Church conflict: The context decides its outcome
If an American pastor was sentenced to death by an American court because he refused to recant his faith
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Being humble is one of the most critical traits of a great leader
When church administrators work at building their team or merely conduct a meeting they must “compel the process,” says management consultant
Patrick Lencioni, and when it doesn’t happen it is more often because “they have a misplaced sense of humility.”
Lencioni, president of The Table Group that specializes in organizational health and executive team development, is a favorite speaker at church conferences. He has authored nine books with more than three million copies sold, and the latest one is The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business (Jossey-Bass, 2012). Church Executive asked Lencioni to apply the advice in his book to pastors and executive pastors of churches as well as to companies: We don’t hear much about humility in business? Being humble is one of the most critical things a great leader must be. But being humble means that leaders know that they are not more important than the people they lead. They are servant leaders. However, even servant leaders need to understand that their words and actions are, in fact, more impactful than those of others.
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Leadership systems are in motion in large churches
Every leadership system has a capacity limit, a point beyond which it can no longer effectively function. When the activity level of the congregation significantly increases or decreases, leadership systems hit their limits. A senior clergyperson assumes a particular leadership role that is highly effective in a church with weekend worship attendance of 700. The clergyperson is surprised to discover that the leadership role begins losing its effectiveness when the church adds an additional worship service and now hosts 850 in weekend worship.
Read More >Employees need appreciation in churches too
We even have a special month for pastor appreciation (October). Gary Chapman and Paul White has written The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace (Northfield Publishing/Moody Publishers), and Church Executive asked the authors to apply their concepts to the church. Dr. Chapman is the director of Marriage and Family Life Consultants Inc. in Winston-Salem, NC, and has served as senior associate pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in that city for 40 years.
Read More >Church Executive, January 2012, Volume 11, Issue 1
This issue includes an interview with Ken Whitten, Senior Pastor of Idlewild Baptist Church, Lutz, FL. Also included are features on Bible literacy and a resolutions for leaders checklist from Sam. S. Rainer III.
Read More >Best practices for families in the business of a church
Most people don’t think of churches as family businesses. Yet, as in most fields of endeavor, we find that young people often follow in their parents’ footsteps. Typically, this is the field that they know most about since they grew up around it. Most famous church family successions of late are the Schullers, the Falwells, and the Grahams (though a ministry, not a congregation). They are not immune to the issues that plague secular family businesses: greed, entitlement, jealousy and struggles over power and control. (See sidebar on the November sale of the Crystal Cathedral by the bankruptcy court.)
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