Lionhearted Leadership

I am writing this book because I have sensed a growing need for a resource such as this for church leaders. Having served five churches in four states over the past forty-two years of pastoral ministry, I have a rather good understanding of the unique needs of pastors and church leaders. Although the first four churches I pastored grew (by their standards, somewhat dramatically), none of them had over 150 people in attendance. As a pastor, I would find myself looking at my efforts, and at my churches, wondering, “There has to be a key that will unlock the doors of exponential growth.” Although I was reading everything I could find on leadership and church growth and attending seminars on this subject, it seemed I could not find a way to bring the different pieces together as a whole. In June 1993 while I continued searching and studying, God called on me to serve as the pastor of what was then called Community Bible Chapel, now The Grace Place Church, in Stuart, Florida. When my wife, Karon, and I came to the church, it was approximately sixteen years old, and I was its third pastor. The founding pastor had served the church for twelve years, and the second pastor served for four. When we arrived, the church averaged around 125 for morning worship attendance. The church experienced a real surge of growth during its early years, with attendance peaking briefly at nearly three hundred. But the church then settled into a repetitive pattern of growing to nearly two hundred, then declining to about one hundred. The reasons for the up-and-down process were never analyzed or dealt with. Because of this and a variety of other reasons, many people in the congregation were frustrated over a lack of focus and direction. God had been stretching and developing me during those first fourteen years I was serving the four previous churches. In His incredible providence, God was able to help us bring the pieces together, and He began doing something through the ministry development of The Grace Place Church that neither I nor the church had ever experienced. The church transitioned from a very introverted church, focused on itself and survival, to an outreach-focused church willing to do whatever necessary to reach the community with the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We moved from a traditional to a contemporary style of worship, and we grew from those few hundred people to over fifteen hundred in attendance. As I tell people all the time, “We have only just begun.” I realize so many churches could be described the way ours was when I found it in 1993. I have talked to pastors and leaders in many other churches who tell me they have tried everything, but nothing has worked in a sustained way. Trying one more gimmick is not going to solve a leadership problem, a spiritual problem, a problem within the organizational structures of the church, a philosophical problem, or the problem of having either no strategies or the wrong strategies. But this material is not a bunch of new techniques for you or your church to imitate—it is based upon principles that are applicable in churches of all types and in many different places. What we have learned will work in the Midwest as well as it does in South Florida. It will work in the Southwest as well as in the Northeast. In this book, I address several key areas needed for the church to advance the kingdom of Christ. When these components come together, the church benefits in amazing ways. If I knew forty-two years ago what I am sharing with you in this book now, I believe any of the four churches I pastored could have experienced similar dynamics to those of The Grace Place.