CHURCH LEADERS WHO WOULD ATTEND THIER OWN CHURCH
Pastors: If you weren’t paid to, or weren’t on staff of the church you work with, would you attend it? Do you like your own church? Do you enjoy it?
This is a good test of whether your church has your vision and your DNA at the core. The DNA is the basic makeup, the unique culture that reflects you as the senior leader. If you are all about teaching, then your church will most likely reflect that and be a “teaching” church. And if you are a natural evangelist and get the most joy out of contacting new people, then your church will be like that. But we believe (and we think it’s the Jesus way too) that a healthy church needs to be balanced in all aspects of ministry: apostolic, prophetic evangelistic, pastoral and teaching. So how do you develop a church that has a balanced healthy culture that still has “your” flavor to it? (And that you would love to attend?)
The culture will develop – either influenced by you and other leaders or by other strong personalities that are present. You can shape the culture by introducing, and encouraging and reinforcing practices that reflect your values. If you are the kind of person who enthusiastically greets everyone with a big hug, most likely your people will pick that up and be open and friendly. And the opposite is true.
Now given that understanding of the important of culture, consider this…You can build one of two ways. You can use programs and marketing and construct the structure and hope to fill the inside with people that are similarly minded. Or you can start with you and your family and your inner core team of people, and grow it from the inside out by developing and nurturing the desired culture.
Another way to look at it is this: are you starting with some dry bones and trying to put some meat on them and make them alive? Or are you starting with a live baby and developing it?
Sure you can put together a slick marketing campaign and get a great building and really nice sound equipment and hire some musicians and even hire a brilliant speaker. But the culture will develop either unintentionally from the strong personalities and any prior traditions, or by the intentional leadership you provide.
You need to build what you want with your core team; create the culture and the DNA so that the values and the experience matches your vision for what the Lord wants to build…. And then scale it up and grow. How do you do that? You need to focus on your main job of developing PEOPLE (according to their gifts, passions and calling in the Lord), and especially LEADERS from the core who carry the same vision and DNA who can reproduce and multiple other leaders and disciples. Then the growth will happen built on a foundation of a culture (based on values) that reflects you and the vision God has given you. And that will be a church you won’t want to miss, even if they didn’t pay you!
