Recently, I’ve sat in several meetings or talked with different leaders, and the same situation has been repeating itself.

Imagine this scenario.

A team or church feels like they need to hire someone or add someone to the team, so they start brainstorming ideas. Who can we add? Names begin to get thrown out, and all of a sudden, the group begins to move people up and down the list of possibilities.

It might be a church that is trying to grow or move the needle in a ministry. People begin to share what they think is the problem or how can they fix that problem or what they believe the church should do that they aren’t doing.

In each of these situations, one of the critical things leaders miss is a crucial question.

What are we missing?

Who are we missing?

Too often, leaders assume they have what they need or need more of the same.

I sat in a meeting recently, and we were discussing adding someone else to the team. So we didn’t lose the energy around the idea, people started to share names of people who could serve alongside us. This isn’t necessarily wrong or a bad idea. But what struck me was that we weren’t sure who we would add or why, just that we wanted to. I asked everyone to take a step back and answer this question: Who are we missing? What perspective do we not have?

I think when people hire a team, they often overlook this. Many leaders, because they like people like them, hire and look for people like them. If you’re a visionary, driven leader like I am, you tend not to want people around who ask “why” questions. They feel like a stick in the mud or at least seem to be holding you back. But they might be the leader you need to move forward or protect you from a poor decision.

When leaders make a decision, whether financial, hiring, starting, or stopping a ministry, they don’t ask enough, “What are we missing?” What data don’t we have that we need? What data are we overlooking that we need to look harder at?

The reason is that many leaders are tasked with finding the answers. People come to us because we have a history of knowing the answers and who wants to follow someone who doesn’t know? At least that is what we think.

But when someone says, “This doesn’t make sense,” we shouldn’t shut them down or stop listening to them. We might be missing something that they see.

Because, the longer we are on a team, in a company or a church, the more we get used to things. It’s like when you move into a house, you immediately see things that are out of place, paint that isn’t bright or carpet that needs replacing. Over time though, you stop noticing. You work around that drawer that sticks and that outlet that doesn’t work all the time.

Leaders need those fresh eyes, just like when someone comes over and asks, “When are you going to fix that drawer?” We need to engage when someone tells us something isn’t clear, to complicated, or not hitting on all cylinders.

Otherwise, we might miss the right person for our team or the correct data that we need to excel in.

Customers will never love a company until the employees love it first. -Simon Sinek

The title of this blog post might seem funny to you, but do you love the church you work at? Do you love the people in your church? Are you passionate about the mission, vision, and strategy of your church?

Let me ask it another way that an older pastor asked me: Would you attend your church if you didn’t get paid to be there?

Too many pastors and church leaders are merely showing up to work and collecting a paycheck.

And the people around them feel it.

Imagine what our churches would be like if the people leading them were so passionate about the mission, they would do whatever it takes.

This shows up in all kinds of ways. Here are some negative ones I’ve seen:

• Leaders are not helping or serving when things need to be done.
• Pastors who don’t give generously to their churches.
• Pastors and leaders not in or leading small groups.
• Leaders who are not inviting friends to their church.

Now, I know that no church is perfect and that every pastor or board isn’t fun to work for. I know that ministry is hard and that you pour yourself out and often you feel depleted.

This isn’t so much about loving your church as it is loving being a part of your church. 

The reason this matters is not only for your soul and feeling alive as a child of God and a leader but your church feels this, and it has an enormous impact on your church and the people in it.

All of us believe lies in our lives and those lies shape us. Lies that we aren’t good enough, strong enough, that I owe God, that we can be in control, that God doesn’t love us, that we aren’t lovable or worthwhile.

Lies like these, shape us. And if we don’t face them, these lies will determine the stories we tell and live.

Pastor’s believe lies as well. I know that might be a shock, but it’s true.

And like lies in our personal lives, if we don’t face them, name them and see the impact they have on our lives, they will determine how we lead and what our leadership (and lives) are like.

Here are three of them:

1. What happens at my church is because of me.

All pastor’s know this isn’t true, but we easily believe it is. You can tell by their mood after they hear how many people were at church, what the offering was like, how the kid’s ministry went. Much of what they feel about their sermon is based on what they can read on people’s face, the connection they feel or lack thereof.

If numbers are up, our moods tend to be better. If there were no technical mistakes in the service, we feel better.

This isn’t to say that excellence doesn’t matter, cause it does, but it can become a difficult idol to shake.

2. God loves me more when I preach.

I love preaching. I feel like God has gifted me to do it and I love using this gift for His glory. It is an honor. But it is easy for me to feel like God loves me more because I preach or that I feel his presence more in my life when I am preaching.

It is also easier for a pastor to replace their devotional life with sermon prep. When this happens, we aren’t filling up our bucket, but merely giving out.

It is often easier to do something for God than see what God is doing in us. 

3. If I’m not at church, it will fall apart.

As a church planter or pastor, you will battle this. Will people care about your church as much as you do? What happens if your church completely falls apart when you aren’t there? While many struggles with this, I’ve never actually heard of a church closing because a pastor was away for a week. Revolution will not fall apart if I’m not there, but like lie #1, it is easy to fall into.

The healthiest churches are the ones that a pastor can leave for a week or two and give others a chance to step up and lead.

One of the critical jobs of every leader is problem-solving. The longer I’m a leader, the more I realize that much of my time as a leader is spent in brainstorming, making decisions or looking ahead to decisions that will be made in the future.

The struggle is that often, solving problems means taking very little information and making a decision based on that little information.

One thing that pastors seem to be notorious for is solving problems that aren’t problems. Something doesn’t go right, we start a new ministry, and no one shows up, a creative piece falls flat, a marketing tool does not bring in the people we thought, a new direction or vision is laid out, and no one is excited.

Are these problems? Potentially.

The problem is that we start to solve them before we know. One night of something not going right does not constitute a problem; it’s one night. We make changes and then when they don’t work once, we quickly make adjustments to them. Now, sometimes adjustments need to be made. Sometimes we can see things that we can tweak to make something better.

But often, we solve problems that are not problems. Let something ride a little bit before you decide it is a problem. Let it show itself a problem before fixing it. Many successes come from merely continuing down the path instead of giving up. In fact, we often quit something right before it breaks through.