Don’t you want to go to a church that sounds like Ephesians 4:11-16? In my last blog, I shared how if you will lead according to this passage of scripture, you will see the results of church growth and unity.
I believe the best way to avoid the pitfalls of the people pleasing pastor is as simple as remaining in the will of God at all costs. Let me explain.
The way into the will of God is to just keep telling Him yes anytime He lays something on your heart. Even if you don’t feel qualified, just have the boldness to say, “If God’s asking me to do it, He must be planning on equipping me to do it too.” Keep telling Him yes. Never tell the Lord no. Then He won’t have to pass you by to get somebody else to do the hard stuff.
Here are some practical steps you can take as well, as you focus on being a God pleaser instead of a people pleaser:
1. Increase your leadership IQ. Gerald Brooks writes great books about biblical models of leadership, just absolutely tremendous material. And “Simple Church” is a fantastic book by Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger. It’s a great way to develop structural strategies to make your church simple and head towards clearly defined goals. I strongly recommend you read it.
2. Lead the process of change. You need to understand where your next step is, and it’s in the delegation of qualified authority. Clearly state the mission of the church so people don’t have to guess what the mission is. Assess current processes. Will they get you to your end goal? Is what you’re doing just chasing your tail, a lot of effort, busy work, or is it effective? It’s important that you lead the process of change and then guide the discussion. In other words, if you ask a question, you need to have the answer in mind and then give your team enough information to help them discover the right answer. Matter of fact, it’s almost like you bait them to come up with the right answer and then celebrate that they came up with it.
3. Cast compelling vision for the church and describe the role of every person in its success. “Our church is going to meet its goal because you are in the pews. You’re a part of this family, and because of you, I see the success of our mission. Because you’re here, God wants to use you!” It’s that kind of encouragement that really helps people to understand the vital nature of their membership versus attendance.
4. Rewrite the documents of your church government. Rewrite those governing documents of behavior for your congregation, replacing the parts that make it harder or impossible to reach your goal. Review your documents to make sure that the governing of that behavior makes it easy for you to carry out God’s assignment on your life.
5. Budget your money towards accomplishing your mission and stop funding what doesn’t. I think that’s clear enough, isn’t it? Stop funding things that aren’t contributing to the ultimate goals of your church.
6. Raise up strategic leadership. You have to do this very much on purpose. It’s about gift assessments. It’s finding out how somebody is gifted and watching them and waiting for the right time to raise them up in their gifting.
In Acts 13, Paul and Barnabas were separated for the work to which God had called them. They’d already shown signs of apostleship. During Acts 13, they were released to their assignment. You have to be watching for folks to determine if they are ready to have hands laid on them and be released in ministry, even if it’s not formal. If somebody you see has that gift, that great potential, invest in that person. Give them a piece of your time because if you share it with them, they’re not going to sit on it; they’re going to multiply it.
Pastor, I want both you and me to go be God pleasers. I want us to be so focused on pleasing Him that we don’t waste our time getting caught up in the politics of people pleasing. Someone will always want more from us. Someone will always want to call the shots for us. But leading the church is our heavenly commission, and to do that, we need to have thick skin and the clear conviction of what God would have us to do. Remember, you can’t do it all yourself. You need to follow the biblical principle of delegation to the right people, trustworthy people. And you need to be willing to let go of the minor things so you can tend to the major things and lead your team, your church, to victory. I believe you can do it. Seek God. Find His will. And make that your ultimate goal.
This blog was created using content from the webinar Pitfalls of the “People-Pleaser Pastor”.
