Church Leadership

Church Leadership equips pastors, elders, ministry staff, and volunteer leaders to lead with biblical conviction, humility, and wisdom. Explore practical, Scripture-shaped guidance on leading teams, developing leaders, casting vision, making decisions, and building a healthy ministry culture. You’ll also find help for navigating conflict, communication, accountability, and the spiritual formation of leaders—so leadership flows from character, not just competence. Whether you’re stepping into leadership for the first time or carrying long-term responsibility, these resources aim to strengthen your leadership for the good of the church and the mission of Jesus.

March 1, 2022

Michael C. Mack

Authentic Leadership

Authentic Leadership

By Michael C. Mack What is authentic Christian leadership? It may be best to begin with how it’s different from secular leadership. Authentic Christian leadership is a lifelong process. I’ve seen secular self-help books and blogs that provide simple steps to leadership, but becoming a leader after God’s own heart takes constant, everyday, deep-rooted transformation of the mind and heart as led by the Holy Spirit. Christian leadership happens first in loving, abiding communion with God, and second, in the environment of loving community with others. It’s rare to hear secular leadership described using the word love, but Christian leadership

March 1, 2022

Kim Harris

Authentic Statistics

Authentic Statistics

By Kim Harris The years 1981 and 1997 don’t have a lot in common. Both years followed presidential elections, but 1981 inaugurated a new president while 1997 welcomed back the leader from the previous term. Both years saw advancement in space exploration with 1981 witnessing the first space shuttle flight, while the Mars Pathfinder landed in 1997. However, it seems the differences between those two years far outweigh similarities. The cultural environment across sports, entertainment, pop culture, economics, and politics shifted significantly during that 16-year span. One thing that didn’t change in that time, though, was the most common baby

March 1, 2022

Chris Philbeck

Authentic Preaching

Authentic Preaching

By Chris Philbeck In a scene from Walk the Line, a 2005 biographical movie on the life of Johnny Cash, Johnny and his band are in a studio with music executive Sam Phillips. The musicians are auditioning a gospel tune, but they are performing with little emotion or conviction. Finally, Phillips interrupts: “Hold on. Hold on. . . . Do you guys got something else?” After some interesting dialogue where the angry singer says Phillips is accusing him of not believing in God, Cash finally protests, “Well, you didn’t let us bring it home.” “Bring it home?” Phillips asks in

January 1, 2022

Christian Standard

Recruitment: How Do Restoration Movement Churches Find Talented Leaders to Fuel Growth?

By Kevin Stone Since the beginning of our church in Pennsylvania, staffing has been among our biggest challenges. There is a continuous, ever-increasing need for people to lead stuff! As we all know, without a constant flow of good people, it’s very difficult to grow. Hiring from the Outside Your church has a leadership need, so you go to an outside recruiting firm for help. You know the process—you write a position description and start the search. I wish it were that simple. Our desire to prevent theological drift requires that we recruit from within the tribe, so to speak. And finding

January 1, 2022

Doug Crozier

Building a Leadership Pipeline

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-13). As 2020 started, the church in America was already coping with issues ranging from racial tensions to gay marriage, all while competing with sports for a family’s attention on Sunday mornings. Then COVID-19 arrived in full

January 1, 2022

Seana Scott

Pastors Are Quitting; What We Can Do to Help

Pastors in Restoration Movement churches quit at an alarming rate. According to research from the Christian Church Leadership Network, 70 percent of Bible college graduates in the Restoration Movement leave pastoral ministry within the first 10 years.* That means 7 out of 10 current Bible college students called to pastoral ministry in this movement probably will not last a decade. How might we better develop and grow healthy leaders? In what ways might we support the leaders we already have so they last a lifetime in ministry? The future of our movement and the health of our churches is at

January 1, 2022

Mark Scott

How to Prevent Message Drift When You Call Your Next Preacher

Message drift is not new. Israel faced it. When Moses predicted that the Lord God would raise up a prophet like him (a reference to the Messiah), he also warned against prophets who would presume to speak in God’s name but actually speak in the names of other gods (Deuteronomy 18:15, 20). Jeremiah ran into a similar situation with a false prophet named Pashhur (Jeremiah 20:1-6; cf. 14:14; 23:32). Message drift was not foreign to the New Testament either. In the Olivet discourse Jesus predicted that false prophets would arise (before the destruction of Jerusalem) and lead many astray, and

January 1, 2022

Laura McKillip Wood

Laura-McKillip-Wood

A Bright Future for Resident in Intercultural Ministry

As Katie Hughes made her way to her car at the end of another long school day, she reflected on her day in the classroom. After years of studying to become a teacher like her mom and other family members, she felt disappointed and exhausted in her student-teaching experience. The more time she spent in the classroom, the more she questioned her decision to become an educator. Was this really what God had planned for her? A New Plan Katie talked with her parents and began to take an inventory of the gifts and interests God had given her. She

January 1, 2022

Wes Beavis

‘Lead Like You Are the Colorado River’

If not for the obstacles standing in the way of the Colorado River, there would be no Grand Canyon. Without these natural barriers, the river would not have created dramatic ravines, horseshoe bends, and whitewater rapids. Instead of a Grand Canyon, we would have a “Grand Trench.” How awe-inspiring would that be? Not very. If I could give any counsel to Christians and ministry leaders in today’s world, it would be this: Lead like you are the Colorado River. Anticipate impediments to your progress. Don’t expect the way to be free and clear of obstacles. No matter what the barrier,

January 1, 2022

Kent E. Fillinger

Kent E. Fillinger

The Preacher Pipeline Problem

A ministry friend recently worked with the Slingshot Group, a church staffing firm, to find a new ministry, and they told him he was one of 19,000 candidates they were helping. I imagine this represents people from a multitude of denominations and backgrounds, as well as those seeking a variety of church ministry roles. Either way, it’s clear there’s a sizable number of people currently in ministry who are looking for something different or somewhere new to serve. But what does the future “preacher pipeline” look like based on who’s leading our Christian churches today? A Long-Term Look at Lead

January 1, 2022

Gary L. Johnson

The Leadership Pipeline Crisis

Alyeska . . . Keystone XL . . . Colonial. Each is a commercial pipeline, and each has a unique crisis in its story. Alyeska is the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, which now transports less oil than in years past. Keystone XL is the pipeline that was once under construction from Alberta, Canada, south to Nebraska; it has now been officially shut down. The Colonial Pipeline made news recently when it was the victim of a ransomware attack that completely shut down its oil flow. Similarly, we face a crisis in the local church, and it has everything to do with

January 1, 2022

Chris Philbeck

Chris Philbeck

What They Didn’t Teach Me in Bible College

I am thankful for my time in Bible college. I enrolled at Ozark Christian College in the fall of 1976 and while there I developed lifelong friendships, a greater understanding of the Scriptures, and a deep love for preaching. Don DeWelt was my homiletics professor, and every class was memorable. That course provided me with a better understanding of how to preach, and it awakened my love for preaching. But it wasn’t just my homiletics class, it was also the opportunity to hear great preachers in chapel services and at special events. I learned about preaching with passion by listening

January 1, 2022

Michael C. Mack

The Pipeline Problem: What Each of Us Can Do to Get It Moving Again

Jesus said much about the church’s leadership pipeline. In fact, he initiated it. Without it, the church’s proliferation from “Jerusalem . . . to the ends of the earth” would be impossible. And while we have few examples of how the original 12 apostles developed future leaders, we know they must have by how quickly the church expanded. The Bible describes in much greater detail the apostle Paul’s leadership pipeline—the individuals he discovered, developed, and deployed as well as the instructions he gave them to do the same. Two millennia later, however, Jesus’ church is facing a leadership pipeline problem.

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