about his work is to visit his website.  You will find Adam at www.actioninternational.org/missionary/hussey.  There you can email Adam and read more about his ministry.

Also, check out his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/TeamFaithHopeLove

Thanks for listening to Coaching Christian Leaders. You should subscribe to this podcast so that you’ll never miss an episode.

You can find this podcast in just about any podcast app. We are on Apple Podcasts, Deezer, Gaana, iHeartRadio, Google Podcasts, and now we are on Amazon Music. Check it out and make sure you subscribe.

Michael Ward, the author of The Sixth Sola, shares his approach to personal discipleship.

His Book: The Sixth Sola

His website: 6thsola.com

Thanks for listening to Coaching Christian Leaders. You should subscribe to this podcast so that you’ll never miss an episode.

You can find this podcast in just about any podcast app. We are on Apple Podcasts, Deezer, Gaana, iHeartRadio, Google Podcasts, and now we are on Amazon Music. Check it out and make sure you subscribe.

This is Mark Jones and I will speak with you soon.

Every pastor I've ever met wants to reach the lost and build disciples. I believe that’s you as well.

I know you want to see people saved and for your church members to grow in their love and understanding of Christ. That’s why you got into this work.

But now, after years of doing this work, you realize that it’s impossible to do it alone. You need help. You need others to come alongside and share the load.

In part, that’s why you are listening to me. That’s why you found this podcast. You want to learn how to identify, train, and release leaders into the work.

This is Mark Jones and I help pastors reach the lost, build disciples, and develop church leaders. Thanks for listening to Coaching Christian Leaders. If you want to know more about how I can help, then please visit www.CoachingChristianLeaders.com

In today’s episode, we are going to focus on the most important leader you must train. You must train this leader before all others. And a failure to do so will cause problems.

Who is that one leader you must give the priority to? It is yourself.

Over the past four leadership development episodes you have:

And today?

Today we are going to focus on ourselves. We are going to work on our own leadership skills.

Let me take a couple of minutes and tell you a bit about myself. My story will help you understand the value of personal leadership development.

For me, becoming a pastor is a second career. Before I was a pastor I was career military. I retired from the Air Force in 1995 and shortly after that went into full-time ministry.

The work I did in the Air Force – I was a Russian Linguist – had nothing to do with pastoring a church. So about one year before retirement I began to work on a Master of Divinity. Then about one year after retiring I went into ministry.

I tell you this because early in my ministry career I realized something.

Seminary did not prepare me to lead a church.

In general, Bible colleges and Seminaries do not train pastors to lead churches.

In seminary, I had only one class on pastoral leadership. All the other classes were on theology, Bible book studies, and language (Greek, and Hebrew). Those things are essential but they do not prepare you to lead a church.

Where did I learn how to lead? The leadership skills I possessed, in the beginning, came from my years in the Air Force. The rest I learned on the job and from speaking to other pastors.

And now I want to share with you what I have learned.

Over the next few episodes, we will work on personal leadership skills.

You need to learn to read with intention. You need to work with a coach or a mentor who will challenge you. You need to surround yourself with a small group of peers and meet with them regularly.

Today we will focus on reading with intention.

One of the best ways to learn to lead is to read with intent.

If the internet is telling the truth, then CEOs read approximately 60 books a year. That’s five books per month.  You are the CEO of your church.

I know you already read to preach. Books that help you with message prep probably equal 2-3 books per month. So why not use the other 2-3 slots and read for leadership development?

About a year ago I came across an article by James Clear titled 7 Ways to Retain More of Every Book You Read. James Clear is the author of the book Atomic Habits. I’ll put a link to this article in the show notes.

But for the next few minutes, I will give you Mr. Clear’s seven points and put my spin on them.

Quit More Books

You do not have to read a book cover to cover. If it is not bearing fruit stop reading it. Not every book is worth the investment of time. And often you can get what you need early and then move on.

Let me add this. If you want the information the book contains but find the book to be a drag to read, then buy a summary book.

Here’s what I mean. Say you want to read Jim Collin’s book Good to Great but you do not want to read 400 pages. Someone has written a summary book and it's on Amazon. Summary books give an overview of the major ideas, they give an analysis, and they are typically under 50 pages long.

You need to be reading more to improve your leadership skills but if the book does not click with you then quit it. And if you think the info is good but the read is overwhelming, see if someone has written a summary book.

Choose Books You Can Use Instantly

You need to be reading on the subject you can instantly use.

Later I will recommend a few books you should read first. One of those is Paul Axtell’s book Meetings Matter. As I read that book, I began to use his ideas to change the church board meetings. It was exciting to see his ideas come to life in our meetings.

Create Searchable Notes

This bit of advice improved my reading. Today I mainly buy Kindle books. Kindle books save me money. The cost of a Kindle book is much less than a print book. Plus, at the end of my pastor career, I am not stuck with 100’s of print books that I can’t get rid of.

But the main reason I read Kindle books is that I can search on my highlights and print my notes.

I use a free program called Kindle Mate to pull off and print these highlights. Mr. Clear recommends Evernote. Whichever, create searchable notes.

One more thing on this. If you really want to retain what you read, when you finish a book, print out your highlights, read over them, and then write down the ones that really resonate with you.

Combine Knowledge Trees

You need to link or hook what you are reading to something you have already learned or experienced.

You do this when you read the Bible or commentaries. Your mind makes links to previous studies or message series.

When you read secular material you need to create similar links to previous material. But you will need to be intentional.

Write a Short Summary

Mr. Clear gives a short outline on how to do this. He recommends you ask yourself these three questions: 1) What are the main ideas? 2) If I implemented one idea from this book right now which one would it be? 3) How would you describe the book to a friend.

Surround the Topic

Mr. Clear means that we should pull in articles and other subject matter that speak to the topic of the book. But I want to give an alternate way to surround the topic. Try and get a few friends or congregational members to read the book along with you. Then meet to discuss it. Surround the topic of the book with their ideas and viewpoints.

Read it Twice

Good advice but not every book is worth reading twice, but... those that are you should read over again. At the very least, you should read back over your highlights and notes.

Here they are one more time:

Quit More Books Choose Books You Can Use Instantly Create Searchable Notes Combine Knowledge Trees Write a Short Summary Surround the Topic Read it Twice

So the first step in our personal leadership development is to read with intent. You need to be reading 2-3 leadership books per month. In the next episode, I will give you some book titles that you need to read now to grow as a leader.

Some of those book titles are listed on my Resource Page found at CoachingChristianLeaders.com. So just pop over to CoachingChristianLeaders.com and look for the Resources tab.

Thanks for listening to Coaching Christian Leaders. You should subscribe to this podcast so that you’ll never miss an episode.

You can find this podcast in just about any podcast app. We are on Apple Podcasts, Deezer, Gaana, iHeartRadio, Google Podcasts, and now we are on Amazon Music. Check it out and make sure you subscribe.

This is Mark Jones and I will speak with you soon.

Bobby Albert is the President of Values-Driven Leadership. He is the author of The Freedom Paradox, Principled Profits, and True North Business.

Today we spoke with Bobby shared his insights on leadership and the state of our country.

How he came to know Christ as your savior.

Why he wrote The Freedom Paradox.

What is meant by “Freedom Paradox.

How Freedom + Responsibility = Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. 

What’s the value of going all the way back to the birth of our nation?

Four cultural changes

People are acting on emotions rather than principles People are exhibiting scarcity mindsets instead of abundant mindsets. People are focused on symptoms instead of the root problem. People no longer understand how you communicate is as important as what you communicate.

What is the hope for American?

The Freedom Paradox

Principled Profits

True North Business

BobbyAlbert.com

Bobby@BobbyAlbert.com

Visit TFP-Book.com for a free gift.

Thanks for listening to Coaching Christian Leaders. Please subscribe to the podcast. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Deezer, Gaana, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, and most any podcast app.

Pastors, God has commissioned you to make disciples.

God has gifted you to equip your church members for ministry.

And God has committed you to train up not one generation of leaders but to oversee the training of two additional generations of leaders.

But are you? Are you doing these things?

I know I have struggled to develop leaders. Why? One reason is that I got busy doing church. Each week was filled with sermon prep and then preaching; administration, phone calls, visits.

Nothing wrong with that. But weeks would go by, then months. And before you know it a year has passed and I still have not developed a leader.

But that’s changing. And I want to share with you how it is changing and what you can do to develop the next generation of leaders at your church.

This is Mark Jones and you are listening to Coaching Christian Leaders.

Today we are going to answer an all-important question. And we must know the answer to move forward in our leadership development.

Here’s the question – How do you know if God is in favor of your plans?

Does God support what you are planning?

Let me share with you something that I do. And always when I do it I regret it.

I get a great idea.

I develop a plan.

I identify the resources.

I contact the people.

And I forge ahead.

But I forget to do one thing. And because I forget this, often my plans fall flat.

What do I forget to do? I forget to include the Lord. I forget to seek His help and I forget to commit this plan or this idea to God. And you know what happens? Eventually, nothing, because God has not established these plans.

If you have listened to the first 3 episodes on Leadership Development maybe you have noticed that I have yet to identify a person to train. I have not covered how to select a candidate. That’s on purpose. We are going to lay this whole thing out before we go and identify and recruit trainees.

You see I am taking the Field of Dreams approach.

Maybe you saw the Kevin Costner film where Kevin Costner’s character, a farmer, hears a voice in the cornfields “Build it and they will come.”

And so he does just that. He builds a baseball field.

That’s what I am proposing. We are going to build a leadership development program before we even pick out a candidate to go through the program. We are going to create each step and then we are going to ask God to give us the leaders to train.

But what if we do all this planning and fail to include God in the effort? It’s possible that when the system is finished there will not be a candidate because we did not include God in the planning.

So let’s bring God in now before we get too far down the road.

Open your Bibles to Proverbs 16 and let’s consider the first three verses.

I’ll read from the King James Version initially.

The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord. 2 All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the Lord weigheth the spirits. 3 Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established.

Of the three verses, verse one is the most difficult one for me to understand.

The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord.

So I read through some commentaries, especially those that are language heavy, but they confused me even more.

I also considered other translations. Here’s the ESV.

The plans of the heart belong to man,    but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.

Or how about the NIV?

To humans belong the plans of the heart,    but from the Lord comes the proper answer of the tongue.

On and on I studied and finally I selected Pastor John MacArthur Jr.’s understanding of the verse. Here is his note from his Study Bible,

“Human responsibility is always subject to God’s absolute sovereignty.”

Dr. MacArthur’s note seems to square with the majority of others and the other two verses, 2-3, support the idea.

“Human responsibility is always subject to God’s absolute sovereignty.”

The Good News Bible translates the verse with the idea that Dr. MacArthur is teaching.

We may make our plans, but God has the last word

We can make all the plans we want. And we should do so. But always remember, God is ultimately in control, especially when it concerns His church.

Now let’s consider verses 2

2 All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the Lord weigheth the spirits.

When we plan, according to verse 2, when we develop systems and programs, there is nothing wrong with that, but...we can be deceived. We can even deceive our own selves.

We can with good intention come up with plans and programs that are in conflict with God’s Word.

Maybe we find or develop something that is completely out of step with God and His Word.

Verse 2 teaches that God weighs our ideas. He examines our motives. He determines the truth in our plans.

So if we can even trick our own selves into a less than perfect idea, what can we do?

The answer is in verse three.

3 Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established.

Every step of the way, roll out your plan before God. Show it all to God. Commit your work to God and He will establish it. He will fulfill it.

So how do you do that?

First, see if the Bible supports your ideas.

In our project, Leadership Development, we know that God is all for church leadership. The Bible devotes many verses to leadership. The roles of teachers, deacons, and elders come right from God. So we know that developing leaders is something God is for.

This is important in our understanding of God’s will. Many years ago Garry Friesen’s book Decision Making and the Will of God heavily influenced my thinking.

If you’ve read it then you either love Mr. Friesen’s approach or you hate it. I get that. But we can all agree on this. The Bible is the complete understanding of God’s moral will.

So when we develop anything, we must line it up next to Scripture. If what we are creating is in disagreement with the Bible then it is out of God’s will, His moral will.

Scripture then is the first filter.

But what if what you are developing is not addressed in the Bible? Well according to Mr. Friesen then you have the freedom to create it.

Every pastor should read Decision Making and the Will of God. We will call it our first recommended book for this Leadership Development program. If you’ve never read it then there will be a link in the show notes of this episode and a link on my Resources Page at CoachingChristianLeaders.com

So remember what we learned in Proverbs 16.

Whatever you do, don’t do like I have in the past and get months into development before you remember to bring God into the planning. Now is the time to begin to share every idea you have with God. Ask Him to test you and your motives.

At the very end of Proverbs 16 we find this verse.

The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.

I used to paraphrase this verse to my kids when we played Monopoly. I would say to them, “You can shake and blow on those dice all day long but God is the one who determines the numbers. So blame God when you have to go to jail or pay the rent at Park Place.”

As we create our plans and programs make sure God is included. Make certain you remember that He is in control and He will direct your steps.

When you cannot get a biblical understanding of your plans, then go ahead and dream and create. But also ask God to weigh your motives and your methods. Ultimately we want God to bless our efforts.

Thanks so much for listening to Coaching Christian Leaders. I would love it if you would review this podcast. You can do so wherever you listen.

Recently the podcast was picked up by Gaana and Deezer. I am very grateful to both Deezer and Gaana for taking us on. Welcome new listeners. Make sure you subscribe to the podcast where you listen.. That way you will never miss an episode.

I will be with you next week.

The MacArthur Study Bible

Decision Making and the Will of God by Garry Friesen

Often when we start a new project, when we begin to develop a new program, if we are lacking a certain ingredient, if we do not have one specific emotion, the project withers and dies.

But when we possess it we will see the project through.

This is Mark Jones the host of Coaching Christian Leaders and today I will share with you that one essential ingredient you must have to move your leadership development program forward.

When we last met, you were taking your first steps in leadership development.

You determined the leadership position to develop and then you created a one-page job description for that position.

If you have not done that then take a few minutes to do so.

What is that position you wish to develop?

I am working on developing elders. Maybe you need to create youth leaders or build up your children’s staff. Maybe it’s a deacon or women’s ministry leader. Whatever, you need to identify it and then create a simple job description.

In the last episode, I encouraged you to ask yourself this question – Why does my church need this leader now? And I wanted you to link your answer to your church’s mission statement.

Here’s is what I mean by that. Our church’s mission statement is To Share Christ and Build Disciples.

So when I ask myself Why does my church need elders now? – the answer must satisfy the mission statement. I need elders now to build more disciples.

If your need does not satisfy your mission statement, then pick a different leader to develop.

If you want some additional help with these steps just grab my worksheet titled First Steps. You can find it at CoachingChristianLeaders.com on the Worksheets tab.

The First Steps Worksheet covers this episode and the previous two episodes. You can use it by yourself or print multiple copies and use it with your team. Go to CoachingChristianLeaders.com, open up the Worksheets tab, and grab your copy.

Today we are going to cultivate something essential. Very early in the creation of this leadership development program, we need this essential ingredient or the process will fail.

What is it? It is a sense of Urgency.

Why urgency?

Without urgency, there will be no lasting motivation to take this on. There will be no passion in the process. And when there is no sense of urgency there is no forward momentum.

How do create urgency? You will create urgency by answering the following coaching questions.

So grab a piece of paper and something to write with or grab the First Steps Worksheet and let’s create some urgency.

In order to create a sense of urgency, I am going to ask you five coaching questions. Take the time to honestly and fully answer each question.

I wish I was sitting across from you. When I personally coach pastors, it is questions like the following five that I ask. And pastors grow dramatically as they think and answer each question.

When I coach a pastor we explore each response and dive deep into the pastor’s situation.

Since I am working with you via a podcast I want to encourage you to answer each question fully and honestly. Bounce these questions and your answers off of a close friend or mentor. Better yet, discuss them with a key leader in your church.

Here’s question number one.

Without this leader what is the current situation at your church?

Take a minute and think this through. Then write down a short paragraph that explains the current situation without this leader. You are trying to assess the impact not having this leader makes on your church.

I told you that I am working on developing some new elders. But for this question, I’ll use a different need as an example.

I need a Children’s Ministry Director, someone to pull together our different children’s ministry teams and give them focus, training, and support.

I have a Pioneer Club Director. I have someone overseeing Children’s Church. I do not have anyone overseeing Children’s Sunday school and I do not have a Children’s Ministry Director.

Without this position filled and developed the different children’s ministries never coordinate with one another. The staff that teach the kids during Sunday School, mid-week Pioneer Clubs, and Children’s Church never go to any training. And we are really dropping the ball in how we minister to kids.

So what about you? Without this leader what is the current situation at your church?

What could be the situation at your church when this leadership position is filled?

Wow, what a question! Let your imagination run wild. Envision what could be if you had this position filled and functioning at its fullest potential.

Using my example of a Children’s Ministry Director, I see kids coming to Christ. I see staff connecting, coordinating, and serving at a high level. I see families growing in their faith.  I see a focused, trained, and supported children’s staff.

What could be the situation at your church when this leadership position is filled and the leader fully developed?

Here comes question number three. It’s time to dive deeper into creating a sense of urgency.

Is the development of this position something that could be done or should be done?

Think about that question for a second. Is the development of this position something that could be or should be done?

What’s the difference between could and should? Could means that it can be done. It is a position that could be filled and developed. But something that should be done is something that must happen. You must fill this position. You must develop this leader. If you do not, there will be negative consequences.

Only move forward in developing this position if the answer is “should be.”

Just because you can do something is not a reason to do it.

Only move forward if your answer is “should be.”

How will you feel if this leader is not developed?

I want you to tell me how it will hurt if you do not develop this leader?

A sense of urgency comes when we know something should be accomplished and when we feel the hurt if it does not come to pass.

If I do not develop a children’s ministry director, then kids and families will not grow in their faith. It is possible that kids in our community will not hear the gospel; at least from us. This greatly concerns me. And if I put names and faces to it, if I envision who it actually affects, then my heart breaks.

How will you feel if this leader is not developed?

And here is the final question.

What are you willing to sacrifice to develop this leader?

This is a tough question for me to ask because often the answer is time. It takes time to identify, train, and place a leader. And time is something most pastors do not have.

If “time” is what you are willing to sacrifice, let me encourage you. The time you invest in leadership development you will receive back in spades once the leader is serving.

Maybe “time” is not the answer you came up with.

What are you willing to sacrifice to develop this leader?

As you think about the answer, compare the thing sacrificed to the potential gain once the position is developed.

You have to sow to reap.

Those are the five questions to create urgency.

I have created for you a worksheet that covers the first three episodes on Leadership Development. To get this worksheet go to Coaching Christian Leaders and click the link in the Worksheet Tab. There you can grab a copy of the First Steps Worksheet.

These are typical coaching questions I ask my team and I ask those that I coach. When I provide personal coaching, these five questions take about an hour or more to cover.

Why does it take so long? Because when the client answers, we explore the answer and dive deep into the actual situation at their church.

Maybe that is something you need. Maybe you or your team needs some personal coaching. Email me at Mark@CoachingChristianLeaders.com and let’s set something up. A few sessions of coaching can be an amazing experience. And you will get the personal touch that this podcast can’t provide.

Just email me at Mark@CoachingChristianLeaders.com and let’s explore some personal or team coaching to move your ministry forward.

Thanks for listening to Coaching Christian Leaders. I will see you next week.

Matt Lombardi and Rachel Baird share their expertise on church staffing. Both are with Shaar.Work. Shaar is a platform that connects Christian freelancers and contractors with churches.

Shaar.Work is a wonderful resource for both small and large churches. 

I really do appreciate both Matt and Rachel taking the time to explain their service Shaar.work. I learned a great deal from both Matt and Rachel. Shaar.Work can be a great resource for small and large churches. And I believe they are on the cutting edge of church staffing. So check them out at Shaar.Work.

Website: Shaar.Work

Matt's email: Matt@Shaar.Work

Rachel's email: Rachel@Shaar.Work

Next week I will be back with another episode on How to Develop church leaders. If you like the Coaching Christian Leaders podcast, then share this episode with other pastors. Maybe you're in a pastor's Facebook group or a member of a ministerium. Email or post a link to Coaching Christian Leaders.com and encourage them to check it out. Email them a link to this episode or some of the others I have published.

Thanks to all who listen. This is Mark Jones. I will speak to you next week.

Intro

What‘s stopping your church from fulfilling the Great Commission? What is stopping your church from sharing Christ with your community, building small groups or Sunday School classes, from staffing children’s ministries?

You might say, “I don’t have enough people. I’m boiled down to just a faithful few and we’re doing all we can. And we can’t do any more than we currently do.”

But here’s another reason. And I will use myself.

The reason we were falling short...The reason we were not fulfilling the Great Commission is that we were just doing church and not intentionally developing leaders.

This is Mark Jones and I help pastors create leaders.

Now is the time to get intentional and begin to create a system that will develop future leaders.

In the last episode, I presented a biblical foundation for Leadership Development. I shared with you three Scripture passages:

I discussed that God has commissioned you to Make Disciples, ;that God has gifted you to Equip the Saints for Ministry, and God has entrusted you with the responsibility to train Multiple Generations of Leaders.

If you have not listened to this episode I recommend that you do so.

Today we will build upon this simple foundation and begin to construct a simple Leadership Development System.

Today is that first step.

Here are a few ground rules for ME as we go forward.

Anything I share with you on this podcast must be simple and actionable. The system we create must be attainable by both small churches and large churches. I want to keep these episodes short and give you something you can easily do before the next episode drops. So I will give you a bit of homework.

With that said, let’s get to work.

Here is our first step in creating a Leadership Development process.

You need to determine the What and the Why of this system.

Let me explain.

You are going to start creating a Leadership Development system by looking at the end of that process, the finish line. I want you to determine the finished product before you determine the system to get there.

To do that, you need to know What you are developing and Why you are developing it.

Here’s an example.

Remember in the last episode I shared with you that my elders were concerned. They felt strongly that we needed some new elders and some new Sunday School teachers.

That then is my What.

What do I need to develop, what kind of leader do I need to develop? I need Elders and Teachers.

Truly my church needs more than that. I could use some new deacons and deaconesses. I could use some new workers in our Children’s Ministry. I could really use someone to develop an outreach team. On and on I could go.

That might be your case as well. You might need all types of leaders. But no church and no pastor can develop all of these at once. So we need to make a choice based on an immediate need. And this immediate need, if developed, will lead to the development of other leaders.

Here is what I mean.

Let’s you and I answer the first question:

What Leaders Do You Need to Develop?

Take a minute to brainstorm and then write down every leader you need to develop.

I’m going to write down Elder, Sunday School Teacher, and I’m going to write down all the others I mentioned – Deacons, Deaconesses, Outreach Team, Children’s Ministry workers.

You do the same – Write down every leadership position you need. Answer the first questions -What Leaders Do You Need to Develop?

So you have before you a list of the leaders you need to develop. 

Out of that list, you need to pick just one. I know you want to develop all but that’s not practical. Choose one.

How do you choose the one? For me, I’m going to listen to my elders. They pointed to the need for new elders and Sunday School teachers. But that’s two, not one.

Then I’m going to think about this – If I develop one of those will that process lead to the development of another. For me the answer is yes.

Here’s what I mean. For the most part, our adult Sunday School classes are led by our elders. If I develop elders I am also developing Sunday School teachers.

I can pull back and look at this another way.

If I develop men I can then begin to identify those who would function well as elders and those who may function better as deacons.

That idea takes in the direction of discipleship. I’ll have more to say about how to use discipleship to develop leadership in a future episode.

But going back to the idea of first developing men, I am now setting up the possibility of identifying both elders and deacons and then from that pool of men and developing the leaders.

So look at your list. Ask yourself a few questions.

What leader do I need to develop that fills the most immediate need? What leader, if developed, will also lead to the development other leaders?

Now that you have determined What Leader to develop it’s time to determine the Why.

Answer this question – Why does this church need a _________________ fill in the blank or Why does this church need this leader?

Why does my church need elders?

I don’t want to get all Simon Sinek on you. Simon Sinek is a leadership expert who has written a few books on Why. His best seller is Start with Why.  If you have 15 minutes I would encourage you to watch his Ted Talk on this subject. I’ll give you a link in the show notes.

Simon Sinek Tead Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action?language=en

I’m going to use the Why question this way. – I’m going to use Why as a filter or a second check.

When you answer the question, Why do I need this leader? In your answer, you should be able to link the need to your church's mission.

I believe God has already given every church its mission statement. He gave it to us in Matthew 28:19-20. Where I pastor we have simplified that commission with this Mission Statement – Our mission is to Share Christ and Build Believers.

When I answer the question Why do I need Elders? It needs to support the mission statement. Our elders definitely play an important role in Building Believers.

So when you answer the Question – Why do I need this leader? – Make sure the need of the leader supports your church’s mission.

If you can’t come up with a good reason why or it does not support the mission then maybe you need to pick a different leader to focus on.

This job description is more for you than for them. This step is essential because this description will determine the core of your program.

Writing this Job Description will be your homework. I warned you that I would give you some homework.

Here’s a bit of advice on the Job Description. Keep it short.  Keep that job description to one page typed. And when I say one page I mean just the front, not front and back.

Years ago I wrote a job description for our Sunday School Director position. It was three pages long. No one could grasp what I wanted and it scared away every potential volunteer.

Keep it to one page. This one page will discipline you to really think about what is important for this leader to know and to do – the essentials of this position.

By the way – When you are finished with this job description – email it to me. I would love to see what you have created. You can email it to Mark@CoachingChristianLeaders.com

So today we started at the end of the Leadership Development System.

Thanks for listening to Coaching Christian Leaders.

I hope that what I have shared will help you develop the future leaders of your church. Don’t forget to email me with a copy of your job description.

The next episode will be an interview with Matt Lombardi and Rachel Baird of Shaar.work. Shaar.work is a website that helps you find freelance ministry professionals. I know you will find this interview helpful because Matt has created a website where you can go and hire team members that will fill your church’s immediate ministry needs.

Don’t forget the upcoming Mastermind. I offer two masterminds per year – one in the Spring and one in the Fall.

We all need some advice now and then. With this mastermind, you can sit down with a few fellow pastors and ask them for feedback. They’ll listen to you and then share with you their experience.

Everyone gets to share what they are working on and get feedback from fellow pastors. A mastermind is a great learning experience.

So go to CoachingChristianLeaders.com for more information. I would love for you to be a part of this experience.

Opening

Welcome to Coaching Christian Leaders.

I have a question for you.

Are you frustrated with a lack of leadership?

Maybe you want to start a new ministry – but there’s no one to lead it.

Or you look at your current ministries – say your small groups or children’s ministry – and you note that they always depend on the same few people.

That’s dangerous because you are one disgruntled family, one upset person away from the ministry without leadership.

Or maybe you have the people but they never take initiative. They never lead.

If you’re frustrated with a lack of leadership, I understand. I’ve been there. But I’m digging out that hole and I want to share with you how you too can develop leaders.

My name is Mark Jones and I help pastors develop leaders.

Here’s a story that happened to me about a year ago.

I lead a small rural church and I have thee elders.

They are great guys. They love and support me. I really value their insights. But they are getting older. In fact, every one of them is retirement age.

I tell you their general age because it is important to the story.

About a year ago I was in an elders’ meeting.

One of the elders said in the meeting, “We aren’t getting any younger. We need some new elders. Who can we ask?”

Before anyone could answer, another elder chimed in, “We also need some new Sunday School teachers. Who do you think we could ask?”

These men made two important observations and each asked an important question.

They identified a need – new elders and new Sunday School teachers .... And they asked a good question – “Who can we ask to fill this need?”

Their observation and their question pointed out a problem our church had.

Here is what I mean -  when you are looking around a congregation hoping to identify a new leader you are NOT doing ministry the right way.

The wrong way to do ministry is to just do church. We were just doing church. We were not intentionally developing disciples. We were not developing leaders.

When you’re just “Doing Church” one Sunday rolls into the next.

You walk out the door of the church on Sunday. The service is over.

Everyone goes their separate ways.

Then you return again next Sunday and do it all over again.

You do this Sunday in and Sunday out. Week in and week out. And before you know it a year or two have passed and you have done nothing to develop leaders.

Sure you’ve preached some sermons and taught some classes, but you have not developed future leaders.

If you just do church, then this is what happens when a leadership need arises - You either have no one to plug in or you plug anyone in.

If that’s you – You’re just doing church, then this podcast will help you.

Together, the two of us, you and me, we’re going to create a simple leadership development system. So grab a notepad and something to write with and let’s get to work.

Today, our first step in Leadership Development is to look at the Scripture and to answer some questions about the current state of our ministry.

These are the three passages we will look at.

They’re all familiar passages.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

When do I look at the Great Commission – Matthew 28:19-20 I have a question – What is a disciple?

Jesus has commissioned every church – your church and mine – to make disciples. So what’s a disciple?

The reason I point out Matthew 28:19-20 is the fact that Jesus has called us to make these disciples. The church is commissioned to seek out and develop disciples.

Leadership Development is nothing more than discipleship with purpose. With discipleship, you are moving an immature believer to that of a mature believer. You are moving them from baby food to adult food.

Leadership Development rides on this discipleship track.

The Great Commission is giving the church its purpose or mission – To Make these disciples.

Here’s a question for you: What is your church currently doing to make disciples? What is your process? What are your methods of discipleship?

Take a minute, pause this episode, and answer those questions. Here they are again.

What is your church currently doing to make disciples? What is your discipleship process? What are your methods of discipleship?

All of these questions are similar. Think about it this way. If someone showed up at your church tomorrow and at the service put their faith in Christ, how would you move that person from a New Believer to that of a Mature Believer? What would be the steps? What are the essentials you would teach that person?

Now Look at Ephesians 4:11-12

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,

You know this passage. God has given gifted individuals to the church for a purpose – to equip believers for the work of ministry.

In that list of gifted people can you can find yourself? You are most likely the pastor or pastor-teacher.

Why did God give you to the church?  – to equip believers to do the work.

That word – EQUIP – is translated “perfecting” in the King James. The idea of the word is to SET RIGHT like you set a broken leg.

But I want you to think of it this way. When you Equip you are putting something in order. You are laying down a process. You are creating a system.

A pastor creates a process or a system that trains the church members to do the work of ministry.

What is the result of this pastor-led system? It is the building up of the church.

Okay here are some new questions.

How are you equipping your church members to do the work of the ministry? What’s the system? What is the current outcome? Or how many leaders are you producing every year?

Think about it this way.

You have a process of discipleship that takes an immature believer and moves them toward maturity. As they move along this discipleship track, how do you identify potential leaders and begin to train them for ministry?

One more passage – 2 Timothy 2:1-2

You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, 2 and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.

Over the years many pastors have told me that 2 Timothy 2:2 is their life verse.

That’s great! It’s great to have a life verse.

It’s even better when we live out our life verse. So let’s look at the verse and ask some questions to see if you are doing what the verse is instructing.

What is Paul doing in this verse?

He is giving Timothy a mission. And that mission is to build multi-generational leaders.

Paul taught Timothy and many others to do the work of ministry. Paul trained Timothy knowing that someday he, Paul, would be gone. But the work would go on.

In Matthew 28 it was “Make Disciples”

In Ephesians 4 it was “Equip believers”

Here in 2 Timothy it is “Entrust faithful men. But it’s more than that. It is to entrust faithful men across multiple generations.

Paul taught Timothy. Timothy teaches others. And those others teach others.

I have a question for you. Take a minute and answer it. - What system do you have in place to train the next generation of leaders?

Paul gave Timothy a mission – to train multiple generations of leaders.

And God is calling you and me to do the same.

So lets you and I do that.

Together let’s develop a system, a process, that will make disciples, that will equip leaders, that will develop leaders, not just one generation, but two, and even three generations deep.

I’ll speak to you next week and we will begin to do just that.

Before you go. I want to tell you about the upcoming Christian Leaders Mastermind.

What’s a mastermind? It’s a group of pastors, missionaries, and other Christian leaders who meet together to discuss ministry issues.

Imagine sitting in a virtual room with 8 other experienced pastors. Sharing your idea or your problem and getting concrete, practical feedback from these leaders? That’s a mastermind.

I offer Masterminds twice per year and I would love for you to be a part of one.

In future episodes, I will go into greater detail, but if you want to know more now, just go to CoachingChristianLeaders.com for more information.

This is Mark Jones and I’ll talk with you next week.

Do you want to reach more of the Millenials and Gen Z with the gospel?

Do you want to develop disciples in these age groups?

The first step after prayer is to find them. One place to look is on Instagram.

About 65%of all Millennials and around 70% of Gen Z are on Instagram.

Today we sit down with Ruthie Gray of RuthieGray.Mom.  Ruthie is an Instagram expert, with some great insights on how to use this social media site as an outreach and discipleship tool.

Thanks for listening to Coaching Christian Leaders. 

Make sure you grab your free Outreach & Discipleship Training. Click HERE to sign up and I will send the traiing right to your inbox.

Also, if you want to learn more about discipleship and outreach, check out these past episodes:

Finally, if you're interested in learning more about Instagram, pop over to Ruthie's site, RuthGray.mom. I have taken two of your courses and have learned a lot. Also, look for her podcast Instagram Insider Hacks.

Today we sit down with Kevin Wayne Johnson the founder and CEO of The Johnson Leadership Group. Kevin is an independent certified coach, teacher, and speaker with the nationally recognized John Maxwell Team.

You can learn more about Kevin and the Johnson Leadership Group by visiting TheJohnsonLeadershipgroup.com.

Writingforthelord.com

TheJohnsonLeadershipGroup.com

Leadership with a Servant's Heart

Give God the Glory! Called to be Light in the Workplace

Give God the Glory! Workbook

Thanks for listening to Coaching Christian Leaders. Keep up with the podcast by subscribing. You can subscribe at Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, and most any podcast app.

Also, grab your free training HERE. Four sessions on reaching the lost and building disciples. 

I'll speak to you soon,

Mark

Today we sit down with Carol Ganawah and learn how to divorce-proof marriages.

Carol is a marriage coach. She works closely with couples and churches to help secure marriages, especially first-time marriages.

Carol will share how the spirit of divorce can infect like cancer. She also shares practical steps on how to protect a marriage from divorce.

Her book: Divorce-Proof Your First Marriage

Her website: Married4LifeCoach.com

Contact her: cyesuislord1@gmail.com 

If you are a small-church pastor, grab your free coaching. Go to CoachingChristianLeaders.com and book your laser coaching session. Three sessions are absolutely free for pastors of churches with less than 250 attenders.

Thanks for listening to Coaching Christian Leaders. Keep up with the podcast by subscribing. You can subscribe at Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, and most any podcast app.

I'll see you next month,

Mark

Today we sit down with Pastor Chuck Musselwhite. He is the pastor of Village Chapel located in Lompoc, California.

He is also the creator and author of the Daily Walk Devotion. This online devotional reaches over 3,000 people every day. From this online devotional, Chuck has released a book of these devotions.

I am in the process of creating an online Outreach & Discipleship Workshop. If you are interested in more information email me at Mark@CoachingChristianLeaders.com

Thanks for listening to Coaching Christian Leaders. Keep up with the podcast by subscribing. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, and most any podcast app.

When you get a minute, check out the Coaching Christian Leaders website.  There you can subscribe to a monthly newsletter.  This newsletter will help you build your outreach and discipleship programs.

I'll see you next month,

Mark

Pastors have a great opportunity to reach the lost and make disciples well beyond their church walls. How? Through self-publishing.

Today we sit down with Charles W. Morris. Charles is a pastor, church planter, evangelist, missionary, and author of over 10 books.

Experiencing the Beauty of Brokenness

Faithful?

Preparing Ourselves to Hear God's Voice

The Five Witnesses of Salvation

How Do I Write a Book

I am in the process of creating an online Outreach & Discipleship Workshop. If you are interested in more information email me at Mark@CoachingChristianLeaders.com

Thanks for listening to Coaching Christian Leaders. Keep up with the podcast by subscribing. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, and most any podcast app.

When you get a minute, check out the Coaching Christian Leaders website.  There you can sign up for a free master class on outreach, assimilation, and discipleship. Four sessions with worksheets and bonus materials. You will also receive a monthly newsletter packed with great tips on how to reach the lost and build disciples.

I'll see you next month,

Mark

Today we will speak with Pastor Sherman Burkhead, the senior pastor at First Baptist Church of Boron California.

Sherman, a former atheist, is passionate about sharing the hope of the gospel with his community and with the world.

His book: Distracted: Finding God in a Chaotic World

His website: Shermanburkhead.com

His church: First Baptist Church, Boron, CA

I am in the process of creating an online Outreach & Discipleship Workshop. If you are interested in more information email me at Mark@CoachingChristianLeaders.com

Thanks for listening to Coaching Christian Leaders. Keep up with the podcast by subscribing. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, and most any podcast app. When you get a minute, check out the Coaching Christian Leaders website. 

Author, evangelist, and broadcaster, Jeff Jerina shares his passion for equipping believers to share their faith.

Jeff is the creator of the Men Unplugged podcast. He has also written the book, Faith Without Fear: How to Share What You Believe With Confidence and Power. 

Faith Without Fear: How to Share What You Believe With Confidence and Power

Men Unplugged Podcast

Thanks for listening to Coaching Christian Leaders. I just finished leading a small church outreach workshop. A group of 12 pastors and missionaries came together and we worked on local outreach, discipleship, and church assimilation. It was a great time and although I was the facilitator, I learned a great deal from these men.

Over the next several months I will be sharing what I learned and what I presented. Keep up with this by subscribing. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, and most any podcast app. When you get a minute, check out the Coaching Christian Leaders website. 

How can you and your church make an eternal difference in the lives of the military? One way is to get behind the great work of Military Evangelism. 

Pastor Dave Mason, the Executive Director of Military Evangelism shares the great work they are doing with US Marines in Jacksonville, North Carolina.

Website: www.MilitaryFellowshipMinistry.com

Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram: @MFCJAX

Thanks for listening to Coaching Christian Leaders. I just finished leading a small church outreach workshop. A group of 12 pastors and missionaries came together and we worked on local outreach, discipleship, and church assimilation. It was a great time and although I was the facilitator, I learned a great deal from these men.

Over the next several months I will be sharing what I learned and what I presented. Keep up with this by subscribing. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, and most any podcast app. When you get a minute, check out the Coaching Christian Leaders website. 

Is it possible to master your emotions, better handle relationships, and avoid burnout? It is for the emotionally intelligent pastor. 

Dr. Jeannie Clarkson, the author of The Emotionally Intelligent Pastor shares her expertise.

The Emotionally Intelligent Pastor: A Guide for Clergy and Other Church Leaders

Free E-Book - How to Prevent Conflict by Building Trust

Contact her at her website - www.JeannieMillerClarkson.com

How can you grow and lead your discipleship programs? Which is best - Sunday School or Small Groups? How can you do both effectively? 

Dwight Moss of Sunday School Home Group Trainers has decades of experience in leading and growing both Sunday School programs and Small Group Programs. 

His email is Dwight@DwightMoss.com

His website is SSTrainers.org

His Facebook page is

https://www.facebook.com/watch/SSsmallgrouptrainers/

Today we sit down with John Wallace Whitehead. John is a Bi-Vocational Pastor and a business owner. He is also the author of the book Servant Leadership: Leading Today for a Better Tomorrow.

Servant Leadership: Leading Today for a Better Tomorrow

Where is God in His Church?

His Website: http://www.johnwallacewhitehead.com/

His email: John@jwcompanies.net

A life lived in response to one's values is a life that is both faithful and fearless. Sue Salvemini shares with us 7 keys that will impact and influence the lives we touch.

Today we speak with executive coach Sue Salvemini, the founder, and president of Focal Pointe Inc. She is also the author of Leadership by Choice: 7 Keys for Maximizing Your Impact and Influence in the Workplace. 

Sue's email is Sue@focalpointeinc.com

Leadership by Choice: 7 Keys for Maximizing Your Impact and Influence in the Workplace. 

https://focalpointeinc.com/

Leadershipbychoice.com

What happens when you make Jesus the Managing Director of your business? Restauranteur Peter Demos shares how his new faith in Christ changed him personally and as a leader.

Today we sit down with businessman Peter Demos. Peter is the President of Demos Brands. Demos Brands includes PDK Southern Kitchen and Market, Peter D's Restaurants, and Demos Restaurants. Peter is also the author of the book, Afraid to Trust: One Man's Journey Into the Love of God.

Why Peter rejected Christ for so long. Why his new faith created such an internal struggle. How his new faith personally changed him. How his faith changed his approach to business. How he handled the community backlash when his businesses began to honor Christ. How a Christian business owner defines success. Some leadership insights for pastors.

Peter's book: Afraid to Trust

Afraidtotrust.com

Tom and Amy McVicker love Jesus and they love the people of Japan. For those reasons, soon they will be heading to Japan to bring the hope of Christ to the Japanese people.

Today, Tom and Amy share their journey and their heart. You will learn how Christ called them to missions. They will also share some of their joys and frustrations with building a support team.

Below you will find their contact information. Please email Tom and Amy with any questions you may have about their ministry. Also, let them know you desire to support them as a prayer partner.

When this interview was recorded, the McVickers were just over 50 percent support. Now at this release, they are over 80 percent. Please consider financially supporting the McVickers. Just one percent of their support - about $85 dollars per month - would make all the difference. Use the email address below to find out more on supporting the McVickers.

Email: ramcvicker@abwe.cc

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/mcvickerclan/ or The McVicker Clan Serving Christ in Japan

Website: http://mcvicker.abwe.org/

1. Fran, you worked 20 years in the field of chemical manufacturing and then one day you switched careers to financial planning. What led you to that decision?

2. There must have been some hardships when you changed careers. What were some of those and how did you navigate them?

3. In your bio, you say that guiding Christians in financial stewardship is a passion. Tell us why this is?

4. You've created a website to guide Christians in their financial life. Tell us about this website and what our listeners can find there.

5. Is this website designed for beginners or someone with more advanced knowledge of personal finance?

6. If a listener to this podcast wants to sign up to be a Founding Member on your website for the low price of $100 giving them access for a full year, what would they need to do?

7. Is your website just for individuals or will you be marketing it to groups as well?

8. Many of my listeners are pastors. Most pastors, when they speak about money, it is along the lines of tithing. Many people struggle to fit a tithe into their monthly budget. How do you cover this in your course Purpose, Peace and Prosperity?

9. You also said this website is designed as a Financial Wellness program for Christian employers. I assume this means Christian universities, hospitals and such. What would an employer gain from offering an annual membership to their employees?

10. Thanks, Fran for spending time with us. How can the listeners reach you if they have any questions, especially about financial planning? 

http://www.faithbasedfinancialwellness.com

Hi, this is Mark Jones and today I want to share a story about how I completely overhauled the most important ministry of the church and did not lose one member.

But before we get into that, I want to thank you for listening to Coaching Christian Leaders.  I truly appreciate your support.

Since episode 22 we have been studying how to lead change in your organization. We learned that all changes go through three distinct phases. First, something must end. Then the second phase is what Dr. William Bridges in his book Managing Transitions the neutral zone. And finally, the third phase is the starting of something new.

Today we are going to talk about starting that new ministry. And I will have several coaching questions for you that will help with the startup

In the last episode, we focused on the work going on while you are between the old and the new – the neutral zone phase. I recommended that create and manage a transition management team. This team is preparing future leaders, creating the necessary materials – curriculum, policies, things like that. It is a highly creative time, that should never be skipped.

One thing the transition management team must create is a 30-, 60-, 90-Day Plan. This 30, 60, 90 Plan will get your start-up off on good footing, and most importantly it will enable you to get some early wins.

John Kotter, in his book Leading Change, really stresses the importance of these early wins.

I am really keen on Dr. Kotters’ book, Leading Change. I want to recommend you pick up a copy. It is an excellent book and I will be referring to some of his ideas today. And in future episodes, we will dive even deeper to try and take Dr. Kotter’s ideas and apply them to the church.

Like William Bridges book, Managing Transitions, Dr. Kotter did not write his book with a church in mind. Rather, the focus is on businesses. But I do believe we can learn from these books and put into action many of the things they present.

Let me quickly share with you Dr. Kotter’s 8 Step Change Model. A few of his ideas will shape this episode. And I will come back to John Kotter’s work in future episodes.

Create an Urgency – I there is no urgency for this change you are attempting then it will fail. You, the leader, need to communicate this urgency. One more thing, if your congregation or your leaders do not catch this urgency, the change will not happen. Form Powerful Guiding Coalitions Develop a Vision and a Strategy – I will say bit more about this is a few minutes. Communicate the Vision – In past episodes, I touched on communication. Remove Obstacles Create Short-Term Wins Consolidate Gains Anchor Change in the Corporate Culture – Make this change stick or become an essential part of the ministry.

I will feature a few of these in today’s episode. But to get the full understanding, you need to pick up Leading Change by John Kotter.

Now let’s consider your 30, 60, 90 Plan.

Your Transition Management team needs to create this plan – 30, 60, 90 Plan – which will map out the first 30, 60, and 90 days of the start-up. Over the last several episodes we have used the example of changing from a Sunday School model to a small group model of discipleship.

The 30, 60, 90 plan will map out what the first, second, and third month of this transition will look like and what it will accomplish. I will not go into the finer details of this plan using this example. That would not be productive. But I will cover some questions that will guide you as you develop the 30, 60, 90 plan.

One question the team must answer is, What is the vision for this start-up?

Two things to consider when you develop this vision.

For a new ministry, I would not create a vision with a longer look than one year.

In this day and age, you should not create a vision that looks out beyond three years. But for something new let’s keep that original vision to one year. In fact, what I am asking you to do is to break that first year down into 90 blocks. ..... At the end of one year, bring the team back together and create a 3-year vision.

More importantly, this ministry and its vision must support the mission of the organization.

Let me give you an example. Where I am the pastor, we believe strongly that God has already given the mission to the church. I teach that every local church has the same mission – and it’s the Great Commission. So our mission statement is based on the Great Commission.

Every ministry we start has to support the idea of sharing Christ and building believers. If it doesn’t, we won’t start it.

So my advice to you, if your new ministry does not support the vision of the church, don’t do it.

Another question your team must answer as you create the 30, 60, 90 Plan is, What are the objectives or goals of this start-up? These need to be concrete, not abstract. They must be measurable.

You can create objectives for each 30-day period, or set objectives for the end of the 90 days. Going back to our example – a 90-day objective for small groups might be to get 75 percent of all church service attendees in a life group. At the end of the first 90 days, we can easily measure that.

This example, 75 percent of all church service attendees in a small group is what we call a Lag Measure. A Lag Measure is a key measurement for the goal. Here’s a personal example, when I step on the scale and read my bodyweight, that is a lag measure. It is a reported number that I can do nothing about, but it does tell me whether or not I reached the goal.

The next question to ask as you create your 30, 60, 90 plan is, What are the milestones this startup must accomplish over the next 3 months? These milestones are your Lead Measures. A Lead Measure is what you must do the reach your objective.

These are best stated as actions. You want to create the least amount necessary to reach the objective.

I promised you a story about how I completely overhauled the most important ministry in the church and did not suffer for it. Here’s that story.

Years back, I had to lead the church through a complete overhaul of how we financially supported missionaries. We had some key objectives to accomplish.

The existing method of mission support was a faith promise that individual church members made to individual missionaries and then funneled that money through the church. When I became the pastor, 100 men women and children were giving 100,000 dollars a year to missions. That was approximately 80% of the church budget. The intent was noble but it was not sustainable.

Here are the milestones or lead measures we had to accomplish along the way.

Wakefield Valley Bible Church is a church with a long culture of supporting missions. I knew that this change was essential but I did not know how it would all turn out. In the end, we did select 12 missionaries, their support now came directly out of the church budget. That amount was approximately 25 % of the budget. So, in the end, it was a successful change and it still holds to this day.

In you 30, 60, 90-day plan you need to anticipate the major obstacles to the success of this startup. You cannot foresee every obstacle, but you can anticipate most. So ask your team, What are the major obstacles to the success of this change? And then develop a response to the obstacles.

One final thing. When you launch this change, this startup, before you begin you must identify the wins the victories. And you need to plan how you will celebrate these wins.

Do not hope you have wins. Do not anticipate wins. Rather, identify your wins before you even launch. You should have at least one major win for each 30-day period.

Going back to our original example – Sunday School to Small Groups – The objective was 75 percent of all church attendees involved in a small group. A win would be when you achieve 40 %. And another is when you achieve 50%. Maybe you have geographic objectives with small groups – a small group on this side of town and another on the other side of town. A win would be a new group started in a new part of town.

These are just examples. The important thing is you identify them before you start and you celebrate them publicly when they are accomplished.

So quickly, here are the coaching questions you can use to aid in developing your 30, 60, 90-day plan.

What is the 1-year vision for this start-up/change? How does this vision support the mission of the church? What are the goals or objectives for this change? What are the milestones or lead measures that will help you accomplish the objectives What are your anticipated obstacles to success? What are your wins? How will you celebrate these wins?

I really want to help pastors and missionaries develop your ability to lead change. I would love to help you build a thriving, healthy church. So if you feel like you or your church is stuck, let’s meet, look at the situation, and find the solutions that will move you and your church forward.

I will have a link in the show notes. You can use that link to set up a 15-minute discovery call and from there we can schedule your two free coaching sessions. If you can’t get to the show notes to use the link, just email me at Mark@coachingchristianleaders.com. Mention you heard about this offer on the podcast.

We have more to learn concerning change. We still need to learn how to make the change permanent. And we have some great interviews coming up.

Make sure you subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or anywhere you listen.

Also, don’t forget to email me at Mark@coachingChristianLeaders.com if you are interested in coaching.

Thanks, this is Mark Jones, and I look forward to helping you build a healthy church.

There is a place where any great opportunity for change can die. It's a no man's land, a wilderness, filled with temptations and riddled with the bones of past failures.  How do you avoid such? Today, we cover just that.

So about four episodes back, episode number 22, we started looking at how to lead change. At, first we considered two simple questions that will help your board or congregation consider changes.

Then we began to look at Dr. William Bridges ideas on change and transition. Dr. Bridges, in his book, Managing Transitions, teaches that all changes go through three stages of transition – An ending, the neutral zone, and the new beginning.

If this is the first episode you are listening to on change leadership, I suggest you go back to episode 22 and work up to this one.

In episode 24 we finished our work on how to end something. Today we will look at that phase between ending the old thing and starting the new – the area called the neutral zone.

I do not know anything about Dr. Bridges spiritual background. But in his book, Managing Transitions, he does use the Exodus as an example of these three phases.

You know the story – The Jews leave Egypt. They Jews wander in the wilderness for 40 years. The Jews cross over the river Jordan and begin a new thing in the land of promise. There was an ending, and eventually a beginning. But in the middle, those 40 years of wandering, we find the neutral zone.

There are some changes that do not require a neutral zone. You want to change the carpets. You go to Carpet World, pick a color, set up the install date, and step back. A few weeks later you have new carpet.

Some changes though require much more. They require a great deal of thought and work before you start something new. And managing the handover, the neutral zone, is essential. I will give you 4 things you must do while you are in the neutral zone, before you start the new thing.

I also, want to share some cautions, things you must be aware of as you wander through the neutral zone. And I will share these cautions first.

Here are 3 cautions, warnings, about the time between ending something and starting something new.

People are more apt to leave during this period of time.

Dr. Bridges shares that in the business world during the period of time between the old thing and the new, employees are more apt to quit, come in late, or miss more time.

In the church world, I suspect that people are more apt to leave.  Why is that? The familiar is now gone, but nothing new is in its place. They feel like nothing is happening. They sense a lull in the action or movement of the church. So they leave.

In a few minutes, when I go through the 4 things you must do during the period, pay much attention to the idea of presenting the vision. The reason you must present the vision of this change is to keep people engaged, in place, and focused on the near future.

There will be a strong pull to return back to what you had before.

Remember, the Exodus. After they got out into the wilderness, what did the people cry out for? They wanted to go back to Egypt. Numbers 14:4 says, "And they said to each other, 'We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.'" When you are in the Neutral zone, people will try to reset the old thing. They will try to drag you back to Egypt.

“Things were much better when we had Sunday School...let’s go back to that.” Things were much better when our music was traditional....when our name was first Baptist.....when we had AWANA....when we....” You get the idea. Whatever the change, they will cry out for someone to lead them back to what they had before.

The Neutral Zone will satisfy, and you will be tempted to make this no man’s land the new thing.

I don’t want to take this illustration too far, but remember Rueben, Gad, and Manasseh stayed on the other side of Jordan. You, your leadership, and your congregation will falter while you are in the neutral zone because you will begin to believe that you have fully accomplished the change. You will shut the process down and be content stay there. 

In the past, I have fallen to this temptation and I have allowed some valuable changes to die in the neutral zone. A large reason was the temptation to stay in this secure wilderness of the neutral zone. Another reason is that I did not fully articulate what the change was to be.

Here is a great question to ask yourself and your team when tempted to make the neutral zone the new idea – What must be true for this change to be successful? If you can answer this question – and I would encourage you to answer this in writing with great detail – when you waver you will look at this question - What must be true for this change to be successful – and its answer and you will know that you are not there yet and to keep on rowing.

Now let’s explore what you must do while you are in the neutral zone.

You must build teams that will oversee this change as it transitions from the old thing to the new thing. I feel it is essential that you have more than yourself managing this change. And the bigger, or the more important the change, the more you need to invest great thought and great intention in team construction.

Let me share what worked well for me in team construction.

Keep your teams lean, but also make them large enough to get a cross section of ideas and skills.

About two years ago, I had been at the church for approximately 10 years. The pastor I preceded had been at the church for 31 years. I wanted to take the church through was a change of vision and direction.

Here’s what I did when I constructed my team.

I personally recruited all of the members. I did not place an add in the bulletin asking for volunteers to be on the team. I picked them and individually invited them.

How did I come up with the list? Before I approached anyone to ask them to join, I went through the entire list of members and regular attenders. I divided this list into two groups. Those that were at the church before I arrived and those who had started attending after I arrived.

I then sorted these two groups by age and gender. The church where I pastor is traditional in who it allows to function as an elder and a deacon. We only use men. For this project, I wanted to make sure women had a voice.

Once I identified when people arrived, their gender, and their age – I did my best to balance the 12 member team – young/old, male/female, here before/here after.

But there was one final filter.  I did not want a bunch of “yes people” but I did want people who were teachable. So, if someone fit all the above requirements but did not have a teachable spirit, they were eliminated.

I think the next thing you must do during the neutral zone period is to identify who will have ownership or a part in the new beginning. Once they are identified, you need to include them in the transition management that your team is doing. It could be they are already on the transition team. If not, bring them on. If they are going to be a part of the new beginning they need to be a part of the transition.

What will the team be doing during the neutral zone period? They will be planning the who, when, where, and what of the new beginning. Using or old example – changing from Sunday School to Small groups, this team will be identifying the leaders, they will be making decisions on curriculum, the nights of the week, whether the groups are open or closed, training requirements for leaders....on and on.

So you need to identify and bring on board everyone who will have a role or ownership in this new beginning. They must be involved with the team that is managing the transition.

One a regular basis you need to put the vision of the new thing before your congregation. Remember earlier I warned you that people will leave or want to return to the old ways. This will happen while you are between the old and the new. To prevent or at least manage that, you need to be communicating the vision for the new beginning.

The Center for Creative Leadership website they listed 9 tips on how you should communicate your vision. I will give you the first 5. And I will mash up 4 and 5 so it will be just one tip

On the show notes, I will have a link to the article if you wish to read the other 4. 

When you put things in story form, you give life to your vision. Dr. Brene’ Brown says “Stories are data with soul.”

Use words that paint a picture. Use people and future activities as characters and events in this story. We recently built a new lobby and new bathrooms. I would tell the ladies about the new clean well-lit bathroom.

I would tell the story that Roger will no longer have to climb those dangerous steps to come to church because the new lobby will have an elevator. Sure you will share the costs, and the square footage, and the time – but people will not react to that nor will they remember that.

I learned the power of stories years ago when I preached a sermon. In the sermon I exegeted the passage, I parsed the Greek, I shared all the theological truths that I could share. And in the midst of all that, I shared a story of a three-legged dog.  

At the end of the service, I stood in the back to shake hands as I always do. And what did the people talk about, what did they share with me. Not the exegesis, not the Greek, not the theology. No, they wanted to talk about the three-legged dog. They asked questions of the dog, they shared their own stories about three-legged dogs.

Cast the vision in story form and the people will respond to it. Put the story in the future tense and use members of you congregation as characters.

An elevator speech is a short speech you can give during a typical elevator ride. In other words, you need a way to share the vision in only one minute or less.

You will probably not share this on an elevator, but you may share it at the start of a SS class or while standing in line at a church fellowship. So have short version.

And this short version should trumpet the negatives if we do not change and the positives of how this change will fix the current problems.

In a past episode, I told you to use every communication channel you have. Now I am telling you, the more ways you can communicate this vision the better.

The lobby project came alive  for the people when I showed them a 3-d mock up and a video moving the viewer through the projected lobby, the people got very excited.

Sounds like your schmoozing. And you are. There are people in every church who people come to and respect. They have official leadership positions – elder, deacon, trustee – and unofficial – the church busy body, the church know it all. You need to take the time to communicate this vision with these people. And you need to do it one-on-one.

How often should you share the vision. If you do the above 4 steps you will be sharing the vision all the time. But I would not let 3 Sundays go by before I present the vision again.

The final thing you need to do while you are in the neutral zone is that you need to manage.

If you are like me you already hate this step. I would much rather teach and preach. But with changes, you must put on your manager hat and manage this change.

You need to manage the transition team. You need to manage the key leaders that will be owning the new thing. And you need to manage presenting of the vision.

You need to be hands on, no laissez-faire laid back style will probably not work. Sorry for that news. You need to manage the journey through the neutral zone.

So, we considered phase two of change – every transition has three parts – the ending, the neutral zone and the beginning of the new thing. Today we looked a the neutral zone.

I covered the three hazards found in the neutral zone

People are more apt to leave. People will want to return to the former ways. You will be tempted to remain in the neutral zone and called it change.

Then we covered the four things you must do the complete the neutral zone

You must build a transition management team. You must identifiy the owners of the new beginning and get them involved. You must regularly communicate the vision. You must closely manage the process through the neutral zone.

This is Mark Jones and you have been listening to episode 26 of Coaching Christian Leaders. If you have benefitted from this podcast, please leave a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.

If you are about to go through a major change I strongly suggest you read Dr. William Bridge’s book Managing Transitions. I will have a link in the show notes.

Finally, if you feel that coaching would help you, that is something I provide one-to-one and with groups. You can contact me at Mark@coachingchrisitanleaders.com for more information.

Thanks and I will speak with you soon.

Managing Transitions, by William Bridges

The Center for Creative Leadership - 

https://www.ccl.org/multimedia/podcast/communicating-the-vision/

Can you ever recover from failure and sin? Will God ever use you again? Or are you stuck on the sidelines, never to serve again? Pastor Bill Baldwin answers these questions.

Currently, Bill is the Senior Pastor of Harvest Church in Albemarle, North Carolina. He is also the author of the book, Rebound: Rising From Failure Back to Purpose and Destiny.

Please share this episode, especially with those struggling with failure. Also, give the gift of Bill's book, Rebound: Rising from Failure Back to Purpose and Destiny.

If you have enjoyed this podcast, please review the podcast at iTunes, Google Podcasts, or wherever you listen.

Coaching Christian Leaders is an extension of the coaching I provide. I am a trained Christian Leadership coach. I help Christian leaders build healthy ministries. Feel free to contact me at Mark@coachingchristianleaders.com for more information about the coaching.

Also, join one of the Christian Leader Masterminds I facilitate. These masterminds are free - no cost to you - but seats are limited to only six participants. Visit the website CoachingChristianLeaders.com for more information or email me at Mark@coachingchristianleaders.com. 

How to Communicate Change to Your Congregation

This year, 2019, we are focusing our efforts on how to lead change. In episode 23 we addressed in part how to end something.

Dr. William Bridges in his book Managing Transitions tells us that change begins when you first end something. Ending the current thing is part of starting something new.

Dr. Bridges separates change from a transition. When you when you decide to change something, say your service times, that is just a change. A transition is a process of ending the former service times and then adopting the new service times.

A transition is made up of three phases – An ending (the current thing must end), the neutral zone, and the new beginning.

In the last episode, we focused on the ending phase.  I covered 5 questions to help you end something. Here again, are those questions.

What is actually ending? Who is losing what? What are the secondary changes your change will cause? How will people react emotionally to this change? Is this change something the church stands for or is known for?

If you have not listened to episode 23, I strongly encourage you to listen to that episode either before you listen to this one, or immediately after you listen to this one. Episodes 23 and 24 need to be considered together.

We are moving forward from these questions but we are still in the ending phase. Today, I want to share with three additional steps you must consider as you end something.

The first thing to consider is how often and what you will communicate to the congregation and to any boards or teams associated with the change. This communication begins prior to the ending and continues all through the transition.

Let’s focus on the congregation first. My rule of thumb is to communicate with the congregation every time there is a significant change or every 21 days. Whichever comes first.  Feel free to modify that 21-day rule down to 14 days. I have found with my congregation, that they get nervous about change, so every 14 days or with every change, whichever happens first, is the modified rule of thumb. But definitely, no more than 21 days between updates.

How should you communicate with the congregation? You should use every communication channel you normally use. In my situation, that would be me or a team leader speaking from the platform on Sunday morning and putting a similar announcement in the bulletin.

If you have a monitor in the lobby that scrolls announcements, it should also be there. If you publish a newsletter, it must also be there.

Every time you make a change, or at least every 21 days, you must share this with the congregation using every communication channel you normally use.

What do you tell the congregation? You tell them everything they need to know and everything they already know.

You as the leader can determine what they need to know. But a church is not the CIA. The CIA withholds information for good reasons. Less is better. But you are a church. And a church is both an organization and a family. So, in my opinion, More is better. It is better to err on giving too much than too little.

So, what do you tell the congregation? You tell them everything they need to know and everything they already know.

What do I mean by the last part, “everything they already know”?

Even if they can figure it out, or get the knowledge from somewhere else, you must still inform them using all channels. Here is an example.

The church where I serve as pastor recently built a new lobby. To me the process was obvious.

Every Sunday and every Wednesday evening, the congregation came to church and with their own eyes saw the progress.

But over time they began to complain. “We want to know what’s going on. You need to keep us informed.”

So from then on, I informed them of the progress and the setbacks. Every week or two I gave an update.

With the congregation, you need to tell them what they need to know and tell them what they already know. Use every communication channel you have. The more you share, the less they will complain and the more they will support the project.

But it’s not just the congregation you report to. You must keep your board and any team that is part of this project informed.

With boards and teams, they need to know about every change and every milestone you cross. And they should be notified as often as these things occur. I believe you can keep team communication to weekly. But hold nothing back.

With your board and teams, you should take advantage of the technology of today. Email, text, maybe a project management app like Trello or Asana, to keep them up to date.

Most church boards or leadership teams are staffed with volunteers. It is not unusual for a board to meet once per month. That’s too long between updates when going through a transition. So use email, texting, or a project management app to keep the team up to date.

Remember, it is this group that you first sold on the change. You went into this project with their support. You need to communicate often in order to keep their support.

I also find that congregation members go to board members for updates and to voice their concerns. The more the board or team knows the better they can handle these moments.

How far in advance do you start communicating this change with the congregation? How far in advance is dependent upon the scope of the change. The bigger the change, the farther out you begin to communicate. But what that number is – six months, 90 days, - that should depend on you, your church, and the project.

The important thing is to communicate in general once the decision to change has been made. Communicate in specifics only after you have mapped out all aspects of the change.  Once you know the who, when, where, and what, then begin the process as described above.

Number two,

When you are ending something in order to start something new, you need to be very clear about what is ending and what is not.

You need to put this in writing. You need to communicate these precise words from the platform and over every communication channel. Be very specific.

In the last episode, we used the example of ending Sunday in order to start small groups. Maybe the statement to communicate would be:

“The first Sunday in May, May 1st will be the final time we will have Sunday School. Come one last time to study the Bible together. Immediately after Sunday School, we will have a 15-minute reception to honor our Sunday School Superintendent and our teachers. Donuts, Juice, and Coffee will be served.

The following Monday evening will be the official kick-off for small groups. .......”

Put dates, names, times, milestones, everything that the people need to know, in print, and communicate it clearly.

Why do you need to communicate exactly what is ending and what is not?

Because if you are not clear on what is ending and what is not ending, someone will try to keep on doing it. There is always resistance to change. To eliminate that resistance, you must communicate clearly what is and what is not ending.

Number three. When you end something, if appropriate, celebrate the ending.

Several years back, we had to tear down the original church to make room for the changes to the current building. This former church went back to 1900. It had not been used as a church since about 1950 and was in sad shape.

It took some leadership and salesmanship to get the congregation to agree to knock it down. But finally, all parties agreed. Before the wrecking ball arrived we had a special service. We gathered beside the former church. Some of the older members shared their memories of the building – salvations, baptisms, weddings. We asked God to bless the future that the raising of this building would create. And a week later, I grabbed about 30 bricks out of the pile, before it all went to the dump and made these bricks available to any who wanted them.

When we start something new, we cut ribbons, we invite a special speaker, we have dinners. But when we end something, often it is done quietly.

I believe, when it is appropriate, we should end something with as much celebration as when we would start something.

So when appropriate, celebrate the ending.

Let’s conclude this episode by creating some coaching questions that you can use with your transition team.

What are we going to communicate to the congregation about this change? When will we begin to share information about the change with the congregation? How often will we update the congregation? What channels of communication will we use? Who will be responsible for each channel? What is the specific wording on what will end and what will not end? Who will deliver this specific communication to the church? How will we celebrate the ending? What token or memento can we give to the church members to celebrate the ending? Who will lead this celebration? Who will we recognize at this celebration and who else will participate?

These are some great questions to lead your team through this phase of the change. I will have them in the show notes and in the near future, I will provide a handout you can download.

That concludes the first phase of how to lead a change. You lead a change by first ending something.

If you have benefited from this episode or the podcast in general, please review the podcast on iTunes or wherever you listen.

Also, remember what I shared with you at the start of this episode. I am opening up another mastermind. If you want more information, please email me at Mark@coachingchristianleaders.com for more information.

I believe every Bible preaching, God-honoring church can be healthy, regardless of size. To that end, I help pastors, especially pastors of small churches, build healthy churches. How do I do that? I do it through coaching.

Every pastor needs a coach. So let’s talk and see if I am the right coach for you. Go to coachingchristianleaders.com to book your complimentary coaching session or just email me at Mark@coachingchristianleaders.com

In the next episode, we will take a break from the subject of leading change and speak with Pastor Bill Baldwin. Bill is the author of book Rebound: Rising from Failure Back to Purpose and Destiny. I truly enjoyed my conversation with Bill and I think very highly of him and his book. So I know you will get a lot out of this conversation.

This is Mark Jones. I will speak to you soon.

In the last episode, episode 22, we began to learn how to lead change.  All leaders must have a clear idea of how to take their organization through change. This ability to lead change is essential.

The good news is ability is something we can learn. And the steps that I will be covering with you can be applied to big changes or small changes.

As I said in the last episode, I greatly value the work of Dr. William Bridges. Dr. Bridges wrote several books on change, both on personal change and organizational change. If you see change on the horizon for your church or ministry, I suggest you read Managing Transitions, by Dr. William Bridges. I will have a link to this book in the show notes.

Dr. Bridges differentiates between change and transition. Change is just that, change. You say we are going to change the carpet. That’s the change. A transition is the process of removing the old carpet and getting new.

According to Dr. Bridges, transition involves three phases. All transitions begin with an ending. That’s phase one. They then move into phase two, called the neutral zone. And the final stage is the new beginning.

The mistake we often make is moving instantly into the new beginning. We fail to take the church through the first stage, the ending, and the second stage the neutral zone. This jump to the new beginning is why you have failed in the past, failed at starting and sustaining the change.

Today we will focus on phase one, the ending.

When you make a change, the current thing must end before the new thing begins.

What I will do today, is take you through the early part of the ending and give you a series of coaching questions that will help you and your team end the thing you are changing.

I recently asked pastors what are examples of changes churches go through. In about 90 seconds these 10 pastors came up with 17 changes churches face. I won’t go through all 17, but you can imagine, the list ran from Polity changes to Service time changes. Changes in worship style to change in leadership.

For today, I will use the example of a change in discipleship. Our example, we will change from Sunday School to Small Groups. But the questions I will give you will apply to any change. I suggest you write these questions down as we go.

So if you have decided to change your church from a Sunday School model to a small group model, what are the steps of transition? Here are some coaching questions for you and your team.

Question number One “What is actually ending?”

In our example, Small Groups are beginning, but Sunday School is ending. I know that Small Groups is the new thing, the goal of this change, but our focus must be on what is ending.  Before you start the great new idea, you must identify what is ending.

I think the first question is easy to answer and will only take a moment, but the follow-on questions will take some thought.

Here is the follow-on question.

Question number two:  “Who is losing what?”

In our example, the question sounds like this, Who is losing what when we end Sunday School?

Here are some answers to that:

The Sunday School superintendent and the teachers are no longer needed. They lose their opportunity for service. They lose their position. They lose some meaning in their lives. They lose the Sunday School room where they’ve taught for the past 15 years. They lose access to the kids they are teaching.

And on and on you can go. You need to write out all of this.

Here’s some more - Those that attend Sunday School lose the instruction they were receiving. They lose the fellowship they were part of. They might lose a position, such as prayer captain, or the person who took the role, or the person who brought the snacks...

As you take your church through a transition to a change, you need to answer these questions

1. What is actually ending?

2. Who is losing what?

Now we are moving quickly through this, but I want you to understand that when you initiate a change and begin to take your church through this transition, these questions demand time and thought.

You should go into detail with your answers. Use names and positions when appropriate. “Bruce will no longer teach the young adults. Linda will have to let go of her 4-5-year-old class.” These names are people and these people will respond to this ending in predictable ways, based on their personalities. By answering question number two, Who is losing what, you will be better prepared to take your church through this transition.

Next question to ask is:

What are the secondary changes your change will probably cause?

Think of it this way. Your change is the first domino in a line of dominoes. When you make your change, ending Sunday School, your domino knocks over another domino. And that domino knocks over another.

So ask, What are the secondary changes your change will probably cause?

When you change from Sunday School to small groups, there will be secondary changes that will occur.  The church custodian’s responsibilities and hours will change because he is no longer cleaning classrooms. That may affect his income if he is an hourly employee. Or it may free him up to focus on something else.

You need to identify these before you tip over that first domino. Before you announce, “Hey were shifting to small groups!” you need to answer these questions.  Brainstorm. Get the leadership involved. And if anything, over plan.

The first coaching questions you need to ask before you announce or begin the change are:

What is actually ending? Who is losing what? What are the secondary changes that your change will probably cause?

Next, you need to anticipate the emotional reactions to your ending. 

Here are some, but I am certain you could have guessed this list: Anger, Anxiety, Depression, Sadness, Resentment, Fear, Worry.

Robert McGee in his workbook The Search for Significance says “Emotions express themselves through actions.”

What are the actions you will probably witness? Impatience, Hostility, Rudeness, Blaming, and even Departure.

People have come to the church where I am the pastor because of a change at their previous church. And I am certain that people have left my church because of change. They reacted emotionally. This emotion led to action or actions; one of which was departure.

So the question is How will people react emotionally to this change?

Again, dive deep. Consider people. You will miss some. You will not guess every response. But if you ask, “How will Amy respond emotionally when we do away with her six-grade girls class? If you know Amy, you can anticipate her emotions.

So the questions are:

What is actually ending? Who is losing what? What are the secondary changes this change will cause? How will people react emotionally to this change?

Finally, a question you should ask before you go too far down the road is this:

Is this change something that the church stands for?

In the last episode, I gave you two questions to share with your board or your congregation.

The first question was, What can we never change? And the second one was, What should we change? Or reworded to, What do we need to do to improve?

But the first question, What can never change? Is linked to the question, Is this change something that the church stands for? 

I said in the last episode, that I believe the only unchangeable thing is the gospel. The local church is called upon to defend and protect the gospel. But everything else can be changed. But there will be things, other than the gospel, that will be considered unchangeable.

When you ask your leadership or congregation, What should never change? They will answer with things that the church stands for; things that the church is known for. 

Back to our example. You feel certain that a small group approach to discipleship is essential. You determine that the future of the church is linked to moving to small groups.

So you begin the process of ending Sunday School in order to transition into small groups. But here’s the problem. Your church is known for its Sunday School ministry.

In the past, you hired education pastors. You spent large sums on the building to support Sunday School. You have a bus ministry that brings in community kids for Sunday School. When you begin to end Sunday School, you are killing off something the church is known for. You are ending something on the Do not Change List.

You can change something on the Do not Change List. You can kill off something your church is known for. What you need to understand is this - if you kill something the church is known for the pushback will be multiplied by some number – 10 – 100- 1000. And you and your team must prepare for that.

Also, you will have to decide whether to end this thing immediately or end it slowly – one blow or death by a thousand cuts?

My advice – kill it once and for all. End it immediately. Do I always do that? Sadly no. Sometimes it is much easier to allow it to die slowly.

I will spend more time on this idea – immediate end or slow death – in a future episode.

So here are the questions one more time.

What is actually ending? Who is losing what? What are the secondary changes your change will cause? How will people react emotionally to this change? Is this change something the church stands for or is known for?

All these questions are listed in the show notes. Go to www.CoachingChristianLeaders.com and look for episode number 23. I am also developing some worksheets with these questions. I will let you know in a future episode how to get these worksheets.

In the next episode, we will continue to look at how to end something. We are not finished with this phase of transition. So start looking for episode 24

This is Mark Jones. If you have enjoyed listening to Coaching Christian Leaders please review the podcast at Apple Podcasts, Google podcasts or where ever you listen. Also, please visit the website, CoachingChristianLeaders.com for more information. There you can listen to past episodes and learn more about the coaching I provide and the masterminds I facilitate. I would love to help you develop a healthy church or ministry.

Thanks, I will speak to you soon. 

Managing Transitions, by Dr. William Bridges

There will come a time, probably sooner than later, that you will need to make a change. You will need to change something at your church. Over the next few episodes, we will look at how you can lead your church through change.

The principles I will cover apply to big changes as well as small. Obviously, changing your worship music is a bigger change than changing your carpet color. But the steps are the same.

Now, Over the past 12 years, I have taken the church I pastor through several changes. And I foresee more changes in the immediate future.

I’m not going to tell you what I need to change but I will share this fact – I believe everything but one thing is open to change

Listen to 1 Timothy 3:15b

“the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.”

I understand those words this way. The local church is the protector, the fortress of the truth, of the Gospel. The gospel never changes. The truth found in God’s word never changes. And the local church is called upon to protect that truth in its local context.

So the truth cannot be changed. But anything else is open to change.

Now let’s get into it. Today, I want to give you an overview of what change looks like and in the weeks to come, I will go into greater detail on the steps.

Dr. William Bridges has written extensively about change – personal and as an organization.

If you are going to take your church through change you need to at least read his book, Managing Transitions. I will have a link to this book in the show notes.

Dr. Bridges has identified three phases of transition or change. Dr. Bridges uses the term transition. For him, change and transition are not the same. But I will use change and transition interchangeably.

So the three phases of transition are as follows

The first phase is the ending. All change, all transitions begin with an ending. The second phase is what Dr. Bridges calls the neutral zone. And the final phase is the New Beginning.

So let’s understand this. A transition begins with an ending

This is essential. All of us have made the mistake, maybe in front of the congregation or before the church board. We have shared the possibility of the new beginning before we have shared the necessity of the ending. And when we did that we suffered the consequences. And possibly the new beginning never happened because the people did not see the need for it.

So the first thing you need to do is take your people through the ending.

This is a painful period. This is the hard part. This, in my opinion, takes the most time.

There is a church in my local area that has a great young pastor. He was recently hired on. He is taking this established church through a radical change. And his first step? Teaching and preaching on why the current situation must end.

He is helping his people let go. He is helping his people deal with the loss associated with this change. I don’t know the numbers, but I suspect some people will leave. The pain of loss will be too much for them. But most will stay, especially if he continues to help them end the current methods.

Dr. Bridges teaches that a neutral zone follows this ending. It is during the neutral zone that the future is planned, teams are built, new patterns and new ways of doing business are created.

One caution, I believe many of good transition can die in the neutral zone. I have led my congregation into the neutral zone, I assumed we had reached the promised land. The change then ceased and in time we just reset back to the old way of doing business.

Do no make that mistake that the neutral zone is the finished product. You must know the ultimate destination and you must push through this temptation to stop.

I don’t know if you are into old books. The journey Dr. Bridges has mapped out reminds me of Homer’s Odyssey. If you remember, Odysseus is trying to get home after the Trojan war. What should have been a 10-day trip ended up taking 10 years. And all along the way, there were good reasons to stop and not finish the journey.

If you are going to take your church through major change you need to start with the ending and use the great gift of the neutral zone for development, but you cannot stop there. You must keep the finish in sight.

Before we begin to end things, what should we first do?

Before we end anything we must ask and answer two questions. Before I get to the questions let me share my situation.

The church I pastor has a church board. The board is made up of the deacons and elders. We meet once per month and make the decisions for the church. We examine the financial reports.  We follow Roberts Rules of order, - we do old business, new business.

This group of men is the group I must first sell on any church change. It is these men that will support me or not. I can be the upfront person leading the change if I have their support.  So change begins with them.

Your situation might be different. You may answer to no one, or answer to a congregation, or a board. It doesn’t matter. You still ask and answer these two questions.

Question number one: What must never change?

If you answer to a board or a congregation, ask them this question and listen closely to their answers.

I said earlier, that I feel the only thing that can never change is the Gospel, the truth. But that’s too simple. There are some things that are unique to every church that may find themselves on the do not change list. You need to note these. These are potential landmines.

Every answer that comes your way, record it, acknowledge it. But in the end, you do not have to live with it. You might be rocking that 1970’s gold carpet in the auditorium. And when you ask, What must never change, there will be someone who says, “The Carpet.”

Write it down. Note it. But you do not need to live with that carpet for the next 10 years. You can change it. That’s what leadership is all about and that is why you must take them through the painful process of letting go or ending.

Here’s a better example. What if someone says, “Our music must never change.” And it is music you feel must change? What are you going to do? Your church is traditional in its music and you feel it must change to contemporary. What should you do?

If that is a change you are willing to make, you can throw out the organ this week and put the drums up next week. And of course, suffer the consequences.

Or you can acknowledge their input and begin to take them through the process of change that begins with understanding that this to must end.

But that is the first question, “What must never change?”

The second question is this. What must we change?

You might want to reword this question. The word “change” frightens people. Change makes them nervous. Here’s the rewrite.

What must we do to improve?

That’s softer. It is not as confrontational.

Again, write everything down, even if you disagree with it. Then prioritize the list, and if you are working with a group begin to debate the answers.

There will be items on the list that everyone can agree with. I would begin with these.

Now let’s wind this up. In the weeks to come, I will go into greater detail on this subject, how to lead change.

But today, remember we learned that all change or transitions begin with an ending, there is a neutral zone, and then the final phase is the new beginning. Do not jump to the new beginning until you have helped them deal with the ending.

Before all that, ask and answer two questions: What must never change? And What must we change? Or What must we do to improve?

I hope this helps.

This is Mark Jones and you have been listening to Coaching Christian Leaders.

Please share this episode with your friends and fellow pastors. Also, don’t forget to subscribe. You can do so on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or any podcast player.

If you are interested in one on one coaching please contact me. I can be reached at Mark@coachingchristianleaders.com

Managing Transitions by Dr. William Bridges and Dr. Susan Bridges

If you are a Christian leader in need of direction or motivation, I would love to help. I coach leaders, especially small-church pastors. I also provide free six-session masterminds for pastors and missionaries. If you are interested in any of the above, email me.

October 8-10th, 2018, I attended the RHMA Small-Town Pastors’ Conference. RHMA stands for Rural Home Missionary Association. This conference was held in Lancaster Pennsylvania.

It was a great conference. Why? Well, I want to share some of the reasons I enjoyed it – who was there, what I learned – and then encourage you to consider attending the next one. There is on scheduled for April 8-10, 2019 in Morton Illinois. Morton is about 10 miles southeast of Peoria.

The primary speakers for the event were Ed Stetzer, Dr. Eugene Habecker, Jared Wilson, and Jason McConnell. All the speakers spoke to the heart and to the situation of the small-church small-town pastor.

Often when a small church pastor attends a typical pastors’ conference, they feel out of place because so much of the information is geared towards large churches and their staff. This is not the case at the RHMA conference.

But for me, the real highlight of the conference was meeting other small-church pastors. These are hard working men.  They love Jesus and they want their congregations to love Jesus as well. Many I met are bi-vocational, and some are second career pastors, much like myself. I really liked getting to know these men and I have since kept up with a couple of them.

The stats say that the over half the churches in the US have less than 75 people. Around 90 percent are less than 250. That means the number of small-church pastors is huge. Sadly, many of us function alone.

When I work out of my church and look out the window, all I see are a few cows of a small dairy farm. I have to drive a distance to meet other pastors.

But when I attend the RHMA conference, I am surrounded by many men in the same situation. We talk, we share ministry and it is encouraging and it is my favorite part of the conference.

Let me share a few things I learned from a select few of the speakers. I attended Dr. Habecker’s seminar on Courageous Conversations and forgiveness in Pastoral Leadership. The bulk of his seminar covered the Forgiveness Cycle. You can learn more about this in his book The Softer Side of Leadership: Essential Soft Skills That Transform Leaders and the People They Lead.

I have a friend who is an executive coach. He works with CEOs and CFOs of major corporations. What is the primary thing he helps these C level leaders with? Soft skills.

I coach small-church pastors and some missionaries. What is a topic that eventually comes to the surface? Soft Skills.

What are soft skills? A simple definition is “personal attributes that enable someone to interact effectively and harmoniously with other people.”

All of us, no matter how gracious we may be, need to improve in our soft skills. Consider picking up Dr. Habecker’s book, The Softer Side of Leadership to learn how these impact your world of ministry. Or you want some personal coaching on soft skills, email me and we can address these skills through Christian Leadership Coaching. Mark@coachingchristianleaders.com

Ron Klassen had a seminar titled Maximizing The Strengths of the Town and Country Church.

Ron recommended some great resources – David Ray’s book, The Big Small Church and the work of Christian Schwarz. I have links to these in the show notes.

Part of Ron’s seminar included four points on maximizing the relational strength of your church. Here they are:

Focus on personal relationships more than the quantity of relationships. I love this and if you think about it, a pastor’s ability to focus on personal relationships is a strength of a small church. Be intentional about making intergenerational relationships a centerpiece of your church’s ministry. My only question here is the demographics I face and maybe you face. Much of my church is older. Sometimes we have young people for a season. So my question is, “What is the necessary step prior to this one that either holds the younger people in the church or draws them to it?” I think this is a great topic of a future conference or a podcast episode. Emphasize the advantages of relating with people from all walks of life and encourage your congregation to be purposeful about doing it. This point reminds me of the time, early in my ministry at the rural church where I serve. A farmer, by the name of Gordon, asked me to help him get the hay in. At the time Gordon was using the small bails. Now I am a chubby pastor who sits behind a computer all day. This work almost killed me. I think my flush face and hard breathing scared Gordon because he has never asked me back. Thankfully he also changed to the big bales and can now get it in with a forklift. In my church, I have farmers, bricklayers, electricians, AND I also have computer programmers and government contractors. I need to find a way to relate to all of them. Without being killed by the experience. Finally, design the worship service to reflect the relational bent of the congregation. Ron gave the examples such as adding a sharing and praying time and adding a personal touch to the greeting and announcements. These are simple changes any of us can do.

The final session I want to share was that of Jared Wilson. He spoke on the subject of Ministry in Hard Soil.

Instead of sharing the details of his talk, I want to share just a few points he made.

Early in his session, he asked an important question: Is joy a dominant theme in your ministry?

So is it? Is joy the dominant theme in your ministry?

 Later, as he spoke on Ezekiel 37, Jared said, “The purpose of Christianity is not to make good people better but to make dead people alive.”

I’ll add my two cents here. There is a lot of making good people better and only a little of making dead people alive in the church today. How do we make dead people alive? The answer is Jesus and His gospel.

Jared presented several points on doing ministry in hard soil. Here is one that stood out to me.  Hard soil requires hardy prayers. I like that. And it makes me wonder if I am praying enough.

I have not mentioned all of the speakers. If you would like to hear the entire conference, recordings were available for purchase. I am not sure how long they will offer them, but I would encourage you to go to RHMA.org and ask if you can purchase the full set.

Thanks to RHMA for a great conference. I look forward to the next one in Lancaster.

Don’t forget the one in Illinois in 2019. Go to RHMA.org for more information

Thanks for listening to Coaching Christian Leaders. Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or where ever you get your podcasts.

As I mentioned, I am a small-church pastor, but I also have a Christian Coaching Practice that focuses on small-church pastors. If you are a small-church pastor email me at Mark@CoachingChristianLeaders.com. I would love to walk alongside you as your coach. So, feel free to email me about any question you may have about the coaching I provide.

Thanks again, and I will speak with you soon.

Hugh Plappert is a businessman, an innovator, and a man who loves Jesus Christ. And Hugh loves to help churches grow and help churches disciple their people.

Today, Hugh will share how his product, ChurchGrowthinaBox.com is a great tool that will help both small and large churches reach people and disciple people.

Church Growth in a Box Website

Upcoming Webinar - How to Launch a Disciple-Making Year without Hours of Meetings. Tuesday, November 6th, 11:00 am Central Time.

Today we visit with Dr. Warren Haynes, the author of the book Discipleship Uncomplicated. 

Dr. Haynes is the National Director of Contextualized Leadership Development for Gateway Seminary. His work puts him at the forefront of leadership training and disciple-making.

Today he shares from his book, Discipleship Uncomplicated.

Love God, Love People What’s Your Name? Let’s Pray This is for You Let Me Share a Story; Tell Me Your Story Come with Me Gather People How to Multiply Leaders

God’s Story Our Story Biblical Stories that Apply to Today Life Stories

His email: whhaynes@gmail.com

His book, Discipleship Uncomplicated

His website; www.warrentalks.com

I help pastors build healthy churches. Lately, my emphasis has been working with small churches. If you are the pastor of a small church and need some support, some coaching, then contact me. You can reach me at Mark@CoachingChristianLeaders.com. 

Over the past month, the leaders I have spoken with have talked about work-life balance, avoiding burnout, and how to navigate through tough situations. If these ring a bell with you, please contact me. I would be honored to walk with you and coach you.

Also, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast.  You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, and most any podcast app. 

Why is it essential that kids fall in love with Jesus? What must be done to ensure children and youth retain their faith as they grow up? How do you teach and disciple young people? These are some of the questions Ben Palacz and Tony Trussoni answer today on Coaching Christian Leaders.

Ben Palacz is the Family and Children’s Discipleship Pastor at Curtis Baptist Church in Augusta, Georgia. Tony Trussoni is the Student and Family Pastor at Faith Family Church in Finksburg, Maryland. These men are also the creators and hosts of The Theological Family Ministry Podcast.

Both of these men share their expertise in family ministry.

The Theological Family Ministry Podcast

Show Them Jesus: Teaching the Gospel to Kids, by Jack Klumpenhower

Their email: thetfmpodcast@gmail.com

God, in His wisdom, has chosen to use people to share His Son, Jesus. That outreach starts in the local community and involves teamwork and creativity. 

Today we meet a man who is doing all of the above - Dale Kline. Dale is the Creative Pastor and a Campus Pastor for Lifesong Church. Dale will help us understand the leadership role of campus pastor and also understand the place creativity plays in ministry.

Dale's email: Dale.Kline@lifesongonline.org

The Four Types of Campus Pastors (And Which One You Need) by Danny Watterson  https://www.vanderbloemen.com/blog/the-4-types-of-campus-pastors-and-which-one-you-need

The Steve Jobs Biography by Walter Isaacson

The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months, by Brian Moran and Michael Lennington

When a combat veteran returns home, the war doesn't end.  An enemy, unseen to us, continues to attack. But this battlefield is spiritual, not physical. And the wounds suffered are divorce, addiction, homelessness, and even suicide.

Reboot Combat Recovery is making a difference. This 12-week faith-based course helps combat veterans rebuild their lives and experience a breakthrough in their personal battle with combat trauma.

In this episode, we sit down with Bryan Flanery, the Engagement Coordinator for Reboot Combat Recovery. Bryan is a combat veteran, a man who struggled with PTSD, and a graduate of Reboot. 

He shares his story, his victory over hopelessness, and the great impact Reboot Combat Recovery made on his life.

The Combat Trauma Healing Manual: Christ-centered Solutions for Combat Trauma by Chris Adsit

Armed Services Ministry of the American Bible Society video

Bryan@RebootRecovery.com

Please visit https://rebootrecovery.com to learn more. At this website, you can find a group near you, learn how to start your own group, and how to support Reboot.

God uses people to accomplish His purposes. And God is using Adam Feldman in Ellicott City, Maryland. 

Adam is a community leader, a lead pastor, an author, and a coach.  He is the lead pastor of Metanoia Church. He is the author of two books, Journaling: Catalyzing Spiritual Growth Through Reflection and Addressing the Spiritual Formation Needs of a New Church. He is a coach who works with church planters. And he is a recognized community leader as the chair for The One EC Recovery Project.

Journaling: Catalyzing Spiritual Growth Through Reflection

Addressing the Spiritual Formation Needs of a New Church

Adam@AdamLFeldman.com

Pastor Jim Hosey shares his experience with revival. On February 3, 1970, God showed up on the campus of Asbury College. Revival broke out, it lasted over 180 hours and then spread throughout the United States and beyond.

Jim shares his personal experience at this revival in Wilmore Kentucky as well as the movement of God later in Tennessee.

One Divine Moment by Robert E. Coleman

Spontaneous Revivals: Asbury College 1905-2006 Firsthand Accounts of Lives Transformed by Robert Kanary and Kyle Shroeder

Halls Aflame: An Account of the Spontaneous Revivals at Asbury College in 1950 and 1958, by Henry C. James and Paul Rader. This book documents a different revival that took place in 1950 and 1958.

A Revival Account: Asbury 1970

Asbury College Revival 1970

Dr. John Thorington of Restoring Hearts Counseling shares his expertise in counseling teens, couples, and church leaders who struggle with sexual addiction and other compulsive behaviors.

Dr. Thorington is a licensed professional counselor. He is also certified as a Sexual Recovery Therapist by the American Association of Sex Addiction Therapy. He holds four degrees—a BA in Religion and Psychology, a Master of Divinity, a Doctor of Ministry degree, and an MA in Community Counseling.

John works as a pastoral counselor at Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs, CO, and has 29 years of experience as a pastor in the local church. He is able to offer confidential, specialized help to pastors. He is also the author of the book Pure Teens: Honoring God, Relationships, and Sex

His testimony - 1:00 The focus of Restoring Hearts Counseling - 3:10 The widespread nature of sexual addiction, especially pornography within the church - 4:40 What tweens are and why is social media bad for them The intended reader of this book Pure Teens: Honoring God, Relationships, and Sex - 6:13 The purpose of the Sexual Integrity Workouts at the end of each chapter - 10:55 Steps a teenager can take to create a battle plan to stay porn free - 11:40 How a pastor can struggle with porn - 16:00 His three-day intensives for pastors and their spouses - 17:50 The follow-up that is provided - 21:30

 John's email is John@restoringheartscounseling.com

His book Pure Teens, Honoring God, Relationships, and Sex

He also recommended The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals, by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, and Jim Huling

Welcome to Coaching Christian Leaders. My name is Mark Jones and I coach Christian Leaders. Today we will be looking at the first of many biblical teachings on leadership. When I meet with leaders, a common statement that I hear from them is this, “I just want to finish well.” I can appreciate that. I too want to finish well. But what I believe these leaders are really saying is that they want to maintain their integrity throughout their time of service. So today the biblical leadership topic we will focus on is integrity. Open your Bible to Psalm 78 and find your way to verse 70. Let's look at 70-72.

God chose David to lead Israel. And David led Israel as a shepherd. He had been a shepherd for his earthly father. But he became a shepherd for the Heavenly Father. Like David, I believe God has called you to your place of leadership. He has chosen you to lead as David led. God has placed you, with your unique gifts and talents in this place of leadership. It is interesting to me that Asaph, the man God used to pen this psalm, viewed David’s leadership as shepherding. A shepherd feeds the flock. A shepherd protects the flock. A shepherd leads the flock. Was this style of leadership, shepherding, unique to David? I don’t think so. I believe God has placed you in a similar place to do a like work. But the reason we have come to this Psalm is verse 72. Let’s look at the easy part first. The easy part is the last half of the verse. It says about David that he, “guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.” Charles Spurgeon, in his Treasury of David, writes about this phrase. Spurgeon writes, “He was a sagacious ruler” ..... To be truthful, I did not know the word “sagacious.”  I had to look it up. It means, having or showing keen mental discernment and good judgment – to be wise, to be clever. From what I know of David, he was a good administrator, a clever diplomat, he was intelligent.  So David was clever, he was intelligent, he was “sagacious.” But it is the first half of verse 72 that makes me pause. Here it is once again,  So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart. Integrity of heart – Did you see that? Maybe Asaph forgot about Bathsheba and Uriah? Remember earlier, I told you that many leaders I meet with want to finish well. I told you that I too want to finish well. But what about the start of our leadership or the middle of it? Shouldn’t we want these to also reflect integrity? Certainly! If we look at the early years of David’s leadership, those years were models of integrity. And from what we know of David’s later years, they too seem to be good years. Barnes in his commentary writes, “Save in the matter of Uriah .... his administration was eminently just, pure, impartial, wise,......” Yes, save in the matter of Uriah. To be fair to David, he did repent, he did pay a great price for his sin, and he did rebound to “finish well.” All of us can blow it. Anyone of us can fail. And we can fail like David. When we do, let us repent and seek the Savior’s forgiveness. Better yet, let us ask God to help us lead with integrity in all phases of our leadership – the beginning, the middle, and the end.

Now here are two coaching questions for you to answer. Get a piece of paper and write them down, or you can find them in the show notes. Just go to CoachingChristianLeaders.com and look at episode 12.

Here is question number one.

When you are 95 years old what will you want people to say about your life? Think about that for a minute. Sometimes people will capture this idea by writing their own eulogy. With David, we say “He led with integrity of heart.” But we also say, “What about Bathsheba and Uriah?” Question number two is based on the proverbial fork in the road. That is often the case with integrity, do you take the path to the right or to the left; the straight path or the crooked path? Here is a question that you can use when you find yourself standing before that fork. How will this decision impact God’s purpose for my life? God has placed you in this place to lead. So any decision you make can impact God’s purpose for you. Think back on David and the impact his decisions made on him, his family, and even his calling.

Dan Brown is an experienced executive who has worked in financial services, banking, asset management, and software solutions. He has served with Fortune 100 companies as well as non-profit organizations.

Dan has been awarded the Chief Information Officer of the year award and was the Atlanta Telecom Professional of the year in 2012.

These days, Dan brings all of this experience forward, serving as an executive coach. He coaches senior executives as well as mid-career executives.

You can learn more about Dan and the coaching he provides by visiting www.sage-coach.com.

Dan's email: dan.brown@sage-coach.com

Dan's website: www.sage-coach.com

Today we will sit down with Brandon Boone. Brandon is the pastor of Red Hills Southern Baptist Church in Enoch Utah. He’s the author of the blog OfShepherdsandSheep.com as well as the author of the book, The King's Sermon: The Sermon on the Mount and Life in the Kingdom of Heaven.

The reason I wanted to interview Brandon is his experience with publishing The King's Sermon. Brandon took the self-publishing route. I am convinced that many of you are sitting on a former sermon series, a training curriculum, or an expertise that could easily be published. And self-publishing might just be the way you can extend your reach and also extend the reach of the gospel.

Brandon's email: Brandonmckayboone@gmail.com

Brandon's book: The King's Sermon

Brandon's blog: www.ofshepherdsandsheep.com

Kindle Direct Publishing: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/

Crystal Renaud is a certified Life & Leadership Coach and speaker. She is also the author of two books, Dirty Girls Come Clean and 90 Days to Wholeness. In 2009, Crystal founded the Dirty Girls Ministry, which is to help women with pornography addiction.

Crystal holds certifications in Professional Life Coaching, Treating Sexual Addictions, Extraordinary Women, and Caring for People God’s Way through the American Association of Christian Counselors.

Crystal's email: Coaching@crystalrenaud.com

Dirty Girls Come Clean

90 Days to Wholeness

www.CrystalRenaud.com

William Attaway is the lead pastor of Southview Community Church in Herndon Virginian, a professor of Biblical Studies at Washington University of Virginia, as well as a teacher of Old and New Testament Survey at Itawamba Community College.

He holds a PhD in Old Testament Studies with an emphasis in archaeology. He is also a John Maxwell certified speaker, coach, and teacher.

William has authored two books: Lead: Leadership Lessons from the Not So Minor Prophets and 97 Leadership Nuggets Every Leader Should Know.

He has been happily married to his wife Charlotte for 20 years and they have two daughters.

Lead: Leadership Lessons From the Not So Minor Prophets by William Attaway.

97 Leadership Nuggets Every Leader Should Know by William Attaway

Profiles in Leadership by Alan Axelrod

William's email: William@Catalyticleadership.net

If you want to change an organization you must first change its leadership. That's the ministry of Officers' Christian Fellowship (OCF). 

OCF’s Vision is the military community positively impacted through Christ-like leaders. OCF's Mission is to engage military leaders in Biblical fellowship and growth to equip them for Christ-like service at the intersection of faith, family, and profession.

Today we sit down with Brigadier General David B. Warner, the Executive Director of OCF. General Warner shares how the ministry of OCF is making a positive impact on the lives of U.S. military leaders.

General Warner's email: David.Warner@ocfusa.org

Officers' Christian Fellowship website is www.ocfusa.org

Thanks for listening to this episode of Coaching Christian Leaders.

Please subscribe to Coaching Christian Leaders and never miss an episode. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, and most any podcast app. Also, visit our Facebook Page and leave a review there or join the conversation. 

Finally, join the Coaching Christian Leaders team. You can do so by clicking HERE.  I send an email to all team members when a new episode is released. This email includes the show notes and Member Only Resources. I will never share your email address and you can unsubscribe at any time. 

Today we sit down with Ryan Churchill, the author of The Covenants, Christ, and You. Ryan was a great guest. He shared the origin of the book and the power of the Covenants in understanding our identity and that of Jesus Christ.

The Covenants, Christ, and You cover the seven biblical covenants. The reader begins the journey in Eden and travels all the way to the New Covenant.

Ryan's email CovenantsChristYou@Icloud.com

His website: http://www.thecovenantschristandyou.com/

Thanks for listening to this episode of Coaching Christian Leaders.

Please subscribe to Coaching Christian Leaders and never miss an episode. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, and most any podcast app. Also, visit our Facebook Page and leave a review there or join the conversation. 

Finally, join the Coaching Christian Leaders team. You can do so by clicking HERE.  I send an email to all team members when a new episode is released. This email includes the show notes and Member Only Resources. I will never share your email address and you can unsubscribe at any time. 

Today we speak with Dr. Henry Curtis McDaniel Jr. Dr. McDaniel is the founder and president of the Center for Reaching a Post-Christian Culture.

Dr. McDaniel graduated cum laude from Columbia International University and he obtained a Master of Divinity from Covenant Theological Seminary. He earned two doctorates - a D.Min from Fuller Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from Duquesne University.

Dr. McDaniel is the author of two books - When I Need God the Most and God Is All My Hope and Stay. He also wrote a series of books with his wife, Karen McDaniel called Life Brighteners.

His website - http://www.postchristiancondition.org/

God's Greatness and Glory is Made Most Powerful: Celebrating the Life of My Beloved Wife, Karen Preston McDaniel 1957-2017

Curt@postchrisitancondition.org

Thanks for listening to this episode of Coaching Christian Leaders.

Please subscribe to Coaching Christian Leaders and never miss an episode. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, and most any podcast app. Also, visit our Facebook Page and leave a review there or join the conversation. 

Finally, join the Coaching Christian Leaders team. You can do so by clicking HERE.  I send an email to all team members when a new episode is released. This email includes the show notes and Member Only Resources. I will never share your email address and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Recently I interview Jake Delich. Jake and his wife Elizabeth have planted a church in Sweden and are now helping with a church plant in Puerto Rico.

I should point out that this interview was recorded prior to the hurricane Maria. Jake and his family did come out of Maria in good shape but the situation in Puerto Rico is serious.

email JEDelich@gmail.com

Please support Jake and Elizabeth through pray and giving. For more information on giving you can contact Biblical Ministries Worldwide at https://www.biblicalministries.org/support/

Thanks for listening to this episode of Coaching Christian Leaders.

Please subscribe to Coaching Christian Leaders and never miss an episode. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, and most any podcast app. Also, visit our Facebook Page and leave a review there or join the conversation. 

Finally, join the Coaching Christian Leaders team. You can do so by clicking HERE.  I send an email to all team members when a new episode is released. This email includes the show notes and Member Only Resources. I will never share your email address and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Every week God gives us opportunities to help those affected by porn, abortion, rape, casual sex, a sexless marriage, same-sex attraction, or childhood sexual abuse. But often we fall short. Sadly, our response causes more harm.

Today on the Coaching Christian Leaders podcast we will meet Dr. Sam Serio. Dr. Serio is the author of the book, Sensitive Preaching to the Sexually Hurting. He will share with us his insights on how to help those who have been sexually wounded.

His Book: Sensitive Preaching to the Sexually Hurting

His Website:  http://www.healingsexualhurt.com/

Contact Information: drsamserio@gmail.com

Thanks for listening to this episode of Coaching Christian Leaders. I’m sure you know a pastor, missionary, coach, or someone in leadership who would benefit from Dr. Serio’s insights. Please forward this episode to them. I know that they will thank you.

Please subscribe to Coaching Christian Leaders and never miss an episode. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, and most any podcast app. Also, visit our Facebook Page and leave a review there or join the conversation. 

Finally, join the Coaching Christian Leaders team. You can do so by clicking HERE.  I send an email to all team members when a new episode is released. This email includes the show notes and Member Only Resources. I will never share your email address and you can unsubscribe at any time.

For the past 18 months, this podcast was called The Real Pastors podcast. Real Pastors released monthly interviews with pastors and missionaries about their calling and their work.

Now that the podcast has been rebranded to Coaching Christian Leaders we will continue to interview those in ministry, especially pastors and missionaries. But we will add coaches and others in leadership.

In addition, I will feature coaching specific episodes.

So what you will hear in this episode is a monthly release under the heading of One Question Coaching. These One Question Coaching episodes will be short and to the point. My goal is to give you one action item to work on.

So here we go.

God has called you to lead. Whether a ministry or a business – God has called you to lead. Since that calling, you have worked hard and prayed. But now as you look back, as you evaluate the journey can you say your leadership, your ministry, or your business is where you thought it would be?

Here is a simple question to help you evaluate.

What is possible?

What is possible?  ... in your outreach .... in your financial support .... in your adult discipleship .... in your sales .... in your marketing?

Take time this month and determine what is possible

First, I want you to evaluate just one thing. Don’t try and evaluate the entire ministry or business. Don’t try and evaluate every aspect of your leadership. Just evaluate one part, one thing. Evaluate your online marketing...your adult discipleship .... how you do performance evaluations ... your ... Well, you get the idea. Just evaluate one thing. Pick one thing to evaluate. Second, do not evaluate what is – The present is not important. And do not evaluate what was – The past is not important. Only determine what is possible. Look into the future and answer the question What is Possible?

Spend some time on this. Think about it. Pray over it. Then write down all that is possible. Write down what it can be.

A few years back I evaluated our children’s outreach. I felt that we could reach even deeper into the community. I knew that there were kids and families in our community that we were not reaching.

So we mapped out some steps, made some changes, and now we are accomplishing just that. We are reaching more children for Christ.

Now I am in the process of evaluating Adult Discipleship. I know that we teach the Bible well. But the possibility I see in Adult Discipleship are deeper Christian relationships. So now I am mapping out steps to get us there.

Steps are the strategy that follows evaluation.  First, you determine what is possible. And second, you map out the strategy to get there.

Creating a strategy to get to the possible will take time and thought. It might even involve your team or another person, someone to help you develop the strategy. This is where a coach can assist.

If you need help with this evaluation and with the strategy, feel free to contact me. I would love to help you.

I currently offer complimentary 45-minute strategy sessions to my listeners. Just click HERE or go to schedule your session. 

God has called you to lead. The large part of your calling is to determine the possible and then map out the steps to get there.

Take this week to determine the possible. And then feel free to contact me. I would be honored to help you map out the next steps as you move forward in your leadership.

For the past 18 months, you have known this podcast as The Real Pastors Podcast. But now it is time to make a change. So I am rebranding the podcast. The podcast will now be called Coaching Christian Leaders.

Why are you doing this you ask?

There are a few reasons.

The title Real Pastors never explained what the podcast was about. When I picked the Real Pastors, I took the idea from Real Simple Magazine. Unfortunately, what works for a magazine does not work for a podcast. Another reason is that my guest list has broadened. In addition to the pastors and missionaries I normally interview, there will be Christian authors, counselors, and leaders sharing their knowledge. For example, our first guest for Coaching Christian Leaders is Dr. Sam Serio. Dr. Serio is the is the author of Sensitive Preaching to the Sexually Hurting. This is a great interview and I am honored that he will be on the show. Third, some new doors are opening for me. Real Pastors made it possible for me to begin coaching leaders. And so it is only fitting that this podcast includes coaching.

So what will be the new format? I will continue to interview guests who have a story or an expertise that will benefit you the listener.

I will also be releasing coaching specific episodes to help leaders move forward. This will include interviews with Christian coaches and also my own coaching tips.

Thanks to all the listeners who supported the Real Pastors Podcast these past 18 months. I look forward to further serving you through Coaching Christian Leaders.

I’ll see you soon.

Over 14 years ago, Pastor Herb Reese noticed a void in the church. There was no lasting ministry to the widows, widowers, and single parents. So he created one - New Commandment Men's Ministries. 

New Commandment Men's Ministries helps churches recruit, train, and deploy teams of men to help widows, widowers, and single parents.

Herb and the ministry have been described in the monthly publications of Rev Magazine, Leadership Network, Promise Keepers, and Man in the Mirror.  It has been written about in Why Men Hate Going to Church and The Externally Focused Church. In addition, Focus on the Family, Moody Radio, and Daystar Television have broadcast programs about New Commandment.

You can email Herb at Herbreese@yahoo.com

You can learn more by visiting his website at Newcommandment.org

Please check out his book, Developing A Men's Team Ministry to Widows, Widowers, and Single Parents.

Thanks for listening to Real Pastors.  If you are not a subscriber then please become one. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, and most any podcast app. Also, please leave a review of Real Pastors wherever you listen.  Your reviews help the podcast reach more people.

Finally, become a member of the Real Pastors Team.  You can do so by clicking HERE.  You will receive an email when I release a new episode.  The show notes will be emailed to you and I will occasionally send you Member Only Resources.  I will never share your email address and you can unsubscribe at any time.

God is working in Argentina. In a valley, not far from Cordoba, God is spreading the good news of His Son, Jesus. To accomplish this, He is using Tito and Adriana Ramirez. 

Tito and Adriana have an ambitious plan to plant 15 churches in the Punilla Valley of Argentina. The Punilla Valley is located west-northwest of Cordoba Argentina. 

Please email Tito and Adriana at TitoAdriana@gmail.com

Please support Tito and Adriana through pray and giving. For more information on giving you can contact Biblical Ministries Worldwide at https://www.biblicalministries.org/support/

Thanks for listening to Real Pastors.  If you are not a subscriber then please become one. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, and most any podcast app. Also, please leave a review of Real Pastors wherever you listen.  Your reviews help the podcast reach more people.

Finally, become a member of the Real Pastors Team.  You can do so by clicking HERE.  You will receive an email when I release a new episode.  The show notes will be emailed to you and I will occasionally send you Member Only Resources.  I will never share your email address and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Today is a real treat. We will sit down with Maria Gusmao of Recife Brasil. Maria is a missionary with Bible Centered Ministries International. She and her team reach over 4,000 kids a week with the good news of Jesus Christ.

Her story includes witchcraft, demonism, drug abuse, and homosexuality. But the focus of her story is how God always provides. God provides for her needs, her ministry, and God provides hope for the hopeless and help for the helpless.

You can email Maria at cida.mcb@gmail.com

To learn more about Bible Centered Ministries, please go to https://bcmintl.org/

To help Maria and her team financially, please contact BCM at giving@bcmintl.org or call them at 1-888-226-4685. Let them know that you wish to support the Bible Club Ministry in Recife Brasil.

Thanks for listening to Real Pastors.  If you are not a subscriber then please become one. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, and most any podcast app. Also, please leave a review of Real Pastors wherever you listen. Your reviews help the podcast reach more people.

Finally, become a member of the Real Pastors Team. To do so just click HERE. You will receive an occasional newsletter and an email whenever an episode is released. I will never share your email address and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Andy Earl has been a church planter, a pastor, and an evangelist. He has had the privilege of planting two English speaking churches in Germany.

But in recent years Andy has suffered a heartache. Sometimes, when people suffer, they pull away from God, even to the point where they no longer serve Him. But not Andy. Andy has used this heartache to create a new ministry. Out of the ashes of heartache arises an opportunity to serve Jesus.

What happened to Andy? What was this heartache? Andy and his wife Tina divorced. Divorce is a common occurrence among our church members, but it is rare when those in ministry divorce.

In today's episode, Andy will share his divorce story. He will share how it impacted him personally and how it impacted his ministry. Andy will also share some of the resources that helped him work through this sad situation. Finally, Andy will share the new ministry that he is starting. Broken Hearts Ministry will provide counsel to those suffering a similar heartache.

Andy recommended two resources for those going through a divorce.

Divorce Care at DivorceCare.org When "I Do" Becomes "I Don't": Practical Helps for Healing During Separation & Divorce by Laura Petherbridge

Please contact Andy with any questions you may have. If you are a pastor of a church in Germany, Andy is available to you and your congregation. You can email him at Earls@t-online.de

Thanks for listening to Real Pastors.  If you are not a subscriber then please become one. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, and most any podcast app. Also, please leave a review of Real Pastors wherever you listen.  Your reviews help the podcast reach more people.

I am in the process of recording new interviews and I would love for you to participate. Here's how. Just review the Roundup Questions found on the blog page. Then email me if you have insight into any of the subjects. I will email back and schedule the interview. Interviews will last 10-15 minutes.

Or if you do not want to be interviewed but still want to answer a Roundup question, use our Speakpipe app. Click the Speakpipe icon at Realpastors.com or go directly to www.Speakpipe.com/realpastors. You will have only 90 seconds to answer. I will pick the best answers for an upcoming episode. 

Finally, become a member of the Real Pastors Team.  You can do so by clicking HERE.  You will receive an email when I release a new episode.  The show notes will be emailed to you and I will occasionally send you Member Only Resources.  I will never share your email address and you can unsubscribe at any time.

John Harling, the pastor of Hanover Fellowship Church in Hanover Pennsylvania, is our guest. John is married to his wife, Peggy, and they have two sons. 

John is a graduate of Liberty University with a Masters of Divinity. He is also an author. His book is titled Grounded for Growth.  

In this interview, John shares his personal battle with pornography. John will tell his story and give you some practical ways to defeat the power of porn.

Caught with porn - 13:12

Pornography Stats - 15:30

John's first exposure - 18:10

How pornography impacts the mind - 19:40

Deliverance from sexual sin - 26:11

AAA Policy - 26:54

Covenant Eyes - 40:27 

Feel free to contact John with your questions. His email is:pjharling@comcast.net

Care for Pastors - www.CareforPastors.org

Covenant Eyes Internet Accountability and Filtering - www.CovenantEyes.com

Grounded for Growth Leaders Guide by John Harling

Grounded for Growth Student Workbook by John Harling

Here are two books I use to counsel men addicted to pornography. The book by Tim Challies is very helpful to use with men who are not strong readers. The book by Heath Lambert and Joshua Harris is also a great book, especially for the counselor.

Sexual Detox: A Guide for Guys Who Are Sick of Porn, by Tim Challies

Finally Free: Fighting for Purity With the Power of Grace, by Heath Lambert and Joshua Harris

It is important that we minister with sensitivity to the those who struggle with pornography and other sexual issues. A book that may help you do so is by Dr. Sam Serio titled Sensitive Preaching to the Sexually Hurting. I am reading it now and it has been helpful.

Finally, approximately 25% of Christian women are addicted to porn, but they rarely seek help. Also, most pastors are ill-equipped to counsel women on this subject. Crystal Renaud has written a book that can help. It titled Dirty Girls Come Clean. The book is written for the woman struggling with porn. Ms. Renaud also has a ministry. The website

Ms. Renaud also has a ministry that provides women with help, hope, and healing from pornography and sexual addiction. The website is www.dirtygirlsministries.com.

Chuck Colson, in his book The Body, lists the questions used by Charles Swindoll.

Have you been with a woman anywhere this past week that might be seen as compromising? Have any of your financial dealings lacked integrity? Have you exposed yourself to any sexually explicit material? Have you spent adequate time in Bible study and prayer? Have you given priority time to your family? Have you fulfilled the mandates of your calling? Have you just lied to me?

Thanks for listening to Real Pastors.  If you are not a subscriber then please become one. That way you will never miss an episode.  You can subscribe at iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, and most any podcast app.

Also, please leave a review of Real Pastors wherever you listen.  Your reviews help the podcast reach more people.

Finally, I am in the process of recording new interviews and I would love for you to participate. Here's how. Just review the Roundup Questions found on the blog page. Then email me if you have some insight on any of the subjects. I will email back and schedule the interview. Interviews will last 10-15 minutes.

Or if you do not want to be interviewed but still want to answer a Roundup question, use our Speakpipe app. Click the Speakpipe icon at Realpastors.com or go directly to www.Speakpipe.com/realpastors. You will have only 90 seconds to answer. I will pick the best answers for an upcoming episode. 

Fred Walker is the Director of Church Ministries at Perry Hall Baptist Church. He has been married to his wife Sandy for over 45 years and they have two grown daughters and seven grandchildren.

He is a gifted administrator and leader. But his true heart is focused on mentoring men. In today's interview, Fred shares how he challenges and mentors men. 

Fred@PerryHallBaptist.org

The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here for? by Rich Warren

Thanks for listening to Real Pastors.  If you are not a subscriber then please become one. You can subscribe at iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, and most any third party podcast app.

Also, please leave a review of Real Pastors wherever you listen.  Your reviews help the podcast reach more people.

Finally, become a member of the Real Pastors Team.  You can do so by clicking HERE.  You will receive an email when we release a new episode.  The show notes will be emailed to you. And on occasion, we will send you Member Only Resources.  We will never share your email address and you can unsubscribe at any time.

God calls those of us in ministry to be faithful - faithful on the mountain top and faithful in the valley.

Today we sit down with Pastor Joe Ready.  Joe has over 36 years of ministry experience. He has led churches through many different seasons.

One season that some churches go through is that of decline.  Joe will share his wisdom on how to lead a church through decline.

He shared what the small church may share with the larger church.  2:51 He pointed out the problems and strengths of the small church.  17:00 He presented the symptoms of the healthy church.  29:50 He looked at the problem of a church that is more focused on growth than God. 42:00 Finally, Joe told us how to lead a church during decline.  51:25

Authentic Worship Balanced Biblical Preaching Sound Leadership A Welcoming Congregation A Sense of Mission

Prayerfully Consistent preparation to preach Teach the Principle of Blessing. Longevity of the pastor. Stick it out.

10 Very Possible Reasons Your Church Is Not Growing by Carey Nieuwhof 

The Dynamics of Church Growth by Ron Jenson

Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ by Daniel Goleman

JoeReady@comcast.net

Thanks for listening to Real Pastors.  If you are not a subscriber then please become one. That way you will never miss an episode.  You can subscribe at iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, and most any third party podcast app.  Episodes are released once per month on the third Monday of the month.

Also, please leave a review of Real Pastors wherever you listen.  Your reviews help the podcast reach more people.

Finally, become a member of the Real Pastors Team.  You can do so by clicking HERE.  You will receive an email when we release a new episode.  The show notes will be emailed to you. And on occasion, we will send you Member Only Resources.  We will never share your email address and you can unsubscribe at any time.

This month we speak with Pastor Dave Tierney, the Senior Pastor at White Marsh Baptist Church. Dave is a true scholar and a man that has a great understanding of today's events.

Dave has been married to his wife Lisa for 30 years.  They have four kids and two dogs. He enjoys sailing, reading, and spending time with the family.

The focus of Dave's interview focused on immigration.  Dave pointed out that immigration is the next great opportunity for the church.  His church hosts two immigrant, or language congregations. They also offer English as a Second Language classes.

Flickering Lamps: Christ and His Church, by Richard Blackaby Fools Talk: Recovering the Art of Christian Persuasion, by Oz Guinness Bringing Home the Prodigals, by Bob Parsons Onward: Engaging the Culture Without Losing the Gospel, by Russell D. Moore Lead Like Jesus: Lessons From the Greatest Leadership Model of All Time, by Ken Blanchard World Relief

DaveTierney@WhiteMarshBaptist.org

Thanks for listening to Real Pastors.  If you are not a subscriber then please become one. That way you will never miss an episode.  You can subscribe at iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, and most any third party podcast app.  Episodes are released once per month on the third Monday of the month.

Also, please leave a review of Real Pastors wherever you listen.  Your reviews help the podcast reach more people.

Finally, become a member of the Real Pastors Team.  You can do so by clicking HERE.  You will receive an email when we release a new episode.  The show notes will be emailed to you. And on occasion, we will send you Member Only Resources.  We will never share your email address and you can unsubscribe at any time.

It's one thing to point out a problem.  But it's another thing to offer the solution. Pastor Dave Dent is a pastor that offers solutions.  Dave is the Associate Pastor of Adult Ministries at Mid Atlantic Community Church in Davidsonville Maryland.  

His ministry focus is to shepherd people through life's difficulties, to connect people into discipleship relationships.  Today, in this interview, Dave shares the ministry of Celebrate Recovery and how Jesus, through the Beatitudes, provides solutions.

Dave has been married to Catherine Kellogg Dent since November of 1997.  He has three daughters and one son.  Dave has a heart for recovery, but he also loves the process of discipleship.

Primarily, Dave shared the ministry of Celebrate Recovery.  Celebrate Recovery was instrumental in Dave's personal recovery from addiction.  Since then God has used Dave in the Celebrate Recovery ministry.

Email Dave at:  DaDentSr@gmail.com

I learned a great deal talking with Dave. Here are three things that stood out.

I came away with a much better understanding of Celebrate Recovery and what this ministry can provide to the local church. Another takeaway is how inclusive Celebrate Recovery can be.  It is not just an addiction ministry. Celebrate Recovery can address other problems and it ministers to children and teens as well. I really appreciated Dave's insights into discipleship.  For years discipleship has been the call of the western church.  Dave shared some resources that will help you in your discipleship ministry.

We would love for you to share your insights.  Maybe you have a background with Celebrate Recovery.  Please share your thoughts- what works and what doesn't.

Thanks for listening to Real Pastors.  If you are not a subscriber then please become one. That way you will never miss an episode.  You can subscribe at iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, and most any third party podcast app.  Episodes are released once per month on the third Monday of the month.

Also, please leave a review of Real Pastors wherever you listen.  Your reviews help the podcast reach more people.

Finally, become a member of the Real Pastors Team.  You can do so by clicking HERE.  You will receive an email when we release a new episode.  The show notes will be emailed to you. And on occasion, we will send you Member Only Resources.  We will never share your email address and you can unsubscribe at any time.

It is extremely difficult to watch a family member or friend struggle with an alcohol or drug addiction.  You feel so helpless.  You are uncertain as to where to turn or what to say.  Pastors, too, struggle with counseling the addict. 

Hopefully this month's guest will give us some insights into the life and struggles of an addict. Our guest for this episode is John Burghauser. John is a Pastoral Care Worker with Stauros Ministries. He ministers daily to men and women who struggle with addiction.

Like those he helps, John once was an addict.  But Christ delivered him from this dependency.  Now he is living our 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 which says:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

And John does just that. He ministers to addicts from a place of understanding.

John and been married to his wife Peggy for 26 years.  They live just north of Baltimore in Nottingham Md.  He has served 14 years with Stauros Ministries.

John shared his journey and struggles. He also shared the work he does with Stauros Ministries.

Email John at John@Stauros.com

I think John taught us many things today.  Let me focus on just three: The first thing that struck me was the fact that we are no longer who we used to be now that we are in Christ.  You may have been an addict when Christ saved you, but now you are an addict no longer.  You are a new person in Christ. You are a child of God.

Of course we are sinners saved by grace. But I think we need to modify our view of self.  I am more than a saved sinner, I am a new creature.  Pastors, you need to share that with those you counsel and those you disciple.

The second thing that John taught me was the importance of the local church in the life of an addict.  The church can provide love and grace over and above that of any addiction ministry.  However, the church must remember that it is for the long-haul.  Walking with an addict can be sloppy, it will have its setbacks, and it will take time.

Finally pastors, don't blow off local resources that can help the addict.  Get informed and find out what city, county, or state services can be of service.  Some will be beneficial, others will not be.  You need to know which ones can truly help the addict.

We would love for you to share your insights.  Many of you have counseled and worked with addicts.  What has worked or not worked with you?  Please share in the comment section below.

Thanks for listening to Real Pastors.  If you are not a subscriber then please become one. That way you will never miss an episode.  You can subscribe at iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, and most any third party podcast app.  Episodes are released once per month on the third Monday of the month.

Also, please leave a review of Real Pastors wherever you listen. Your reviews help the podcast reach more people.

Finally, become a member of the Real Pastors Team.  You can do so by clicking HERE.  You will receive an email when we release a new episode.  The show notes will be emailed to you. And on occasion, we will send you Member Only Resources.  We will never share your email address and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Dan Fox is the senior pastor of a church just south of Baltimore, Maryland.  He has been married to his wife, Paula, for 23 years and they have four kids.  Dan is a gifted teacher of the Bible and a person in demand when it comes the subject of mental illness.

Dan shared the story of his son's battle with schizophrenia.  This very personal story will give you insight into living with mental illness and maybe challenge your personal theology on the subject.  His son's journey changed Dan's point of view on mental illness.

Dan spoke of one book and recommended another two.  Here they are:

Surviving Schizophrenia: A Family Manual, by E. Fuller Torrey Side by Side: Walking With Others in Wisdom and Love, by Edward T. Welch Schizophrenia: A Blueprint for Recovery, by Milt Greek

Dan also recommended the organization Christian Counseling & Education Foundation

You can email Pastor Dan Fox at pastordanfox@icloud.com

There are many things in this story that we can takeaway. I want to isolate three.

Not all mental illness is the same.  As pastors, we need to understand the general differences.  More importantly, we need to understand our limitations. Most pastors are not qualified to treat many forms of mental illness.  Pastors need to develop a referral list. This list should include trusted individuals who are qualified to deal with mental illness. The church needs to be a safe place where people can freely share their struggles with mental illness.  The church is not a place where we shun or condemn the mentally ill.  Rather it should be a place of grace. Finally, regardless of our qualifications, we can always give biblical counsel and we can always love those that are hurting.

We would love to hear your viewpoint on mental illness.  This can be a touchy subject with strong opinions on both sides.  Please leave your insights below in the comment section.

Thanks for following Real Pastors.  Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast at iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play  or iHeartRadio.  We are also available on most any third party podcast app.

Also don't forget to sign up for our email newsletter. I will email you whenever there is a new episode.  These emails will include the show notes as well as "member only" materials.  I will never share your contact information and you can unsubscribe at any time. Just click HERE and join the team!

Glen Willet is the Worship and Discipleship Pastor at Westminster Baptist Church in Westminster Maryland.  He is an experienced church planter, a gifted musician, and a topnotch teacher of the Word.  Glen has been married to his wife, Barbara for 37 years. They have three sons and three grand kids.

God has used Glen to make a long-term impact through short-term missions.  Glen does this through the training of local national pastors and through a long-term commitment to one local community. Glen also shares how he has ministered to the homeless in the Baltimore and Westminster areas.

Glen recommended three books to help you develop a short-term mission program.

Glen can be reached at GlenWillet@comcast.net

I had three takeaways from our conversation with Glen Willet.

Missions can be in your backyard.  Glen's work with the homeless in Baltimore and in Westminster is eye opening.  The homeless are an invisible people living in your community.  They're invisible because we tend to look right past them.  Invisible people can be the homeless or an immigrant community.  What can we do then to reach these people? First look around and find them.  Then develop a long-term plan to reach out. Impact will be made not with one evangelistic event but when you invest for the long haul. Short-term missions can have a long-term impact when you focus on those that will be there for the long-term.  Glen and his team are training Haitian pastors.  Many many years from now, when Glen can no longer make that trip, these pastors will still be serving.  To make a long-term impact you must focus on those that will be there long-term. And I would encourage you focus on pastors. Finally, focus your short-term trips on one community for the long-term.  It may be short-term for your church people, but because you are involved with one community it will have a long-term impact.

Thanks for following Real Pastors.  Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast at iTunes, Stitcher Radio, or Google Play.  We are also available on most any podcast app your phone may have.  Soon we will be on iHeartRadio.

Please leave feedback where you listen or you can leave feedback here in the comment section below.   If you comment below, I would appreciate your insights on the subject of short-term missions.

Also don't forget to sign up for our email newsletter.  I will email you whenever there is a new episode.  These emails will include the show notes as well as "member only" materials.  I will never share your contact information and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Tom and Danielle Brendle are missionaries with New Tribes Mission.  God has used them in Tribal Church Planting and in Member Care.  They have four sons, Levi, Jacob, Luke, and Josiah. They currently serve in Florida.

Tom and Danielle stressed the need for personal relationships between the church and its missionaries. They shared the need for mission oriented discipleship at the local church level. Tom and Danielle gave an overview of member care and encouraged the local church to participate in this care.

They recommended Dave and Irene Lewis' website Paracletos.org

Tom encouraged us to read the book Life With A Capital L by Matt Heard

Please email Tom and Danielle at Tom_Brendle@ntm.org

I had three takeaways from Tom and Danielle's interview.

It is essential that churches build personal relationships with their missionaries.  Now that is easier said than done. And it will take time and intention to accomplish.  Often missionaries are just a picture on the wall or a check you mail.  How can you build better relationships?  I believe you should first evaluate every missionary that you support and then evaluate how you relate to them.  In August, we will send Real Pastor Team members a free tool that will help with this.  If you are not a team member, then sign up by clicking HERE.  This simple resource helped us transform our mission program. Expose your children to missions and place your young adults in church leadership.  Many missionaries realize their calling when they are young.  So we need to be intentional in our discipleship of young people, exposing them to missions and missionaries.   Also, we need to move young adults into places of responsibility.  Children will catch the vision of missions and young adults will see their place in God's mission for the church. Provide Member Care to your missionaries.  When your missionaries return home on furlough, are you including them in the body? Are you giving them a safe place to share and decompress? What are you doing to help with this difficult transition?  Many churches are as disconnected with their missionaries when they are home as they are when they are away.  Missionaries need a safe place and they need a church family.  So take every opportunity to provide care when a missionary returns home.

Remember to subscribe to the podcast.  You can subscribe at iTunes, Google Play, and Stitcher.  Also, please leave a review where you listen or comment below.

Finally, join the Real Pastors Team. Team members receive an email when a new episode is released, they receive a copy of each episode's show notes, and they receive special resources throughout the year.  We will never share your information and you can unsubscribe at any time.  Just click HERE to join.

Dr. Alban and his wife Joanne began their ministry in 1965 when they served as missionaries in Brazil. The Lord redirected their steps in 1975 and Dr. Alban took a pastorate in Tennessee.  Still having a passion for missions, he accepted a position with Berean Mission in 1979.  Since then, the Lord has used him to train and prepare new missionaries for the field. Dr. Alban served 16 years as Missions Department Chairman at Appalachian Bible College and in 2003, he became Professor of Global Studies at Liberty University.

Successes and struggles in ministry A key takeaway was that God did not call him to be someone else but to be the man He gifted him to be. The importance of the local church pastor in world missions Missions depend upon the pastor's leadership.

The Insanity of God: A True Story of Faith Resurrected by Nik Ripken and Gregg Lewis.

Toxic Charity by Robert D. Lupton

Please email Dr. Alban at dalban@liberty.edu

Please subscribe to Real Pastors at iTunes, Google Play, or Stitcher Radio.  You should also sign up for our email updates. You will never miss an episode and you will receive additional membership materials.

Does it hurt to pastor a church?

Sometimes ministry ... hurts. Low pay, long hours, and the people!  In Episode 2, An Interview with Pastor Gary Buchman, Gary shared some of the pain of church work.

To overcome the heartaches of ministry, it is essential that you know why and for what God called you. So you need to define your mission and create a statement that communicates it. Stephanie Vozza of FastCompany Magazine wrote, "Whether it's a daily mantra or a quote to return to when times get tough, having a personal mission statement brings focus and purpose to your life."  You need to have your own mission statement.

Dr. Steven Covey wrote, "Write down your roles as you now see them. Are you satisfied with the mirror image of your life?" So write down your every role, every position you have. Then create a mission statement for each one.  However, you do not need a statement for every role.  Rather, examine each role and ask these three questions:

Does this role really matter? How long will this role last? Is it a role that God speaks of in His Bible?

I have only three mission statements; Father/Grandfather, Pastor, Husband.

The Character of Leadership: Nine Qualities that Define Great Leaders by Dr. Jeff Iorg

Stephanie Vozza, Personal Mission Statements of 5 Famous CEOs and Why You Should Write One Too - http://www.fastcompany.com/3026791/dialed/personal-mission-statements-of-5-famous-ceos-and-why-you-should-write-one-too

Dr. Steven Covey Article, The Community: Business Mission Statements - https://www.stephencovey.com/mission-statements.php

Dr. Jeff Iorg, How To Write Your Own Personal Mission Statement - http://www.lifeway.com/Article/How-to-Write-Your-Own-Personal-Mission-Statement

Pastor Gary Buchman is the pastor of Emmitsburg Community Bible Church, which is a church plant in Emmitsburg, Maryland.  Gary has also served as jail chaplain.  He has been married to his wife Debbie for 46 years.  They have five kids and 14 grandkids.

Gary also has a heart for hurting pastors.  On this episode he shares his ministry to coach pastors in need.

Who is this Man? The Unpredictable Impact of the Inescapable Jesus  by John Ortberg

If God is Good; Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil by Randy Alcorn.

Gary can be reached at pastorgarybuchman@gmail.com

Tim Webster is the Senior Pastor of Fredericktowne Baptist Church in Walkersville Maryland.  Previously he was the Senior Pastor of at Uniontown Bible Church.  He is married to his best friend, Alice.  Between the two of them, they have 8 kids! Tim shares with us some of the highs and lows of ministry.  He focused part of his story on a recent battle with depression.

Tim is a published author.  His book is Christ-Centered Pastors.

Tim recommended the book Deep & Wide by Andy Stanley.

If you have any questions for Tim you can email him at timwebster214@gmail.com

Welcome to Real Pastors.  At Real Pastors, we interview local church pastors, missionaries, and ministry leaders. The purpose is to hear their stories and learn from their experiences.

Episodes will be released once per month on the third Monday.