Lead - Chapter 1

Ephesians 4:1–3 ESV

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Principle #1 - A ministry community whose time is controlled by doing the business of the church tends to be spiritually unhealthy

Achievement -A good thing that can become a bad thing for leadership because it has become a ruling thing

Achievement is not only a wonderful thing, but a vital thing

Salvation is all about achievement

God achieving forgiveness, present help, the new heavens and the new earth

extending grace to his people

restoring a groaning world

We are made in the image of God so we have a drive for achievement

but we also live in a broken world

so achievement becomes broken as well when achievement becomes ambition

ambition is achievement but for personal happiness not for God's glory

Ambition is a spiritual battle ground

This is where the ambition for God's glory and his Kingdom becomes something else

Gospel oriented achievement is what we are after as long as the achievement does not rule our hearts in the process

9 signs achievement has become dangerous in the leadership of the church

#1 Achievement becomes dangerous when it dominates the leadership community

Money, planning, strategy, business, numeric growth are important

buildings, signs, more staff, none of these things are wrong or dangerous

unless they become so dominant that they begin to change us and the way that we think about ourselves and the ministry we have been called.

#2 Achievement becomes dangerous when it controls our definition of leaders

Qualifications for ministry in the church are often radically different from when we think about the makeup of a true leader.

People are looking for persuasive communicators, tons of experience, past success, handled finances well, impressive resumes

God is looking for 1 Timothy 3:2-7

Above reproach

husband of one wife

Sober-minded

self-controlled

respectable

Hospitable

Able to teach

not a drunkard

Not violent

Gentle

Not quarrelsome

not a love of money

manage their own household well

not a recent convert

well though of by outsiders

Two observations about long term success in ministry

in a general sense, God wants pastors and leaders to be successful because he loves his kingdom and his bride, the church, but in God's estimation, long-term faithfulness that produces fruit in ministry is rooted in humble, godly character.

Ultimately God is the achiever and we have no ability on our own to achieve ministry growth or success.

Where in your ministry leadership have you been more focused on doing than being?

#3 Achievement becomes dangerous when it forms our view of success and failure.

Failure is not the inability to produce desired results

True failure is always a character issue

Failure is not first a matter of results; failure is always first a matter of the heart

Success and failure are not defined by results but by faithfulness

How does your leadership group define failure, and how does that shape the way a leader is views whose work has not produced the desired results?

#4 Achievement becomes dangerous when it silences honest leader communication

We are free to confess weakness because Jesus is our strength

We are free to confess failure because all our failures are covered by His blood

we are free to respectfully disagree with each other because we get our identity and security from Jesus and not from one another

We are freed from taking credit from what only God can produce

We are free to confess wrong actions from each other because grace allows us to reconcile

But in achievement dominated leadership communities, that kind of talk tends to get silenced.

Do your leaders feel free to confess to a personal weakness and failure, knowing that when they do, they will be greeted with grace?

#5 Achievement becomes dangerous when it causes leaders to view disciples as consumers

It is much, much easier to build church staff than it is to build people.

It is tempting to define ministry by the stuff that was built, managed, and maintained rather than by the numbers of people who are in the process of having their lives turned inside out and upside down by the progressive work of transforming grace.

Out ministry passion and energies should be focused on doing everything we can to lead the people entrusted into our care into a deeper love for and service to Jesus so that everything we do serves this disciple-making purpose.

When the central calling is replaced with institution building, potential disciples get turned into consumers.

Then they view the church as

a location that meets the needs of their families instead of a vital part of their lives

The church becomes an event they attend instead of a part of their body like an organ or a limb. They can step out of their lives to attend church, and then step back into their lives when the event is over.

This work requires much more grace.

#6 Achievement becomes dangerous when it tempts us to see people as obstacles

A professor was teaching a pastoral ministry class and was sharing stories of messy and sometimes difficult people that God had called him to lead. A young student interrupted him and said, "We know we will have these projects in our church; tell us what to do with them so we can get back to the work of the ministry."

The church will never be a community of spiritually mature people if leaders are so busy achieving that they fail to treat immature people with patience and grace. Church leadership is a people-building ministry; to function any other way is both unbiblical and dangerous.

#7 Achievement becomes dangerous when it causes leaders to take credit for what they never could have produced on their own.

Deuteronomy 6:10-12 - 10 “And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, 11 and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, 12 then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

Deuteronomy 6:10–12 ESV

“And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

If you take credit as a leader instead of assigning credit to the one who sent you and who alone produces fruit out of your labors, you will praise less, pray less, and plan more. Leadership communities are in trouble when they assign more power to their planning than to their prayer.

When God grants success, there are two things to be observed

God doesn't call us to leadership because we are able, but because he is.

as leaders we should not fear weakness, because God's grace is sufficient

#8 Achievement becomes dangerous when it becomes the principle lens of self-evaluation

We will always self-diagnose and evaluate what we are doing , and that is not wrong

But achievement as the dominant measure is dangerously single-focused and imbalanced and gives a false view of the condition of those in the leadership community.

A life of long-term ministry productivity is always the result of the conditions of the leaders heart.

We must not esteem doing over being.

Think of the people who's leadership imploded. Most of the time they had some great achievements. Their failure was more a matter of character rather than productivity.

#9 Achievement becomes dangerous when it tempts us to replace prayer with planning.

Are we giving as much time and energy to continually evaluate what we are doing and treating prayer as a perfunctory habit, attached to the beginning and end of a leadership gathering.

We are in trouble if the leaders are more excited about a strategic planning meeting than a prayer meeting.

Is your leadership community a thankful, humble, and needy praying community?