This past week at the Timothy Barnabas Conference, Benny Tate, senior pastor for the past 31 years of Rock Springs Church in Milner, GA, delivered the greatest leadership message I have ever heard a pastor give. This is not a hyperbolic statement.
For the record, the second best leadership message I have heard delivered by a pastor is 72 Challenging And Truthful Leadership Quotes From Craig Groeschel’s Opening Leadership Summit Session. This was the opening session of the conference shortly after Bill Hybels’s resignation.
Benny (pictured here) taught a message entitled Things That Leaders Do That Hinder Their Churches. As you will see below, the content is rich and pregnant with implications. However, he also worked in personal stories as well as his testimony.
As I was speaking with him afterwards and told him my thoughts on his message, he said, “Brian, do you know how long it took me to write this message? 31 years.” I knew exactly what he meant by that statement and so do many of you. If you are booking pastors to speak at your next event, I cannot recommend enough you reach out to this incredible preacher and man of God.
The following are 69 quotes from his amazing message:
7 Things Leaders Do That Hinder Their Churches
Introductory Comments
- “I’m never gotten tired of the message that Jesus changes lives.”
- “85% of the churches in America pre-COVID were plateaued or declining.”
- “Of the 15% that were growing, 14% was transfer growth… The thing about sheep swapping is you get goats in the mix. Only 1% were having salvation growth.”
- “The first church after my ministry closed. The second church I left for health reasons – the deacons got sick of me.”
A Foggy Vision
- “If it’s misty in the pulpit, it’s foggy in the pews.”
- “You cannot delegate the vision of the church to anyone else. God is going to give the vision of that church to the leader.”
- “God’s going to give you the vision but you have the responsibility to make it gettable.”
- “The vision for your ministry will come from the burden God placed on your heart.”
- “Where there is no vision, people perish. Where there is no vision, people look for another parish.”
- “State the vision clearly.”
- “Cast the vision creatively.”
- “Repeat the vision constantly… Your people have to hear something seven times before they hear it once.”
- “Celebrate the vision regularly. Celebrate what you want to see more of.”
- “Embrace the vision personally. You don’t teach what you don’t know. You don’t lead where you don’t go.”
- “Vision is where you’re going. Vision moves to values – why we are going. That moves to vehicle – how do we get there. We take it from me to we. Velocity – that’s the speed. The velocity of the leader determines velocity of the organization.”
Refusing To Change
- “Water is timeless. The method of consumption has changed.”
- ”The methods are many. Principles are few. Methods are always changing. Principles never do.”
- “Christianity is all about change.”
- “Life is going to end with a change.”
- “There’s no growth without change. There’s no change without loss. There’s no loss without pain.”
- “When you change something and no one gets angry, you haven’t changed anything.”
- “If you’re leading, you’re bleeding.”
- “Yesterday’s home run won’t win today’s game.” – Babe Ruth
- “I used to teach a message entitled ’10 Ways To Raise A Spiritually Healthy Child.’ And then I had a child.”
- “We’re the lid when we refuse to change.”
- “If someone walks over the threshold of our church and they walk back in time, we’re in trouble.”
- “A church will quit growing when a pastor refuses to push through the pain.”
Trying To Do It All
- “My responsibility is to discover leaders, develop leaders, and deploy leaders.”
- “When you add followers you add. When you add leaders you multiply.”
- “Great preachers don’t build great churches. Great churches build great preachers.”
We Don’t Delegate Because…
- “A fear of losing authority.”
- “A fear of the work being done poorly.”
- “A fear of the work being done better.”
- “An unwillingness to take the time.”
- “A fear of depending on others… A growing church has a staff member every 71 people. A church that is not growing has a staff member ever 50 people.”
Not Understanding the Importance Of Those Closest To You
- “Most leaders in America have a Judas close enough to the them to kiss them.” – T.D. Jakes
- “Be slow and prayerful before selecting a team member.”
- “Hire for where you want to go.”
- “Hire people different from you.”
- “If you build a good team, it will have people different from you.”
When The Leader Quits Growing Personally
- “The organization doesn’t grow around the leader. The organization grows under the leader.”
- “A lot of men say they have 30 years of experience. Many of them have one year of experience they’ve repeated 30 times.”
- “God has not called everyone to pastor a mega church. Jesus had 120 when He left. God has called us to be faithful and our churches to be healthy.”
4 Dimensions You Need To Lead
- “Inward Leadership – The toughest person to lead is yourself.”
- “Lateral Leadership – If you’re going to lead people laterally you are going to lead them by serving them.”
- “Upward Leadership – It’s leading people when you are under their authority. You’re at dangerous place in your ministry when no one can tell you ‘No.’”
- “Downward Leadership – The Bible talks the least about this and more about the other three.”
When The Leader Gets Priorities Out Of Order
- “Number one is God.”
- “Number two is your family. Your number one ministry is your family… Nobody at home should ever feel like they are competing with somebody at the church. Fight for your families… Every day you are absent from your family is gone forever… If you can be a good Christian at home, you can be a good Christian anywhere.”
When You Doubt What God Can Do Through You
- “Don’t ever doubt what God can do through you.”
- “Death and life is in the power of the tongue.”
- “The place my mother went to end her life, she found her life.”
- “You may not believe what Benny preaches. But Benny believes what Benny preaches.”
- “God is not looking for ability. He’s looking for availability.”
- “Your best days are not behind you. Your best days are ahead of you.”
- “It’s not time to retire, it’s time to refire. The best days are ahead.”
3 Things Pastors Should Do For One Another
- “We need to let others know we’re proud of them. It’s wrong to have pride in me. It’s not wrong for me to be proud of you. And if I’m proud of you and you’re proud of me, maybe we wouldn’t struggle with pride so much.”
- “Who are you promoting other than you?”
- “Who are you praying for?”
Once again, this was simply the greatest leadership message I have ever heard a pastor give.
For more from last week’s Timothy Barnabas Conference click:
- 44 Quotes and Leadership Gold from Johnny Hunt’s Timothy Barnabas Opening Session
- 5 Things Pastors Need To Reimagine As They Rebuild Their Churches – Jordan Easley’s Timothy Barnabas Closing Session
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