The Secret Sauce of Private Purity

In March 2001 at the age of 38, I left the business world and transitioned into a role on a church staff team. I had always been very active in church life but now I was fully immersed in the church world and, to my initial surprise, found myself being swept along by a tsunami of teaching on leadership. Looking back now the shift had started years before with good heathy teaching on the character of those entrusted with caring for the flock of God, helping believers take their next step in their Christian journey and prophetically calling people to follow them in the cause of Christ as 'they followed Jesus'.

As so often happens in the church what starts as a healthy challenge or correction can finish with a wild and unhealthy pendulum swing. Book after book and conference after conference focused on developing yourself as a leader, finding leaders, appointing leaders, and developing leaders. Talk of discipleship was replaced by an emphasis on leadership development and leadership levels when scripture to my knowledge is silent on the latter but is crystal clear in its call to 'make disciples.

Of course, I must be careful not to 'throw the baby out with the bath water' and pursue yet another dangerous swing. However, a short story from Pastor Rick Warren during a chat with Carey Nieuholf really brought home to me the crushing failures of our leadership teaching. 

One of the Pastors, from whom I have learned much, but has featured large in creating the leadership culture wave is Bill Hybels formally of Willow Creek Church and Willow Creek Leadership Summit. The great sadness is that all his teaching on leadership was holed beneath the waterline because his public platform life was not flowing in integrity with his private backstage life. Despite teaching others about leadership for decades he created a leadership culture that was abusive and not life-giving.

In the middle of a conversation with Carey about pastors protecting themselves from moral failure, Rick recalls a conversation with Bill Hybels:

'I remember telling this to Bill Hybels back in the eighties. I warned him. I said, "Bill, I think you're flirting with fire the way you travel with female staff and the way you don't hold up lines." And I gave him my Saddleback Ten Commandments. His response to me was "Rick, you're going overboard." That's what he told me. And I looked at him in the eye and I said, "Bill, I'd rather go overboard than be thrown overboard." And he was thrown overboard.'

I also remember hearing Rick say: ‘In ministry, private purity is the source of public power.’

This is true for all of us, whether we are operating in the family, the workplace, the community or the church. If we want to have a powerful impact for Christ in the world, we need to be people of purity.

Lord help me to continue to walk close and consistently with you, allowing you to do the work you need to do in my life that only you can do, enabling me to serve you faithfully with the humble confidence that comes from a heart overwhelmed by you.

50 years and counting

Today my friend and hero Roger Blackmore celebrates 50 years in ministry. Whilst he has been the person on the platform most of the time it is also as much a celebration of his wife Gill who has been there at every step of the 50-year journey. Together they have pastored churches in England, Scotland and of course Long Island, NY.

Roger & Gill have impacted countless lives over 5 decades and I am honoured and thankful to count myself in that number. I guess my story is replicated a myriad of times in many lives. Accepted, valued, encouraged, challenged, mentored and loved are just a few of the adjectives to describe time with Roger & Gill.

I am an avid reader and I am sad to say too many of the books on my shelves are written by Christian leaders who have crashed and burned along the way and many struggling to stand back up. So, in an age when pastors and Christian leaders seem to have a difficult job finishing well 50 years is a milestone worth celebrating.

Although young I was still aware of the tensions encountered when they were leading our church in Cairnbulg & Inverallochy. Transitioning a church is not the easiest thing to do. But walking into Genesis Church you can tell an instant that this church one, reflects Jesus but also the couple who planted it, Roger & Gill Blackmore.

It is a place that is real, honest, fun, gracious, accepting, loving and of course, are passionate about reaching the people who do not know Jesus yet!

 They and Genesis are the real deal.

Congratulations on 50 years, whats next?

A road map to a healthy church culture

One of my favourite authors Scot McKnight has a new book being published later this year that explores creating a "goodness culture" in our church families.

Our first instinct may be to think well that automatically exists in a local church! Tragically, in recent years, Christians have gotten used to revelations of abuses of many kinds in our most respected churches--from Willow Creek to Mars Hill. We are not immune to this in the UK. In the last couple of weeks, we have read of a well-know leader announce his resignation with trustees citing concerns around an unhealthy church culture and specifically a culture that led to racism.

I am sure that no Jesus follower who hears the call of God and sets off to dedicate their life to serve God by planting or leading a church, expects to arrive at a place where they have to resign and suffer the consequences.

However, it seems to be happening with too much regularity at this moment in time. Our behaviours, beliefs and practices contribute so much to the culture we create. Let's take a time out to ensure we are taking steps towards health rather than a disaster.

Scot gives lists 7 characteristics he has noted in unhealthy church culture and 7 that help create a healthy culture.

(Below are my paraphrase of what I heard on a webinar and not exactly what was said)

Characteristics of a toxic culture

1. Narcissism is allowed.
2. Fear is common.
3. Care for the institution can trump the care of people.
4. False narratives are formed (e.g. to protect the institution)
5. There is a large emphasis on loyalty.
6. Celebrities and hero leaders are common.
7. A greater emphasis on leadership than pastoring.

Characteristics of a healthy culture

1. A high degree of empathy for others.
2. Shaped by grace and nurtures grace.
3. People are put first.
4. The truth is told even when it's hard. (no spin)
5. Justice is nurtured (do the right thing even when it hurts)
6. A culture of service is built (particularly in leadership)
7. Christlikeness is developed and valued (Christoformity)

An extract from Scot's book - A Church called Tov

Toxic, flesh- driven cultures breed a lust for power, success,

celebrity, control through fear, an emphasis on authority, and

demands for loyalty. These values may not be explicitly stated,

or even outwardly recognized, but as they fester in the heart of a leader, they can’t help but bear bitter fruit, damaging the culture of the church and seeking to destroy anyone who gets in the way.

A Spirit- formed, Christlike culture, on the other hand, nurtures truth, offers healing for the wounded, seeks opportunities to

show redemptive grace and love, focuses on serving others (rather than on being served) and looks for ways to establish justice in the daily paths of life. A Christlike church culture always has its eyes on people because the mission of the church is all about God’s redemptive love for people.

A lousy job....

Being a priest is not a matter of winning victories for God. Countless stories, movies, television, and now video games have burned into our imaginations a certain heroic plot: the brave adventurer sent forth on a Mission Impossible, and eventually winning against all odds. Yet this is not, and never can be, the pattern of Christian ministry, for the simple reason that it is not the pattern of the gospel—which, as you know, is all about human defeat, the shattering of human hope, the excruciatingly painful disappointment of human desires . . . and after all that, in spite of all that, even through all that, God’s victory becomes perceptible. That is why being a priest is such a lousy job for an incurable optimist, because disappointment is so fundamentally built into the job.

Ellen F Davis

The quiet leader

In his book The Tortoise Usually Wins, Brian Harris describes the typical profile of a leader and then turns to the quiet leader:

By contrast we have usually benefited from leaders who work quietly and conscientiously to ensure that their organization flourishes and grows. They include others in their decision-making, but aren’t swayed by every voice. They know where they are going and won’t be sidetracked. They affirm and recognize others, especially noticing the contribution that each makes and helping ensure that it is both acknowledged and optimized. When the going is tough, they see things through. They always knew they had signed up for the long term, and that even the best years have a range of seasons. They are quiet leaders, and those who follow their lead feel a sense of security in knowing that they are there.

Thankful that I get to follow and serve a leader who is the epitome of a quiet leader, Mark Sherratt.

The age of the laity?

Our era has been called “the age of the laity”, and indeed, recent decades have seen an increase in the appreciation of the laity’s contribution to the body of Christ. Yet much remains to be done. Through Baptism the laity are full members of the bod of Christ, with rights and responsibilities in their lay vocation. But to often, ordination to the clerical state is the source of power in the church, and lay people function at the SERVICE OF, or in ANSWER TO, priests - a situation which clearly needs to change.
St Francis and the Foolishness of God (p56 c1993)

Written as a reflection on the gospel centred communities formed by St Francis a millennia ago. So in 1993 and even more so in our leadership obsessed church of 2019, this old Saint has something to teach me. Unfortunately, even recently I have succumbed to practice that has created a gap between what he would have called clergy and laity. 

I need to think of my vocation as much more equipping the “saints” than leading the “saints”.

“And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to EQUIP the saints for the WORK OF MINISTRY, for building up the body of Christ,”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭4:11-12‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Go find a ladder....

With the annual season for stating resolutions that won’t make it into the second week of January, almost upon us, I thought this post by Seth Godin  had a truthful ring to it. For me anyway!

While it might be fun (or appear expedient, or brave, or heroic) to try to scale a cliff with no tools, it turns out that ladders are a more effective way to level up. 

When it’s time to drive a nail, a hammer is a lot more useful than a rock. Even if you have to invest in obtaining one. 

Often, we spend most of our time throwing ourselves at the wall instead of investing the time to find a useful ladder instead. Perhaps, instead of restating our audacious goals, we can spend more time finding useful tools–insights, skills, trust, attention, access–instead. 
It’s worth the search.

What does your ladder look like?

The Unstuck Church - Tony Morgan

My friend Tony Morgan has a brand new book releasing on the 16th May -The Unstuck Church.

Here is what a few well-known Pastors had to say about it:

“Your church is perfectly designed to get the results you are currently getting. If you’re satisfied with the results, write a book. If not, read this one… with your entire leadership team." - Andy Stanley, Senior Pastor, North Point Ministries

"Every once in awhile you find a book that makes you ask "Where has this been all my (ministry) life?" This is one of those books." - Carey Nieuwhof, Founding and Teaching Pastor, Connexus Church

"Whether you are a part of a church plant or a 100-year-old established church, there is a wealth of wisdom in this book for you. If you care about your church, take your team through this book.”- Craig Groeschel, Pastor of Life.Church and author of Divine Direction—7 Decisions That Will Change Your Life

So that should be good enough voices to encourage you to read the book. So what can I add?

Tony is the real deal

I read many books and apart from a few book signing hellos I've never spent any time with the 99% of the authors. But through our connection with Tony at MKCC I have been able to spend day's in meetings and learn through discussions over meals. We have even shared an awkward hug. (Those of you who happen to know us both will understand)

His life is marked by humility and a simple love for Jesus which enriches his family life and empowers his ministry.

Tony loves the local church

I first heard of Tony when I attended a breakout session at a Purpose Driven Conference at Saddleback Church. He and his friend Tim Stevens talked about Simply Strategic Volunteers (still one of the most practical books with ideas on valuing volunteers I've read) while they were serving at Granger Comunity Church. He then served at NewSpring Church SC before setting up The Unstuck Group. I may not get this right but I believe he has now served over 200 churches of all sizes both large and small and many different denominations.

He has a real passion for seeing every local church be all that God wants them to be. To help them to reach more people that are far from Jesus and empower the church to effectively assist people in taking their next step in discipleship.

Tony is serving God in his sweet spot

Having experienced Tony partnering with Milton Keynes Christian Centre over the last few years I know he has been uniquely shaped by God to help churches get unstuck, find health and grow. He has the ability to help you get to where you want and need to be quickly, even though you have been stuck in the long grass for a long time unsure of your next step.

If you are involved in leading a church, do yourself a favour, buy his book here.

Leadership - Mentor the next generation

Dr Kara Powell is the Executive Director of the Fuller Youth Institute (FYI) and a faculty member at Fuller Theological Seminary. Here are a few quotes from her talk at Rethink Leadership 2017

• Culture eats strategy for breakfast. – Peter Drucker
• Leadership culture eats strategy for breakfast.
• What kind of leadership culture was needed to grow churches with young people in the church?
• With the next-generation, it's more about grass roots activism and not top down great leadership
• It’s not about hip leadership culture. Pastors, we can put away our skinny jeans.
• Keychain leadership culture - hand the keys over - responsibility, power & authority. As you hand them over, your church will flourish.
• It is about Reciprocal Learning – Saying, if you see me doing something wrong, please tell me. 
• Think of me as a fellow patient who having been admitted a little earlier could give you some advice - C S Lewis
• We are all here today because someone handed the keys over to us.
• Take Baby Steps - To give someone their first lesson in the car you don't go to the motorway, you go to a deserted car park.
• The two biggest problems in the church are that we think too small and we live scared. Young people come with new ideas and courage to take risks.
• Young people give our church more vitality, innovation, passion, and money. They may not have money but their parents do.
• The enthusiasm of young people is not your church’s problem. It is your church’s solution.
• What revolution is waiting in the church as you hand over keys to young people who are ready for them and become a mentor to them?

Predictable Success

Les McKeown business consultant and author of Predictable Success: Getting Your Organisation On The Growth Track…And Keeping It, took a session at Rethink Leadership. It was also good to hear an accent from nearer home as Les originates from Northern Ireland.

Les described the seven stages of every organisation and church and the parts the various types of leaders plays.

Stage 1 - Struggle

• You get to start something and you have struggle.
• If you don’t have people, you don’t have a church.
• The early struggle is dominated by a singular leadership style - one with vision, the Visionary. 
• They’re not afraid to take risks. They get the big picture. They’re charismatic, steely, passionate. They’re often great communicators, have the gift of the gab.
• Visionaries get uptight when they have to grind out the details.
• To get out of early struggle, the Visionary hires an Operator, a ruthless finisher, and together they bring us to the next stage.

Stage 2 - Fun

• The first growth stage is called Fun.
• It is in the Fun stage when we build the myths and legends of the church. In the future looking back we will say "Remember when....?"
• It's where the church is at its most organically evangelical.
• When we have Fun we grow.
• We make it up as we go along, do whatever we need to do. We snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
• So we grow and get more complex. Then the complexity of running our church then overwhelms our ability to move forward.
• The Visionary and Operator are then joined by a Processor. They create processes so you don’t have to reinvent them every week.

Stage 3 - Whitewater's

• The complexity restricts us from doing things on the fly.
• We have to rehearse music, pay royalties get a building now we need a caretaker.
• A Processor creates much-needed systems to make stuff replicable. 
• But Processors are risk averse and say ‘No” a lot.
• For the good of the church, you need the Visionary, Operator and Processor to work together really well.
• This is the stage where you first encounter difficulties as for the first time the visionary, operator & processor get conflict for the first time

Stage 4 - Predictable Success

• This is the stage where we can scale but it is also the time where the three leadership styles clash.
• They think it's a personality conflict that is causing the difficulty but what's required is getting the three types of leaders working together.

Stage 5 - Treadmill

•  The treadmill is instead of Predictable Success, we are just predictable.
• The main difficulty is a visionary - operator conflict. 
• We start over emphasising process & become predictable & bureaucratic.
• That's when the visionary says "I didn't start this for this".
• If the visionary doesn't get heard the visionary will depart.
• This is the long, slow ride into irrelevancy. With the visionary gone, we are left with operators and processors. They get things done but there’s no vision.
• The operators then leave to start all over again.
• Processors are then left making sure the empty services are starting on time.
• You can only invoke change up to Treadmill.

Stage 6 - The Big Rut

• With visionary gone, all we can do is make things happen
• Then the operators leave because they need the visionary
• Then we are left with processors making sure that the increasing empty services are starting on time
• There’s no coming back from The Big Rut. You’ve lost the power to self-diagnose. You actually like it like this.

Stage 7 - Death

• Then you then hit Death Rattle. This can take generations because you have built a lot of assets.
• If you are in the Big Rut or Death Rattle, there’s no point staying.

Closing Thoughts

• You want to choose to be in Fun (organic and deep in intensity but not looking to grow) or you can be looking to grow.
• You often don’t have a choice which stage you find yourself in. You can fall into Whitewater BECAUSE you have grown.
• In Fun the visionary leader can get to do whatever he wants. If you want Predictable Success, authority flattens out because you make team-based decisions to scale.
• A bean counter is a Processor who has no ability to relate to the Visionary or Operator. 
• A visionary leader in Predictable Success has to institutionalise your vision.
• An extreme visionary becomes an arsonist, an extreme operator becomes a maverick and an extreme processor is left p*****g in the wind
• You must not empower power without overall alignment. to your vision.
• If your overarching vision isn't institutionalised, then you have competing heroes/leaders working against each other.
• Processors want to hold you accountable to current success. When your people say, ‘Back in the day…’, you’re in Whitewater.
• Visionaries know the need systems and processes but they think they need them for everyone else, except them.
• In a group discussion, the visionary, operator & processor must put the interest of the enterprise ahead of their own.
• Getting quality team-based decisions means invoking the enterprise commitment.
• Many early churches fail because they run out of resources before they run out of vision. You’ve got to keep a focus on viability.
• I’m all for trial and error, but when you get traction, you have to go through it.
• Learn to build a muscle of being ruthlessly constructive creating high-quality team-based decisions.

Rethink Leadership - Executive Pastor breakout

At Rethink Leadership I had a great time listening to a breakout session by Darius Wise, Executive Pastor of Denver United Church.

Darius provides leadership for their business operations, executive staff, and serves as one of their primary communicators. Previously he spent eleven years on staff at New Birth Church in Lithonia, Georgia.

• Ministry is about people, relationships and valuing each other's story
• The Executive Pastor role complements the senior pastor role
• It is a rather unique position as it includes both operations and pastoring people
• But they must have the ability to do "business" well
• And in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom.- Dan 1:20-21 - It would seem that Daniel and his colleagues did their work 10 times better than others.
• Through this they earned credibility & influence
• You can't pay enough for credible and trustworthy leaders
• The people who attend church each week are not looking for a perfect leader but they are looking for a leader who is credible & trustworthy
• In church doing "business" well is a means to an end, to empower the church to care for & disciple people well
• Remember to think people before process
• Take time to walk through the lobby - but walk slowly! 
• In the church, everyone's a janitor and everyone's a pastor
• As an Executive Pastor, your role is to bring clarity &  build trust.
• By definition, we can get positional authority but relational authority is what moves the needle and creates change
• Seek to lead from relational access
• An Executive Pastor has a unique position in the church, they are the middle man, with access and responsibility up and down the org chart.
• You must learn to manage the tension.Manage the tension
• Lead alongside not in front.

Rethink Leadership - Jeff Henderson

Next up at Rethink Leadership was Jeff Henderson, Lead Pastor at Gwinnett Church. Here are some of his thoughts on Strategy: Keeping The Main Thing The Main Thing.

• The main thing is keeping the main thing the main thing.
• Insideritis – a malady afflicting the vision of an organisation resulting in focusing on insiders over outsiders.
• Our role, as leaders, is to grow a team who can take care of the business while you go and get new customers. (he gave an example of what was expected of a Chick fil a manager)
• Too often the way we have set up our churches is actually keeping people from reaching people
• Vision leaks. And so does inspiration.
• The natural drift of a church or organisation is towards complexion and confusion.
• You have to start with "why" and you have to stay with why.
• Our challenge as leaders is that we have a lot going on. So remember to stay within the circles you can influence. You, your core team, staff and board, volunteers and finally the larger Community. But it all starts with you.
• Continually ask "What are we here for?". This is a vision inventory question.
• To check you are focused on the main thing ask these three questions:
  What do you meet about?
  What do you talk about?
  What do you see?
  What do you celebrate?
• The words we use are important but if we can put visual images to it, it helps keep the main thing the main thing. Use t-shirts, bumper stickers, pens....
• Celebration is something leaders often overlook.
• The best thing you can do as a leader today is write three Thank You notes, and tomorrow, and the next day, and every day.
• For Gwinnett Church #forgwinnett is the main thing. They are for their County, for everyone in Gwinnett not everyone in the church.
• In first 5 min of any staff meeting, everyone seaches for the #forgwinett then likes and comment on posts. We reward vision. 
• Everybody likes getting their Instagram photo liked. It reinforces a behaviour.
• 99% of Instagram photos from churches are about what’s happening in the church. We need to be about what’s happening in the community.
• A neighbour minded church allows people to belong before they believe

Rethink Leadership - Carey Nieuwhof

Last week I had the privilege to attend Rethink Leadership a conference organised by Carey Nieuwhof. Carey is the Lead Pastor of Connexus Church– which is a multi-campus church near Toronto. You can read his thoughts on Christian leadership at his blog. The following are a few quotes from his opening session on strategy.

• Solitude is a gift from God. Isolation is from the enemy.
• Most of our problems in church are not vision problems but strategy problems
• The vision of the church was handed to us by Jesus. We can’t come up with our own vision.
• Strategy, more than your mission and vision, determines your destination
• You don’t have a ministry problem. You have a strategy problem.
• Vision often falls flat if there is no Strategy. 
• Clear strategy provokes deep fear. A strategy is often divisive. For example, blended worship rarely makes anyone happy
• Ambiguity never provokes fear. Clarity does.
• Strategy is the execution of your mission and vision.
• Strategy becomes divisive because it is clear.
• Clear strategy initially divides before it unites. What initially pushes people away eventually creates unity.
• The clearer you are on your strategy, the simpler it is, the more it is written down, the easier it is.
• The more a church grows the more complicated it gets.
• If you’re going to stay current, you’re going to have to reinvent your strategy.
• It’s easy to change something someone else has built. It’s much more difficult to change something you have built.
• Strategic is the key to attracting young leaders.
• Yesterday’s ideas never attract tomorrow’s leaders.

The essential church clothing

A few years ago I was asked to perform a wedding at church. The prospective bride having seen me week after week in church in jeans and a hoodie asked her dad in a slightly concerned manner if I would officiate the wedding in my usual attire.

But I was not always that casual. Growing up in a small village in the North East of Scotland attending the local AOG meant a shirt and tie at the least but prefferably a suit. Changed days I dont even own a suit! I've never believed that dress on the outside matters, as long as you are wearing something! But the Bible does talk to us about specific clothes we should wear:

Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you - 1 Peter 5:5-6

Peter here talks specifically to young people but this verse is connected to the previous verses by the word "likewise". Like who? Well just prior to this he is talking to church leaders.

So he is saying, "ALL OF YOU",  including church leaders and young people alike, its time to put your clothes on. And the clothes of choice, HUMILITY.

And it would seem that God, at least in part, leaves this choice to us: Clothe YOURSELVES, Humble YOURSELVES.

God help me to cover my pride continually by taking up and putting on humility today and every day no matter how much the struggle.

Taking the lonely out of leadership - No 2: Family

I recently posted 10 ways to take the loneliness out of leadership. Here I'd like to dive into the second: Develop a healthy relationship with your family.

A few years ago a guy in our church came to remonstrate with me about my non attendance at a ministry event he was involved in leading. As a pastor I should have been there!

When I explained that I had a planned day out with my son, we had tickets for some sporting event if I remember rightly, and I saw that as being more important on this occasion. This did not meet with his approval. I will never forget his words back to me.

"If you look after God's family, God will look after your family, the church comes first for you."

I can't tell you how much I disagree with that. Too many families have been destroyed through a preoccupation with ministry instead of family.

Our advice as pastors, to men and women, is to ensure they do not neglect their families for the sake of their jobs, yet too often as Pastors we do exactly that. So to take the lonely out of leadership I'd suggest we start close to home:

• Dream up ways of how you can improve your marriage with the same passion you have to improve the church.
• Plan fun time with your kids in the same methodical way you plan the church calendar.
• Put date night in your calendar in the same unshakable way you put the date and time of your next leadership meeting.
• Develop a vision for your family in the same inspiring way you craft a vision for your church.
• Start saying no to your congregation and yes to your family a little more often.
• Understand that showing up at your child's sporting or school event will bring a smile to your dearest face rather than being just a number at the latest conference. 
• Stop trying to please the church board and endeavour to please your wife.
• Answer your family as diligently as you answer the ring of the phone or the beep of your email. (And ignore the latter a little more often)

Often behind every lonely leader is a lonely family.

Take a step out of loneliness and champion the family God has placed you in.

Step No 1 here

Taking the lonely out of leadership - No. 1 Relationship

I recently posted 10 ways to take the loneliness out of leadership. Here I'd like to dive into the first: Putting our relationship with God at No. 1.

Bill Hybels once said that, his work for God was killing the work of God in him.

I am sure that almost every church leader understands that feeling. For a workaholic like me, who sees much of his worth in what he does rather than who he is, this can be a real danger.

I have come to believe, as a church leader, I can pretend that I have relationship with God when I really haven't. I may be working extremely had for him but have a defective relationship. Some signs of this:

• The only time God's word is read is to prepare for a sermon.
• We pray much more in public that we do in private.
• We challenge others to a way of life but never really challenge ourselves.
• The stories we share about ourselves to encourage others all happened a decade ago rather than last week.
• We can't remember the last time we shed a tear over a life God has entrusted to our leadership
• We start to think we are to be served by people rather than to serve them.

As leaders we have to be careful that we live in close relationship with Jesus and not fall into the trap of a second hand relationship. Job prayed it this way:

I admit I once lived by rumours of you; now I have it all firsthand—from my own eyes and ears! I’m sorry—forgive me. I’ll never do that again, I promise! I’ll never again live on crusts of hearsay, crumbs of rumour. - Job 42 (Mess)

Some practical steps:

• Revisit and savour your salvation moment often. (remember your first love)


• Read God's Word often and regularly not in study or preparation. Not to hear God's voice for others but to hear the sweet intimate whisper of your ultimate and eternal lover - Jesus.


• Be less concerned about the transformation of others but beg the Holy Spirit to challenge and transform you as you apply His word to your life.


• Talk to God regularly and often. Build time into your diary that moves for nothing, but don't leave it there. Practise the presence of God (as one saint put it) in your daily routine, just between you and him.


• The idea of a Sabbath is old hat to many and if it is thought about, it is as a day of rest. But I like how John Piper puts it: "It means set the day aside for special focus on what is holy, namely, God and his holy works. For us church leaders it is unlikely going to work for us on Sundays. We can't afford to not build this into our lives!

Relationship dispels loneliness and relationship with Jesus really is the ultimate fix!

Mistakes Leaders Make Conference

In November we are excited to welcome author, Dave Kraft to Milton Keynes Christian Centre.

Dave has walked with Jesus for more than 50 years. He served with the Navigators for 37 years before becoming a leadership coach. Dave has also served as a Pastor at Mars Hill Church.

On 14th November, Dave will walk us through 5 of the 10 Mistakes he sees leaders often make:

• Allowing Ministry to Replace Jesus 
• Allowing Pleasing People to Replace Pleasing God 
• Allowing Artificial Harmony to Replace Difficult Conflict 
• Allowing Information to Replace Transformation 
• Allowing Pride to Replace Humility

Dave writes, “As leaders, we can have our ‘sweet spots,’ situations in which we function well and are fruitful and productive, experiencing God’s favour and great joy. We can also have our ‘blind spots,’ where the termites are doing their slow but sure work, which causes defeat, discouragement, and derailment, and eventually leads to the knockout blow that sends us down to the canvas for the count” (from Mistakes’ Introduction). 

I personally have been impacted so much by Mistakes Leaders Make and his first book, Leaders Who Last.

If you can get to Milton Keynes on Saturday 14th I am sure that it would be worth your investment.

For more info or to book in go here.

Taking the Lonely out of Leadership

The other day I spent a few minutes talking to a pastor who I'd never met before. We chatted as we waited for a meeting to start. It was great to find out a little about him, his family and his journey. He and the church was doing great but he described the loneliness he felt in the role. It is certainly not the first time I have heard this from church leaders. In fact if you get behind the front that many of us project, it is a deep struggle for so many of us.

I have spent all of my leadership life at MKCC as part of a leadership team, so to be honest this feeling was foreign to me. My journey as a pastor has never felt lonely, challenging, but never lonely. But he was in a very different situation. He was the only pastor from what he described as a small church.

No matter the size of church leadership can be lonely and I am sure this can be magnified for Senior Leaders. It's not that leaders do not have great friends but they also need great friends that understand the life of a leader. But I don't believe leadership in the community of believers should be lonely. So here are some thoughts on things we can do to reverse this feeling of loneliness.

1. Your No. 1 relationship is with God.
2. Develop a healthy relationship with your family.
3. Pursue a hobby and cultivate the friendships you find there.
4. Deal with your insecurities they kill relationship, its about Jesus not you.
5. Deal with your insecurities they kill relationship, its about Jesus not you.
6. Take the mask off and be authentic.
7. Purposely develop and release other leaders.
8. Develop a leadership team built around the meal table as well as the boardroom table.
9. Stay at the table, no matter what.
10. Pursue relationship with leaders you admire.

I'm going to dive into each of these in more detail over the next few days.

Maybe you can suggest other ideas?

Old Innovation

Change and innovation in church life and ministry is prized by many and resisted by others.

Following advice by Rick Warren to ensure in reading that the whole of church wisdom was dipped into from the ancient to the modern, I keep being surprised how much of modern innovation is actually quite old.

Reading about Samuel Medley a preacher and hymn writer who lived from 1738-99 I found that he was looked on as a bit of a rebel who did things a little different.

He was renowned for preaching on just one word. But, Not or His..

Frustrated that his congregation couldn't sing the hymn's because of a shortage of hymnbooks, he ditched the hymnbook and printed the songs on broadsheets. On attending the service he handed everyone a copy and all could join in. I'm wondering if he was the first to remove the hymnbook? Long before the argument I remember in the late 70's in my home church about the use of an OHP?

He would also often, pen a hymn, that went with the text he was preaching that day. Was he the first to plan a service so that one spiritual point or lesson could be empahasised in the minds of his congregation.

This was also done by none other than the famous John Newton and his friend and hymn writer William Cowper. Each week they would meet up in the orchard that connected their two Olney homes. John would share his text and topic and William would compose a song that would reinforce the message. These were often at the same rhythm as the looms in the local lace mills would beat at so people could sing as they worked.

Reading a little of our history would really help us contextualise the present. Maybe the new thing we get excited about is really quite old and not to be prized or feared but to be held lightly in the shadow of the infinitely important - the message of Jesus

A Picture of Humble Leadership

Below is a post by Ron Edmondson on 10 attributes of a humble leader. I am a long way from a number of these attributes but I strive to have the same attitude as Christ Jesus.

I also have the honour of working for a leader who I believe the below attributes describe to a T.

Dangerous Trust
Humility always demands a certain level of trust. Obviously, for a believer, it begins with a trust in God. But, a humble leader is willing to take a risk on others also, trusting them with the sacredness of the vision, even at the chance they may be disappointed with the outcome. 

Sincere investment
Humble leaders know the vision is bigger and will last longer than they will. Wow! That’s a hard reality, isn’t it? But, knowing this humble leaders willingly invest in others, raising up and maturing new leaders.

Gentle, but strong
One can’t be a leader and be weak. The two — weakness and leadership — don’t go together. Every position of leadership will provide a challenge to the leader, but humble leaders have learned the balance between being gentle and remaining strong. (Think Jesus!) 

Readily admits mistakes
Everyone makes mistakes. In fact, we often learn more through failure than through success. The humble leader is quick to admit when he or she has done wrong and deals with the fault-out without casting blame or making excuses. And, they seek forgiveness when the mistakes they make impact others.

Forgives easily
Leadership is filled with disappointment; often at the expense of other’s mistakes. A humble leader forgives easily, remembering how many times he or she has been forgiven.

Quickly diverts attention 
We all like to be recognised for accomplishments, but a humble leader is quick to divert attention to others, sharing the limelight for successes with those, who many times, may have even had more to do with the success than the leader did. They celebrate the success of others louder than personal success

Remains thankful 
A humble leader is appreciative of the input of others into his or her leadership. So much so, that a humble leader naturally praises the actions of others far more than the time spent patting themselves on the back for personal accomplishments. Humble leaders recognise that all good gifts come from above.

Recognises limitations
No one can do everything. A humble has the ability to say, “I can’t do that or I’m not the one who should“.

Shares authority 
Humble leaders don’t take all the key assignments for themselves, but gives out prime responsibility and authority to people he or she is leading.

Invites feedback 
A humble leader wants to learn from his or her mistakes and wants to continually see improvement. Humble leaders initiate other’s suggestions and feedback, not waiting until complaints come, but personally asking for the input.

Humility is not putting yourself down as a leader. It’s ultimately recognising who you are in view of Christ and others. The danger in not being a humble leader or considering ourselves better than others, is that one day we may be “humbled”. Many of us learn humility the hard way.