Good Pastor… Bad Leader. Part 1

Many of you may or may not know that we are transitioning out of the church here in Warrenton. If that comes to you as a surprise, I’m so sorry I couldn’t tell you face to face, but at this point it’s getting dicey to try and find out who I’ve told and who not. There are a multitude of reasons why we’ve made this decision. None of those reasons are a result of duress, anger, poor relationships or any ill feelings toward our staff, or church family here. Things really are tip top. About 6 weeks ago now Pastor Ryan let me know that he was going to be stepping down from his position of lead pastor here. It came as a surprise, but Brandi and I did some serious praying and talking about what we felt the right decision was and both of us wholeheartedly agreed that it was the right time for us to move on as well. Our decision came with heavy hearts and feelings of sadness and frustration, but we hold fast to the truth that we want to be walking directly in the path of the Creator.

With all that said, the past several months have been extremely difficult for me in that I’ve been going through a pruning process. It’s becoming more and more evident to me how the diffierent stages of my life are meant to teach and draw truth from, all the while building on the lessons of the other and laying out the path before me. The hardest part of the past 10 or so months is they’ve required me to take a deep and often painful look inside at who I am, who I’ve become, and who I SHOULD become. Back in October, after having an amazing and revealing week spent with some of the Central team at lifechurch.tv I wrote these words down:

“Good Pastor, Bad Leader”

Those words defined who I felt I had become. I was still and always have continued to care for people, but I had become frustrated at where I was because of a simple explanation. I haven’t been meeting my potential. Talking about a painful look at who you are and what you’re becoming. Through my own feelings and the affirmations of others over the next several months I continued to learn things about myself that hurt. I had become a disappointment to me and especially those who know and believe in what I am capable of. While I had still been serving and loving people as I always had, my leadership skills and development had grinded to a screeching halt. I was not pushing myself to invest in others, I was not studying, I was not allowing myself to be criticized (constructively of course) or mentored by anyone. I was happy, content and worst of all, growing more steadily ineffective most leadership related areas.

So what happens to the person who stops challenging and pushing himself to grow? They stop. And if they stop long enough, they start to regress. Stay tuned for Part 2.