The Church Answers Podcast
#156 What the Revitalization Movement Is Missing: Leadership Assessment
Welcome to the Church Answers podcast presented by Chaney & Associates. Chaney & Associates are the accounting firm for the church. Now get ready for fast-paced insights on key issues affecting the local church today. We release three episodes each week, so make sure you've seen or heard them all. And now, here is the CEO of Church Answers, Tom Rayner. Welcome to the Church Answers podcast. I hope you've had the opportunity to listen to the previous two podcasts that we released this week. We're going through a three-part series called What the Revitalization Movement is Missing. In episode number 154, we talked about the right culture, or a shift in the culture. In episode 155, we talked about not just evangelism, but accountability for evangelism. And in this episode, number 156, which completes the three that we released this week, we're talking about leadership assessment, do you have the right leader leading the revitalization? That can be a tough question, particularly if you're the pastor and you are the person that is spearheading the revitalization, but it is absolutely necessary. So it's not just that culture is needed. It's a culture shift. It's not that just evangelism is needed. It's evangelistic accountability, and it's not that just leadership is needed. That leadership needs to be assessed to determine if it is the right leadership to revitalize the church or lead it in revitalization. And if not, that doesn't mean that leader has to go. It just means the leader has to make the changes that are necessary. So now, let's look at this third missing piece and much of the revitalization movement is leadership assessment. As I have said in each of the episodes, I am incredibly grateful that revitalization church revitalization is a emphasis that is that has been growing and growing and growing. And you can you can look at some of our our resources on on revitalization. We have a certification in church revitalization. It has been one of our most popular ones and I love it that people are taking that extensive training so they can either help their church or they can help other churches in revitalization. So check out revitalization certification. Check out sound Rayner's book at the church revitalization checklist. It's an incredible book and I just found out that it's being translated get into a another language and so it's becoming popular worldwide. Sam Rayner has written a great book called the church revitalization checklist. And then I have a book called anatomy of revived church. So those are three resources that we recommend to you get the certification in church in church revitalization certification. Get the two books the revival church revitalization checklist anatomy of a revived church. They can give you the big picture on all this. What I'm trying to do in this particular series, these three parts is to tell you what we're continuing to see missing in many churches moving into revitalization or in many movements moving into revitalization on this one. We're talking about leadership assessment. Now one of the first things I would do here's a resource, but no, I guess this makes for a recommended, but this is another resource that I am recommending. Go to the tools at church answers.com. There's a tab called tools. And one of those tools is called know yourself. It is a quick way to assess your own revitalization leadership ability. Know yourself. It doesn't take long to take it. It's probably probably 15 to 20 minutes. It's an inexpensive resource. I think it's $27 if I remember correctly. And as you begin to look at what that self assessment says will give you an idea. If you honestly look in the mirror, of course, that's a metaphor. But if you look in the mirror, this will be something that will help you. You can show it to other people or you can just do it for yourself. It's a self assessment. Now we know that many denominational leaders, network leaders actually use this assessment and in fact, we know that entire denomination is now using this assessment, but you can use it just for yourself one on one. So one of the first things we do is say, try to find out who you are and where you are in this. Do you have all the leadership tools that you need? And many times pastors will come away and say, I'm just not, I'm not a revitalization pastor. Well, here's the thing about it. Every pastor is a revitalization pastor. No church is perfectly healthy. There will always be some need some revitalization. When we usually talk about revitalization, we're talking about some of the churches that need the most, but you can't say, I'm not a revitalization pastor, you can say, I need more tools to be a revitalization pastor, I need more skills, I need, I need some additional training. All of that is good and all of that is available. So one of the first things that we would say is find out who you are, whether you take our know yourself tool or whether you use something else, look to find out, look in the mirror to find out who you are and what you may have and what you may be lacking. Now we've said this many times about leadership assessment, and let me just say it again because it is one of the biggest parts of a revitalization leader that is essential. And that is to be thick skin. I am not naturally thick skin. I think with years and a constant flow of critics of different types over the years at me or it's something I'm doing, I have become more thick skin. I guess if you hit enough times, the wounds either don't heal or they get callous and you become thick skin, that sounds terrible, callous, but you know what I'm talking about. You have to be able to withstand criticism because when you're leading a revitalization in a church or a revitalization movement and more than one church, you are initiating change. And anytime you initiate change, someone is not going to like the change. That is just the reality. And every time I think I'm not one of those, someone, some change happens in my life or say, oh, I don't like that. All of us like some consistency in our lives and when change comes, it's tough. If you are the instigator, if you are the initiator of that change, expect criticism. The reality of it is if you aren't getting criticism, you probably aren't leading thick skin. Another thing that you need, this phrase was created by my friend Mark Clifton and Mark uses the phrase tactical patience. So what he means by that is we have to be patient, but we don't have forever. Revitalization has an urgency to it. And so you have to have tactical patience. You may not can wait five years for some changes to take place or the church will die or either it will get very, very sick, but you can have patience to wait as long as possible to initiate some of these changes. I've said on more than one occasion, I wrote a book as later co-authored with Chuck Lawless originally wrote its solo called eating the elephant. And the thesis behind eating the elephant is how do you eat an elephant one by the time? And the thesis thus was you should move slowly, one by the time. I no longer say that because too many churches need something to change quickly. And we no longer have the luxury of waiting. We no longer have the luxury of eating an elephant. Another thing where you should assess yourself is your outward focus. I've never seen an evangelistic church that does not have an evangelistic pastor. I've never seen an outwardly focused church that doesn't have an outwardly focused pastor. That sounds like I'm putting all the honest of responsibility for the great commission on one person. I'm not, but I'm saying there has to be a leader who is setting the example, setting the culture and establishing the priorities. And so you have to be outwardly focused. And then finally, so important, you have to have a supportive family. I'm talking about your family. I'm talking about your spouse. I'm talking about your children. Revitalization is tough. And if they are not in this with you, quite frankly, I'm not so sure you should be in it. And I've had to give that tough news to more than one pastor. It takes a family. I want to say a village, it takes a family that is all on the same page in order to be a revitalization leader. So what the revitalization movement is missing is leaders who have done the self-assessment, either through an instrument called Know Yourself, who've asked themselves, am I thick skin sufficiently? Do I have patience that is tactical? In other words, am I patient up to a point, but then I see the urgency in the midst of that patience? Am I outwardly focused? Am I obedient to the great commission? And am I a model for personal evangelism? And then finally, is my family coming alongside me? Are we in this together instead of I'm doing my ministry and they are doing something else? These are the five things that I think you can use to assess yourself for revitalization. And once again, understand if you're missing something, it doesn't mean that you shouldn't be a revitalizing leader, it just simply means that you need to shore up some of these areas. All right. We've got three podcasts now, what's missing in the revitalization movement, we've talked about culture, the shifting culture. We've talked about evangelism, but evangelism accountability. We've talked about leadership, but even more than that, leadership assessment. If you haven't listened to episodes 155 and 154, go back and listen to those. These aren't in any particular order. You may want to share these with some of your leaders or your people are within your denomination. Because if you want to see true revitalization take place, these are some of the paths that God will lead your church. As always, thank you for being a part of the church answers podcast. Thank you, youtubers, for watching us. Subscribe. Let us know you're there. Give us a good like review, whatever podcast app you're listening to. Just take time, do us that favor to give us a good review, give us a rating and review, give us a thumbs up. We want to get the word out, Chaney and Associates is paying the bills, and we want to get the word out to as many people as possible. So thank you as always, and I hope you've enjoyed these three podcasts. And thank you for being a part of the church answers podcast. See you next week. You have been listening to the church answers podcast presented by Chaney and Associates. Chaney and Associates are the accounting firm for the church. You need to focus on ministry, Chaney will focus on finances. Also please subscribe and give a review to the church answers podcast on YouTube and on your favorite podcasting app. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)