Oct 01, 2021

Twelve characteristics of healthy church leaders


 

If we desire healthy church boards, we need to ask: "What are the characteristics of an effective church leader?" The fact that 80% of churches are plateaued or in decline would indicate that this is an important issue. When I consult with troubled churches is it not unusual to find that those in leadership are poorly equipped to lead. Consider some of the ways churches have traditionally filled...

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Feb 08, 2021

15 things a church board should not do

 


In my years of working with church boards and teaching best practices, I have discovered a number of things that boards should not do. If you lead or serve on a church board, ask yourself if you are doing any of the following.

Church boards should not:

  1. Manage staff beyond the senior leader. All staff should report to the senior leader and the board's responsibility is the senior leader only.
  2. Require...
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Jan 18, 2020

Evaluate the board you serve on. You may be surprised!


One thing pastors notice is that boards are far more likely to evaluate them than they are to evaluate themselves. Yet, the quality of board work has as much impact on most churches as the quality of the senior pastor's work. Annual evaluation of the senior pastor should be combined with a self evaluation of the board including the input of the senior pastor.


If you are a board member, evaluate the...
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Jan 13, 2020

The dangers of "representative" church leadership


It sounds like a good idea. The church has six or seven major ministries so why not have the leader of each of those ministries on the church leadership team - whether it is a council or board of elders or some other name. After all, we don't want any of these ministries not represented at the leadership level!

What sounds like a good idea can actually be a bad idea and in this case cause negative...
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Jul 05, 2019

Eight confusing church board issues


Church board leadership is always a challenge. And, often boards or individual members are confused on the role of the board. If these areas of confusion can be resolved, the work of the board becomes far easier. Here are eight issues that often cause confusion on a board.

1. What are we actually trying to accomplish?
This sounds like a simple question but the truth is that a majority of church...
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Sep 20, 2018

Six board lessons from the recent Willow Creek events


My objective here is not to revisit the specific controversies of Willow Creek but to draw some lessons for those of us who serve on church boards to consider. For my part, I am drawing on decades of working with church boards as well as having served for years on various boards. The recent issues at Willow Creek simply serve to illustrate my observations. I suspect that the good people who...
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Sep 06, 2018

The quick links and index to all of my blogs on church boards and governance has been updated


Updated quick links and index to all of my blogs on church boards and governance






TJ Addington (Addington Consulting) has a passion to help individuals and organizations maximize their impact and go to the next level of effectiveness. He can be reached at tjaddington@gmail.com.

"Creating cultures of organizational excellence."



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