For the past two days I have had the privilege of being part of the Courageous Partners Conference hosted by Shawn Lovejoy and his incredible team at Courageous Pastors. I love this organization. They provide personal coaches for pastors. Pastors need a real person with whom they can process complicated, real-time decisions. Someone who’s been there. Someone that’s willing to listen to the complicating variables and help you make good decisions. Everybody gets better with a coach. Pastors, if you are looking for a personal coach, click HERE and start a conversation with their team.
Today, Shawn had his pastor, Pastor Chris Hodges of Highlands Church in Birmingham, AL, come and invest in those in attendance for two sessions. I want to pass along several of his thoughts and lessons to you.
The following are 99 Leadership Quotes and Lessons from Chris Hodges at the Courageous Pastors Conference:
Session 1
- “I’m a church nerd. I do this on vacation. I just love the church.”
- “I just turned 60 years old. I was in church the Sunday I was born and I’ve never missed a Sunday.”
- “I’ve never fallen out of love with God.”
- “Jesus is a builder and He has put in us the spirit of a builder.”
- “How does God build things?”
- “I’ve been reading the One-Day Bible for over 30 years of my life.”
- “God only blesses things that are set in order.”
- “God never intended you to stay where you started. God is a multiplication God.”
- “If Heaven and Hell are real then growth is not an option.”
Structures
- “If you do it right the first time, it does not require a lot of maintenance.”
- “Clear vision and values. The first question I’m asking is what you’re trying to accomplish. A clear measurable vision. Aligned with what God’s vision is. You don’t have to have a vision, God has one.”
- “Lost people get saved. Saved people get pastored. Pastored people get discipled. Discipled people get mobilized.”
- “You know it’s (the vision) clear when everyone says the same thing, the same way.”
- “Solid leadership teams (are needed) from your governance to your volunteers. If you do not have solid leadership structures, you can’t accomplish anything without people.”
- “You will only be as successful as your team.”
- “Healthy finances, the tent must be held up by solid things.”
- “Sound doctrine. I’ve only added this one in the last three years of this lesson. The Word of God is the Word of God. I’ve had to add this because of some things happening in the church.”
- “The Leaning Tower of Pisa was supposed to be The Tower of Pisa. It leans because there was a flaw in the foundation. The flaw has become a feature. This is what is happening in a lot of churches. People are taking pictures of the flaw.”
- “Systems are what you see. Systems are what delivers the vision.”
- “Some of us have created systems which will never deliver our vision.”
- “Systems we change. The Word of God is holy. Systems are not.”
- “The product does not determine success. The delivery of the product determines the success. It’s the system.”
- “It’s not all about Sundays but if Sunday is broken, nothing else works. It’s the feeder to everything else.”
- “All people think (about the sermon) is ‘Is it over already?’ or “When’s it going to be over?’”
- “The right way is the one that works. Please stop defending stuff that’s not working.”
- “Clarify the vision and a measurable win. Make sure it’s measurable.”
- “Create a system that is easy, obvious, and effective. You have to have all three.”
- “Is it easy? Can everybody do it?”
- “Is it obvious? Does everybody know about it?”
- “Is it effective? Is it working?”
- “It still shocks me the number of pastors who aren’t counting stuff.”
- “Numbers are indicators of health and you always count what matters to you.”
- “Get better.”
- “If you don’t get better, you become a critic against those who are.”
- “We’re not going to be critics, we’re going to be disciples.”
- “Spiritual cannot be overlooked and sometimes it does.”
- “When God shows up you don’t have to do an ad campaign.”
- “What are you doing to cultivate the presence of God in your church?”
- “Personal holiness. It starts with you and me.”
- “God does not expect perfection but He does desire a heart that seeking after Him and personal holiness.”
- “You will have to grapple with the secular you allow into your life and your church. The world is going after their stuff. That’s why secular universities are declining and Christian colleges are exploding because of values.”
- “Holiness means set apart. I’m not like everybody else. I’m not acting like everybody else.”
- “I’m not the best preacher you will ever hear, (but) I deeply love God.”
- “We take prayer and fasting deeply in our house because I know I’m not that good.”
- “Worship. I’m trying to get real worship back in the house of God. There’s been too much eye candy, focus on us, and we’ve got to get it back on God.”
- “Worship is not our worth, worship is His worth.”
- “You need to sing songs of transcendence not dependence.”
- “The first thing Satan ever did was take away the worship of God.”
- “The first thing Satan said was, ‘Did God really say that?’ And he’s been questioning God every since. We’re not trying to be offensive but the Word of God is offensive to some.”
- “The days of being unclear are over.”
- “Prayer. You can’t delegate spiritual. I cannot delegate prayer, worship, reading the Word. Pastor, you have to put the holy things on your own shoulders.”
Session 2 – Building a Healthy Prayer Culture
- “Two things everyone needs are models and mentors.”
- “Imitation beats innovation anytime.” – Rick Warren
- “Consider church planting as part of your missions budget.”
- “The greatest problem to solve in the world is leaders. The harvest is plentiful. The laborers are few.”
- “The spiritual is the most missed portion of church because it’s spiritual.”
- “The is a war going on in the heavenlies.”
- “You have to win the war of the spirituals.”
- “The only hope for America is some type of move of God. What is happening at Asbury is the first drops of what God is wanting to do in America.”
- “Before I had a band and buildings, I was building my prayer teams.”
- “Improve your own personal prayer life. Whatever it is, it needs to be better.”
- “Make an appointment with God and keep it. I don’t give my mornings away. I’ve not had a breakfast meeting in twenty years. That’s God’s time.”
- “You need to enlist personal intercessors.”
- “I3 Intercessors – People who won’t know every detail of your life but they love to pray.”
- “I2 Intercessors – They serve on prayer teams.”
- “I1 Intercessors – They know everything about you and love to intercede.”
- “Every staff member and department has personal intercessors.”
- “A lot of people want what I have but don’t want to do what we do.”
- “Develop a solid prayer ministry that includes calling people to corporate prayer and fasting, create prayer small groups, enlist service prayer, and teach people how to pray.”
- “People want to pray but they don’t know how to pray.”
- “I pray the Prayer of Jabez every day of my life.”
- “Jabez had pain in his life, his name means pain, but he never talked about his pain. He directed everything to God and God took care of his pain.”
- “One of the best way to pastor people from their problems is to redirect them to something bigger than their problems.”
- “Fix your eyes not on the seen things but the unseen things. Give your people something bigger in their lives than their problems.”
- “Blessing. Bless me. Blessing is having more than you need so you have something to give away. Ask God to help you be able to help others. Prosperity means God giving you more than you can do by yourself.”
- “I meet two types of pastors – Scarcity Mindset and Abundance Mindset.”
- “God has favorites. You get to choose if want to be one. God gives seed to the sower.”
- “We’re doing this for the people who are not here yet.”
- “Influence. Enlarge my territory. Live a life bigger than you.”
- “You’ve got to get in the habit of dreaming. It’s free, go have some.”
- “Prophecy is seeing something in the future that doesn’t exist yet.”
- “Presence. May your hand be upon me. I’m in over my head.”
- “Protection. Keep me from harm. I need the protection of God.”
- “Prayer is not just communion with God but confronting the devil.”
- “Your enemy prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.”
Luncheon Q&A
- “Prayer works when it’s compounded. Money only works when it’s compounded. You want to get on the right side of compounding.”
- “I’m very disciplined with my time and who gets it. You can’t get my mornings because that is time with God.”
- “My greatest temptations happen on Sunday night because that’s when my guard is let down.”
- “Revival is America’s only hope.”
- “There are certain hills I will die on but I will not die on them just to prove a point.”
- “Churches must be prepared for an attack. They will target you and it’s coming.”
- “It’s not only sin but it’s unrepentant sin.”
- “Does God have the right to say what is right and wrong? Is that set of things in the Bible?”
- “Health, if I had margin in leadership and money when opportunity comes, I can say ‘Yes’. When opportunity comes, it’s too late to prepare.”
- “I have a farm team of 23 campus pastors.”
- “I spend a lot of time developing the team and potential team members. This is what 75% of my week looks like.”
- “I do it. I do it with someone else. Someone else does it with me. Someone else does it. Someone else does it with someone else.” – His development process.
- “You can’t create a culture, you can only be one.”
- “I’m always investing in five in hopes to find one. Gather many, find one.”
What an incredible session! What is one thing you learned from Pastor Chris which will make you a better leader?
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