This past week we had a day-long staff retreat. It was an incredible time of just continuing to get to know the staff I serve with, but also an extremely inspiring and spiritually energizing day. I thought that I’d share my notes from one of the sessions we had.
Session: The Five Greatest Leadership Challenges
Challenge #1: The emotional challenge
The three-headed monster of ministry
- Fear: of failure, of what people think
- The cure? Failure in small doses to build up immunity
- Discouragement
- The cure? Zooming out.
- “Leadership is about what God has done and leading from overflow”
- Jealousy
- The cure? A kingdom mindset
“The happiest and healthiest people can laugh at themselves the most”
Personal Note: I need to be able to laugh at my mistakes sooner. I have no problem with looking back at past mistakes and laughing at them. My problem is becoming defensive right away when I find myself in a situation where I have made a mistake.
I need to be a person that does these two things:
- Recognize and admit my mistakes right away
- Be transparent and lighthearted enough about them so that i communicate that “Failure can be fun and funny.”
Challenge #2: The family challenge
“Do not sacrifice your family on the altar of ministry”
“If you don’t control your calendar, your calendar will control you — set boundries.
“Disciple your family first”
I should be praying and strategizing my plan for discipling my family MORE that I plan and strategize my plan for discipling the people I pastor.
“Don’t apologize for taking time for yourself, to be with family, friends, or to be with the Lord over time in vocational ministry”
Not only should I not apologize publicly about choosing time to self/relationships over ministry, I should admit them. For instance, when an opportunity for ministry comes up that conflicts with a pre-arranged priority with family, I should openly admit it. For example, I should say, “I have a prior commitment to Leona and I cannot do _______”
Challenge #3: The criticism challenge
“Don’t let an arrow of criticism pierce your heart unless it first passes through the filter of Scripture.”
- I need to make sure I pause first when I receive criticism to let it pass through the filter of Scripture
“Stay Humble”
- Be teachable
- View everything as a gift from God
- The ceiling of faithfulness can be found estblished most of the time by the prescence of pride
“Don’t play defense”
“Consider the source”
- Are critics bringing criticism because they desire that their church be a placed that they can actively invite their unsaved friends to attend?
“Be yourself”
- Don’t try to be a leader or a pastor — just be yourself (couple this with challenge #5 sub-point “Be concerned about personal growth — not about church growth)
Challenge #4: The staffing challenge
“Hire someone with a sense of humor”
- Those you surround yourself with ought to be able to not take life/themselves too seriously. To me, this is another way to describe the importance of having people who have accurate estimations of self, aka “Humility”
“Be Concerned about personal growth”
- This ought to be the only thing I worry about as a pastor. Church growth is not my concern. Biblically speaking, it isn’t even my responsibility because the Lord builds His Church…and the gates of hell will not prevail against it!
“Keep dreaming God-sized dreams”
- It is important to make initiatives in ministry that absolutely cannot happen without the Lord’s intervention. When I find myself only planning things that “I know” will have success, then I should be worried.
Challenge #5: The spiritual challenge
“Don’t do the work of God in a way that destroys the work of God in you”
- Make sure you have a mentor
- Be concerned about personal growth
- Don’t worry about church growth
- Keep dreaming God-sized dreams
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