{"id":1668,"date":"2018-01-22T14:02:14","date_gmt":"2018-01-22T14:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chadstutzman.net\/?p=1668"},"modified":"2018-01-22T14:02:14","modified_gmt":"2018-01-22T14:02:14","slug":"7-leadership-insights-i-learned-in-ministry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/?p=1668","title":{"rendered":"7 Leadership Insights I Learned in Ministry"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been in ministry full time for over 15 years and I’ve learned a lot and made a lot of mistakes.\u00a0 The church I work at went from single site in a small town to a major relocation to a bigger facility to multi-site now with five locations.\u00a0 I was involved with leading the relocation of two of the sites from a portable campus to a permanent site.\u00a0 I’ve been a part of a lot of change and challenges over the years.\u00a0 I’ve grown as a leader and I’ve struggled as a leader.\u00a0 I believe there are some basic things that help a lot in ministry, do these basics well and you will lead well.<\/p>\n

Here are seven things I’ve learned and believe about leadership.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Relationships are more important than Systems –<\/strong> Effective, well thought out systems are vital to an organizations health, but people are more important.\u00a0 Every person that attends our church is important, and every person that does not attend our church is important.\u00a0 Each person matters to God and so they must matter to us.\u00a0 When going through explosive growth it’s easy to miss the relational part of ministry.\u00a0 That is when you must work hard to meet with people and listen to them.\u00a0 I have learned so much by simply meeting with people and listening to them.\u00a0 listening to their story and sharing parts of yours is so important when building relationships.<\/li>\n
  2. Communicate with your team often –<\/strong> Even when there is nothing new to report, it’s important to communicate with your team on a regular basis.\u00a0 As a leader, I wake up every day thinking about what needs to happen to get us to where we are headed.\u00a0 The volunteers I am leading have many other things to think about, like their own jobs and families.\u00a0 The more I can communicate about what is going on, the better my relationship with the people I lead.\u00a0 Open honest communication builds trust, it also motivates and encourages and allows people to ask clarifying questions.\u00a0 When you don’t communicate you are communicating and that’s when people start loosing interest, or fill in the blanks themselves.<\/li>\n
  3. Trust that God is working in ways you do not see – <\/strong>In ministry, things don’t always line up like you would like them to be.\u00a0 As a leader, I am responsible for my own actions and to make plans and develop strategy.\u00a0 It is also my responsibility to be flexible and to include God in everything.\u00a0 The deeper my trust in God the stronger my faith grows.\u00a0 If we figure everything out on our own, we don’t need God to show up.\u00a0 When you take on a big vision, only God can make it happen, we need to trust and obey.<\/li>\n
  4. Trust the leaders around you –<\/strong> I must choose to trust and not to be suspicious of the leaders above me and around me.\u00a0 The more I choose to trust the more my heart remains in the right place.\u00a0 When I start to fill in the blanks with my own ideas, I begin to head into a downward spiral.\u00a0 When I believe the best about the people leading me, I can then lead with integrity and passion.\u00a0 Trust builds a culture of emotional health and stability.\u00a0 It’s also important that you are trustworthy and lead well in the area entrusted to you.\u00a0 This becomes even more important and difficult as you add multiple sites.\u00a0 You are not as close to the leaders as you used to be so trust becomes vital to moving things forward in a healthy way.<\/li>\n
  5. Do more than rally the troops –<\/strong> You must do more than talk the talk, you need to walk the walk and make things happen.\u00a0 That means doing what you say and equipping your volunteers to do what they are asked to do.\u00a0 It means taking the time to develop people rather than just direct people.\u00a0 When you build meaningful relationships with people they will follow you through the most difficult of times.\u00a0 When you pay attention to the details and delegate to people that can get things done your influence goes up.\u00a0 Don’t just try to pump people up, pour into them and love them.\u00a0 The only way to do that is by allowing God to pour into you and to keep growing as a leader.<\/li>\n
  6. You have to be real –<\/strong> People are looking for real leaders that admit their mistakes and take responsibility.\u00a0 Be quick to admit mistakes and ask for forgiveness and extend the same to others.\u00a0 Don’t put on the religious mask, where you try to make people think that everything is just perfect.\u00a0 That is only possible if you are sure of your identity and comfortable with who you are.\u00a0 I have learned that I need to be me and not someone I think people want.\u00a0 The more I am the person God created me to be the more influence God gives me.<\/li>\n
  7. Be as clear as possible –<\/strong> Clarity is one of the most difficult things to do as a leader.\u00a0 It is easy to dance around the issues and not give direct answers.\u00a0 Sometimes there are things that I just cannot share with people, so I need to be honest about that and let them know that I will share details when I can.\u00a0 To be clear as a leader means taking time to think about what you are going to say.\u00a0 It means you can’t just shoot from the hip, but take time to aim before delivering the message.\u00a0 Being clear is a way of honoring people and letting them know you care.\u00a0 Whether it’s in an email, in a meeting or face to face be honest about what is happening or what happened.\u00a0 Share as much information as possible.\u00a0 That will build trust and respect.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    When things are changing all around me and the pace seems to be higher than what I can stand, it helps to step back and trust God and obey what he tells me.\u00a0 When things are busy and hectic I need to make sure that I am praying and communicating with God.\u00a0 I also need to be reading the Bible to build my intimacy with God and get wisdom and direction.\u00a0 One thing that has helped me in this area and many others is having people in my life to ask me how I am doing in some of these areas.\u00a0 Having accountability in my life has brought growth and freedom into my life.<\/p>\n

    Lead On!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I’ve been in ministry full time for over 15 years and I’ve learned a lot and made a lot of mistakes.\u00a0 The church I work at went from single site in a small town to a major relocation to a bigger facility to multi-site now with five locations.\u00a0 I was involved with leading the relocation … <\/p>\n

    Continue reading “7 Leadership Insights I Learned in Ministry”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,18,5,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-change","category-coaching","category-leadership","category-personal-growth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1668"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1670,"href":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1668\/revisions\/1670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chadstutzman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}