{"id":31971,"date":"2022-05-14T10:00:04","date_gmt":"2022-05-14T14:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/?p=31971"},"modified":"2022-05-13T19:26:25","modified_gmt":"2022-05-13T23:26:25","slug":"6-habits-of-pastors-who-lead-growing-churches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/2022\/05\/14\/6-habits-of-pastors-who-lead-growing-churches\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Habits of Pastors Who Lead Growing Churches"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In 2014, Princeton Church of God located in Princeton, NC was a struggling congregation.\u00a0 The church had an average weekly attendance of 150 and was deeply divided.\u00a0 Deep conflict existed over music styles, chairs vs. pews, and several other items.\u00a0 It was in this environment that God called Matthew Cornett to pastor.<\/p>\n<p>What has happened in the following eight years has truly been a move of God.\u00a0 The church experienced 17% growth during the pandemic year of 2020 followed by 30% in 2021!!!\u00a0 The church now runs over 700 in average weekend attendance.\u00a0 Lives are being changed.\u00a0 And through a partnership with INJOY Stewardship Solutions, Princeton Church recently exceeded its campaign goal by $1.5 million! \u00a0I recently sat down with Pastor Matthew to learn the best leadership practices needed to generate and sustain church growth.<\/p>\n<p>What I learned was six habits of pastors who lead growing churches.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Trust God<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Pastor Matthew was not called to be a church planter.\u00a0 Rather, he was called to help recuperate and revitalize a church.<\/p>\n<p>Pastor Matthew said, \u201cTrust the Head, the Cornerstone of the Faith and what He is calling you to do.\u201d\u00a0 Pastors of today\u2019s growing churches know that obedience is more important than systems or the latest trends.\u00a0 He said, \u201cHear the voice of God and do whatever He tells you to do.\u00a0 And He\u2019ll honor that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Build Unity<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Pastor Matthew preached out of Numbers in his interview sermon.\u00a0 He fearlessly told the church, \u201cThe reason you are here is not your prior pastors. \u00a0The reason you are here is because of you.\u00a0 It\u2019s time to repent and it\u2019s time to turn to God.\u201d\u00a0 Instead of a negative vote for this pastoral candidate, the entire church went to the altar and repented after the message.<\/p>\n<p>Upon being voted in, Pastor Matthew did not stop there.\u00a0 He continually reinforced what God told him was the church\u2019s core issue. \u00a0\u201cFor a year, every message I preached had a thread of unity built into it.\u201d\u00a0 He stayed on message as God reconciled countless relationships.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Develop A Great Staff<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Pastor Matthew acknowledge, \u201cMy staff was the reason this was successful.\u201d\u00a0 They freed him up to do what he did best and what God had called him to as the church\u2019s pastor.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Own The Results<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As the church\u2019s capital campaign began, a minimum goal was set at $1.5 million with a high goal of $2.2 million.\u00a0 But Matthew was trusting God for audacious things and wanted to exceed any bar set by INJOY Stewardship and their consultant Jeff Shortridge.<\/p>\n<p>He decided to attend 10-20% more one-on-one dinners with high-capacity givers than recommended.\u00a0 In addition, he went to dinners with everyone in the tier just below high-capacity.\u00a0 Pastor Matthew even went to one-on-one dinners with non-givers who he thought had the potential to play a significant part in what God was doing at Princeton Church.<\/p>\n<p>Pastor Matthew was trusting God for great things but he owned his role in the campaign\u2019s success.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Disciple High-Capacity Leaders<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It is one thing to meet with high-capacity leaders.\u00a0 It is another thing completely to cast a compelling vision and call these individuals to sacrificial action.\u00a0 This is where Pastor Matthew excelled.<\/p>\n<p>Shortridge coached him through the structure and language of these times together.\u00a0 Pastor Matthew would ask his leaders, \u201cWhat\u2019s your favorite part of the church.\u00a0 What do you love?\u00a0 Why do you come to the church?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For these meetings to be effective, it required personal growth from Pastor Matthew himself.\u00a0 The advice he now gives pastors is, \u201cGet over guilt.\u00a0 You\u2019re not raising money for you.\u00a0 All you\u2019re doing is asking people if they want to be a part of what God is doing.\u00a0 So get over yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>An additional benefit of these meetings was it honored those in the church who were asked to attend. \u00a0As a result, it strengthened the relationships between Pastor Matthew and church\u2019s high-capacity leaders.<\/p>\n<p>The strengthening of these relationships also gave Pastor Matthew a unique insight into the minds of high-capacity leaders.\u00a0 He observed, \u201cAs pastors, we sometimes accuse leaders of being controlling when all they\u2019re really doing is leading.\u00a0 All they really want to do is be heard.\u00a0 They\u2019ve never been afraid to give me their opinion, but they\u2019ve also never been afraid to say, \u201cI\u2019m not the CEO. \u00a0You are.\u2019 Let them speak.\u00a0 Just because they disagree with you doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re not going to back you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Stewarding the Pastor\u2019s Time and Calendar <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The most valuable component of a capital campaign is the pastor\u2019s calendar and his or her willingness to meet with key leaders.\u00a0 The following is Pastor Matthew\u2019s advice:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cEvery pastor has different strengths. Use yours where God has strengthened you.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cYou\u2019ve got to have very clear communication with your leadership that during this season of growth, I\u2019m going to have to keep my focus primarily on two things \u2013 the thing that I\u2019m great at, that one thing, and this campaign.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cGuard our family time. Guard our personal time.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cPastor, if you\u2019re doing it by yourself, you\u2019re doing it wrong.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As previously mentioned, the campaign results were incredible!\u00a0 The church received commitments of $3.7 million!!!\u00a0 To God be the glory!!!\u00a0 This was $1.5 million above their goal.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As a pastor, trust God. Build unity.\u00a0 Develop a great staff.\u00a0 Own the results. Disciple high-capacity leaders and steward your time and calendar well.\u00a0 By doing these six things you position the church to potentially experience significant growth as well.<\/p>\n<p>In conclusion, I want to repeat what Pastor Matthew said.\u00a0 Pastor, if you do you\u2019re upcoming capital campaign alone, you\u2019re doing it wrong.\u00a0 Let INJOY Stewardship help you.\u00a0 Contact me at briand@injoystewardship.com and let&#8217;s start a conversation about how we could help fund your vision.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/eepurl.com\/hRLNBr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-30982 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/w_bril06c8.jpg?resize=232%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"232\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/w_bril06c8.jpg?resize=232%2C300&amp;ssl=1 232w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/w_bril06c8.jpg?resize=790%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 790w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/w_bril06c8.jpg?resize=768%2C995&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/w_bril06c8.jpg?resize=1185%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 1185w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/w_bril06c8.jpg?w=1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 232px) 100vw, 232px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/eepurl.com\/hRLNBr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\"><strong>The Top 75 Leadership Quotes From 2021 Part 2<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0is my latest ebook. \u00a0For many entering a post-pandemic environment, leadership looks completely different than the pre-pandemic world. \u00a0People are more broken now. They are more uncertain. Fear and anxiousness are unwelcome constant companions. Cultures are more unhealthy. Relationships are more dysfunctional.\u00a0 Hope seems to be in short supply.\u00a0 Every day seems to bring a new hacking, natural disaster, or unexpected calamity.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, the fundamentals of leadership are more important than ever. The quotes in this book deal with the basics of leadership. \u00a0If you want to be the best leader you can possibly be, click <a href=\"http:\/\/eepurl.com\/hRLNBr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">HERE<\/a>\u00a0or on the image provided to download this <a href=\"http:\/\/eepurl.com\/hRLNBr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">FREE resource<\/a>. \u00a0The lessons learned from last year, if applied, will sustain you for years to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2014, Princeton Church of God located in Princeton, NC was a struggling congregation.\u00a0 The church had an average weekly attendance of 150 and was deeply divided.\u00a0 Deep conflict existed over music styles, chairs vs. pews, and several other items.\u00a0 It was in this environment that God called Matthew Cornett to pastor. What has happened [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31974,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","iawp_total_views":49,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[346],"class_list":["post-31971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-leadership","tag-pastors"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Screen-Shot-2022-05-13-at-7.23.40-PM.png?fit=1418%2C546&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31971"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31975,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31971\/revisions\/31975"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}