Over the next three days I have been dispatched by INJOY Stewardship Solutions to provide live-blogging the ReThink Leadership and Orange Conference. This has traditionally been one of my go-to events each year. I can’t wait for this year’s content and the opportunity to share it with you.
Before getting to the content, I want to further invest in you as a leader. Everyone wins when a leader gets better. That’s why I created The 2-Minute Leader Coaching Course. These 11 modules will give you the exact tools needed to grow and develop into the type of leaders your organization desperately needs.
Take your leaders through this powerful 10-part video series and see the following results:
- Provide key leaders with growth opportunity
- Give you confidence in decisions being made by your team
- Establish a healthy leadership development process
- Develop a leadership pipeline
- Create a leadership culture
The 2-Minute Leader Coaching Course is a great resource for equipping your team members to fulfill their unique roles and find purpose and meaning in their lives. This is priced at $37 because I want to get it into as many hands as possible. Click HERE or the image below or learn more and purchase.
Now on to the conference content:
ReThink Leadership’s next speaker of the day was Matt Steen. Longtime readers of this site will be very familiar with Matt. Matt is the co-founder of Chemistry Staffing. If you are not familiar with Chemistry Staffing, you should be. There is no organization I recommend more!!! They have a wisdom and insight about the church marketplace and the staffing/hiring process which is unique. If you are looking for another ministry opportunity or in need of hiring quality staff, click HERE and start a conversation with their team. You will not be disappointed. This organization has my highest endorsement!!!
The following are 37 Leadership Quotes from his very instructional session:
- We’ve spent the last two years being wrong on every decision we’ve made.”
- “The pandemic has accelerate burnout in our teams, volunteers, and ourselves. It has accelerated succession planning.”
- “It exposed overall team health, the commitment of our teams, the sustainability of our ministry, and our culture.”
- “It has resulted in a lot of people leaving ministry.”
- “Youth and worship roles hit COVID harder than anyone else in the church. We have seen significant carnage in those areas.”
- “We have a bench depth problem. You probably have a lot of friends selling real estate right now.”
- “We’re seeing a lot more regional searches because candidates with children don’t want to move.” – Tim Nations
- “The geographic window most candidates are wanting to shift to is the Southeast.” – Tim Nations
- “When I was growing up you went to where you were called. What we’re seeing now is a narrowing of that focus.”
- “Burnout and anger are real… You need to get a sense of where people are emotionally? Are their spouses going to church?”
- “We’re praying about the spiritual and emotional health of our pastors. And we’re concerned about that over the next two years.”
- “If you are leading a staff, please model this (emotional health) for your team.”
- “A career trajectory is bigger than its ever been, especially for younger pastors.”
- “Some of the best retention work for your team is to ask what they are doing five years from now and start training them in that.”
- “Take a deep breath, and take another deep breath, and know God is not surprised. Start asking the questions about what we want to look like moving forward.” – when a staff person leaves.
- “We’re seeing churches take these last two years and make changes. We’re also seeing churches do nothing. We’re not seeing a lot in the middle.”
- “Churches are moving away from specialists and more towards generalists. We call this “Padding your team.’”
- “We need to move back towards pastoring.”
- “Find developers. Find people who will release ministry and not micromanage.”
- “If you have a smaller team, you get to pay them more. Inflation is going up.”
- “Competition for young church talent is no longer another church, it’s Amazon.”
- “Jeff Bezos doesn’t call you on Sunday night because of something you just preached.”
- “Jeff Bezos doesn’t make you end vacation early to preach someone’s funeral.”
- “Scale down a little bit, pay a little better, and get a more skilled individual.”
- “We’re seeing a turnover that’s needed to happen for a while. We’ve struggled with succession for quite some time.”
- “Some churches are waiting for things to go back to normal. They will probably go through a pruning process, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing.”
- “The churches that are going to survive and thrive know that old methods are not going to work. They will do more externally.”
- “The biggest challenge people have is to go from a large church into a smaller church.”
- “We often use the same words but with completely different meanings.”
- “Most candidates are used to people not hearing back and they start to question their call.”
- “Part of your job is to pastor the candidates God has entrusted you with.”
- “The quicker you move through the process, the candidate feels more respected and excited about your church.”
- “We don’t spend near enough time looking at resumes.”
- “I’ve gotten away from talking about speed of the interview process, it’s intention. Does our process honor people or beat them down? What are we communicating about ourselves and what it will be like to work with them?”
- “I’m a big fan of two onsite visits. It costs a little bit more but is worth it.”
- “The church isn’t Starbucks. We don’t have three spaces in ministry. Our home life, work life, and community life are connected because of ministry.”
- “Care well for people.”
What brilliant insight from a great leader! Next up will be Albert Tate.
The Top 75 Leadership Quotes From 2021 Part 2 is my latest ebook. For many entering a post-pandemic environment, leadership looks completely different than the pre-pandemic world. People are more broken now. They are more uncertain. Fear and anxiousness are unwelcome constant companions. Cultures are more unhealthy. Relationships are more dysfunctional. Hope seems to be in short supply. Every day seems to bring a new hacking, natural disaster, or unexpected calamity.
Therefore, the fundamentals of leadership are more important than ever. The quotes in this book deal with the basics of leadership. If you want to be the best leader you can possibly be, click HERE or on the image provided to download this FREE resource. The lessons learned from last year, if applied, will sustain you for years to come.