Leadership Matters

This past Saturday morning I attended the Men’s Breakfast at my local church Omaha Bible Church. It was a great time of fellowship and worship. We had a guest speaker, Byron Yawn who is a close friend of our senior pastor Pat Abendroth. Byron is the senior pastor of Community Bible Church in Nashville, Tennessee where he has been pastoring for six years. Byron spoke to those in attendance about leadership. I will provide the outline he gave us Saturday. It was a great topic with a ton of information. The outline continues by clicking the link below. There is also a link to the audio of the session at the end.

Leadership Matters

21 Points

I. The selection and development of leaders.

1. Multiply yourself like the church depends on it.

– Touching other men’s lives.
– Equipping other men.

2. You don’t elevate men by lowering the standard.

– Groom men upward.

3. Leaders are recognized long before they assume office.

4. Stay away from the guy who can’t spell “shepherd”.

– Not someone who splatters others with doctrine but someone who has a heart for shepherding.

5. Make fun of “Pretty Books” as often as you can.

– These are the latest superficial trend books with pretty pictures of scenery.

– Read books about dead guys, deeper things.

-The things you will face as a leader will be far more than superficial.

6. If your leaders always agree with you, they’re not.

– You don’t need clones, but need leaders.

7. The most immediate demonstration of your leadership is the quality of men around you.

II. Self-examination & Keeping perspective.

8. You must fear God more than you fear men.

9. Live in light of your dispensabilty.

– Think of Moses in Duet. 34:4,5

10. Learn to plod.

– Real growth is forged by consistency, not variety, no “church in a box” curriculum or packages.

11. Beware of preaching someone else’s convictions.

– Develop your own distinction and convictions.

12. Your bad decisions are usually among your best.

– How do you recover?

– Do you go to your knees?

– Responding to circumstances.

13. Take the truth seriously. Yourself, not so much.

– 1 Timothy 1:16, It’s about humility, not idealized leadership.

14. The problem with examples is that people tend to follow them.

– 1 Timothy 4:16, Integrity is so essential.

– People will model you.

15. Don’t hate the sheep.

– You will be leading volunteers.

– Stay away from blaming.

16. If you’re wondering whether it’s you or the four hundred others. Don’t.

– A good and godly leader will examine himself first when problems occur.

– Self-forgetful in the good things. Self-remembering in the bad things.

17. In conflicts let the cursor blink longer than normal.

– Give yourself some time to think before you react. (think before you email back)

18. Complain up. (to God)

– Not down to staff or flock.

19. Whatever pain you face, you always deserve worse.

20. Forget the “last word”.

– We have a tendency to desire getting the last word.

– In a conflict the last word can add fuel to the fire.

21. Critics remind us how well integrity sleeps.

– Integrity keeps us sane. It helps us sleep.

– Your integrity speaks for itself.

This is all great information. I hope you enjoy it.

The audio link for the breakfast session is here.