One of the sad things that has happened in recent years, especially in the reformed camp of church planting is that pastors and bloggers have become known for being jerks. We have watchdog bloggers, people who are constantly pointing out mistakes in people, creating more and more lines among Christians instead of working together.

Fewer pastors are known as winsome and gracious and more known for being jerks.

4 Ways to Stop Being a Jerk
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If you want to stop any movement, kill any church from having influence in a city, stop any influence you may have long-term with other leaders, be a jerk.

That isn’t the kind of person people follow for a long time. You may get by for a period of time based off of skill, charisma or simply connections, but eventually your colors (in this case, being a jerk) show up.

Leaders should be winsome & gracious, not jerks.
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Here are a few ways to remind yourself as a leader to stay on track and be winsome and gracious:

1. Remember your brokenness. The fastest way to become a jerk is to think you have it all together, are beyond sin or can’t fall. Remember your weaknesses, your need for Jesus and that you don’t know it all. Because the jerks online tend to be about pointing sin out in others, this is a hard thing to remember, but crucial. You cannot be gracious without experiencing grace.
2. Spend time with people and read people outside of your tribe. They don’t need to be on your reading lists all the time, but read some business books, some books by those you don’t agree with theologically to learn from them. There should be some discomfort when you read instead of always just nodding your head. While you need to be cautious here, but if you are a leader of a church, your theology should be strong enough to be challenged. Also, those books will also tell you what some of the people who show up to hear you preach think and that can be helpful sermon prep. Otherwise, you end up answering questions no one is asking.
3. Have some friends who can tell you when you are being a jerk and taking the wrong stand. Whether this is your spouse, an elder, another pastor or blogger, but you need a friend to tell you, “you are being a jerk on that, let it go.” Historically, pastors are terrible friends. We don’t know how to do anything or talk about anything other than church, so we get lost in our world of what other pastors are doing, the latest theology debate, what the blogs are raging about and most people we talk to could care less.
4. Take the right stands, but not all of them. A mentor told me once, “be careful the hills you choose to die on because you will die on all those hills and you can’t die that often.” Every issue doesn’t deserve a response from you. Every heresy you see online, some can be let go. That person who spouts out bad marriage advice on Facebook in your church, eventually they are seen for who they are. You can let it go. Someone else can step in. Sometimes though, you need to step up and say something, but when you do, be gracious and winsome.

Be careful the hills you choose to die on because you will die on all those hills
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The post Be a Leader, not a Jerk appeared first on JoshuaReich.org.

There are a lot of things pulling for a lead pastor’s time, but not everything that comes across your desk or email is something you should do. One of the hardest and most important aspects of leadership is determining what will get your time, energy and effort. And no, the answer is not everything.

While you as a lead pastor could do lots of things, there things that only you can do and things you should make sure you do every week.

Here are 4 things every lead pastor must do:

1. Work “on” the church. Working on the church is not working in the church. Working on the church involves planning, strategy, learning about new ministry paradigms, evaluating ministries, leaders, budgets and asking questions like: where are we? Where are we headed? I try to spend 3-4 hours on Monday morning in this mode. The larger your church gets, the more important this becomes. This is the time where you pull your head out of the weeds and the day to day of ministry to check how things are going. In case you are curious, lead pastor, no one else at your church is going to do this or should do this. This is the job of the lead pastor to see the whole field, not your student pastor or worship pastor. They are in charge of their ministry and can help speak into this, but only the lead pastor is supposed to think about the whole field on a church staff.
2. Care for your soul and health. Your elders probably care about your health and so does your staff, but only you can actually take care of your soul and health. This means, each week you are taking your day off. You are taking a monthly retreat day. No one else can make sure you are getting good sleep, reading your bible (not just for sermon prep), praying, confessing sin. Only you can make yourself do that. And, you can lie to people about that and for the most part, no one will know. You have to make caring for your soul a higher priority than it is.
3. Develop other leaders. You should be spending time each week pouring into other leaders. Leaders who will one day plant churches, business leaders in your church, your staff. And not just in a staff meeting, spewing information at them or calendar issues, but training them to be leaders. You should be giving them authority, responsibility, etc.
4. Plan ahead. You should always be looking ahead. Looking ahead in sermons, looking ahead for the church. Thinking about what the church will be a like year from now, 3 years from now. No one else is doing this for the whole church. Other leaders can speak into this, but the lead pastor is paid to think about this for the whole church.

As I said, there are a lot of things you can spend your time on as a lead pastor and some of the things above other leaders are doing and want to be involved in and that’s a good thing. These are 4 things though that you cannot delegate away and that you are being paid to do.

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The post 4 Things a Lead Pastor Must Do appeared first on JoshuaReich.org.

There is an assumption that as your church grows, to keep growing you have to add more things. Do more.

Once you pass 200, add more programs so you can grow.

Recently someone told me, “Revolution needs to do more because _____ Church does _____ and they are bigger than you.”

It is an easy trap to fall into.

Starbucks tried it.

They sold coffee. Got big. Started doing breakfast sandwiches, which kind of worked but then the Howard Schultz took back over because Starbucks forgot who it was. Now they sell wine and food at some stores. The jury on that is still out.

I had another pastor tell me that when Revolution gets bigger I’ll have to rethink our position on not having a men’s and women’s ministry.

Why?

Because when you grow, you have to do more.

Church growth myth: To grow you must do more
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So the thinking goes.

The problem with doing more is that it simply becomes more.

I lead a simple church. Which means, we don’t do a lot. It isn’t because we can’t, but because we choose not to.

Singles ministry, senior adult ministries, women’s ministries, classes, concerts, coffee shops, book clubs, knitting ministries, camping ministries, ministries to people who want more ministries. We just don’t.

For a few reasons:

1. It creates clarity. I believe one of the reasons people don’t get plugged into a church is because they aren’t sure which step to take. Is this class, that ministry, that program the next step? What if I take the wrong step? When people are paralyzed, they give up. When barriers are in place and things are unclear, they don’t take a step.

If you want people to take the next step at church, tell them what it is
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2. If people are at church, they aren’t on mission. Missional happens in daily life. It can and does happen at church, but we display God’s love to the world around when we’re in the world around us. If we are always in a class, at a church program, we aren’t rubbing shoulders with people who don’t know Jesus. Instead of starting a church softball league, join a softball league with a bunch of people who drink and swear and live the gospel in front of them.

3. Busyness is rarely positive. Laziness is not healthy or a good thing, but Americans have this idea that the busier I am, the more successful I’m being ore the more right I’m doing. We feel guilty if our calendar isn’t packed but when it is, we wish we were doing less. Church is the same way. Just because your church calendar is full does not mean you are moving the ball down the field, you might just be spinning your wheels and not accomplishing a lot.

Busyness is rarely positive
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4. The things you do communicate what matters. Everything your church does, no matter how small or big, no matter how much or how little communicates what matters most. If you do a lot, have 118 ministries for a church of 200 people (I knew of a church with this), you communicate what matters. Everything says to everyone, “This matters, this is our mission.” As a leader, you then need to be careful what you choose.

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