Are you interested in growing as a leader, or just in getting ahead? In my job as a leadership coach, I see lots of people who want to advance. But my work is much easier--and the odds of moving ahead are much better--when the person I'm coaching wants to be coached and is focused on their own growth instead of an outcome they can't fully control. Here are seven opportunities to grow as a leader, the more closely you follow them, the better your chances of success.

Put God where He should be - in your dream for the future. Here are three ways you can do that.  

Heading into the new year, this is a great time to think through what you’ll be preaching on for the next 12 months.  

You can feel it in the air, it’s a lack of momentum. It’s hard to put your finger on why it just feels like your church is “same ol’, same ol” and, as the leader, you’re acutely aware of it. This is normal. The church will experience lulls throughout the year. Here are 5 ways to jump-start momentum in your church.

The following are five principles that I have had to incorporate into my leadership life. Hopefully they will be helpful those who read this article and are dealing with similar painful issues.

Here are 12 Christmas outreach activities you can do as a church. Remember to use these to build a bridge of connection with the people that you are engaging with and invite them to something next.

In this age of social media, instant gratification, and excessive focus on materialism and self, the only path to contentment and eternity is the reality of abundant life through the love, acceptance, and forgiveness that can only be found in a redeeming relationship Jesus Christ.

If you haven’t counted anything other than the offering, you can start today. This will help you determine the effectiveness of outreaches, advertising, invitational culture, and ministry effectiveness.

The idea of “should” is something that plagues church leadership. We think that people “should” go to church because that’s what they “should” do. Except …. People don’t think that way anymore.

As Local Church leaders, we will inevitably find occasions where we must process our own grief, assist our leadership in coping with loss, and bring encouragement to the congregation under our care. 

Many of us have read Ephesians 4:12-16 and if you haven’t, stop and go read it. Here’s the thing, if you are a leader in the church, your job is to equip the people for good works.

None of us would ever admit this in public, but sometimes we can fall into the hireling mindset where we begin to think about what we do, like a job.

There is power in the mindset of a leader. If a leader feels they are barely getting by, they will move into survival mode. If the leader has a thriving mindset, they will seek to expand and take risks for the sake of growing and improving.

It’s interesting when I visit some of our churches I notice that our buildings are falling into disrepair and look unkept. This is because of a culture of deferred maintenance.

While the following tips may seem to be simplistic and obvious, they are the very things many pastors neglect.

Did Jesus create the church so we could gather away from the world and be protected or did he create it as a force to spread the Gospel? There are very differing views of this but I want to challenge you on a few things.