Creating A Healthy Leadership Environment

The question is often posed about the leadership structure at NewSpring—how exactly are decisions made, who is responsible when things go wrong—who do I go to when I have a question, and in my mind these are excellent questions.

One of the rumors that I hear from time to time is that I am in charge—that I am barking out orders and making sure that things go my way—that I am surrounded by a bunch of “yes men” who are at my mercy and who worship the ground that I walk on.

That makes me laugh—hard—out loud—for long periods of time.

PEOPLE—I am not that smart, I am not full of wisdom…at times I don’t feel that I am that godly—and NewSpring has NOT grown from 15 people in a living room to having over 4,000 people every week in less than six years because of me! TRUST ME! And by the way…if you are one of those people who say that the staff are merely pawns in my hands and they do my bidding…I am very flattered that you would give me so much credit for building this church all by myself—you are wrong—but thanks anyway. :-)

(By the way—several people have been asking—we did set a new attendance record yesterday with 4,573 peeps! WOW! And for those who might be tempted to think we are watering down the message to draw a crowd—I invite you to listen to the messages on-line before you make that assertion!)

So about the leadership structure…here goes…oh yeah, before I move on let me say that I am not saying that this model is the way it has to be at every church—there are other successful models out there; however, this is the way God has led us to do things at NewSpring.

We are a staff led church. What does it mean to be staff led? It basically means that we are led by the staff. :-) Seriously, the leadership decisions are made on the staff level—and we make decisions as a team—no one is an island.

Why staff led? Because for me personally I have seen too many churches get bogged down in political struggles and literally fight over who is going to be on what committee and what color the restroom is going to be. I feel like there are too many people in this world going to hell for the church to become involved in issues like that.

In my opinion—and this is just my opinion—the leadership structure in many churches sets them up perfectly…to fail. Why? Because the staff is given all of the accountability with no authority…and the people have all the authority will no accountability—that is a recipe for disaster.

Follow me with this illustration…let’s say that there was a major airline that was operated like many churches. They take off and the flight is going well until something unexpected happens, and emergency if you will. The pilot and the crew see the problem and know how to fix it—and if you are on that plane that is what you would prefer.

However, if the plane was flown like the church was managed then before the pilot could repair the problem he would have to come out and meet with five or six people in first class…none of whom had ever flown a plane (except for one who had a cousin who flew airplanes)...and ask their opinion on how to fix the problem.

A motion would be made, then a second…and then the “flight committee” would take the recommendation to the coach section for a vote. After the vote then pilot would then be instructed on what he could and could not do. AND if the plane crashed and lives were lost—the pilot would receive the blame—even though he had nothing to do with the decision; in fact, I am sure in this imaginary scenario he was probably told, “Hey pilot—we don’t pay you make decisions—just fly the plane like we tell you to!”

How many want to fly on that airline? No one in their right mind—but it seems that many people want to go to that church.

In Scripture there never was a business meeting—the leaders met, prayed, discussed…and led—and the church grew. That’s the way we do it here at NewSpring.

And let me say this—we ALWAYS listen to people who are members of our church…and regular attenders. ALWAYS! You can call our church office and speak to one of our pastors. You can e-mail us! We have received some incredible valuable ideas from people who are not on staff—and we want that!

(The people who seem to complain that no one listens to their ideas around here are the ones who are not committed to our church in any way—I’m sorry—we don’t have time for that—never have—never will—maybe that’s one of the reasons God is blessing us—it is not our agenda to keep everyone happy!)

We basically have three requirements for a staff member—and this is in REVERSE order…

#3 - They must love the people in this office! We are called to work and serve together. I will not place anyone on the team I directly work with unless I know they love me.

#2 - They must love this church! LOVE IT! This is true of the team I serve with—they love me, but they love this church even more. That is why, behind closed doors, we have had some pretty animated discussions…and no, I don’t always get my way—and that is a GOOD THING!

(The reason that some people assume that I surround myself with “yes men” is that we are always unified outside the office—ALWAYS! Behind closed doors people are free to say anything they wish—ANYTHING! But when we walk out we all understand that we are on the same team—and we support the teams decision! The only people who are ever disappointed with our unity are those who are divisive and seek gossip.)

#1 - They must be totally and radically in love with Jesus - this is a must! We want people in this community to see the joy and the excitement in the lives of the staff here and say, “I want what that person has!”

As I said—this works at NewSpring…God is changing lives. Several weeks ago we had a service where over 50 people received Christ…and get this—things in the planning and preparation of that service didn’t go my way. The structure of the service would have been different if I had done things the way I wanted—but because there are godly people around me…and because I have learned to listen…I let these guys go—and it is one of the best services we have ever had. I was their “yes man!”

That’s it for now—I will be posting later on this week about the message for this weekend! It’s going to be exciting.