Obviously, God builds the church, but He uses people to build it. What kind of people does God use to build a great church? As a pastor, I have noticed some trends among church people who help move the church forward. The following is a list of characteristics of those type of people. Not everyone will have every quality, but it’s the combination of each of them in people that builds a great church.

Great church people:

1. Support the pastor and the church.

1 Corinthians 16:10‑11 When Timothy comes, treat him with respect. He is doing the Lord’s work, just as I am. Don’t let anyone despise him.

A pastor is always looking for someone he can feel is his friend. Great church people are that friend.

2. Are encouragers in the church.

1 Thessalonians 5:11 So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.

Great church people are a part of the solution, not a part of the problem. They look for ways to help, invite their friends and neighbors, and help without having their arms twisted.

3. Don’t think everything is about them!

Matthew 16:24 Then Jesus said to the disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me.”

Did you know everything may not go your way? Great church people are willing to allow the best to be done for the church even when it goes against their own desires.

4. Think outside the walls of the church. They think external not internal.

Acts 1:8 But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and will tell people about me every where‑‑in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. 

If we are not careful, our churches could be hard to tell apart from a Country Club. Great church people think of those not yet in a church!

5. Maintain a friendly church.

2 John 6 Love means doing what God has commanded us, and he has commanded us to love one another, just as you heard from the beginning.

Great church people make sure visitors never stand around long with no one to talk to. They are welcoming and friendly to everyone.

6. Believe and love God’s Word.

Joshua 1:8 Study this Book of the Law continually. Meditate on it day and night so you may be sure to obey all that is written in it. Only then will you succeed.

Great church people let the Bible guide them.

7. Grow in prayer.

Ephesians 6:18 Pray at all times and on every occasion in the power of the Holy Spirit. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all Christians everywhere.

Great church people pray more than worry.

8. Build on faith.

Hebrews 10:38 And a righteous person will live by faith.

Great church people are willing to walk by faith as God leads, even through the most challenging times.

9. Put God’s will first.

Mark 3:35 “Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

Great church people put God’s will ahead of every other agenda.

10. Enjoy meeting with God regularly.

Amos 4:12 says, “Prepare to meet your God,”

Great church people look expectantly for opportunities to worship God and experience Him with other believers.

I’m so thankful to be in a church with so many who make this list easy to write.

What would you add to this list?

If you want an organization to grow you must develop leaders.  Success or failure of an organization rises and falls on leadership.  I believe it is equally true that the degree of success an organization can attain is directly proportional to its leadership potential.  Those can be scary words, because it means that we must constantly be finding new leaders if we intend to continue to grow as an organization. 

The goal for our church would be that we never have to say, “We can’t, because we don’t have anyone to lead that.” 

Recently I shared these points with our small group leaders about replacing themselves as leaders.  I dug them back out again this week, because I think we need some more leaders…again! 

Here are 10 steps to replacing yourself and find new leaders

1.      Catch the vision of multiplication

If you don’t believe in the system of multiplication then you aren’t as likely to participate in it.  You must recognize that multiplication is a part of kingdom building.  Growth in the kingdom will be greatly impacted by the numbers of leaders you develop. 

2.      Be intentional. 

You must be intentional about finding your replacement and put energy into leadership development. Replacing yourself must become a part of your overall leadership strategy.

3.      Start early. 

A new leader needs time to prepare. You need to get started early in your leadership role looking for that person who might be able to take your place.  With some people bent towards leading you either use them early or you will lose them from your organization as they search for a place of significance.

4.      Invest in your own personal growth. 

You can’t take people where you haven’t been or aren’t going.  The only sure way to lead people towards spiritual maturity is to be heading there yourself.  Live a life worth following.

5.      Humble yourself.

Today’s generation likes honesty, so don’t be afraid to allow your weaknesses, failures and shortcomings to be the catalyst to help your organization grow.  Also, don’t be threatened by others.  They will bring different styles; maybe even be better than you at some things.

Take pride in finding them as potential new leaders. 

6.      Share responsibilities early.

The quickest way to learn something is to do it.  Allow people a chance to grow under your leadership.  Give them a chance to lead.

7.      Identify potential. 

Look for leadership qualities in people that match the character of your organization. 

Here are some qualities we look for in potential leaders:

a. Concern/love for others

b. Not a complainer.

c. Teachable and open to suggestions.

d. Demonstrates a propensity to lead through an excellence in following.

e. Reliability

f. Interest  (in the system, the organization, people in the organization)

g. Character

h. Potential

i. Positive attitude

j. Confidence

k. People skills

8.      Create an environment conducive to produce leaders. 

Leaders don’t develop well under a dictatorship. If people are afraid to have an answer in your organization for fear of being “wrong” they are less likely to try to have an answer.  Give people an opportunity to rise and fall. Leadership is less about managing people and more about enabling them. 

9.      Recruit. 

Don’t use the sign up method. “Raise your hand if you want to be a leader.”  That will get you a bunch of quality people! The best people are often recruited. 

10.  Lead for life change. 

Some people will experience their greatest life change only when they are leading others. 

Think about the blessings people you recruit into leadership will have in their life from serving others.

Peter Block says “Leadership is about developing leaders; not followers.”  Jesus said, “Follow me”, but remember He was perfect.   Even Jesus though was seeking followers who would be unleashed to be leaders.  He sent the disciples out to launch the church. 

Growth of any organization is directly related to its leadership potential.  Who is sitting in your organization that could be a leader?  Who has the skills, probably should be leading, but hasn’t stepped forward?  Your God-given mission may be to move them into a leadership position.  

Edgy in worship is a relative term.

 When we planted our church three years ago we were considered “edgy” in our worship style.  Now three years later we aren’t all that edgy.

It has been interesting over the last few months to hear dialogue from people who think we are too fast or too slow or too whatever.   Hearing these discussions provides proof that our church of 3 years faces some of the same challenges of a traditional church when it comes to styles of worship. You can’t please everyone.  (Some days as a pastor, honestly, you wonder if you can please anyone.)  Thankfully we can make decisions rather quickly, so as we sense a need to change we can. 

One of the questions in my thoughts these days is what is next in the area of change needed in our worship planning.  I certainly think the church needs to always be thinking, dreaming and planning for the next phase of our ministry and we need to be ready before or at least as changes occur in society.  I’m not talking just about the music, but the whole service.  If everything changes and if change today is occurring rapidly in our society, what kind of changes will we need to make in the coming months and years to continue to reach people for Christ?  If the Apple iPhone is already undergoing changes after their short history in the cell phone market, how much more must we as presenters of the Kingdom of God be willing to change and adapt to change quickly?  Again, these are just questions.  I usually live my life with more questions than I have answers.  

My mind started racing Sunday afternoon. I tried to take a nap, but I couldn’t get these thoughts out of my head.  I woke up with the same thoughts again this morning.  I’m trying to figure out how best to reach people in today’s culture.  These thoughts began with a game my family plays each Sunday after church.  Perhaps your family plays the game. It’s called “Name The Missing” and the object of the game is to list as many people as you can who you didn’t see at church that day.  I hate the game personally, but I seem to fall into it and actually win quite often.  If you can name the person and where they were you get extra points.  The most common response lately has revolved around dance competitions or sporting events.  I’m wondering now if there is a better game we should be playing. 

We are living in a culture where Sunday morning is not necessarily reserved for church. It used to be and we could wish it still were, but it’s not.  For years I have tried to figure out how to stop this cultural shift, but I’m beginning to wonder if that is the correct response.   I wonder if we should be considering how we interact with the present culture.  How do we reach people who no longer have the mindset that to find God they must free up their Sunday morning? 

Jesus said, in Mark 16:15 “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.”  Does that command include the dance competitions and the baseball diamond, even if those places are occupied on Sunday morning?  What about the restaurant I passed on the way to church this morning?  Does the absence of a person from my organized time of service mean they have no interest in God or no desire for Him in their life? I’m not sure it does.  I’m wondering if we as the “church” need to rethink our strategy to include those absentees in our outreach. 

I’m not suggesting Tuesday night visitation.  I don’t want unannounced visitors at my house and I’m a paid professional.  I am, however, talking about finding ways to reach people within the schedule the culture is setting for them.  That could mean alternative scheduling of our services or it could mean alternative type of “services”.  I think it definitely means taking the message of God’s love and grace, which is only available through the person of Jesus Christ, (I added the Jesus qualifier just so someone doesn’t think I’m talking about a new “religion”) to them in a ways that intersect with where and how they have currently chosen to live their life, even if that is just through personal relationships.   I guess I’m also wondering if thinking through ways to accomplish this should be occupying my thoughts as much or close to as much as thoughts about how to improve Sunday mornings at my church. 

I don’t have all the answers. I’m just thinking.  I welcome your ideas. 

I love it when a church that is already doing great things attempts to get better.  Continuing to dream, explore, experiment and improve should be the goal of every organization; especially the church!  Some things will never change, but how we present it must always be on the table!

I always learn something when I read Tim Steven’s Blog:  http://tinyurl.com/5nvr39

My hope would be that we as a church never get stale and never be afraid to tweak things to get better.  It seems to me we could never improve too much in attempting to tell the story we have to tell! 

Every week we send first time visitors a questionnaire to tell us about the experience they had visiting.  We receive many wonderful comments, and a few suggestions, but the most repeated praise of what we do is the welcoming spirit of our people.  Your friendliness and love towards others is evident when they walk in our doors.  Sometimes it is humbling to know their greatest impression of us was not the music or the message, but the people they encountered, but honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.  Grace Community Church has grown mostly by people who cared enough to care for others.  If we ever lose that somehow I think we will lose our soul as a church. 

Will you do me a favor?  Will you help us do this even more? Sometimes we grow comfortable in our seats and fail to do what we need to do. (That statement is probably true about a lot of other areas in our life as well.)  This Sunday and every Sunday will you do two things?  1) Consider who you can invite to join you at Grace this week; and, 2) Introduce yourself to someone you don’t know and make the people around you feel welcome and at home.   

(As a side note from personal experience: Don’t assume it is their first visit, because they may have been there all along.  You just may not have met them yet.) 

Thanks for giving us a reputation as a friendly place where people are loved.  There is no better way to begin to introduce people to the love of Christ than to let them know they are loved by us.   

What is the next level for your organization?  Do you have a vision to get you there? 

As we approach our third anniversary as a church, I’m in a deep brainstorming time about where God would want us to lead the church in the coming years.  God has blessed us with three wonderful years, but what’s next?  I have always believed and taught that a healthy church is a growing church, so what is our role in producing that growth.  Of course our overall vision remains the same. We want to make growing followers of Jesus Christ.  I know that God ultimately is the One who grows the church and people, but I also know that He uses people to carry out His will.  Will what worked to accomplish our growth the first three years work the same way in the next three years?  As fast as the world is changing, and since we are a culture invading church, reaching people who are very entrenched in the culture, it would make sense that we would need to be ready to make changes quickly to maintain our growth.   

So, here are some of the tough questions I’m asking myself.  While at this point these are personal questions I am processing, yesterday I shared these with our staff for their input and to spur their thoughts in similar directions.  I welcome your input if you have questions or thoughts that would be good for us to consider or if you have insight for a church at our stage of its life-cycle.    

Where do we want to go?  What specific goals in each area of ministry do we have for the next three years in regards to numbers of people engaged and numbers of people volunteering?  What changes need to be made to our current structured programs in order to better disciple people?  Do we need to alter our service times, tweak our style of music or add new services to reach new people? 

How are we going to get there?  Once we know where we want to go, what steps need to be in place to accomplish each of the goals?  How much will it cost?  Will our current facilities be enough to sustain our new growth goals? 

Who is going to lead the way?  Are the right people in place to take us to the next level?  Do we need to add staff or alter responsibilities in order to achieve maximum results from everyone on the team?  How many new volunteers will be needed to meet our goals? 

These are just a few of my questions. Again, I welcome your input in this process. 

Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed. Proverbs 15:22 NIV

This is such a friendler post than what I started writing yesterday on this subject. Thank you God for time to think through commenting. I do have a question though about a denomination that I’ve been a part of since birth:

Are the Southern Baptist, by their passing of the resolution “On Regenerate Church Membership and Church Member Restoration” claiming that all the 10 million missing people from their membership rolls are in need of discipline?  You can read the resolution here: http://www.bpnews.net/blog/article.asp?id=176.  It passed at the denomination’s convention earlier this month. 

If so, I have a problem with that. My suspicion is that not everyone understands or even agrees with the system of record keeping Southern Baptist hold so dear.  In our military town, for example, people move away, join a church that doesn’t request “letters”, and never think to notify the sending church.  Are they living in sin because of an oversight in record keeping? 

I know that’s not the intent of this resolution.  Hopefully it is incredibly well-meaning to make sure disciples are being made in keeping with the teachings of Christ, but perception says otherwise, and, as I have learned in church planting trying to reach lost people, perception carries a lot of weight with the unchurched/unsaved world. 

I think the proper response may be to follow up with those “misplaced” members, find out where they are in their walk with Christ, and if necessary, adjust the churches records.  If discipline is needed then it can be addressed then.  I would suggest starting with the “love others” approach first.

Just a suggestion. 

Have you ever read something and wish you hadn’t?  That just happened to me.  While researching for message prep I stumbled on this blog post.  It’s not “new” information, just compiled in a way I haven’t seen; all in one neat, tidy, sobering place.  What to make of it?  Not sure yet.  I’m still processing it all. 

Check out what stirred my thoughts this morning at: http://faithwalk.wordpress.com/startling-statistics/

I like these quotes and observations from Fortune Magazine’s article on America’s Most Admired Companies: (March 17, 2008) My question in reading these snipets about each company is what can the church learn from corporate America, especially successful corporate America?  You make your own conclusions, but to me some of the applications are very obvious.

Berkshire Hathaway

Said of Warren Buffet’s success: His key to turning today’s problems into tomorrow’s profits: “An absence of any regard for short-term results”

Google

Google’s philosophy:  Google believes “what’s good for the web has always proven to be very good for Google.”

(That sounds like a Kingdom principle many churches should learn.)

Johnson & Johnson

Johnson & Johnson responded to the uncertainty in the health-care markets by “narrowing their focus”.

Goldman Sachs

The company posted record profits in 2007, in a year when Wall Street was struggling to hold their own.  Reason: “Its results are a testament to its culture, and impossible-to-replicate mix of extreme aggression, deep paranoia, individual ambition, and robot-like teamwork.”

Target

In a year when retail sales were in a slump, including at this retailer, they continued their tradition of giving away $3 million a week back to the community.

UPS

The company may be 100 years old (I had no idea), but they act much younger. They are known for their “ability to combine cutting-edge technology with its own brand of ‘human engineering’ to great effect.”

3M

Known for being a mega-sized company ($24 billion a year), but still managing to generate new ideas each year.  William McKnight, Chairman, says, “Management that is destructively critical when mistakes are made kills initiative.  And it’s essential that we have many people with initiative if we are to continue to grow.” The moral, according to Fortune, “Don’t tell employees how to do their jobs — let them innovate. “

I don’t know about you, but there are lessons here for me.  Thanks Fortune for a great article.

Which comment jumps out at you most from this list?