Evaluating your leader: Nine simple questions

How is your leader doing as a leader? If you are a team member, here is a way of figuring that out. If you are a leader, here is a reminder of what is really important.

Does your leader bring great clarity to what the organization or team is about and how it will get there? That is job one of a leader. Clarity gives direction while ambiguity brings confusion.

Does your leader empower you to accomplish what you are tasked with through your gifts and wiring and without micromanagement? Empowerment values people while disempowerment devalues people.

Does your leader meet with you monthly as a mentor coach in order to remove barriers, help you move the ball forward and understand what you are doing? In doing so, does he/she provide you with honest and helpful feedback?

Does your leader keep his or her commitments and promises on a consistent basis? Good leaders don't ask their team to do what they do not do themselves.

Does your leader lead through their team or treat their team as ancillary to their "real" work? Do you feel that their number one job is to help the team be successful or that they are more concerned about their own work? Good leaders lead through their team.

Does your leader keep the team focused on results rather than activity? Are measurable results a focus of your leader? Do they help you strategize for achieving those results or is evaluation a secondary issue?

Does your leader foster a collegial atmosphere where team members work in concert with one another or are your team members isolated and siloed?

Is your leader open to honest feedback and suggestions or do you find them to be closed or defensive? Are there issues that are off limits for the team to discuss with their leader knowing that those issues are too sensitive to discuss?

If you had a choice today, would you sign up to work for the leader you work for? If yes why? If no why?

The Dangers of Isolation

I recently received news that a longtime ministry acquaintance, now retired had left his wife and filed for divorce. The few individuals who had the opportunity to talk to him about their concerns received no hearing. He was resolute and expressed no remorse.

This is a man who has a career of evangelical ministry behind him and in the twilight of his life has abandoned his wife. What he does not know is that this act of willful disobedience will hurt a lifetime of ministry influence.

Reflecting back on what I know about this friend there are a number of things that stand out. There is a long history of personal isolation and lack of accountability. Over the years, close friends were few. While he lived with people around him - he really lived in isolation because he did not share himself with others.

Isolation is more dangerous than we think it is. When we don't share our lives candidly with others - especially a group of trusted friends who can encourage us, speak truth to us, rub off on us, we end up living a hidden, guarded, isolated life. We neither open ourselves up honestly or are open to the influence of those around us. Isolated hearts become hard hearts because hidden parts of our life calcify rather than soften. In the end there was no one who this individual listened to - no one who could speak into his life.

A symptom of isolation is unaccountability. As I have reflected on my friend, there is a long history of his simply doing his own thing, regardless of what others said, thought or even supervisors requested. I guess this should not be a surprise: isolated hearts and lives breed unaccountability and a level of personal independence that is unhealthy - and dangerous.

While none of us know hearts my suspicion is that isolation toward others is also a symptom of isolation toward God and unaccountability toward others leads to unaccountability toward God. That is the ultimate danger in living in isolation and a lack of accountability.

I am sad, but take it as a cautionary tale for my own life.

Identifying and Removing Hidden Barriers to Growth

They are often hidden and not obvious but all ministries face barriers to growth that if not identified and removed will cause the ministry to plateau in its effectiveness.

One of those barriers is the leadership style, activities and priorities of the senior leader who is operating the same way they did when the organization was smaller. Since I blogged on this issue last week, two leaders have raised their hand and said, that is me - help me figure out how to lead differently so that I am not the barrier to growth.

Leaders and how they lead are responsible for much plateaued leadership. This is why it is very rare for a church to get much larger than 1,000 if it gets that far. As leaders continue to lead as they did when the church was 500, they effectively plateau the church unless changes are made.

Another barrier can be staff who were effective when the church was smaller but do not have the capacity to lead in their area as the Church grows. For instance, the larger the Church the more critical it is for staff to multiply themselves by training others and working through them. Some staff do that wonderfully. Some staff are always individual producers and cannot multiply themselves. Thus they become a barrier to growth in their area and when one area of ministry plateaus it causes other ministries to do so as well.

Ministry complexity can become a barrier to growth. Here is a counter intuitive observation. The larger the organization the more simple it must become if it is going to continue to grow. Growing ministries often go the other direction toward greater complexity. But complexity is difficult for leaders and members to get their hands around and the very complexity causes confusion, makes it hard to manage and diffuses ministry energy.

Another hidden barrier is either a lack of missional focus and clarity or confusing missional focus and lack of clarity. Again, the larger the organization the more critical it is for staff and volunteers to be clear on who they are, where they are going, how they are going to get there and what the end result of their ministry should be. Without this focus and clarity, ministries silo into their own orbit, people do what is right in their own eyes and ministry focus is hugely diffused.

Church governance that does not reflect its size if a common barrier to growth. Multiple boards, unempowered leaders, too many decisions that must go to the congregation are all barriers to growth because it simply takes too much time and energy to get anything done and the lack of permission granting leadership structures frustrates and takes precious time away from other leadership priorities.

A final hidden barrier to growth is the quality of congregational leadership on their senior board. I spoke recently to a pastor of a church of 1,200 whose leadership board is endlessly wrangling over petty issues, has no focus, wants to manage the staff and ministry, does not empower the senior pastor, cannot provide adequate direction and is not candid with the congregation. Here is a church that will never grow until the group is traded out for a group of leaders who know how to lead and are willing to do so.

Game Changers in Missions

Ministries in search of growth and more effective results often find themselves tweaking themselves endlessly. Tweaks are often needed to fine tune a ministry. But tweaks do not bring ministry breakthroughs. For that one needs to find the game changers.

Game changers are new ways of thinking or new ways of doing that significantly change the results that a ministry achieves - usually by significantly changing the way it goes about ministry in key ways.

The world of missions desperately needs game changers if it is going to meet the astonishing opportunities of reaching some 6 billion people with the gospel. Unfortunately many mission agencies are tweaking old paradigms rather than rethinking their strategies for how they do what they do. Here are some of the game changers that are making a major difference in missions today.

Partnering with others rather than doing missions in isolation. It is amazing how little cooperation there has historically been between mission agencies. Essentially instead of building the church each agency felt that it had to build its version of church - duplicating all the denominations from the United States to the global world. Jesus died for the church and not just our version of the church so any time we can partner with like minded ministries we leverage ourselves for greater ministry results.

Building the church, not simply our version of church. Here is a game changer for our mission - ReachGlobal. While we are the mission of the EFCA we are not intent on planting EFC churches globally. Yes we must have orthodox theology and we believe in the ethos of the EFCA. But, we are far more concerned that the churches we work with or initiate are healthy, interdependent, reproducing, self supporting and indigenous. What we are not concerned about is the name above the door. This means that we can come alongside multiple movements in a country, not just the ones that have the same name as us. This dramatically increases our spiritual influence. It has been a game changer.

Another game changer in missions is related to the previous one. Rather than simply assuming that one needs to start something new in an area of the world in which one is working, the first thing strategic missions do is to look around and see what God is already doing there and where possible, come alongside existing movements to help them multiply healthy churches. Where there are no local believers, evangelism and apostolic church planting is the work of the missionary. But where there are existing believers with a level of health, the first thing strategic missions do is to see if they can come alongside of them. Of course, this requires that the mission is not simply committed to building their brand of the church denominationally. Those that are limit themselves significantly.

Coming alongside existing believers to expand the church leads to another kind of game changer. Rather than simply focusing on what mission staff can do, the focus is now on developing, empowering and releasing indigenous workers for the harvest and therefore moving from addition (what I can do) to multiplication (what we can do). In this scenario, missionaries see themselves more as coaches of others as they work alongside and serve those they are partnering with.

This leads to a mindset game changer. If we are not simply building "our brand" and if we are empowering others and lifting them up we no longer own anything, control anything or count anything as ours. That is a massive mind set change for western missions and it represents a humility and service mindset rather than the "expert" and "in charge" mindset. It significantly changes how we are seen by those we partner with.

One of the ultimate game changers takes place when empowered and encouraged indigenous partners take on their own responsibility for sending missionaries. This has happened with our African movement partners who two years ago formed Reach Africa for the sending of their own missionaries and they are already training dozens of pastors and church planters in areas where the church is not yet present. ReachGlobal partners with Reach Africa as equals in the mission endeavor - a powerful combination.

One final game changer comes when Western mission agencies start to bring on their staff leaders from the parts of the world where they work in significant leadership positions. They bring with them a wealth of cultural understanding, strong understanding of the issues faced in their part of the world along with the very relationships the agency needs to increase their influence. In recent years we have grafted into our leadership Indonesian, Egyptian, Lebanese, and Kenyan leaders. They, and others to come are changing ReachGlobal in a wonderful way and are helping us be far more effective as a mission.

It is time for mission agencies to embrace a new paradigm and a new relationship with indigenous partners. It has never been easier to reach more people with the gospel than it is today. Whether we respond to that challenge is up to us. I don't want to settle for anything less. You?

Signs that your board needs renovation

You are frustrated by the pace of decision making.

It is necessary to get the approval of more than one group in order to get something done.

You find your board revisiting issues you thought you had already settled.

You discuss issues that have nothing to do with leadership and should be decided at another level.

Your are bored on the board.

Board members find it hard to make key directional decisions because of fear that some in the congregation will resist and complain.

Your board meetings are poorly planned and led.

There is confusion or conflict over what place the congregation, staff team or board plays in leadership or decision making.


Your board does not have a clear job description and understand its responsibilities.


You find that you spend more time 'managing' day to day activities than thinking and planning for the future.

There are elephants in the boardroom that are off limits for discussion.


You cannot identify the clear 'preferred future' for your congregation and there is not a shared dream of the board.

Your board and staff do not have clear annual ministry goals and plans.


You are frustrated with the number of decisions that need to go to the congregation for approval.


You have nice people on the board but not enough leaders.

There is not a high level of unity and relational health among board members.

Your church structure and bylaws hinder rather than help leaders make timely decisions.

Your board does not have ample time for prayer and study of Scripture, and to dream and plan for the future.


Your board does not have a covenant that spells out its procedural and relational practices.

Robust, honest, dialogue is not practiced.

You do not have an intentional process designed to find the very best leaders for your board.


You do not believe that your church is maximizing its ministry impact.


Your church has more than one elected board.

There is tension or confusion between staff and board over who is responsible for what.

You are not able to attract and retain the best leaders in your church to serve on your senior leadership board.


If a number of these statements are true for your board, consider reading High Impact Church Boards as a group. It will help you move toward greater board and leadership health.

Films we Play in our Minds

We live in three dimensions. The first is the most obvious - the world in which we live and the circumstances in which we find ourselves. Sometimes good, sometimes bad and sometimes ugly.

How we respond to the first dimension has a lot to do with a second dimension that lurks in our unconscious mind: films from our past whose imprint has left its mark. The pastor who as a child was constantly ridiculed now finds himself trying to assert his authority through autocratic behaviors. The child who was punished for minor infractions finds it hard to believe that God is a God of grace and assumes that God sees him like that harsh parent. The woman who was sexually abused struggles with self image and personal worth.

These films that play in our subconscious impact how we interact with people, how we see ourselves, how we see God and many of the addictive or problematic behaviors we struggle with are a result of that second, subconscious dimension. None of us are immune from its reality. In fact, the buttons that someone pushes that cause us to lash out in anger or stab us with pain are indicators of that second dimension at work. Something in our past triggered an emotion in our present.

A strategy of the evil one is simply to understand those films from our past that cause us discouragement or pain or acting out and simply to play them for us over and over to our detriment. If he doesn't do it for us, we do it for ourselves.

Enter the third dimension which is the spiritual dimension and while hidden, as real as the first and the answer for the second. "But because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Ephesians 2:4-10.

That is a passage worth committing to memory and coming back to on a daily basis. It changes our perspective on the issues of life we face - the good bad and the ugly. It transforms the films we play in our minds for we are seated in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, trophies of His grace and mercy for all to see, we have been called to relationship with Him and work for Him.

Those films? We now see our past and our present and our future in a different light. Jesus gives us a new reality and a new set of films to play - that reflect his high and important and grace filled calling on our lives. The old films have been replaced by His films.

Don't play the old films. Allow the grace of God to filter deep in your conscience and the place of honor in which you sit in Christ Jesus impact your view of life, your view of you, your view of God and your view of your calling. The old has passed and a new day has dawned.

Ephesians and Church Health

For all the talk about church health, possibly the most underutilized resource is that of the book of Ephesians which is, if nothing else, a primer on church health. Unlike many of the other churches in the New Testament, the church at Ephesus was a pretty healthy body.

In fact, I would suggest that Ephesus was a great example of a church of "irresistible influence." A reading of Acts 19 shows that this church was instrumental in the name of Jesus becoming known throughout the whole region and the gospel was so powerfully proclaimed that real persecution evolved. But in the midst of that, there was a level of public repentance for sin rarely seen and "the name of Jesus was held in high honor" (Acts 19:17).

Paul's farewell to the Ephesian elders (Acts 21) at a later time indicates that he had left in that church a group of committed, courageous and theologically trained leaders.

Then move to the book of Ephesians itself. Several things stand out as it relates to what a healthy church looks like.

First, healthy churches result in real life transformation. This transformation is rooted in a true and transformational understanding of one's life in Christ (Ephesians 1 and 2). This is a transformation so profound that it changes the outlook of those who have experienced it on ourselves, on God, on relationships, on other racial groups, on how we live, our marriage relationships, family relationships, unity among other believers and our view of the the spiritual war taking place behind the scenes around us.

While we have often stressed certain life changes (all good) we have often not stressed that this life change is rooted in a radical transformation that comes from a relationship with Jesus Christ. Our goal in the church is not to help people look like whatever we think Christians should look like but the radical reorientation of their life that comes out of new life in Christ.

This radical reorientation of life is accompanied by a power for living that Christ brings. In his prayer for the Ephesians in 3:14-21, Paul uses the word three times, once in each of his three main thoughts. The Christian life is only possible through the power that comes with the Holy Spirit and is likened to the power that ripped Christ from the grave and seated him at the right hand of God in 3:1-13.

The book of Ephesians also makes it clear that it is the church that is God's chosen instrument to reach the world. "His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord (Ephesians 3:10-11)." The church is His bride and is loved as a husband loves his wife (chapter 5).

If, indeed the church is His chosen instrument to reach the world, the transformational nature of the church, the unity of the church and the church as an equipper of His people (Chapter 4) becomes of primary importance

Unity in the church is an underrated issue that has huge implications for whether a church will impact the world around it. That is why Paul tells us to "make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit - just as you were called to one hope when you were called - one Lord, one faith one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all (Ephesians 4:3-6).

In his farewell to the Ephesians elders in Acts 21, Paul specifically charged the leaders to be on their guard against those who would come in and divide the church. In fact, divisive people are one of the great threats to the the Church. Ironically, modern day evangelicals are quick to guard the church against heresy and perhaps ongoing unrepentant sin but we allow divisive people to continue their spoiling of Christ's unity with impunity.

The purpose of church leaders is not to do the work of the ministry but to prepare His followers for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up (Ephesians 4:12). Bringing God's people to the place where they are using their gifts and wiring of Him is a prerequisite of maturity (Ephesians 4:13) and it is to the extent that a majority of His people are engaged in His work that the congregation itself will become mature (Ephesians 4:16).

This is rooted in the understanding of Ephesians 2:10 that "We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." We were created both for relationship with Christ and to do work for Christ. It is my conviction that the reason the church has so little influence outside its four walls today is that we have not take seriously this call on every believer to be engaged in His work and rather than equipping people for ministry, many staff positions are simply doing the ministry on behalf of everyone else. That is not a strategy that will yield great influence, nor maturity.

Ephesians 4:17-5:21 goes back to the theme of transformation but this time in very practical ways. The life we have entered into in Christ gives us the responsibility to "put off" all kinds of practices and attitudes that are at odds with our new life and "put on" those practices and attitudes that would reflect our new life with Christ. Thus, transformation brings intentional change in our thoughts, motives, and the outworking of our faith.

The numerous surveys that show that the behavior of those who claim to be Christ followers compared to those who do not indicates that such life change is not taking place today. Of course, the church may not be explicit today that such behavioral changes are non negotiables if we are going to follow Jesus fully.

There is no greater passage on spiritual warfare and the need to live in the full power of the Holy Spirit and the Word than that of Ephesians 6:10-18. This passage gives us a small peak behind the veil of our world to see what is going on beyond our sight but in our presence in the spiritual realms.

My view is that God's people generally do not have an adequate understanding of this very real spiritual war that is taking place or the need for all of God's armor in order to fight that war. To the extent that we understand God's divine drama and the war between the forces of good and evil, to that extent we will armor ourselves for that conflict.

The bottom line is that the book of Ephesians is a fundamental treatise on the health of the church. Boards that will take the time to study Ephesians and ask the hard questions about their own church and people will benefit greatly. It will be far more important than any book they could read on church health. It is the fundamental treatise on church health in the New Testament.