Archive for Leadership Coaching

Together is Better: Why Ministry is Meant to Be Shared

by Grady King   Better together sounds simple enough. After all, everyone needs encouragement and support, right? Yet, simple does not mean easy. And when it is ministry, we all have our opinions, preferences, and ways of doing things. Yet ministry is meant as a shared service by God’s design. Ministering together is challenging today […]

Navigating Conflict on Leadership Teams: From Control and Ambiguity to Trust and Shared Mission

by Carlus Gupton   Leadership conflict does not usually explode overnight. It simmers. It appears in tense meetings, guarded conversations, stalled decisions, and quiet frustration between elders and ministers. Most teams care deeply about the church’s mission yet find themselves navigating unclear authority and unspoken expectations. The question is not whether conflict will surface, but […]

From Lone Leader to Collaborative Leadership – Building a Healthy Team Culture Among Ministers and Elders

by Jason Thompson   Church leadership has often been shaped—sometimes unconsciously—by cultural models that elevate the decisive individual: the visionary pastor, the strong chair, the gifted personality who “carries” the church forward. Decisive leadership has its place, but Scripture tells a richer story. God’s work rarely depends on a single hero for long. Instead, the […]

Leaders with the Skill of Adaptability

by Becky Burroughs   “A bend in the road is not the end of the road unless you fail to make the turn.”  Helen Keller  Born in 1880, Helen Keller, author, political activist, and lecturer, was the first person born blind and deaf to earn a Bachelors Degree. Her exquisite ability to adapt set her […]

10 Practical Steps for Recruiting Volunteers

by Shannon Rains   The start of the school year typically brings a flurry of activity in our church’s education ministry. Leading education has many challenges, and recruiting is one of the most critical, yet dreaded, tasks. If I ask any team of ministers about the biggest struggle in their ministry, someone (probably the children’s […]

Successions in Leadership

by Scott Laird   If you have been reading the Christian Chronicle lately you have noticed the preacher shortage in our fellowship. Individual congregations can make a difference in this struggle. Since 2000 the Great Falls church of Christ in Great Falls, Montana, has worked with nine men and their families to prepare them for […]

Mentorship Matters: The Journey Together

by Jordan McDonald   I don’t know if I’m young or old anymore. I turn 30 today and in one sense feel as though life has passed me by, in another sense I feel like I’m just starting. I have been in formal leadership roles since I graduated from college. Even so, last year while […]

Leadership as Immune System

by Jon Mullican Peter Steinke has equated leadership to the body’s immune system.  According to Steinke, leadership establishes the boundaries of what is of self – what belongs in the body – and what is foreign – what is not of the body.  Leadership is responsible to identify behavior that is allowed and behavior that […]

Fired! Terminated! Let go! (We’re going a different direction…”)

by Grady King– Say it anyway you want, termination is always difficult, no matter which side of the desk you are on. When it comes to the termination of a minister, the ramifications are legion for him, his family, the leadership and the church. In recent weeks I have listened to the gut wrenching stories […]

Leaders as Weight Bearers

by Grady King – A friend of mine recently reminded me that good leaders are weight bearers. The phrase, “weight bearers” conjures up carrying a load, bearing burdens, being responsible.  Inherent to all of this is anxiety.  No church rejected Paul more than the Corinthian church. Paul, however, yearned for them to be devoted to […]

X