Training Session 3:
What positions do we play?
Review:
1. The object of the game = mission
2. The boundaries within which we play = the rules
3. The three elements of the accountable leadership method = responsibility, authority,
accountability
4. The three roles the leadership of the church plays = governing, managing, leading.
Unity vs. diversity
1. Churches need diversity to function effectively.
a. Diversity of backgrounds
b. Diversity of roles
c. Diversity of personalities, temperaments, and giftedness/
2. Churches need unity to function effectively
a. Unity on the object of the game - to make disciples of Jesus Christ
b. team unity -we must agree on what positions each of us are playing
What does a team need?
1. Training - we must provide opportunities to improve what we do in the church
2. Coaching - we must provide opportunities for people to come alongside others and help them
through difficult situations.
What are the roles in a church?
1. The congregation plays ministry
a. Chapter 8 illustration about World War II - everyone was involved either directly or
indirectly. The country mobilized behind the object of the war - to win.
b. In the same way the church must mobilize in order to accomplish the great commission.
2. Table 8.1 control versus trust
3. How do we change from a fear-based control paradigm to a faith-based trust paradigm?
a. It will happen only when we place our scalpel on the structures that reinforce doing
things a certain way and slice them away so that a new priority of fruitfulness can grow.
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4.
5.
6.
7.
b. That means in the program that does not yield fruitfulness should be reevaluated so
that it can either be fruitful, or shut down in lieu of a new more fruitful ministry.
A big part of the church playing ministry is Congregational care.
a. Congregational care something we do as part of our foundation for reaching a
community that needs Christ.
b. The pastor is unable in a church over 52 care for everyone. The pastor also needs to be
freed up to do more pastoral care which involves counseling and other more in tents of
care. However, the ongoing life of the church requires the congregation to care for
itself.
Finally, a congregation needs to either affirm and support its leadership or find leadership that
it can affirm and support.
a. The Methodist system makes this more difficult but not impossible. A church that has an
accountable leadership system should be able to tell the DS and the cabinet, look, we
thank you for providing us pastoral leadership but you must understand that if there is
no fruit after this many years we must ask you to find someone else.
b. It is not in the best interest of the conference to have an adversarial relationship with
the church and its pastor. If they think this is detrimental to the life of the church, they
are obligated to make a change.
The pastor plays leadership
a. A primary leader is needed to cast a clear and compelling vision. There is a reason that
the Army bugler is a solo act. Lives are on the line, and the soldiers need a clear, decisive
signal for action.
b. Most all large church renewal movements have had a single primary leader - the Celtic
Church and St. Patrick, the Reformation and Martin Luther, the Geneva Reformation and
John Calvin, the United Kingdom revival and John Wesley, the first and second great
awakening in America with George Whitfield and Charles Finney.
c. The character of the primary leader must be responsible vs. defensive - table 9.1,
humble vs. arrogance, strength and integrity vs. cowardice.
d. The pastor leads by inspiring - the CVO: chief vision officer
e. the pastor leads by directing - the staff works for the lead Pastor, pastor leads the
church in his accountable to the board.
f. The pastor leads by teaching – “teaching them to obey all that I have told you.”
The board plays governance
a. one part Commissioner. One part umpire. One part scorekeeper, one part cheerleader
i. the board offers accountability and support
ii. the board holds the pastor up as the leader
iii. the board does not lead because it is more difficult for a group to lead than a
primary leader
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b. Governance is representation - they are moral owners of the local church.
c. While Jesus invented and owns the church spiritually, the board owns the church
physically.
d. The board also keeps and enforces the guiding principle
e. The guiding principle contains three elements
i. The object of the game – The mission
ii. The rules of the game – Boundaries. rules
iii. How to keep score – Accountability principles
8. The Staff plays management
a. The staff is entrusted with management which they execute with excellence
b. The staff contributes efficiency by translating vision into action
c. The actions the staff execute links the pastor to their ministry by executing the vision
that the pastor champions.
d. The staff is vested in solving the problems of today while the pastor is solving the
problems of tomorrow.
e. The staff are trusted people who manage the work of gifted people to serve the needs
of precious people who need a personal relationship with God.
f. Staff are people who have significant ministry responsibility.
9. Management also implies the use of money for the congregation.
a. Does this mean the finance committee loses control of the finances? No, the direct
control is not lost but rather delegated, and the indirect control is achieved through the
creation of the guiding principle document and the subsequent monitoring performance
vis-à-vis the guiding principles.
b. The senior Esther ensures that the staff manages money within the purposes
boundaries established by the board. The book quite cleverly stops at the desk of senior
pastor, not ultimately by setting the policy and not my ultimately applying them, but my
ultimately leading those who do.
c. The pastor who takes good care of money does not need accounting scandals but
leadership skills.
d. The right staff grand investment not an expense. The right staff person will add more
value to the congregation in both spiritual and material resources in the congregation
spends to support them. If they don't, then we may have the wrong, or else we have the
right people in the wrong places.
e. All that accountable leadership requires is that every team has a leader in that every
team leader directly or indirectly works for the senior pastor, who must give account to
the board for the big picture.
Next up – Part IV – Do We Have The Right Equipment?