Category: Leading

It has been my privilege to lead churches since I was 18 years old.  I have watched both movements and movers move on and off the scene.  The American church landscape has been painted, erased and painted over many times, yet in all these years and in the passing of all that time, I’ve heard almost nothing about what I consider to be the American church’s dirtiest little secret.

The church’s dirtiest little secret is not the scandal of flock-fleecing pastors jetting around at their church’s expense.  Nor is it the outrageous salaries or even the oft expected and oft over-enjoyed sex scandal and subsequent fall from grace of a once revered leader.

No, the real scandal of the American church is something much deeper, and more pernicious than any of those tragic, isolated events. And I do mean isolated, because they are a very small percentage of what really goes on day in and day out, week in and week out in the hundreds of thousands of Christian churches all across this country.

The real dirty little secret in the American church is that we regularly, relentlessly, and without mercy beat-up, chew-up and spit-out our leaders.

You’d have to be blind, deaf, and stupid not to notice the long line of once effective and admired leaders limping toward the exits.  It was Peter Drucker who once said the four hardest jobs in America — not necessarily in this order — are President of the United States, a university president, a hospital CEO and a pastor.  Amen, but for those called to it, we at least don’t expect to be shot in the back by our own team.

Why isn’t anyone talking about this?  Maybe it’s because those who talk about church leadership, no matter whether they’re founding pastors or high-ranking staff members, have one thing in common: we’re all employees of our churches–leading without real power.  Pastors have the responsibility to lead their church to growth with none of the power to actually do so.

Churches, in our society are designated “non-profits.”  The “ownership” of these organizations is held in trust by the men and women who fill leadership positions whether elders, deacons, or board members.   So the naked truth is that pastors and staff don’t carry the ultimate decision or have enough legitimate power to affect much change.

We are so obsessed with the abuses of the few, that we have cut off our leaders at the knees.  As a result, the American church is being crippled by mean, petty, power-hungry bullies whose abuse of power is the great scandal  no one wants to address.

What does this abuse look like?  Here are the 5 most lethal ways we kill off leaders we don’t like:

1. We starve them. Because of the abuses of a few, we think that paying our pastors and staff members a livable wage, a fair wage, will somehow corrupt them.  So without money to cover the bare necessities, some have to divide their time between the sacred calling, and keeping their family fed and clothed.  How tragic that while some abuse money, the vast majority simply don’t have enough.
2. We have outrageously unreasonable expectations of our leaders. We expect them to work seven days a week, to be on call all the time, to have all the answers, and to be able to fix all our problems.  And while these expectations can be understandable, they are totally, outrageously unreasonable, and just more evidence that we don’t listen to the teaching of Scriptures or take them seriously.
3. We strip them of power. Again, we are so afraid power will corrupt them, we strip them of it while holding them accountable for the success of the church.  As a result, our leaders have very little real power to make the strategic changes essential for the church’s future.
4. We let pretend leaders bully them. Call them elders, deacons, or whatever, too many “lay-leaders” come to their positions puffed up with pride and an overestimation of their own spirituality.  Rather than leading along side their pastors in creative collaboration, too many, too often exercise their power by crushing the heart and spirit of the very people they are supposed to be helping and empowering.  As a result, a shocking large percentage of the American church is in the hands of spirit-crushing bullies, who love keeping the preacher humble and in line!
5. We leave them in financial peril.  How many times have I answered an email or phone call and how many times have I sat across from a young pastor who thought everything was going well and within a seven-day period, they’ve lost everything?  Their salary, their reputation, and their future all at risk because of the capricious desire of a small group of people who feel called to protect the status quo.  Only in the American church can a pastor  be fired with nothing but a lie or salacious innuendo.  And a fired leader has no safety-net, no appeal, and no future in the ministry.

Whether you agree with my assessment or not, the results are all around us.  Pastors and staff are leaving the ministry at record rates.  They are tired, debt-ridden, disrespected, burnt-out, and in many cases, bitter.

If we really want to do something to turn the American church around, if we really want to see our churches flourish, we’re going to have to find a way to love, respect, honor, promote, protect, and care for our leaders.  Here are 5 ways you can start where you are;

1. Let’s pay them a livable wage. Let’s stop being afraid of the abuses of a few and realize that with their dedication and training our leaders deserve a livable wage.  By that I mean, livable where you live.  Can they buy their own home, put down roots, send their children to school, take vacations, plan for retirement, and have a reasonable shot at living debt-free?
2. Encourage them.  When was the last time you actually took your pastor, associate pastor, or other church staff member and just encouraged them?  Sent them a note or card, sent them a gift card to a local restaurant, took them out for dinner and paid for it?  Some constant, consistent act of encouragement lets them know that their work is not in vain.
3. Give them time off for vacation, for training, for restoration. Why is it that in the American church the unspoken expectation is that you are always going to be there,  or when you step away for training, rest, recreation that’s a luxury that you really don’t need?
4. Stop the complaints you hear about them at their source. If you entertain gossip, you are a gossip whether you originated it or not.  If you’re going to  help protect your leader, make sure they know you have their back.
5. Give them a safety net. By that I mean just let them know that if something happens, we’re not just going to throw them away, kick them to the curb, and leave them penniless and destitute.  Yes, leadership transitions do need to happen, but the vast majority are not for failure, moral or otherwise.  Let’s let our leaders lead knowing that they won’t be out in the cold for one bad decision, or at the whim of some crazy elder, or board-member.

The church’s dirty little secret has to grieve the heart of God.  For how do we say we’re churches who love Jesus, respect God, and believe His Word, and treat His leaders so badly? If we want to set the example to the world around us of what Christians ought to look like, can we really do that and continue to fire, malign, and starve out God’s called leaders?

I, for one, am thankful for those who have loved me, taken care of me, supported me, and carried me; those who have come to my aid and watched my back.  Because I’ve gotten the love and support I’ve needed, I’ve been able to not only sustain my ministry for 38 years, I can say that I am more excited and have more vision for the future than ever before.

Love your leaders!  Those who serve you and lead you are worthy of double honor!  Think about it, if your church’s leaders are growing up in Christ and flourishing in their faith, won’t your church do the same?

Last week, Paula and I attended a Momentum conference in Nashville.  If you don’t know what that is, I’ll be glad to explain and tell you why you ought to go too.

First of all, I love the word momentum.  It just creates a lot of good energy and feelings.  It’s that thing that once you have it, you look better than you really are.  And when you lose it, you can actually die as a group, an organization, and even as a person before you get it back.  So, enough said.

Momentum is a crusade that comes from Dave Ramsey and his amazing army of gifted and creative men and women who have bought into the mission that winning with money is critical and essential to winning at life.

Momentum is a 3-day conference for church leaders to come in and rally around a process by which we can fully-fund all of our ministry and vision needs with cash.  That includes our buildings.

Now before you read that and think, “now isn’t that sweet,” remember what a radical idea this is.  This is flying in the face of convention.  If I didn’t know better, I would think these people are renegades.  Oh, yeah, I do know better and they are.  They are trying to change a dangerous trend.  And that is, American churches in bondage to financial institutions.

We have all heard the verse that the borrower is a slave to the lender.  But in American church leadership, those verses have been used more to encourage people to tithe and give more to the Sunday offering, than a bigger vision of leading the church forward with more than enough resources to accomplish all of our dreams, visions, and hopes.

Here is my take on the conference.

• Everything is done with excellence. The printing, the material, the settings were not over-the-top lavish, but done in a very professional way that made me feel like Ramsey and his army are taking this very seriously.
• There weren’t just one or two people leading this group. There was an army of people leading, talking, and facilitating that made the experience far less intimidating.
• The content of the material isn’t anything particularly new, but it’s brilliance is that it has been put in a process. I hate to say “program.”  I’m certainly not going to call it a “system.”  But it is a process that allows for us to put up structure and the effort to teach people to win at all of life with money.
• Included in the conference fee were accommodations. They were first-class and really lifted the experience.
• Since we had to leave the Financial Peace Conference Center to go eat, we were taken in nice buses with friendly people.
• The food was great.
• There were snacks and breaks which facilitated talking and sharing and meeting new people.
• I walked away with a better understanding of how to put all the pieces together into a bigger picture.
• Most of all, my big take-away, finally someone has noticed what those of us in leadership for a long time have seen: we can no longer afford “business as usual.”

On my hand I can count five growing churches within the Nashville area that together have a cumulative debt of over $36,000,000. Think of that. That’s crippling debt. That means that everything these ministries do must always go up and to the right.  No hiccup, no scandal, no one leaving the church over hurt feelings, no young, up-and-coming associate taking five or six hundred people and moving down the road and building a cooler, hipper version of what they have now.

What conclusions do I come to?  One, I sure am glad I am not one of those churches.  Though I respect them and love them and thank God for them, I fear for what is just ahead.  Two, I beg you.  You’ve read this far. Come and be a part of the momentum conference. I’m not getting paid for this. I get no kick-backs. I’m just a believer in someone who’s finally decided to stand up and put a tool in our hands that will allow us not only to build a building for bragging rights, but help us truly help good people grow great lives and win at life with money.

One of the most frustrating things about being a pastor, writer, counselor, teacher, educator, whatever it is I am these days, is the widening gap between belief and behavior in this country.

We continue to hear from bad-news Barna and other sources that there is little difference between those who claim to be Christian and have faith, and those who claim no allegiance to God or higher power or however you want to define it.

That gap is seen in the fact that millions and millions of people in our country attend church every Sunday morning and then leave without any visual or measurable effect on their behavior day-to-day.

For me, I have decided not to curse the darkness, but to try to do something about it.  As I’ve thought about it, read, researched, and come to some conclusions for myself, I am convinced there are four things that we Americans, religious or not, could do to save our country and turn her around within one generation.  And we don’t even need a government bill or law to be passed.

Here are my big four:

Big idea #1: The minute we start keeping our promises and building and growing great relationships at home and in the workplace, our country will turn around.  Think about it. Money, government, the family, church; all institutions populated by carbon-based life forms, run on the virtue and integrity of the members of those groups.  If we simply committed ourselves to keep our promises when we get married, pay our bills when we sign contracts, and to give grace, love, and generosity to everyone within our circle of influence, our country would begin to turn around within one generation.

Big idea #2: If we simply stopped listening to the advertisements that promise us something for nothing, that take our money and rip us off; if we stopped looking at money the way we have been taught over the past generations by Hollywood and Madison Avenue, we would have more money to do the things that would help turn our families around.

We’d have money to send our kids to good state schools without leveraging their future by going into 40, 50, 70, 100 thousand dollars worth of debt.  We would help the environment by not buying new cars that break down every three or four years, consuming our discretionary income on interest and penalties.  Bottom line: earn money, spend it wisely, give some, and save some. It seems simple, doesn’t it?

Big idea #3: Start doing work that we have a sustainable passion for, and adds meaning to our lives and those we serve.  There is a revolution going on in our country that I am 100% for.  And that is, we’re raising up a generation who simply will not sit in long traffic jams to and from work, spending 3 to 4 hours of every day of their life going to office buildings to sit in cubicles to get paid to do meaningless (or at least it seems to be meaningless) work. I am seeing more and more smart, gifted men and women who are willing to become entrepreneurs and work for themselves, even if they work within a large institution.

My father spent 45 years of his life working at a job he hated, retired, and died six years later.  That’s not going to be me, and t’s not going to be this next generation. If we all did work that we have a sustainable passion for, that brought meaning to our lives and those that we serve, not only would we make a whole you-know-what pot of money, we’d all be happier and better-served.

Big idea #4: This one is one you might expect.  Don’t dismiss it. If the American church and those responsible for her leadership style and well-being would stop being so obsessed on leadership for leadership’s sake, would stop being so obsessed with being cool and slick and hip; if pastors would stop worrying about what kind of untucked shirt they wore for the camera, or what mousse they have in their hair to make them look like the religious version of the Goo Goo Dolls, and start really loving and caring for people more, we’d all be better off.  Don’t get me wrong.  I love the church.  It is the Bride of Christ, but as such our focus is on confronting, caring, and engaging people at the point of their pain, not at the point of our need for more leaders!

Let me say, I love the church.  It is what Jesus died for.  If you don’t believe that, read the book.

I am afraid and ashamed that I have done my share of church-bashing.  My intention has always been to focus my comments toward that which obscures, redefines and robs the gospel of its amazing, life-changing, movement-shaping power.

That having been said, I’ve been committed to the American church since I was 18 years old. Through college, seminary, and graduate school, I have been a pastor with an unbroken stream for all of these years.  The church has saved me, loved me, transformed me, taken care of me in every way.  I am a happy pastor.  So this is not said with animosity or resentment toward anyone.  But there is a trend growing among the American church that if left unchecked, is unhealthy as any we’ve faced.

This trend is the deification of the concept of leadership and leaders.

Leadership is critically important.  Leaders are plentiful.  We have leaders everywhere; more leaders than we need, I’m sure.  But, as with almost everything else in life, really great leaders are rare.

That’s why when you see committed, visionary, sacrificial, uniquely-gifted leaders, they usually have gathered people around them.  And that’s a good thing.  God creates, calls and anoints His  man/woman, and empowers them to set the world ablaze.  The long list of those ordinary people who have done great things in God’s power is long.  If we knew the power of one life to change the world, the list would overwhelm us.

But what I see happening today is beyond the cult of personality.  It is leadership for leadership’s sake.  I’m getting all kinds of promotional material from pastors, leaders across the country about their latest book.  And with that book come CD’s, DVD’s, wristbands, perfume, chocolate, all kinds of cool stuff that convince me how cool and hip they are; none of which says much about the content.

Lest you think I am jealous (maybe I am) and resent the success of others (I don’t want to, though sometimes I do), this is much bigger than me and them.

Leadership is a tool. It is not a centric idea.  The gospel is the centric idea, the central theme.  The brokenness of humanity, huge concepts like redemption, reconciliation, and restoration are the epic movements that God has set loose on the world.

And what are we doing in America?  Trying to capture through a cool web site, Twitter, or any number of great, amazing tools available today in communication.  And let me be the first to say, I am all for communication.  But what are we communicating? Are we communicating the gospel?  Are we resonating with the broken hearts of people?  Are people coming and being fed, loved, healed, well-served?  Or are they coming and being made a part of our machine?  We need more people because we need a bigger machine, more systems, a bigger organization, a bigger platform.  You know the story.

Here’s the bottom line.  Leadership is a good thing. It is a God thing until it’s blown out of proportion and it becomes a disease.  Leadership is about serving; first serving Christ, second serving the gospel, and third serving others. Period.  Those who are motivated by money, crowds, or popularity are not new among us, but their voices seem to be incredibly loud.  Shout out to those of you who are in love with Jesus, the gospel, and broken people; who are willing to sacrifice everything to take the good news to those here in our country.  We are a great place to live, but a painful place as well.  We need the healing touch of Jesus delivered by the humble, healing touch of those He’s delivered

I was among a group of businessmen this morning, taking on the conversation about the economy.  One of the guys in the group of 13 asked, “How much church debt is represented in this room?”  And as each of these men, who are heavily involved in their churches and also very generous givers, tallied up the amount, it exceeded 55 million dollars.

Let me say that one more time.  In a group of 13 businessmen, they are attending churches that have in excess of 55 million dollars in debt. Does anyone but me see this as precarious?

In the interest of full disclosure, let me also say that I have built buildings, raised money, and yes, I have led the church to incur debt.  It has been my position in the past (though that is in a state of flux at the moment) that debt to build a building that appreciates and increases in value, and allows you to reach more people could be considered an investment.

That argument aside, let me say to all the young pastors and church planters out there meeting in schools, theaters, rented facilities, lodges, bars, don’t be so quick to think that if you had a really cool building financed at 9% by the local bank for thirty years, all of a sudden the answer to your problems would have arrived.

In the movie, Field of Dreams, the famous saying has worked its way into our cultural mindset.  And it goes this way, “Build it and they will come.”

Trust me, as a guy who’s been at this for awhile.  Buildings only matter to pastors, staff, and those of us who feel like we need buildings to validate our worth.

I’ll be quick to say, that I’m not sure all church debt is bad.  I know many godly men who have built beautiful facilities and I don’t question their judgment for one second.  But I will say, I do firmly believe that what has been normative in the past will be the exception in the future.

Should we have big buildings?  Absolutely.  Football does, baseball does, and those are trivial matters when you think about the eternal issues we deal with in the American church.  But should we go into so much debt that we are in bondage to institutions that have no interest in our success other than us paying our loan payment?

Before you build think about how to raise the money to build, because the people have it. Maybe I need to cast a more compelling vision.  Maybe, dare I say, I need to be more creative.  Bottom line, I can save you a lot of grief and misery.  At the end of the day a facility is wonderful.  But it is a tool, not a trophy.  It doesn’t validate your ministry.  It doesn’t make you more spiritual.  What we should be measuring rather than the square footage of our buildings and the size and sophistication of our staffs, and the budgets allotted to our video equipment, is life change.

Are people’s lives being radically changed by the good news of Jesus Christ?  Are marriages being put back together?  Are fathers falling in love with their wives with a deep passion equal to that which Christ loved His church? Have we raised enough kids who we are training to be adults to step into society and lead the way to a better place for us all?

If right now you are thinking about building, and you’ve called one of those fund-raising companies, think about it.  Push pause. Hey, call me. Email me.  I’d be willing to share my experience.