Leading Your Church to the Next Level

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Leading Your Church to the Next Level

• Source Herb Miller, Leadership is the Key
  Unlocking Your Leadership Effectiveness,
  Abingdon, 1997
• Dr. John Chandler
• Virginia Baptist Mission Board

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Politics in the Church

• Politics the art of working together to
  build/maintain positive ministries
• Church leaders shouldnt try to eliminate
  politics, but develop a political system that
  fits the congregations size

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Small, Medium, Large Churches

• Small 1-100 attenders
• Medium 150-350
• Large 450
• Gaps for in-between churches

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Priorities in Church Sizes

• Small People relationships
• Medium Meaningful Programs
• Large Quality Performance

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Leadership Behaviors

• Small Chaplain
• Does pastor care about people?
• Medium Y Director
• What can we do for the young people?
• Large Corporation President
• How can we break 500 in worship?

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Small Church

• Attenders expect high involvement levels to give
  strong ownership and involvement in
  decision-making
• Governing body meetings have strong emotional
  climate
• You dont have to be present at the meeting to
  exert strong influence

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Small Church

• Majority vote doesnt mean done deal
• Congregational decision-making invested in key
  laity, not pastor
• Pastor viewed as chaplain or outsider who wont
  be there long

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Large Church

• Delegate considerable authority to senior pastor
• Rather than participatory democracy that
  functions by consensus, attenders expect
  representative democracy
• Leaders seen as having professional expertise and
  inside information

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Mid-Size Church

• Want both!
• Some members expect to be consulted for their
  stamp of approval on decisions
• Others expect committees to make decisions
• Some expect pastor to be follower, others expect
  pastor to lead

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Size Transitions

• As churches relocate across invisible size
  boundaries, pastors and congregations must
  readjust basic assumptions concerning procedures
  about decision making and exercising authority
• Experience stress for 18-24 months

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Size Models

• Size average weekly adult worship attendance
• Each size has a governing model that determines
• decision-making style
• congregation, staff, and pastor roles

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1-40 Farm Family

• Like a farmer who has lots of children to help
  with the work
• pastor serves as supply preacher for Sunday a.m.
• meets appropriate need, and has task authority
• local residents make all other decisions

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41-70 Farm family migrant workers

• Employs outside help for specific tasks such as
  baling hay
• Pastor preaches, visits, buries the dead, marries
  the willing
• Family delegates to pastor authority for specific
  ecclesiastical tasks
• Authority for all else is vested in family members

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71-100 Mom and Pop Grocery Store

• Pastors are the one employee
• are appreciated, but serve more than they lead
• Pastors role chaplain, storekeeper

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101-300 Y Coach

• Several specialized programs operate
  simultaneously
• some led by volunteers, some by staff
• Senior pastors role like YMCA or YWCA director

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301-450 Family Owned Business

• Family members/owners (members) cooperate with
  paid staff to manage
• Staff equips and serves standing committees,
  which retain authority
• Congregation expects coach to win games by
  leading staff and giving symbolic public
  leadership to team

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451-700 Large Department Store

• Staff are like department heads
• lead committees
• provide most new ideas
• Senior pastor leads staff like a store manager
  leads his or her department managers

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701-900 Shopping Mall with Privately Managed
Stores

• Staff not only provides committees with ideas,
  but also vision-direction
• Senior pastor, like executive of mall, has
  control via
• communicating overall vision
• determining budget
• selecting staff wisely
• Pastor is like a mall executive deciding who
  rents retail space

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901-1,800 Publicly Owned Corporation

• Staff valued because they bring special expertise
  to corporation
• Standing committees decrease
• only personnel, finance, programming
• Short-term task forces institute most of the
  major changes in vision and programming, led by
  staff

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901-1,800 Corporation (cont.)

• While lay-governed, congregation is primarily
  staff-led
• pastors do the leading, people do the ministry
• Senior pastors role is like that of a
  corporation president

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1,801-3,000 Mini-Denomination

• Sign on front lawn carries brand-name
  denomination label
• Congregation sends money home to support its
  parent (denomination), but the parent needs the
  child more than vice-versa
• Senior pastor is like the CEO of a denomination

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3,001-10,000 Medical School

• Care for spiritual needs of attenders
• Teach other professionals
• Publish specialized literature
• Senior pastor
• often distinguished writer and speaker
• influences staff
• influences leaders in other congregations

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10,000 Large University

• Medical, law, and other schools or departments,
  each functioning under one organizational
  umbrella
• Senior pastor is like a university president

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Leadership Diagnostics

• Which size is your church?
• What adjustments would you have to make to move
  up a size? Down?
• What resources would facilitate the transition?
• books, tapes, speakers, conferences

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3 Conclusions Stress Costs

• 1. There is significant stress upon size
  transition.

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3 Conclusions Stress Costs

• 2. Pastors and congregations who cross lines
  without making behavior adjustments are at risk
  to endanger their effectiveness and well-being.

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3 Conclusions Stress Costs

• 3. Most stress in growing churches is caused by
  leftover behaviors from a previous (and now
  inappropriate) style of leadership and/or
  decision-making.

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So

• One size doesnt fit all!
• Does your behavior pattern fit your present and
  desire future style?
• Are you thinking and acting like the size you are
  called to become?

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Leading Your Church to theNext Level

• Dr. John Chandler
• Courageous Churches
• Virginia Baptist Mission Board
• Copy right John Chandler, 2000