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“There is something else wrong that happens here on earth.\u00a0It is the kind of mistake rulers make” (Ecclesiates 10:5 NCV).<\/p>\n “There is something else wrong that happens here on earth.\u00a0It is the kind of mistake rulers make” (Ecclesiates 10:5 NCV).<\/p>\n
Solomon was right. There is a certain kind of mistake that those in leadership make. With that in mind, I’ve tried to learn from my mistakes and to pass on what I’ve learned to other leaders.<\/p>\n
Last week, I started to list my top ten leadership mistakes, offering the first five. Let me conclude with the last five. Mind you, these are not all of my mistakes. These are just the ones I’m hoping to have learned how to avoid. I also hope that I can help you to avoid them too.<\/p>\n
Here are the final five of my Top Ten Leadership Mistakes:<\/strong><\/p>\n 6. Mixing ministry with business.\u00a0<\/strong>The first year of our church plant, I was still in seminary and was trying to build a multi-level marketing business to make enough money to support my family. When I felt uncertain as to whether I should share Christ or share our business plan, I knew it was time to get out. Some of the best pastors are bi-vocational (Paul was a tentmaker), but when your business distracts from your ministry, you have a decision to make. Learning:\u00a0Make sure any business you do complements your ministry.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 7.\u00a0Not taking the time to celebrate.<\/strong>\u00a0As one with a \u201cType A\u201d personality, I have a tendency to forget to celebrate a win. As soon as we hit a target, I\u2019m already looking to see what\u2019s next. But I\u2019m learning to take the time to pat ourselves on the back. People need to be praised for their hard work. Not everyone is a self-starter. For me, I have to make this part of the planning, which usually means I have to give it away to someone who loves to party. Learning:\u00a0Make celebrating the win part of every ministry plan.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 8.\u00a0Missing the clues of cultural resistance. <\/strong>The older your church or organization, the more important it is to be aware of its unique culture. But even a new church plant starts developing its own culture from day one.\u00a0When we moved our weekly meetings from my living room to a middle school we rented, some people left our young church saying, \u201cWe really miss being in your house. It was like a family. This is too big and too much like the church we left.” Wow! I didn’t see that coming. We had talked about our vision for reaching our city from day one. However, what I was saying wasn’t building the culture. What they were seeing was. A group’s true culture often isn’t known until someone tries to change something. \u00a0Learning. Consider your church\u2019s unique culture before making changes.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n 9.\u00a0Not putting enough emphasis on children\u2019s ministry. <\/strong>When we first planted the church, my wife used to run the children\u2019s ministry in our garage. Then we grew and started meeting at a school where our children met in the cafeteria. We put some energy into children’s ministry, but it was usually as an afterthought. I was so consumed by the details of reaching the adults, that I had delegated (really surrendered and ignored) the children. It wasn’t long before we noticed a terrible “leak” in our church. We were attracting young families by the dozens, but they wouldn’t stick. They loved our music and preaching, but they wanted more for their kids. We had to plug that “leak” by ramping up our ministry to children. Learning:\u00a0Make sure you are putting adequate emphasis and resources in Children\u2019s ministry.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n 10.\u00a0Failure to schedule time for future planning (alone and with key leaders).<\/strong> I didn’t take a vacation for the first three years of our church plant (Crazy, I know). I thought if I just worked hard enough, long enough we would succeed. What I didn’t notice was how my effectiveness was decreasing rather than increasing with all the additional effort. I was burning myself out (as well as my family and church members). Later in the above passage from Ecclesiates, Solomon says that a “dull ax means harder work.” In other words, we need to take time to sharpen the ax! Learning:\u00a0Pull away regularly for sharpening, dreaming and planning.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n “There is something else wrong that happens here on earth.\u00a0It is the kind of mistake rulers make” (Ecclesiates 10:5 NCV). Solomon was right. There is a certain kind of mistake that those in leadership make. With that in mind, I’ve tried to learn from my mistakes and to pass on what I’ve learned to other<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2061,1,2062],"tags":[],"location":[],"class_list":["post-73","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-religion","category-uncategorized","category-weblogs"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=73"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}OK. So, that’s the final five of my top ten leadership learnings. Remember, the best leaders are life-long learners. Don’t give up. Stay faithful. If God can use a guy who has made as many leadership mistakes as me, then there’s certainly hope for you!<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"