85 Leadership Lessons From Some Of Christianity’s Top Leaders

For my money, ReThink Conference is the best conference for senior pastors and executive pastors in America.  Hosted by Carey Nieuwhof and the team at Orange, this April 26-28 event provides the best speakers and most-practical content of any conference I attend.  Readers of this site can click HERE  or on the image to the left to save $40 of regular rates if you register by February 16th.  And if you sign up, make sure you stop by and say “Hello” as I will be in attendance and live-blogging.

To whet your appetitive and give you a preview of what you can expect. the following are 85 Leadership Lessons From ReThink 2016.

Carey Nieuwhof – Carey Nieuwhof is a husband, a dad to two sons and a daughter-in-law, and the founding and teaching pastor of Connexus Church north of Toronto Canada.

1. Being a pastor made me a better Christian.
2. There were issues God wanted to deal with in me but I didn’t want to deal with in me.
3. I sent people to counseling. I didn’t go to counseling.
4. You need to work out. You need to eat properly. You need to sleep well.
5. You can be the smartest guy in the room but if you burn out, it’s game over.
6. Your church can always get a new pastor. But your spouse shouldn’t get a new partner. Your kids only have you.
7. God’s going to build His church. You’re just going to forfeit your role in the story.
8. I have to live today in a way that will help me thrive tomorrow.
9. The goal of leadership is not to survive…The goal of leadership is to help you thrive.
10. The goal is for your heart to be more alive in your fourth decade of ministry than today.
11. You live with margin so you can live on mission.
12. If you’ve burned out, you lose all control.
13. I spent August 2006 basically locked up in my room crying.
14. Ministry is a series of ungrieved losses. Life is a series of ungrieved losses.
15. Am I living in a way today that will help me thrive tomorrow?
16. I just think we’re all the same. We’re just people
17. The majority of people who start in ministry don’t finish in ministry.
18. Maybe your heart has gone out but calling has not gone out.
19. Don’t quit your job. Don’t cheat on your wife. Don’t get a sports car.
20. You’ve seen your share of church leaders who are just on autopilot.
21. Leaders who thrive see life for what it actually is but keep their hearts fully engaged.
22. I want to be more fully alive at 50 than I was at 30 and 40.

Jeff Henderson – Jeff Henderson is the lead pastor and leads the staff of Gwinnett Church in its day-to-day operations and in discerning the ministry needs of those who attend GC and those who live in the community.

1. Climate dictates the forecast.
2. If you show me a climate in a marriage that is cold and rainy, I can forecast that relationship.
3. The climate of a leader dictates the forecast of a team.
4. A leader sets the thermostat.
5. The team is the thermometer. They reflect it.
6. When a leader leaves the room, the climate stays in the room.
7. Everyone knows the climate of a leader except a leader. And that climate sets the lid for your leadership.
8. The primary leadership emotion is fear.
9. If you lead out of fear you are abusing the leadership role.
10. God has never spoken audibly to me. He speaks louder than that.
11. A leader who leads out of fear leads out of insecurity.
12. If you’re an emotionally healthy leader you create a climate of emotional health.
13. What’s it like to be on the other side of me?  When you ask that question you will get encouraging information.  The second thing is they will give you some surprising information.  The third thing is they will hurt your feelings.
14. If you don’t ask that question you forfeit the right to get better as a leader.
15. Ask it to a spouse or family member, staff person, and a friend. Then just listen.
16. Then at the end, you just say, “Thank you.”
17. “Heavenly Father, what’s it like to be on the other side of me?”
18. God is an emotionally healthy leader.
19. God can be tough but in the middle of that discipline God can be loving.
20. Your team will then ask the question themselves.

Joshua Gagnon – Joshua Gagnon is the Lead Pastor of Next Level Church, one of the fastest growing churches in America.

1. We have 5,470 people on Easter (in NH).
2. Only 3% claim they are Christian. It is the most unchurched location in our country.
3. We started with $200 and 12 people.
4. Focus on the need and communicate the “Why” behind the need to generate momentum.
5. It’s hard to generate momentum when you’re the only one on the team.
6. A success story is usually 15 years old.
7. The conversation needs to change from “What does a lifetime of faithfulness look like” vs. “What does a lifetime of fruitfulness look like.”
8. You will always go through seasons of higher momentum and lower momentum.
9. The worst thing you can do is define your ministry by the lowest points of momentum.
10. When we stay true to who we are we gain momentum.
11. We circle dates on the calendar which are momentum builders.
12. It’s not our job to look at culture and try to change it. It’s our job to live in it.
13. As a leader you have to have seasons where you’re not running 100 miles per hour. If you do this, your people will not have it in the bank when they need to run 100 miles per hour.
14. Never launch locations out of a position of weakness but of momentum and strength.
15. You have to have a culture of change, a culture of openness.
16. 100-200 takes shepherding. To go beyond that takes the gift of leadership.
17. Transition can always be messy. Transition must be done wisely but no seat on the bus is sacred.
18. We’re not delegating tasks. We’re empowering people.

Reggie Joiner – Reggie Joiner is founder and CEO of Orange (also known as The reThink Group), a nonprofit organization that helps churches and parents maximize their influence on the spiritual growth of the next generation.

1. It’s not really your vision that determines your success.
2. The mission and vision statement of most of us have is very similar.
3. It’s not your vision that will determine your success. It is your strategy.
4. There are a lot of great organizations that close because they don’t have a great strategy.
5. A strategy is a plan of action with an end in mind.
6. We believe in alignment.  The alignment makes the difference in accomplishing something.
7. You don’t have to work at getting misaligned as a team.
8. The first question we ask is “What do we want someone to become?”  Another question is “Where do we want them to be?”
9. If you can only get people to come to one thing, what would that one thing be?
10. You can’t get your team on the same page if you don’t get them in the same room.

Leonce Crump Jr. – Léonce Crump Jr., is an author, international speaker, and the founder and lead pastor of Renovation Church in Atlanta.

1. Every organization which experiences any growth has a moment when philosophy and strategy meets reality.
2. There is a point when philosophy meets reality and you must change.
3. We still believe the Gospel has sociological implications.
4. We had to go from doing missional activity to being missionaries.
5. You’re not talking but you’re writing and I know that’s how white folks say AMEN!
6. Can you measure your center? Do you know who you’re core is?
7. If you’re still measuring your influence by Sunday morning attendance, you’re foolish.
8. Vision is taught. Culture is felt.
9. Being missional is a culture. It’s not a task. It’s not what you do
10. Every person wants consistency more than anything else from their leaders.
11. If your strategy is what you pick up at every conference, you give your people whiplash.
12. Consistency will give you that ability to have your staff healthy during changes.
13. In our missional focus we minimized the gathering.
14. It is your job not to keep every single person, but to communicate your core convictions have not been lost through a change in strategy.
15. Sometimes you’re going to lose people.

Once again, if you are a senior pastor or executive pastor, do not miss this event.  Click HERE to sign up!