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Saturday, November 04, 2006

What's Up With Leadership?

Lately I've been hearing the worst stories about moronic elders/deacons completely screwing up churches. The underpaid, unappreciated staff who actually does the work of the church gets burned out under the nutty "leadership." Meanwhile, the congregation is left scratching their heads, wondering why the staff has quit and people stop coming to the church.

Yoo hoo, congregations and pastors: here's a wake up call. Lawyers, doctors and other people with money are not necessarily the best candidates for church leadership. Spirit-led people are the best candidates for church leadership!

8 comments:

tonymyles said...

Right. Just like good singers are the best people to lead worship.

Um...

or not?

Wait - which is it? People with professional skills or spirit-led people?

I'm confused.

Anonymous said...

Don, first of all I think this post is very important and totally relevant for what's going on in the church today.

I've seen it in my own church. The whole leadership made a decision regarding cutting down a staff member's hours, and that staff member ended up quitting, having their whole family leave, and then blaming the pastor, even though the pastor was actually standing up for the guy.

On the other hand, though, there comes a point when "debating" each other on blogs gets ridiculous. It looks like you and tony myles are out to kill each other or something.

Both of you guys are trying to help out the larger Christian community, but for someone who just peeked in on the conversation over here...it's not helping.

Don Chapman said...

You know the old saying... "if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen."

Blogs wouldn't be any fun unless people disagreed with everything I said.

If you want hugs and kisses, go read the latest Max Lucado book.

Anonymous said...

Don, I am a newcomer to your ministry and appreciate what you are making available to us. But I wish I'd never looked at your blog site. You sound very bitter over something and somewhat arrogant. I am going to pray for you and whatever the situation is. I'd hate to see it ruin your influence!

Don Chapman said...

I don't block anonymous posts because they're always the juiciest. As far as your comments go, read my previous post - the one about Max Lucado.

Anonymous said...

Sigh...I don't want "hugs and kisses." I'm all up for the fact that it does take a certain amount of pain for us to grow as Christians...but outright sarcasm is different than disagreement. Ephesians says to let your speech be seasoned with salt, giving grace to those who hear. Even if you disagree on something, you can disagree with a little more gentleness and grace.

Anonymous said...

Hey Don, I've been through having my position cut twice (as a Lutheran high school teacher and as Director of Music) due to the church and the school being in serious debt. This all stems from what you brought up. Leadership. In the church situation, I personally asked the pastor to stand up for the fact that I was called to the church, and he didn't. Currently, I'm a self-employed music teacher, and God is using that to bless many people. But, it comes back to solid, spiritual leadership, plain and simple!

Derrick Henslee said...

I personally like really bad singers for worship leaders. My favorite are the ones that think they're Sandi Patti and wail with vigorous force into a yellow foam covered microphone! I also really enjoy the "special" music. Although, most of the time it's not so special after all...in fact, it's usually just an "ordinary" or a "sub-par." That's what we need more of...sub par leadership and ministry all in the name of hugs and kisses!