Tag: church leadership development

2_03: Daniel Im – Should You Stay or Should You Go?

2_03: Daniel Im – Should You Stay or Should You Go?

Breakthrough ideas with Daniel: 

  • What does it look like to live your life with our hands wide open saying, “Lord, here we are?”
  • Every leader, every pastor, goes through those seasons where restlessness clouds every conversation. What do you do?
  • A lot of leaders that come to those seasons of the restlessness, but how do we know if it’s really time to take the next step?
  • Does unsettledness come as a result of prayer and scripture? Or should unsettledness drive you to deeper times of prayer and time in the Word?
  • It is less critical where your feet are and more important as to where your heart is.
  • It doesn’t matter if we stay, and it doesn’t matter if we go, because we know that we are in God’s hands and that He is a good Father.
  • What would it look like to submit to the Lord rather than trying to lead our lives on our own?
  • Bigger and better opportunities aren’t necessarily always from God.
  • Sometimes God calls us to minister in obscurity for however long He wants, and sometimes He brings us out of that obscurity
  • Regardless of the attendance barrier that you want to grow or breakthrough, you need to move from doing to equipping.
  • You need to move from being a learner to a leader to a multiplier regardless of what barrier you want to breakthrough
  • The tendency that we have in the West is to copy and to model our ministries off of others rather than looking in the mirror and saying, “Okay. Who do we have here?”
  • Every church is unique. So what does it look like to look at yourself in the mirror, to look at your church in the mirror?
  • Church culture is simply the result of consistent decision-making around shared convictions.
  • It’s one thing for the pastor to have values. It’s another thing for those values to be shared within the organization and for us to make consistent decisions around them.
  • Discipleship is not “Here’s another program,” or, “Here is another study.”
  • How are you moving your entire church toward making disciples that make disciples that make disciples?
  • There are a lot of books written that call churches to mimic “Here’s what we do at our church. Just do this.”
  • What are the micro-shifts that will lead to a macro-change?
  • Close to 40% of America is a part of the gig economy, changing the way that we look at work, life, and love.
  • “You are what you experience” is a lie that’s risen to the surface because of Instagram and because of our culture.

Breakthrough resources in this episode:

The Next Right Thing by Emily P. Freeman

The Pastor by Eugene Peterson

No Silver Bullets by Daniel Im  

You Are What You Do by Daniel Im  

Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership by Ruth Haley Barton

Daniel Im is the Senior Associate Pastor of Beulah Alliance Church. His latest book is You Are What You Do: And Six Other Lies about Work, Life, and Love. He is also the author of No Silver Bullets and co-author of Planting Missional Churches. He co-hosts the New Churches Q&A Podcast, as well as the IMbetween Podcast. Daniel and his wife, Christina, live in Edmonton, Alberta with their three children. For more information, visit danielim.com and follow him on social media @danielsangi.

Episode #6: Talbot Davis

Episode #6: Talbot Davis

Breakthrough ideas with Talbot: 

  • Twitter is a great place to improve as a wordsmith because it forces clarity of communication.
  • It is possible for social media to make you a better pastor and leader.
  • Making diversity the cause only results in political correctness, so make Jesus the cause and let diversity be the result.
  • Bringing diversity to staff means writing every job description carefully and hiring intentionally.
  • Knowing who you are as a church, and who you are not, brings incredible focus to a church.
  • The consistency of visionary identity from church leadership brings confidence in missional activity from the body.
  • Setting people up for lots of small wins eventually results in large victory in Jesus.
  • Be clear about your expectations for hiring and set up systems of accountability.
  • Normalize the things of the church that used to be remedial: healing prayers, altar calls, and being awake to the Spirit.
  • There is a difference in being a charismatic church and a church with a lot of charismatic people in it.
  • Processes can hinder leadership; sometimes you just need to take risks on people.
  • When it comes to staff hiring and firing, long hellos and short goodbyes are best.
  • Develop your gifts and hire others that make up for your unavoidable shortcomings.
  • Work every day and you will get better at what you do.

Breakthrough resources from this episode: 

Good Shepherd United Methodist Church

The Storm Before the Calm by Talbot Davis

Head Scratchers by Talbot Davis 

Crash Test Dummies by Talbot Davis

Communicating for a Change by Andy Stanley

Talbot Davis is Pastor of Good Shepherd United Methodist Church, a modern congregation in Charlotte, North Carolina. Talbot helps lead a talented group of pastors and support staff. Talbot makes sure everyone knows that he married well, and now has two adult children. A lifetime of playing tennis consistently shapes how he leads and thinks about the world. Talbot has published five books through Abington Press as resources for both life groups and preachers in training.

 

Episode #4: Todd Adkins

Episode #4: Todd Adkins

Breakthrough Ideas with Todd Adkins: 

  • There is a difference between just placing leaders in a role and actually developing leaders for ministry.
  • Great leaders are not just intuitive, they are highly intentional as well.
  • Systems, process, and structure are critical but the relationship moves people.
  • We can do leadership gatherings better by leveraging both technology and collaboration.
  • Stop training for the lowest common denominator in the room… raise the bar.

Breakthrough Resources in this Episode:

Systems Thinking

Building a Story Brand

The Power of Moments

When – The Art of Perfect Timing

Tim Ferris podcast w/ Daniel Pink

NewChurches.com

LifeWay Leadership Pipeline Conference

5 Leadership Questions Podcast

Todd Adkins is the Director of Leadership Development at LifeWay Christian Resources in Nashville, TN. Prior to joining LifeWay, Todd worked in the local church in student ministry and as a campus and executive pastor. He has a background in launching strategic initiatives and web-based leadership development, and he’s passionate about helping churches create cultures of pipelines, leadership development, and training pathways for every role in the church. Since joining LifeWay, Todd has spearheaded the development of Ministry Grid, Lifeway’s dynamic leadership development platform, and written Developing Your Leadership Pipeline, a tool to aid church leaders in developing their people. He also hosts the 5 Leadership Questions and New Churches podcast and tweets #Leadership incessantly at @ToddAdkins.