Caution: I do not suggest you give that visiting “expert” a week or weekend with your congregation for some kind of focus or self-study. Do that and you are now pushed off to the side. Even though as pastor the Holy Spirit has made you the overseer (Acts 20:28), you could be sidelined by the advice of the expert and the ill-advised enthusiasm of some of your members. Announce to them that, “I don’t believe that is what the Lord would have us do,” and they will turn on you. Best to do your job and remain in the driver’s seat.
12. Write lots of notes (the handwritten kind).
When someone does something good, write and tell them so. On Sundays, keep a small notebook handy in which you jot down names of people who will receive notes from you that week. Then, Sunday afternoon or Monday morning, get to it.
The notes, incidentally, need be no more than a few sentences. Just enough to say, “Your solo in church was wonderfully used of the Lord, Kristi. I saw people with tears in their eyes. Thank you for blessing us.” Or, “Bob, the breakfast you cooked for our men’s meeting was outstanding. Thank you for getting up at 4 a.m. and setting such a great example of faithfulness and diligence. You are a blessing to your pastor.”
People get so few letters these days that yours will stand out. They’ll keep your note for a long time and read it a dozen times before dropping it into a drawer somewhere. You will do few things more powerful than writing notes to those who do well.
13. Write nothing negative.
When problems demand your attention, deal with them personally or over the phone. Write nothing negative in a letter or email. If you do, Satan will delight in using this to slander you, stir up dissension and arm your opposition with plenty of ammunition. (I speak from sad experience here.)
14. Stay at home.
No absentee pastor ever grew a great church. The minister who is out of the pulpit a great deal—preaching in other churches, leading groups to the Holy Land, attending conventions, taking extended vacations—is not giving his congregation the hands-on leadership they need. In time, after the congregation is thriving and a good leadership team is in place, you will be able to take those vacations and preach in other places, as God leads.
15. Set the standard.
Become the role model for what you hope to accomplish. Visit in the homes of your church members and love on them; knock on the doors of people you hope to reach for Christ; make your daily devotional life the gold standard for your congregation. You cannot expect your people to grow beyond what their leadership is doing. If you want them to be generous, you start giving. If you expect them to witness, you share your faith.
[Three pastors share how they’re modeling evangelism for their congregations.]
Oh, and do not tell the congregation that you are now giving sacrificially or knocking on the doors of so many prospects each week. Keep it to yourself. The Lord will know. And when your people find out—and they will—God will use that to motivate them.
16. Ask, watch, listen.
Be constantly searching for ideas. Read widely, and not just from megachurch pastors. In your public library, check out the magazine section. Scan the contents of publications you never heard of, in search of fascinating subjects and interesting articles to prompt your own thinking. Attend conferences of other denominations that are in your area. Sit there and listen. Take notes. Pick the brains of successful people in many fields.
One of the most helpful hours in my entire ministry was spent in a hospital waiting room while the wife of a deacon was in surgery. I wanted to know how this man went from being an unknown banker to president of the American Bankers Association, eventually becoming one of the three commissioners of the FDIC. I’ve benefited from his insights a hundred times.
17. Expect setbacks.
Ask any pastor of a thriving church and you’ll hear this same tale: Somewhere along the road to health, this church went through a crisis or two in which some members grew upset and left. As they exited, they turned and said cruel things about you, the pastor, predicting the church was going to hell, and warning that without their money you were never going to make it. The best revenge, as they say, is living well. That church had to get back up and get going again, but they did, and they’re now able to tell the story. So, don’t be surprised when this happens.
After all, you are not going to grow a great church without pains. Some will decide they liked the church better when it was dead (“We had a family spirit then, but now I don’t know who all these people are!”). Some will accuse you of making changes (well, duh!). And some will fabricate stories or manufacture reasons to leave.
Let them leave. John C. Maxwell says, “If you make no changes, the winners will leave. If you make changes, the whiners will leave. So, decide which group you want to keep.”
18. Be selective.
Be slow to choose staff members and lay leaders. Go for quality, not quantity. Best to have the part-time leadership of someone really gifted and committed than the full-time efforts of a lazy, dull minister. (Again, the stories I could tell!)
19. Know that you will never “arrive.”
Do not expect to arrive at a time when you can check “awaken a sleeping church” off your list of things to do. There will always be pockets of resistance, members who haven’t opened their Bibles in years and are determined not to do so, and new babes in Christ who need to be grown and nurtured. Your work will never end.
Therefore, be careful about announcing to the church, “We are now in revival!” or “We have arrived!” Always press forward to the goal (Philippians 3:14), but keep in mind you will not reach it in this lifetime. Announcing that you have arrived will encourage your people to reward themselves with a vacation. Soon, you will find yourself shepherding a flock of the sleeping, and will be back where you started!
20. Experiment.
Do not get too comfortable with something that is working today. Ask K-Mart or Sears or Blockbuster Video. Rick Warren says he never uses the word “change,” since some find that word threatening. “We say we’re going to experiment,” he says. “If this thing doesn’t work out, we’ll try something else. That way, no one is threatened.”
God bless all pastors and staffers and lay leaders who have a heart for him and are not satisfied with “good enough” or the status quo.
Beware of gimmicks, pastors. Beware of quick solutions to deep-seated problems. Beware of doing a thing just because some hot-shot preacher or know-it-all layman told you it’s the only way.
Keep your eyes on the Lord. After all, it’s his church. “I will build my church,” he said (Matt. 16:18). Give him the chance to do that where you serve.
Joe McKeever spent 42 years pastoring six Southern Baptist churches and has been writing and cartooning for religious publications for more than 40 years. This article was originally published on McKeever’s blog.