Podcast

093 – Specific Action that Helps Grow Your Church

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

What’s in this Episode?

Have you ever wondered if there’s any leadership actions that pastors of growing churches take that are kind of a common thread among pastors? Well, in reality, there are certain actions pastors of growing churches take. And in this episode, we’re gonna dive into some of those specific actions that are going to help you go to the next level.

Read the Transcript

Jonathan Hardy 0:23
One of my friends who’s a lead pastor has a trait that I find very admirable, in the way he leads the ministry, and it is very interesting. I’ve seen a lot of pastors, obviously, we work with a lot of pastors, and some have certain traits that are good, some have other traits. This pastor in particular, is a very strong leader. I mean, very confident in who he is, in the decisions that he makes. He does a great job. And so, he has a lot of strength to him. And yet, at the same time, he’s very relational. He’s willing and ready to engage in the conversation with people.

And rather than just kind of, you know, plowing over people, or telling people how it is, while he could do that, he always enters conversations more of with, “Hey, well let’s talk and okay, tell me about this or that, or whatever.” And so, I really admire this in him, because it’s kind of like the best of both worlds, very strong and confident, and yet also very relational in nature. And it’s because he does certain things. He takes certain action as a leader that’s helped him to be the leader that he is today.

Dick Hardy 1:30
Yeah, that’s good.

Grow Your Church

Jonathan Hardy 1:31
And that’s why we want to talk to you today about four different leadership actions of pastors who lead growing churches. And so, there’s certain things that pastors of growing churches do, and there’s actions they take, to be the leaders that they need to be and to have these types of traits that we’re talking about. And so, we want to talk to you about some of that today. But first, what are you going to tell us?

Dick Hardy 1:53
Well, I gotta tell you that this is the wrap up of this season of the Church Tips podcast. And so, you’re listening to the final episode. And kind of a little bittersweet here, because we have so much fun doing these, putting these together. But holiday seasons are upon us here. So, we encourage you to do what you need to do, certainly with your family. And we know the pace of life at church does not slow down over the holidays. So, we’re gonna take a little break here.

And we’ll be back and look forward to serving you more as we get into the first of the year. But also, we want to mention to you that this is the end of our Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale that we’ve made available. And we’re going to talk to you a little bit about that here, after we go through the points we’re talking with you about. Just stay tuned here in just a few minutes. But we do want to get going here, talking about these leadership actions.

I know of the pastor that you’re referencing and concur that is so true of him.

Jonathan Hardy 2:53
Yeah.

Dick Hardy 2:53
And while all of us are human, none of us are perfect. And we all have good traits and not so good traits. We want to work hard in developing the leadership traits that really will help advance our own leadership, but certainly advance the church to the mission the Lord’s given us.

Jonathan Hardy 3:10
Correct.

Tip #1: Be a Continuous Student of Leadership to Grow Your Church

Dick Hardy 3:10
The very first thing that I see, and I know this pastor would sort of be a model of that, is that they are continuous students of leadership. They study leadership all the time. They are looking all the time at what’s out there. They are paying attention to the traits and the actions of leaders that are a few steps ahead of them. So, I would encourage you. You’ve got a great church. You want great things for the church. One of the first things you need to do is be a continuous student of leadership.

Tip #2: Read All The Time to Grow Your Church

Jonathan Hardy 3:45
The second thing you need to do is read all the time. Pastors have growing churches, they read all the time. And you know, you’ve heard the saying before, leaders are readers. Yeah, well, that’s it’s actually true. And that doesn’t mean you have to be reading a leadership book every time. You don’t always have to have a leadership book open, because the Lord can speak to us and use a variety of books to help us.

But the idea is, the more you are reading and learning from others, kind of really goes on the heels of what you’re talking about, being a student of leadership. The more we’re being the student by reading or picking up books, and trying to grow in various subject matters, that’s what’s going to help you be able to move the church forward.

Tip #3: Listen Intently to Grow Your Church

Dick Hardy 4:27
Yeah. It really is. You know, and another thing that I watch leaders do, is that they listen intently. I mean I can think of two or three guys that would really, if I can use body language here, lean in. So, they’re talking and you could tell that they’re engaged with you. And unfortunately, we’ve all had the experience, where we’re talking to a leader, and you can tell they’re not with you at all, right? They are someplace else.

Jonathan Hardy 4:57
They’re distracted.

Dick Hardy 4:57
They’re distracted. But a leader, a pastor who really wants to increase and improve their leadership is listening all the time and they’re listening intently.

Tip #4: Pray and Act Decisively to Grow Your Church

Jonathan Hardy 5:09
Yep. And then the final thing is they pray and act decisively. And so, they’re approaching God right away. And they’re seeking God for help. And they’re just going to get the answer from the Lord that they need. And then they act fast. They’re not taking the time. If they feel the Lord has led them to do something, they act right away. They’re not sitting around and “Well, okay. Yeah, I think God said this.”

And I think that’s something that all leaders have to grow in, is that confidence to say, “Okay, well, I think God said this. So, I’m taking that action.” And it goes back to what I said, I think in the previous episode, where we take a step of faith, God directs, take another step, God directs. We have to do that. We can’t just hope and think well, maybe, you know, we have to act.

Jonathan Hardy 5:09
Yeah, exactly right.

Jonathan Hardy 5:36
That’s what’s important.

Recap:

Dick Hardy 5:56
Let’s, let’s summarize what we’ve just talked about here. Leaders, the actions that leaders take, they are continuous students of leadership. They read all the time. They listen intently. And I might note along with this, they ask questions. They are continually probing.

Jonathan Hardy 6:12
That’s good.

Dick Hardy 6:12
And therefore, they get information, they listen. They pay attention to it. And number four, they pray and act decisively. So, I hope you find those four things helpful. I would encourage you, if you haven’t listened or watched the previous episode, Episode 92, how to develop the best pastoral leadership traits, I’d go take a look at that one. Because it will help you to go run right on the same line as what we’re talking about here today. So, Jonathan, talk to us. This is the wrap up of Black Friday/Cyber Monday. What do ya got?

Black Friday Sale

Jonathan Hardy 6:39
The sale ends tonight. And if you are not a leaders.church member, I want to invite you to join leaders.church, this is the best time to do it.

Dick Hardy 6:46
Straight up. This is the time to do it.

Jonathan Hardy 6:47
And you can get some of the extra bells and whistles for the reduced price. And it’s just going to be a great opportunity. The podcast is great. Hope you enjoy listening to Church Tips podcast. But if you want to go the next level, leaders.church, the membership is what’s going to take you there.

Dick Hardy 7:02
Exactly.

Jonathan Hardy 7:03
And you can just simply go to leaders.church, and there it is. Right there, you can get signed up right away. We’ve got over 300 videos in there. We have other training material resources available to you. And it’s not just for you. I mean, you can use this as training material for your team. So, whether you have leadership teams that are staff people, volunteer people, it doesn’t matter. You can get them in. And if everyone is growing as leaders, it’s like the saying, the rising tide raises all ships. That’s what’s going to happen for you if you start investing in yourself and the other leaders, to help everyone lead better. So, you want to join leaders.church, if you’re not a member. We want to encourage you to jump in. Just go to leaders.church. The other thing I want to encourage you to check out is Church University. Church University is our online education, where we dive into certain topics of ministry, and we go deep. This is college seminary-type stuff. I mean, this is like legit, course material. And the videos are all pretty short. So, you can just chunk, you know, just go through one one at a time, and plow away through the videos. But it’s not like you’re going to do it this week. This is like a full course. So, you’ve got to plan it out and go through the material. But we build it so that way, it’s a way for you to grow, and for whoever might be a leader of the particular area of ministry. And so, we’ve got the church audio, which is like the audio production. So, you might have someone that does the audio in your sanctuary or auditorium. There’s a whole course for them on that. There’s church boards. Dick does one on church boards, and how to lead through the church boards, and what’s the roles, responsibilities, all of that. So much that’s never talked. And now it is, through Church University. Then we have the kids ministry course, which is just a phenomenal course.

Dick Hardy 8:47
Outstanding.

Jonathan Hardy 8:47
We released that here in the fall. And then we just also released the preaching course. And these are all discounted. Right now, you can get any of them. You can get all of them for a substantial discount. And I just would encourage you to do it. Now’s the best time to do it. And so, we would love to have you do it. Just go to churchuniversity.com to get those courses. As well, go to leaders.church to join the membership. And you’ll be off and running with great resources as you head into 2021.

Dick Hardy 9:13
And honestly, we’ve done everything we can to make it so easy for you. And we’ve said it before, we’re going to say it again. Growing churches are led by growing pastors and you want to grow. You want your church to grow and I’m telling you, one of the ways to get started on that is to jump right in and take advantage of what leaders.church and Church University offers. Anything else, Jonathan?

Dick Hardy 9:36
That’s it.

Dick Hardy 9:36
I think we’re good to go. Thanks so much for being with us. Make it a great one today and be blessed.

Jonathan Hardy 9:41
Hey, Jonathan here real quick before you go. Everything in your ministry rises and falls on your leadership. So, investing in your leadership is essential to staying healthy and growing the ministry. And that’s why I want to invite you to join us inside the leaders.church membership. This online streaming service for pastors gives you access to more than 300 videos, plus training material to level up your leadership and improve your ministry skills. If you’d like to do that I want to invite you to go to leaders.church/boost. Again, that’s leaders.church/boost. Well, thanks again for joining us on the Church Tips podcast. We’ll look forward to seeing you next time.

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Podcast

093 – Specific Action that Helps Grow Your Church

What’s in this Episode?