There are times when a pastor is launched into the role of being a community pastor.

• An influential person in the community or a popular youth dies and you are asked to do the funeral
• Tragedy that attracts media attention occurs involving church members
• Natural disaster and your church is heavily involved in the recovery
• You are asked to speak at a very public event

For brief moments in time…an hour…a day…a week…all eyes are on your for spiritual guidance, comfort and a sense of direction.

What do you do in those times?

As our church has grown over the last few years, we’ve found ourselves in this position on a number of occasions.

These settings can come regardless of the church or community’s size. When they do the way you respond is of Kingdom importance.

Here are 5 reminders when you are the community’s pastor:

Speak truth in love – Don’t water down truth in these occasions, but don’t beat people up with truth either. Be like Jesus, full of grace and truth. Share God’s Word, but don’t use it as a weapon against the community. You will never be taken serious if they see you as judgmental and uncaring. Win them over with genuine love and helpful truth. These situations may give you a greater opportunity for influence for Christ in the days to come.

Don’t recruit for a church recruit for Jesus – There’s nothing worse, in my opinion, than a pastor in a community setting who spends more time trying to recruit for his individual church than he does sharing the love of Christ. In settings where everyone sees you as the pastor, but not everyone is from your “flock”, use it as an opportunity to lift a Christ banner high, not your church banner. If they are impressed with the Jesus you proclaim, they’ll be likely to find your church.

Don’t hold out for denominational tenants – Be mindful of doctrinal divisions that have divided people denominationally for years. In strictly church settings, you can be free to express your doctrinal stance, but in public settings where different theological views are joined together, let the main thing be the main thing. Keep your focus upon the things upon which all of mainline Christianity can agree.

Be truthful but encouraging – More than anything in these settings, share hope. This is likely not the time to bring forth condemnation, even if it’s shared under the disguise of truth. Don’t back away from truth, but make sure whatever you share is clearly seen in the context of a God who IS LOVE.

Be likable and natural - Let the crowds see you as real and approachable. Take time to shake hands, embrace, cry with people who are grieving if necessary. The more they see you as a man (just like Elijah…James 5:17) and not like someone above them positionally, the more likely they’ll be to trust the comfort you bring and cling to the God you serve.

It doesn’t happen often, but on these occasions where you have a larger, community audience, allow God to use you for a greater and longer term benefit to the Kingdom.

Have you ever been the community’s pastor? What would you add to my list?

I’ve often said “I wish everyone in our church could go through at least an hour of professional counseling. We all need help with the relationships in our life. What are some Biblical principles to help us know how to communicate better…how to handle conflict…what does a healthy relationship look like…especially with difficult people? There should be no shame in seeking help when needed.

Could you use help in those areas?

If you don’t have to deal with people in your life…you probably have little need for this series, but if you deal with people everyday…then this may be your series.

During the month of October, that’s the goal of our new series at Grace Community Church. For four seeks we will have trained Biblical counselors stage to help us think through relationship issues. These counselors are professionals, educated with doctorate degrees, but they are sold out believers; passionate about leading people to the ultimate Counselor…Jesus Christ. Now obviously this series will never substitute for needed counseling, but we do hope that we will all learn valuable and Biblical principles of how we relate to one another…in all the relationships of our life.

This month, join us for Necessary Roughness. Let’s get better at building healthy relationships.

Be bold and share. Have you been helped with professional counseling?

The mission of Grace Community Church is short.

GCC exists to encourage growing followers of Jesus Christ.

We believe it’s easy to understand, but it’s obviously somewhat subjective. Our staff has been working over the last few months to add some clarity to what we mean by “growing followers of Jesus Christ”. In an all day staff retreat recently, we decided on ten attributes of a growing follower of Jesus.

We call them our core values and we will be sharing them with our church in the coming weeks. These will become principles to guide how we encourage discipleship at every level of ministry.

Our core values:

A growing follower of Jesus values…

GATHERING: consistently gathering with the Church to celebrate Jesus and encounter Biblical teaching. (Acts 2:42, Hebrews 10:25)

COMMUNITY: building authentic relationships of encouragement and accountability with other followers of Jesus. (Acts 2:44, 1 Corinthians 12:12)

SERVING: developing a servant’s heart that looks to always meet the needs of others. (Matthew 20:28, 1 Peter 4:10)

PRAYER: maintaining a continuous conversation with God. (1 Thessalonians 5:17, James 5:16)

GOD’S WORD: spending consistent time reading the Bible and applying its Truth. (Acts 2:42, 2 Timothy 3:16)

SHARING THEIR STORY: creating conversations about what God has done and is doing in his/her life. (Acts 1:8, 1 Peter 3:15)

WISDOM: seeking God’s will in all decisions. (Proverbs 8:11, James 1:5)

GENEROSITY: developing a growing generosity with resources and finances. (Proverbs 3:9, 2 Corinthians 9:7)

INTEGRITY: striving to develop a reputation that honors God. (Matthew 5:16, Ephesians 4:1-3)

INFLUENCE: maximizing influence to point others to Jesus. (Deuteronomy 4:9, 1 Peter 3:16)

Does your church have something such as this to help shape programs, ministry and teaching?

Solving a problem is often a matter of perspective….

Some days leaders feel as though all we do is address problems other people have. It could be a personal problem, a problem with a program, someone on our team, or it could be a problem no one can even identify…just a problem. Leaders often serve the role of problem solvers.

It’s frustrating, as a leader, when we do our best to address a problem, but people still have a problem.

Ever been there?

That’s because fixing a problem…addressing the problem…doesn’t always solve the problem…at least in the mind of others. You see…solving a problem is often a matter of perspective.

I remember the time my family ate at a very popular chain restaurant in Chicago. I won’t tell you the name, but if I did you’ve probably heard of it. It’s a wonderful restaurant and people often stand in line for hours to eat there. We continue to patronize the restaurant today.

Anyway, my son ordered milk. I don’t know why…who orders milk at a restaurant? When they set the milk down on the table, my son, who is somewhat picky about certain things, noticed a huge fly floating in his glass of milk. He wouldn’t drink it!

We called the waiter over and showed him the fly. The waiter simply grabbed a spoon off the table, scooped the fly out of the glass of milk, and tossed the fly onto an empty plate on the table. With that he walked away…problem solved.

It was solved, right?

Seriously, this story remains funny to us today. In no way did we feel this problem was solved. It may have been fixed…there was no longer a fly in the milk, but the problem wasn’t solved. My son wanted a new glass of milk. I know…he’s picky. We decided we weren’t up for an argument and had made a funny memory together, so we simply ignored it, my son drank his water, and we left feeling as though we had an unresolved problem at our table.

Our server, on the other hand, felt he had fixed our problem, so everything was good…no fly…no problem. He never apologized or addressed it again, but continued serving us.

That story…as silly as it is…is a good reminder as a leader. Just because you fix a problem from your perspective, doesn’t mean you’ve solved the problem in the eyes of those you lead.

Solving a problem is often a matter of perspective.

Understanding this principle means a few things for me:

• As a leader, whether or not you’ve solved a problem…or even addressed it in some people’s eyes…may be based more on a person’s perspective, their personal interests or desires, and even their emotional investment at times, than it is on some measurable reality.
• I should keep trying to fix the problems I agree need fixing…just knowing I may not solve everyone’s concern with the problem. I can’t make everyone happy…as hard as I may try to solve their problems.
• More importantly, I should attempt to understand the real problem from other’s perspective and what solving that problem would even look like. At that point, I can determine whether I can truly solve the problem to their satisfaction. Sometimes I’ll be able to and sometimes not, but everyone should at least know what’s considered resolution to the problem. That keeps me from spending time and resources attempting to fix a problem I can never solve.

In the case of the milk, if the waiter had asked, “Do you want a new glass or should I just scoop the fly out?“…he would have learned how to move from fixing the problem to solving the problem from our perspective.

Have you ever tried to fix a problem but still experienced upset people? Please share your story to help others.

If you’ve attended The Nines or any other free online conference, you’ll know how this works. This free online event is focused on church finances. It’s called Fund Your Church Now and it takes places on October 20. Here are the details:

What is it? Fund Your Church Now is a FREE online event to help your church go from financial breakeven to breakthrough. Some of the top church leaders in North America will talk about the practical things they have done to fully fund the church or ministry they help lead. No travel required…just watch from your computer.

When is it? October 20, 2011 from 1pm – 4pm EST. Register here.

Who is speaking? Bob Franquiz, Dino Rizzo, Carey Nieuwhof, Shaun King, Joe Sangl, Tim Stevens , Pete Wilson, Casey Graham, Robert Morris, and others.

Who is behind it? Fund Your Church Now is hosted by Giving Rocket.

If you are a church leader, this free online conference looks like it’s worth your time. Register here.

Leadership Tip: Collaboration leads to Cooperation

When you are leading a team, the more you collaborate with your team during the planning process and before the final decisions are made, the more cooperation you’ll receive from your team during the implementation process.

Of course, you can’t collaborate on every decision. One of the reasons you are leader is to make big picture, strategic decisions.

Whenever a decision, however, impacts other people, especially if it:

• Impacts how they do their work…
• Changes the basic nature of what they do…
• Significantly impacts the future of the team or organization…

…Collaboration is advised, because it always bring better cooperation from the team.

In fact, the opposite can be equally true. A lack of collaboration naturally brings a lack of cooperation.

And cooperation rocks in organizational health!

Cooperation brings;

• Collective buy-in
• A sense of ownership and empowerment
• Less petty arguments
• Lower resistance to change
• More passion towards the vision
• Shared workload
• Fewer cases of burnout

What leader doesn’t appreciate those things?

Leader, learn to collaborate better so your team can learn to cooperate better.

Have you seen this principle in practice? Is collaboration easy for you to do as a leader?

How have you seen this principle work or the opposite effect occur in a team’s health? Help us learn from your experience.

I’ve seen it many times…

You have an idea…it’s not a bad idea…it may be a great idea…

You just don’t know yet…

Here’s my advice…

Spend your energies at first on deciding whether it’s an idea worth pursuing…

The what…

Before you spend a lot of energy on the mechanics of the idea…

The how…

You may have to talk about some of the how to decide the what, but spend your first, best and most energy on the what…

For example: Let’s say you have an idea to add a third church service to allow for more growth…or maybe you are thinking of going multi-site…or the idea could be to plant another church. Don’t spend too much time on the how…until you decide the what.

Is this an idea worth pursuing?

Are you willing to give it a try?

Yes or no?  

Spending too much time on the how before you address the what:

• Gets you bogged down in needless details…
• Wastes energy that could be used elsewhere…
• Solves problems you don’t yet and may never have…
• Creates division about change prematurely…
• Builds momentum before it’s time…

Once you decide the what, you’ll have more passion, clarity and energy to address the how.

Do you often find yourself addressing the how before you decide the what? 

I know numerous leaders with great potential…

They have all the appearance of being a good leader…

But they lack one thing…or two…

There are a few killers of good leadership…

Any one of these can squelch good leadership…

It’s like a wrecking ball of potential…

It’s not that they can’t lead, but to continue to grow as a leader…to be successful at a higher level or for the long-term…they must address these issues.

Here are 12 killers of good leadership:

Defensiveness – Good leaders don’t wear their feelings on their shoulders. They know other’s opinions matter and aren’t afraid to be challenged.

Jealousy – A good leader enjoys watching others on the team excel.

Revenge – The leader that succeeds for the long-term must be forgiving and knows that “getting even” only comes back to harm them and the organization.

Fearfulness – The good leader remains committed when no one else is and must take risks no one else will. Others will follow. That’s what leaders do.

Favoritism - Good leaders don’t have favorites on the team. They reward for results not partiality.

Ungratefulness - Good leaders value people, knowing they cannot attain success without others.

Small-mindedness – Good leaders think bigger than today. They are dreamers and idea people.

Pridefulness - Pride comes before the fall. Good leaders remain humbled by the position of authority entrusted to them.

Rigidity - There are some things to be rigid about, such as values and vision, but for most issues, the leader must be open to change. Good leaders are welcome new ideas, realizing that most everything can be improved.

Laziness – One can’t be a good leader and not be willing to work hard. In fact, the leader should be willing to be the hardest worker on the team.

Unresponsiveness – Good leaders don’t lead from behind closed doors. They are responsive to the needs and desires of those they attempt to lead. They respond to concerns and questions. They collaborate more than control. Leaders who close themselves off from those they lead will limit the places where others will follow.

Dishonesty – Since character counts highest, a good leader must be above reproach. When a leader fails, he or she must admit their mistake and work towards restoration.

A leader may struggle with one or more of these, but the goal should be to lead “killer-free”. Leader, be honest, which of these wrecking balls do you struggle with most?

What would you add to my list?

Can you think of any other killers of good leadership?

In making a first impression…

The little things matter…

A number of years ago, while I was pastoring another church, I felt I needed more buy-in from them in helping to lead the church. They were a great group of people, passionate about reaching the lost, but they had begun to neglect some of the little things that had to keep a church operating. I wanted to encourage them to be more observant about what needed doing. (To be candid, the women did most of the work, so it was the men who needed the most encouragement.)

I conducted an experiment with the male church leaders. I placed a Sunday bulletin on the floor of the men’s bathroom, right in front of the urinal. It stayed there through two Sundays and no one picked it up. At the following Wednesday night leadership meeting, I brought the bulletin with me. I asked, “Does anyone recognize this?” Actually it looked vaguely familiar to most of the men.

I wasn’t trying to be cruel, but it was a tangible reminder to them that when making a first impression, the little things matter. This was a church plant. We didn’t have a custodial staff for the building we rented. We were the custodial staff. If the bulletin was to be picked up, one of us needed to do it.

They instantly recognized that every man visiting our church in the last couple weeks had probably seen that bulletin on the floor of the men’s room. We only had one urinal…and we had very good coffee. Although it was a minor thing…just a bulletin on the floor…it had the potential to leave a larger impression; especially if that same visitor returned the next week to find the same bulletin still on the floor. (Of course, in a church plant, by the second week we’ll even plug you in to pick up bulletins off the bathroom floor. )

From that point, some of the men became more observant about the little things that needed attention. They started to take ownership in their roles as church leaders. I felt I had more participation in leading the church. It turned out to be a very helpful illustration.

Question: Would this same demonstration have worked in the women’s bathroom or would someone have picked it up? (Just curious)

Any other ideas? How could you help your team learn the principle that the little things matter?

Kent Shaffer is the mind behind Church Relevance and other online ministry resources. Kent is one of my early mentors for my blog and has since become not only a social media friend, but someone I’ve been able to hang out with a few times. I learned how to leverage influence by watching Kent online.

Now Kent has a new project and I’m excited to help introduce it to you here.

Introducing Open Church

Open Church is a nonprofit designed to empower global church leaders to equip each other with ministry ideas and free downloadable resources. You can visit http://openchurch.com to learn more about it, but consider this diagram to fuel some thoughts:

Be honest, did you know 80% of global church influencers are Americans, but Americans are only 10% of Christians? Have you even thought about learning from Christians around the world? Do you think they may have something they could teach us as Americans?

Social media has made the world a smaller place. I interact with pastors around the world everyday. Open Church is designed to allow believers to truly learn from one another.

Still want to know more? Check out this brochure for Open Church HERE.