Tim King Leadership

Recently I was having a conversation with a friend, A leader in a well known Pentecostal denomination. We were talking about the changes in the church over the last thirteen years. We talked about Church growth and the admitted lack of growth in many churches. We talked about how different the church was to that which we had seen growing up. We talked about the advent of the Charismatic movement and the growth of the Mega church. In essence it was a bit of a nostalgia fest. Then he said something to me that I felt was really astounding: "I can fellowship with any Christian from any Charismatic denomination ....except Charismatic Catholics"   He then went on to explain himself saying that while he accepted that Anglican, Episcopalians, Baptists and Methodists may have different views to his own, he recognised that they had experienced   a book of Acts event very much in the same way as we   Pentecostals claim to have experienced. But, because the so called...

Getting the right mix for our Sunday morning services. Getting the Sunday morning service right is an important part of how we are viewed by outsiders and visitors. It is the shop window to who we are and who we represent, Jesus. In the last few blogs I have discussed the need for the building we inhabit- the bricks and mortar, to reflect the vision and culture of the senior leader. For church buildings to reflect the right image, a church that has flaking paint, is run down and tatty, smelling of damp and mould, is not the image that we want to show people. I have also discussed the need to get our preaching right, to preach with passion and enthusiasm. To present the love of Christ to a dying world. Not for us to be boring and irrelevant. These two things are part of what we feel is essential to the way that we present church. However before I discuss the Sunday morning service let me present what I believe is church. Church I believe is made up of five essential ele...

I am your servant not your slave . Someone once said that your attitude determines your altitude. One of those feel good, fuzzy sort of statements that church leaders sometimes make at conferences to get a cheer form their audience that precedes a pep talk from the word of God. It is not a statement that I would use but there is something in this idea of attitude. If we do not have a positive attitude in how we approach church growth for example can result in its success or failure. Likewise how we are viewed and view others can also determine our attitude. Why it is then, for some, the success or failure of a senior church leader is based on whether they are pastoral or not? How many people do they counsel? How many of the congregation do they visit? Do they regularly pray for the sick and do they visit the hospital? Are missionaries being supported? Is the Sunday school and Youth programmes being run properly? Is their preaching of good quality and how many people are th...

Preaching love, life and purpose. How and what we should preach is very important to any aspiring senior church leader. It is extremely important to get the words right or the central theme of our message will be lost. We, as strong successful leaders are here to first and foremost tell people that God loves them and that he sent his only son to die on their behalf in order to restore the relationship with him. Our words are to encourage, edify and exhort. We are what we think, so preaching life and purpose gives people direction a future and a sense of belonging in an ever fragmenting world. Before I deal with the positive aspects of preaching let me give you two true examples of really bad preaching: Quite a few years ago I was transferred by my company-for a brief period, to another city and was looking for a church to call home while I was there. I went to a church that had a congregation of about 150 but had been much bigger. The senior pastor rarely preached lea...