Category Archives: Uncategorized

I ended our last post by quoting Romans 12.9, the verse that was the driving force behind all my teaching and preaching in 2022, our year of unfeigned love. It says “let love be without hypocrisy”. The Greek word here means to act, and it literally means someone who is under a mask, as inContinue reading “Dealing with Actors 02: Seeing Behind the Mask”

One of the things that normally shocks a new pastor, generally after about 6-9 months of pastoring is that there are – thankfully rarely, but it definitely happens – people who come to church pretending to be something they are not. The word I use for these in my mind is ACTOR. Some people inContinue reading “Dealing with Actors 01: There Are Actors In the Church!”

How can you stop someone stabbing you in the back one day? How can you stop someone lying about you, slandering you, causing strife and evil in your church, prophesying-lying? How do you stop someone going through the steps of a backstab? Well, the short answer is you cannot stop it all this side ofContinue reading “The Number One Quality for Leadership 04: Stab Prevention”

No one just grabs a knife and stabs you in the back. There are five clear steps that are always there before you are stabbed in the back by someone. This blog post will outline those steps simply and effeciently – but I have gone into more detail in other places (for example, here). ButContinue reading “The Number One Quality for Leadership 03: The Five Steps to a Backstab”

When Judas betrayed Jesus to the Romans, that wasn’t a one off event that just came out of nowhere. It was the end result of a process that in my experience is exceptionally predictable. For those of you in leadership, you might not be able to stop someone taking these steps but you can seeContinue reading “The Number One Quality for Leadership 02: There Are Steps to Stabbing Someone in the Back”

I am going to end this series today, with what is a key to raising up other leaders. It is a very important truth, easily stated and understood, but can be hard to work out in practise – it is this: be secure in yourself. If you raise up leaders and are part of aContinue reading “How to Make People Better Leaders 24 Be Secure Yourself”

If someone on your team, in your church is not doing what they should be, whether that is gossiping, lying, treating people badly, you need to confront. I spoke about that last week. Today I want to give you some quick bullet points on HOW TO CONFRONT SOMEONE. Confrontation is a time to grow. It’sContinue reading “How to Make People Better Leaders 23 How to Confront Someone”

It’s hard work to reward people for good behaviour. Well done for starting another two churches, here is a payrise. Well done for ushering so well, here is a card. Well done for forgiving that person, let me praise you. It takes energy and effort and time, but it is fairly easy. Confronting bad behaviourContinue reading “How to Make People Better Leaders 22 Love People Enough to Confront People”

You need to encourage the leaders you are leading to raise the bar as high as possible. Let’s say you put 100% effort into running the ministry, and you delegate it to someone else. Let’s say the youth ministry. Let’s say the new youth pastor only gives 80%, you are happy with that, because youContinue reading “How to Make People Better Leaders 21 Don’t Let Them Lower the Bar”