It’s official. My new assignment is Immanuel Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky. The church voted to call me as their senior pastor yesterday. Cheryl and I are excited.

Immanuel launched as a church on February 1, 1909 with 33 people. Today the church sits on a 22-acre campus located in the heart of Lexington, Kentucky and in close proximity to the University of Kentucky campus. It’s building has 217,000 square feet of usable space. The recreation center houses two full-size basketball courts, an indoor-walking track, aerobics room, cardiovascular workout room and a full- service café known as the Solid Rock Café. They have soccer and baseball fields.

Immanuel has a strong staff who seem eager for leadership and are already functioning as a healthy team. More than that, Immanuel’s people have a heart for missions and service and they truly want to reach Lexington for Christ. Immanuel has a great mix of seniors and youth, and I look forward to learning how to bridge the multi-generational gap for more effective ministry.

Although Immanuel is considerably smaller than my current church, I have never seen a church with more potential!

You may be wondering, what about my current church…and…have I abandoned church planting?

A couple weeks ago, I shared with the church I planted, Grace Community Church, that I was resigning. (You can watch that video HERE.) Leaving Grace is one of the hardest decisions Cheryl and I have ever made and it will always hold a piece of my heart. Grace started with 11 core families and a staff of 3 in our living room about 7 years ago. We’ve seen God do extraordinary things, now averaging over 2,500 in our worship experiences each week.

Grace is in good shape for the future. I don’t believe I would sense God releasing me otherwise. In the providence of God, I recruited a partner in this, my second, church plant. Chad Rowland is fully equipped to lead without me. The staff, who are some of our best friends in ministry, is strong and the team dynamics are extremely healthy. The best days are ahead for Grace.

As for church planting…yes…I love it and always will, but what about church revitalization? To me it’s the same heart. My heart is to see people come to know, love and be like Jesus. I love how that is happening in church plants around the world. As long as I’m breathing I’ll be encouraging church planters and assisting new church plants.

But, what about the older, established church? Who is going to help them thrive again? My heart breaks for church histories, church buildings, and bodies of believers who are mostly being underutilized in their Kingdom potential. I want to play a part in helping an older church see new life. I will begin knowing it will be harder work at times, but confident God is able to work His will in Immanuel through my leadership.

God has been at work at Immanuel for over 100 years. I feel unworthy, humbled and honored to join them in their history, look forward to their future, and celebrate with them what I believe could be their best years still to come.

Prayers appreciated. We will start officially at Immanuel in mid June, but first we want to finish well at Grace, sell a condo quickly and buy a place to live in Lexington. Will you say a prayer (or two) for us in this transition?

Do you have any examples to share of older, established churches that have been revitalized?

This is a guest post by Patrick Morley and his team at Man in the Mirror Ministry. I fully support the work they have done and are doing to reach men for Christ. The book by Patrick Morley had a profound impact on my life and I encourage you to consider this new opportunity.

Here are some thoughts from Patrick Morley from Man in the Mirror:

See if you agree with this…

• Can you see any way of ever getting society right unless we get the church right?
• If that’s true, can you see any way of ever getting the church right unless we get families right?
• If you’re still with me, can you see any way of ever getting families right unless we get marriages right?
• And, can you see any way of ever getting marriages right unless we get men right?

Sure, every now and then you hear about a woman who rips her family apart, but even then it’s usually after years of emotional neglect. It really is about the men.

How can we help get men right? To become a disciple of Jesus is the highest honor to which a man can aspire. To be born again and not become a disciple is like joining the Army and getting a rifle that you never learn how to clean and shoot.

The good news is that thousands of leaders and churches are learning how to disciple men so they can walk with God in our kooky culture. How do they do it?

For my PhD dissertation I studied the question, “Why do some churches succeed at men’s discipleship while others languish or fail?” I wanted to know from a management perspective, “What are the factors that lead to success or failure when implementing a men’s discipleship program?” And I wanted to discover, “What are successful pastors doing differently than the pastors of ineffective or failed ministries to men?”

To get at the answers, I employed multiple-case-study research to compare and contrast churches with effective men’s discipleship programs to churches with ineffective or failed programs.

The factors that differentiated the highly effective churches were….
1. A senior pastor with the vision to disciple every man in the church,
2. The determination to succeed no matter what, and
3. A sustainable strategy to make disciples.

I’m so tired of watching men go to events, get all amped up, charge out determined to do better, soar briefly, then glide (or crash) back to earth. In my experience these men are deeply frustrated that they can’t sustain the change. It doesn’t have to be that way. Thousands of churches have figured it out. But how do we get the word to those churches that are still in the dark?

At Man in the Mirror, the ministry I founded 25+ years ago, we’ve launched an initiative to hire 330 full-time Area Directors located throughout the United States to help churches more effectively disciple their men. Each Area Director will have a territory of 1,000 churches, which will put “boots on the ground” close to churches and men. We have a lot of early momentum, and the first 30 Area Directors have been appointed.

Now we need to surface scores of new candidates. We’re praying for men who are passionate about Christ, men’s discipleship, and who love the church. You can find out everything you need to know HERE. Join us in our fight to save our society and build the Kingdom.

Go HERE now to join this effort.

Editor’s Note: For 25 years Pat and his organization, Man in the Mirror, have focused on men’s discipleship. They’ve trained thousands of church leaders. In 2009 they reached the milestone of impacting 10,000,000 men for Christ. Their new goal is to see “10,000,000 new men leading powerful transformed lives in Christ by 2020.” Their new Area Director strategy is putting “boots on the ground” close to churches and men.

Pastor do you feel a pressure on Easter unlike other Sundays?

It seems there is an internal pressure to:

• Find an obscure verse.
• Address the story from a new angle
• Reveal new insight in applying the story
• Develop a character like no one else has
• Tell the story in a fresh way

I feel the pressure. Am I alone?

What if we simply preach that Christ was crucified, buried and rose again?

What if we let the Gospel be the Gospel? What if we let truth prevail and the Holy Spirit be the teacher?

What if we drop the pressure and share the truth that God still loves sinners, that the Cross is still enough and that He is calling people to repentance and restoration?

What if we share the glory of the resurrection, not in a way that brings attention to our creativity in preparing a message, but in His humility and grace on the cross?

What if we decrease so the light of the world might increase?

That’s my aim this Easter. Who’s with me?

I’m releasing results of a survey I conducted through my blog last month on the health of pastors or ministers. The survey is now closed, but there were 466 unique responses. You can read the initial survey post HERE.

I am breaking these down into several posts to cut down on the length of each post. Be sure to check back over the next few days. If you want to know the demographics of who took the survey, see Results, Part 1 HERE.

Here are more results: (On the actual blog post each picture can be clicked on and enlarged if needed.)

What do you think? Any observations?

Here are a few of mine:

• 25% of pastors or ministers not having friends in their church they can “trust with anything” is sad. Those must be the ones I hear from often through my blog.
• 30% do not feel or aren’t sure if they are emotionally healthy right now. What are we doing to address this?
• The spiritually healthy answer almost mirrors statistically the emotionally healthy answers. Interesting.
• 42% answered “Sometimes” they have a “daily time alone with God. I’m not surprised, just surprised to see it in print.
• I’m especially not surprised by the high number who are not or not sure if they are physically healthy. I know from experience, however, that this number affects all the others.
• Not enough of us are exercising “daily” or “often”.

I’d love your thoughts of what you see in these numbers.

You can continue to Part 3 HERE.

Last month I posted a survey of pastor’s and minister’s health. There were a total of 466 unique participants. The survey is now closed, but you can see the original post HERE. I’ll be sharing the results over the next few days. There will sometimes be two posts in one day. I’m breaking them down so no post has more than 6 questions.

In this post, I’m sharing the profile of who took the survey. Don’t miss a post. If you don’t have this blog added to your Google Reader or subscribed by email, you may want to do that at the blog to make sure you don’t miss any of these posts.

Here are the results of the first 5 questions:

A couple of observations:

• I was surprised by the large percentage of people who served longer than 16 years in ministry.
• Lots of senior pastors read my blog. (Thank you)
• The tenure in churches was shorter than I thought.
• People of all size churches read my blog. (Thank you)
• The bulk of churches were over 30 years old.

Stay tuned over the next few days. Some of the results are interesting.

If you are reading this in an email or reader program and having trouble reading the percents, go to the actual blog post HERE and you can click on each diagram for a larger image.

Anything surprising to you about the numbers so far? What do the numbers indicate about my readership?

Now to continue to part 2 of these results, click HERE.

I hear people use this verse for the wrong application:

Exodus 14:14 “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

I’ve heard well meaning people use it as an indicator that, because we are on the winning team, we will never face another battle. Not true.

Here’s something you need to understand about this verse, before you try to live it.

The verse doesn’t mean you don’t have an assignment. It doesn’t mean the assignment you have won’t be difficult. It doesn’t mean doing nothing.

Consider the next verse:

Exodus 15:15 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.”

In other words…get going! Do what you’re supposed to do! Don’t stand there in fear…MOVE ON!

The Israelites were going to cross the sea. It would be something they had never done before. Have you ever walked through a wall of water, on ground that used to be the bottom of the sea?

Seriously, have you?

The Israelites were going to have to trust God that God would part the waters and dry up the land. Keep in mind, this command was given before the sea had even started to separate. They had to believe that the water would divide. They then had to believe the wall of water wouldn’t drop and fish wouldn’t fall on their head as they drown. They had to believe that crossing the sea was a better option than surrendering to the Egyptians. It wasn’t doing nothing. It was walking by faith.

The verse, then, means that if you are moving at the direction of God…if you are following His plan for your life…if you are being obedient…you don’t have to fear the outcome. You don’t have to worry about the provision of God for your journey. You don’t have to wonder if God will do as God said He will do. He’s got your back! He’s got the ultimate victory. You can rest in Him. You can be still!

Being still doesn’t mean doing nothing!

Have you been “standing still” when you need to be moving?

Quit making excuses and act on what you know God has called you to do! 

I deal with dozens of pastors and ministers each month through my blog and consulting ministry. It seems to me that many are drowning in their ministry, are in unhealthy church cultures, and many are wondering if God will ever use them again.

I know from my recent blog reader survey that nearly 60% of my readership is in some form of professional ministry, so I thought I’d do a survey on the health of pastors and ministers who read my blog (and others I can get to take the survey).

Would you help me?

If you are in vocational ministry, either full-time or part-time, please take this quick, 22 question survey by clicking:

HERE

You can help even more if you can encourage others in your network, through Facebook, Twitter, or blog to take the survey. Again, I am really asking this to be filled out by those in vocational ministry. I appreciate you honoring that request.

I’ll post results in the weeks to come.

Thanks!

I’ve heard many well-meaning, potentially great leaders who never achieve all they could, because their fears and doubts keep them from making hard decisions.

Let me tell you from experience:

You’ll never be 100% certain about a leadership decision.

Okay, maybe “never” is too far a stretch, but it’s at least 99% certain you’ll never be 100% certain.

The best leadership decisions are the hardest to make. You won’t have all the answers yet. You’ll still have some doubts. You may likely have a few (sometimes many) naysayers around saying it can’t be done, it won’t work, or they don’t want to change.

That’s what leadership does. It leads people where they need to go, but may not want to go. That’s hard. All of us like approval. Sometimes leadership doesn’t receive immediate approval. You often have to make decisions before you have complete certainty, even when you believe you’re following God’s will. Doubt and fears affect us all. We can question our own ability to hear from God. Others cloud our ability to discern. At some point, leaders lead in the direction they feel God is leading them to go, regardless of the other voices around them.

I have a friend who says, “If life takes you to a fork in the road, choose the hardest route. It’s often the one where God most wants to shape you.” The point of his saying is that faith is built by resistance to our doubts and fears. If it doesn’t stretch you, it’s probably not much of a worthy goal. The path of least resistance usually produces the least desirable results.

Leader, don’t be afraid to make the hard decisions. Seek wise counsel, follow God’s heart as closely as you can, answer all the questions you can, even try to kill your own ideas (Read about that HERE). At some point, leaders pull the trigger to do the best they know how to do for the people they lead.

Don’t be gun shy! Pull!

Be honest, do you struggle making decisions when you’re not 100% certain?

Have you ever followed a leader who couldn’t make the difficult decisions?

Pastoring can be lonely. As a pastor, I’m supposed to find my strength in Christ, (and you have to know how helpful that is to be reminded as if those who are not pastors are not commanded to do likewise ) and I do seek Christ as my ultimate strength. I teach the Bible regularly, however, that says we are to “bear with one another”. God didn’t design us to do life alone. That goes for pastors also.

From my experience, those in ministry leadership have been some of the loneliest people I’ve known. I hear from them everyday.

I was talking with a young pastor recently. He said, “Who is going to invest in me?” I understand the sentiment. He is struggling for answers he can’t seem to find; practical answers. People are looking to him for leadership and seminary didn’t teach him all he needs to know. I think every good leader asks that at same question; hopefully often.

Later that week I talked to an older pastor. He said, “I go home most days and haven’t heard a single positive. Things are going great. We are growing faster than ever, but it seems I get far more of the negatives than I get to hear of the good we are doing.” All I could do was agree. I’ve felt that way before many times.

When the weight of ministry responsibility appears to rest on your shoulder…when everyone looks to you for the answer…when some days you don’t know which direction to turn…when you are balancing the demands of ministry and family…when you are seen as a key in helping everyone with a problem hold their life together…yet you feel no one is concerned about your personal struggles…and you don’t know who to trust…

Remember God’s words of encouragements:

Cast your cares upon the Lord because He cares for you.

Yes, that is the first answer.

Next, find a mentor; someone who is walking further down the road from you, but going in the direction you want to go. I’ve written extensively about this, but you can start HERE.

And then regularly:

1. Surround yourself with a few pastors at the same level you are organizationally. (If it’s a pastor, youth minister, etc.) It seems to work best if the churches are similar in size and structure. They’ll best understand.

2. Work to develop a close enough relationship with them, over time, where you can trust them. You may have to spend some of your free time and even travel to do this. Learn from each other, seek wisdom from more seasoned people together, and grow together in the ministry.

3. Consistently share burdens, concerns, and encouragements with each other. You can do this occasionally in person, but more frequently over the phone or online. Chances are, they need this as much as you do, so be the one to take the initiative.

I hear what some pastors are thinking, because it has been said to me so many times. You often think those groups aren’t there for you. You’ve tried before and couldn’t find them. I would say:

• Keep trying. It’s worth it.
• Treat this like any other friendship. It takes commitment and has to be a balance of give and take.
• Be willing to be vulnerable.
• Risk the rejection to extend an offer for friendship.
• Use social media, denominational leadership, recommendations from others to find these pastors…whatever if necessary. (This has been one of the greatest benefits of social media for me, by the way.)

Some of these relationships I have had to develop outside my own city. I’ve found they are valuable enough to justify the time and financial investment required.

Pastor, help other pastors by commenting with how you handle the loneliness of leadership. 

What about it pastor? Are you struggling today? What are you going to do about it?

This is a guest post by my friend Casey Graham. Casey is one of the most innovative church leaders I know. He is passionate about Kingdom building and helping those who desire to Kingdom build. I haven’t seen any project of Casey’s yet I can’t support.

Here’s a word from Casey about a new project to help pastors:

After talking to hundreds of preachers, we’ve found most preachers love preaching, but the grind of preparation can often become a pain. Here are three things we’ve seen.

Here are 3 Ways To Remove The Pain From Preparing A Weekly Sermon:

1. Great preaching comes from a great preparation system. Perry Noble doesn’t prepare in a vacuum. He has a team at NewSpring Church that helps him prepare. Perry will talk about how this works at the PreachBetterSermons.com FREE online event on March 15th.

2. A Preparation day is better than feeling like you have to prepare all the time. Andy Stanley sets aside every Wednesday to prepare messages, and his team helps him keep this time guarded. While Andy is gifted, his commitment to preparation helps make his messages memorable. Andy will talk about the structure of his preparation day on the Preach Better Sermons online event.

3. Developing a sermon planning system takes the pain out of preparation. There are things you can do on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual basis that will dramatically improve your preparation time and help you deliver better messages. Helping you put something like this into place will be a part of the free online event.

Make a commitment to be a better preacher. Sign up for the free online conference. Here are the details.

Date: March 15, 2012
Time: 1pm – 4pm EST
Speakers: Andy Stanley, Perry Noble, Louie Giglio, Dr. Charles Stanley, Vanable Moody, Jeff Foxworthy. The event is being hosted by Jeff Henderson.
Registration: Free sign up at preachbettersermons.com

Are you there? I am. Thanks Casey!