TRUTH COMPASS

 Leadership in Healthy Growing Churches

Healthy Recommendations

The following are a compilation of key elements that, if applied, could help a church become healthier. May the Lord lead the way!

Health Signs:

Leith Anderson

1. Glorify God
2. Producing disciples
3. Exercise of spiritual gifts
4. Relating positively to one's environment
5. Reproduction
6. Incorporation of newcomers
7. Openness to change
8. Trusting God & prayer

The Nine Habits of Highly Effective Churches:
George Barna

1. They rely upon strategic leadership.
2. They are organized to facilitate highly effective ministry.
3. They emphasize developing significant relationships within the congregation.
4. They invest themselves in genuine worship
5. They engage in strategic evangelism.
6. They get their people involved in systematic theological growth.
7. They utilize holistic stewardship practices.
8. They serve the needy people in their community.
9. They equip families to minister to themselves.

Ten Characteristics of a Healthy Church:

Vision New England

1. God's empowering presence
2. God-exalting worship
3. Personal disciplines
4. Learning & growing in community
5. Commitment to loving/caring relationships
6. Servant-leadership development
7. An outward focus
8. Wise administration & accountability
9. Networking with the regional church
10. Stewardship & generosity

Characteristics of a Healthy Church:

Sonlife Ministries

1. Strong Christology
2. Clearly defined mission/purpose
3. Biblical strategy of a balanced win, build, & equip
4. Regularly winning the lost
5. Strategically building the believers
6. Ongoing equipping of the worker
7. Corporate & segment multiplication of shepherds
8. A broadly owned vision
9. A teachable spirit

Characteristics of a Healthy Church:

Willow Creek

1. Active spiritual formation
2. Authentic community (not public)
3. Contagious evangelism
4. Mobilized spiritual gifts
5. Good stewardship
6. Strong leadership
7. Cultural relevance
8. Effective generation focused ministry
9. Collaboration and partnership

Eight Essential Qualities of Healthy Churches: Natural Church Development

1. Empowering leadership
2. Gift-oriented ministry Development
3. Passionate spirituality
4. Functional structures
5. Inspiring worship service
6. Holistic small groups
7. Need-oriented evangelism
8. Loving relationships

Twelve Keys to an Effective Church:

Kennon Callahan

1. Specific, concrete missional objectives
2. Pastoral & lay visitation
3. Corporate, dynamic worship
4. Significant relational groups
5. Strong leadership resources
6. Streamlined structure & solid, participatory decision making
7. Several competent programs & activities
8. Open accessibility
9. High visibility
10. Adequate parking, land, & landscaping
11. Adequate space & facilities
12. Solid financial resources

Marks of Church Health:

Bill Easum

1. Clear sense of mission
2. Authentic community
3. Indigenous worship
4. Lay mobilization
5. Organic structure
6. Kingdom oriented
7. Experientially focused on Jesus Christ

Vital Signs of Healthy Churches:

C. Peter Wagner

1. A positive pastor
2. A well-mobilized laity
3. Meeting members' needs
4. Proper balance of the dynamic relationship between celebration, congregation and cell
5. A common homogeneous denominator
6. Effective evangelistic methods
7. Biblical priorities

Windows into the 21st Century Church:

Leadership Network

1. Effective leadership
2. Lay mobilization
3. Cultural connectedness
4. Authentic community
5. Kingdom collaboration
*Compiled from various sources by Rowland Croucher
webedelic.com

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership

 By Dr. John Maxwell

1. The law of the lid. Every leader has a ceiling. Maybe you’re destined to be the supreme master of the universe or maybe you can’t even get your dog to come when you call him. Think about your leadership lid and what you can do to push it higher.

2. The law of influence. Leadership is not about your title or position. It’s about leading. Can you lead in a situation where your title or position don’t matter? Practice some anonymous leading.

3. The law of process. Leaders use a process whenever they build something. It makes your ventures repeatable and scalable. Build a step-by-step process for doing something.

4. The law of navigation. Setting goals is important. Navigation takes it one step further because you’re plotting a course of actions that take you to the goal. Define a goal for yourself and plot a course to reach it.

5. The law of E. F. Hutton. This law is taken from the old commercials “When E. F. Hutton speaks, people listen”. Find someone who’s a stronger leader than you are. Now just listen.

6. The law of solid ground. Leaders build trust. Spend some time today building or strengthening the trust that someone has in you.

7. The law of respect. Loyalty and respect take trust a step further. Think about who you would follow no matter where they wanted to go. And why.

8. The law of intuition. With experience, you’ll build great instincts. Leaders go with their gut many times because they need to make quick decisions. Practice making quick decisions using your intuition.

9. The law of magnetism. Leaders attract people like a magnet. And good leaders always attract the right people to get the job done. What kind of people do you need to attract? Figure out how you can do that.

10. The law of connection. Remember, without people there’s nothing there. Network and really connect with someone today.

11. The law of the inner circle. Every leader has an inner circle of people they trust and rely on. Inner circle people have great talents and vision of their own. Better than yours in some things. Start building your inner circle.

12. The law of empowerment. To build a team, you have to give other people ownership of what they’re doing. You have to let them lead. Empower someone else and let them lead.

13. The law of reproduction. Leaders create followers. Great leaders create other leaders. Start being a leadership mentor to someone today.

14. The law of buy-in. You believe in someone’s ideas after you already believe in the person. Practice selling YOU instead of just your ideas.

15. The law of victory. When something doesn’t work out, you learn something new. But it’s important not to start with that idea or else you might give in to it. Strive for nothing less than total victory today.

16. The law of the big mo. Momentum is capital. With every success, you build momentum that makes the next success easier. Take something small and use its success to do something bigger.

17. The law of priorities. Leaders are busy. And some things are more important than other things. Put together a list of everything you have to do and prioritize it from most important to least.

18. The law of sacrifice. You have more responsibilities to other people and other things as a leader. Sometimes, you have to give something up to take care of those responsibilities. Sacrifice something you care about for someone else today.

19. The law of timing. Opportunities are everywhere. One of the big things that makes something a good opportunity is timing. Recognize an opportunity and pounce on it right away.

20. The law of explosive growth. To grow, you need to lead everyone in the right direction. To create explosive growth, you need to lead other leaders in the right direction. Reach out and start leading other leaders today.

21. The law of legacy. Eventually, someone else will do what you’re doing right now. More than building other leaders, more than being a mentor, you have to build the leader that can take care of and do everything you can do. Start building a leader you can pass the baton to.

21 laws of Leadership book review

The 17 Indesputable laws of Teamwork

* Of course, there is no such thing as Rambo - one man army, when it comes to winning a war!  We need a focused team!

17 laws of Teamwork by John Maxwell