Joyful Effective Leadership

Leadership - research has revealed as the #1 cause of decline in the American Church – Leadership.

The Francis Schaeffer Leadership Institute surveyed over 1,000 pastors. This research disclosed that 75% of pastors responding stated they were not prepared to lead well by their colleges and seminaries. 81% stated they had no strategic and intentional disciple making process. These statistics lend credence to the major cause of decline is a leadership issue. Seminaries teach a man to study the Bible. They do not teach a man to pastor with effectiveness.

Further validation of this principle is this. Men who lead well serve churches that are for the most part thriving.

Metric – This brings us to the final factor we will consider. The vast majority of churches measure ministry effectiveness by mere activity. They look at numbers; how many, how much, and how often. The NT criteria for ministry effectiveness are Transformation. This principle is a clear NT objective for all believers:

Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Future – Joshua issued a compelling challenge to the people he lead. Choose you this day whom you will serve. This is where the American church is positioned. The old aphorism is true - - ‘When you always do what you’ve always done, you will always get what you always got’. Poor grammar – sound logic.

The church cannot continue to engage in dysfunctional ministry practices and expect to have the blessing of the LORD. He honors his word. The text states clearly when we seek him he will be found. However, he will only be found on his terms, not some substitute that is an eclectic conglomeration of practices borrowed from the culture around us.

If the dysfunctions we have noted are present in the church you lead, address them. Do so with courtesy and dignity but with a real measure of tenacity. Failure to change leads to continued persistent decline. The rate of decline is accelerating. The time for action is NOW.

Delay is deadly. Act NOW!!

Biblical Literacy

Dr. George Guthrie teaches at Union Univ. in Jackson TN. Each year he administers a Literacy Quiz to incoming freshman. These are young people from SB churches. Theoretically they are the ‘cream of the crop’. This quiz is very simple. An example of the questions, ‘Who preached the Sermon on The Mount?’ The average score on this quiz - 57. Stunning, absolutely stunning! You cannot obey what you do not know!

The Prophet Amos grappled with literacy in his ministry:

"Behold, the days are coming," declares the Lord GOD, "when I will send a famine on the land- not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. (Amos 8:11)

Listen to the observations made concerning Biblical Literacy by men who teach in Christian Institutions.

In “The 9 Most Important Issues Facing the Evangelical Church,” theologian Michael Vlach cites “Biblical Illiteracy in the Church” as his final concern. George Barna’s assessment is that “the Christian body in America is immersed in a crisis of biblical illiteracy.”

New Testament scholar David Nienhuis summarizes his understanding of the situation in an article titled “The Problem of Evangelical Biblical Illiteracy: A View from the Classroom”:

For well over twenty years now, Christian leaders have been lamenting the loss of general biblical literacy in America. … Some among us may be tempted to seek odd solace in the recognition that our culture is increasingly post-Christian. … Much to our embarrassment, however, it has become increasingly clear that the situation is really no better among confessing Christians, even those who claim to hold the Bible in high regard.

In 1986, Neil Postman published an influential cultural essay titled “Amusing Ourselves to Death.” Postman wrote:

What George Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Adolphus Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. 

Turn off that phone, read, and discover what God’s word says!