Podcast

091 – Leading in the Moment

Posted on November 23, 2020December 4, 2023 by Ryan Sparks

What’s in this Episode?

Have you ever had a situation in ministry where, after having gone through it, you look back and said, ‘man, if I would have just taken care of this a while back, I would have been in a way better position”? In reality, there are often moments in time where we can do things to prevent future situations from occurring if we just lead through them properly in the moment. In today’s episode, we’re going to talk to you about how to take action now and prevent future situations from occurring in ministry. It’s time to start leading in the moment effectively.

Read the Transcript

Dick Hardy 0:31
You know, wasn’t that long ago, and I was dealing with a couple of churches, very good churches, that were just going on about life and doing what churches do. And they both came across a staff member who was going sideways. At the first church, the staff member was a children’s pastor. And he was a good guy. I liked him. He was the kind of guy that come in the room and light up the room, you know, all that kind of stuff. But his organization was terrible.

And his ability to recruit people was terrible. His ability to talk a great story was great, but to deliver was terrible. And they kept trying to work with this guy and work with him and work with him. And they did it forever and ever. And eventually what happened? Eventually, they have to move on down the road. At the second church, they had a receptionist, good gal, been there for, you know, a few years. And she was on the worship team at the church.

And the church was interviewing another gal to come in and serve in an admin role in an entirely different area. This was a very large church. And the receptionist did not like this other gal from there, because they were both the worship ministry. And , the receptionist starts this talking. Oh, my goodness, I need to tell you. It wasn’t an hour later. And she was sitting up in the administrator’s office with the pastor, and they were going through exactly what her concerns were, and why she was talking, really talking out of school.

And let me tell you, they went through that thing. But at the end of the day that thing was done. She kept her job. But I mean, they dealt with that immediately. So, he had a contrast of two different churches. One that was dealing with a leadership issue took forever and it did not end well. The other acted quickly. And dealt exactly with the issue.

Jonathan Hardy 2:36
Yeah, that’s pretty good. Well, it’s interesting, because you have all kinds of different scenarios churches face all the time. And that’s why today in this episode, we want to talk to you about how to deal with leadership issues, before they become a major problem. And, you know, you hear the two different contrasting stories here. And this is a reality for every pastor in every church, is there’s always going to be something that pops up. So, the question for us to ask ourselves is how can we address this?

How can we stop this before it becomes an issue? That’s why we want to share with you four steps, four things that you can do today, to get that started.

Tip #1: Watch and Listen All the Time

Dick Hardy 3:09
You know, when I think of that second church that I referenced, they were watching and listening all the time. And the other church was a little bit asleep at the switch, honestly. So watch, and that’s the very first thing you need to be doing in leading the church is watch and listen all the time. It’s not that you’re trying to find a problem. But you’re the leader, and you need to be paying attention to it. If you’ll watch, if you listen, you’ll see things crop up and you can deal with them ahead of time.

Tip #2: Streamline All Leadership Communication Ahead of Time

Jonathan Hardy 3:40
The second thing is to streamline all leadership communication ahead of time, all the lines of leadership communication. What I mean simply is this: you need to be talking with the various people that are part of the teams and this doesn’t necessarily mean they have to be staff people that you’re you were talking about your stories. It could be their leaders that are volunteers.

Dick Hardy 3:59
Yeah.

Jonathan Hardy 3:59
But the point is, we have to be in touch with these people on a regular basis. So, the kids team, the worship team, all the different people that are playing a part in the ministry in some capacity. You know, having regular staff meetings, having regular forms of email communication, where you’re constantly in the loop of what’s going on. Sometimes churches will have a pastor, and they have a staff meeting, and it’s like the pastor kind of just bows out and the staff just takes care of stuff.

And they’re in there and the pastor is not in on it. Well, that’s not good, though. Because you need to have a pulse on what’s going on. So, you need to have these regular lines of communication open and already happening. And that’s going to help you to, you know, hit things at, you know, head on when something pops up.

Dick Hardy 4:41
And I would say for the pastor who is more introverted and less people-oriented. You probably going to have to work harder at really making sure. You can’t move into the mindset of thinking, well, I told them what I wanted to have done. And so I just expect them to do it. No, you better have lines of communication going to repeat what Jonathan is saying.

Jonathan Hardy 5:01
Good. What’s next?

Tip #3: Be Aware of Unintended Consequences

Dick Hardy 5:01
You know, I think another thing to consider is to be aware of unintended consequences. Sometimes as pastors, we will, think we see something coming at us. And we’ll make a decision, not thinking through, not playing that out all the way, to what could be an unintended consequence. So, the general point with this is, you don’t want to solve a small problem, in your own decision making you create a big problem. So, the whole point is, make your decision, when you are planning your decision, think this way, that way…

Jonathan Hardy 5:40
… several steps ahead.

Dick Hardy 5:42
There’s a lot of things that can happen. And you need to be prepared, so that the unintended consequences, you become aware of, and hence they’re not unintended.

Tip #4: Act Fast

Jonathan Hardy 5:53
And then finally, you need to act fast. I love how in your second church, you reference, you know, they acted right away, they don’t care of it. I remember one time a pastor said that you want to, you know, put out the little small sparks and things before they become a big forest fire.

Dick Hardy 6:08
Yeah.

Jonathan Hardy 6:08
And that’s the truth. And it’s easy for us to not do that. Because we don’t like to confront. And so, as a result, we say, “Well, hopefully it will just resolve itself.” Well, it’s not going to resolve itself. Iit won’t. You have to act fast. Just nip it, move on, talk it out, hash it out, whatever you have to do and solve it.

Recap:

Dick Hardy 6:27
Yeah, exactly. So, here’s a recap of what we just talked with you about. If you’re going to try to get ahead of these leadership issues before they become big deals, you need to watch and listen all the time. You need to streamline all leadership lines of communication ahead of time. You need to be aware of unintended consequences. And you need to act fast. If you do these four things, you’re really going to help forestall issues becoming major problems coming down the pike. So, Jonathan, we got a big day coming up tomorrow. What’s poppin’?

Jonathan Hardy 6:59
Yeah, well, we are doing some specials with the Black Friday, Cyber Monday weekend here that we are facing. And so, that being the case, we have some great deals that you can get a part of. And here’s why we are doing this, is we want to help you get better as a pastor and a leader. And we want to help your ministry get better. I mean, that’s why Dick and Jonathan exist. Honestly, we try to pour out ourselves of all the experience and knowledge in situations we’ve learned over the years.

And we’ve collaborated with other people to help us develop some amazing courses that are legit courses that you can use, through the Church University online education, as well as leaders. church, the month of membership that you can tap into. And right now, there’s some great specials that you want to jump into. If you’ve been thinking at all about hopping in either to the leaders.church membership, or signing up for one of the courses, now’s the time to do it. This is a steal of a deal. You’re going to get great, great stuff for an amazing price.

And so, all you have to do is if you are already a leaders.church member, then hop over to church university.com. And that’s where you can see the different courses. And if you haven’t purchased any or some of the courses, it gives you an opportunity to check those out. And then as well, if you have not signed up to become a leaders.church member, this is what’s going to take you to the next level. I mean, the podcast here that we’re doing is great, we got lots of tips and tactics and stuff.

But if you want to improve as a pastor, and as a ministry leader, then you need to join leaders.church. I mean, you need to get in. There are 300-plus videos now that you have instant access to. And not only do you get access, but your team gets access, and that’s one of the benefits of the sale right now is the ability for you to get access for everyone on your team at the discounted rate. And so. you just you want to do it. And so, we would encourage you to do that.

You can just go to leaders.church, and that’s where you can go to sign up, I would encourage you to do so.

Dick Hardy 8:53
Well, you know, we’ve stated over and over. You’ve heard us on multiple occasions, saying growing churches are led by growing pastors. And you’ve had a sense within you that “Yeah, I probably need to, you know, do some investing in me.” You do. Exactly right. And it’s not like we’re the end all, but I will tell you. You know, if the Lord is nudging on your heart at all, I’d go in there. I’d start kicking the tires and taking a look, because this can help you.

It’s gonna help you be a better pastor and help your church get on the way of growth.

Jonathan Hardy 9:21
That’s right.

Dick Hardy 9:21
Anything else?

Jonathan Hardy 9:21
That’s it.

Dick Hardy 9:22
Well, thanks very much for hanging out with us today. We look forward to seeing you next time. Make it a great one and be blessed.

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Podcast

091 – Leading in the Moment

What’s in this Episode?