Tim King Leadership

  Giving Thanks this Christmas. It isn't often that I get a few moments on Christmas day to write a blog but in these strange times this year we don't have dozens of family running around the house. It's going to be a very quiet festive season. Did God bring this plague, this virus to punish us for our sins? I very much doubt it. Events like these have happened before and will no doubt happen again. I do believe that God's Spirit has been moving and touching people's lives throughout this year. I want to give thanks that he has protected me and my family both here in the UK and those scattered in different parts of the world. I want to give thanks that we have had shelter and food to eat, that we haven't gone hungry. I want to give thanks that we have close friends, who have encouraged us and prayed for us in our lowest moments. I want to give thanks for the stamina God has given to allow me to accomplish great things this year despite the limitation...

  This weeks ramblings. I heard this week of another Pastor, of a large church, being dismissed for moral transgressions – that is just ‘church speak’ for he committed adultery. When I heard this my mind immediately went to the song by the rock band Queen:   “Another one’s gone, Another one’s gone, Another one bites the dust”. I think the devil sings this song every time a Minister, Pastor or Christian Leader leaves the ministry, in disgrace, for this sort of thing. It leaves me sad and upset and even a little angry, that people could so easily throw away their calling and ministry. Proverbs 4:23 tells us to guard our hearts. Proverbs 5 tells us what will happen when we lack discipline and Ephesians 6 tells us to take a stand, to stand firm and to keep praying in the spirit. Being the Christian Leader of any church representing Jesus Christ, is an awesome responsibility. For those fortunate to lead such a church there is a high calling and an even higher standard...

    Learning to Lead through Crisis.   Thankfully through the years I can honestly say that I have had to deal personally with a crisis only about half a dozen times. I have, on the other hand, had to help a number of Christian leaders through the process of learning to lead in and through a crisis. When dealing with a crisis it isn't just about eliminating the problems but also on how to see and recognize the opportunities that the crisis may present. Not long ago, I was having coffee during a mentoring session with a young pastor. He told me that he had just been appointed the youth pastor of the church he was now in, when a few weeks later the senior pastor had been dismissed for moral transgressions. The Young Youth pastor was then appointed by the elders as senior pastor. The young man told me that the fallout from this crisis was rumbling on in the background and every time he suggested something it got harder and harder for him to control: The ex senior lea...

Some thoughts and ramblings. Over the last few weeks I have been really praying into the current situation that we find ourselves in and would like to share my thoughts, for what they are worth, with you. Churches in our large cities and towns are finding it tough. The number of unemployed people in their congregations has risen. The food banks are being overwhelmed with requests for help. Children are missing out on school due to positive Covid cases in their classrooms. Tithes and offerings are on the decrease because of what is happening in the economy. Pastors and Church Leaders are feeling the stress and strain of trying to keep ahead of all the health guidelines, keep their staff and family safe and stay connected with their congregations. Pastors and congregations are fast becoming Covid fatigued. During the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic, that killed 50 million people world wide, the churches did very much what churches have done today. Pastors had their sermons printed in the local...

 Food for thought. In all my many years of teaching and mentoring young leaders, it is rare indeed for me to have to deal with church leaders who have been made unemployed.   In the grand scheme of things churches tend not to make their pastors or Leaders unemployed. This is not say that it doesn’t happen; when there is a down turn in tithes and offerings, the target for layoffs   are church staff- reception, PA’s, paid interns and employed auxiliary church staff. Church Boards only focus on the senior leader as a last resort and in my memory it has never happened. One thing I can say though is that while I have found Church Leaders to be very pastoral with their words when it comes to dealing with the unemployed, it is rare for me to find a leader who is truly empathetic, a leader who can really relate to what a person is going through. I spoke this week with a Christian recruitment agency and was told that they have seen applications for jobs quadruple So what is th...

  Click on the link and take a look. getbook.at/actscommentaryp   

  What is church really about? This last week I have been talking to a young church leader about their church and how they are coming out of the lock-down and isolation, which we here in the UK have experienced.  He explained to me that they had kept close contact with all their congregants via online connect groups, video chats and other social media platforms. He was encouraged that over 98% of his congregation had stayed in close contact with each other. He then went on to show me a series of well produced and presented video ads, that the leadership team had produced and put up on various social media sites, to encourage people back to church. As I watched I became acutely aware that there was something missing. The ads themselves were fine. What I felt was not in what they were saying but in what they were not saying. The ads were telling Christians to come back to church, to come meet their friends face to face. To come and enjoy all the new programmes that had been ...

 Coming Soon.

  You Are Here. Have you ever been in a strange city and found yourself lost and looking at a map in the main square? You know, one of those maps depicting the street layout, with a little arrow pointing to an area with the words neatly captioned "You are here." Once you have familiarised yourself with the area you once again stroll off to an art gallery or museum, safe in the knowledge that you have a vague idea of where you are and that the hotel, at least, is in the opposite direction. As a child I loved looking at old maps, those made by explorers or sea captains. I loved to see the little images of mythical creatures swallowing whole ships and seaman battling, valiantly, but in vain, to rid them of this monster. Or better still, looking at the maps made by hunters and explorers wandering through the vast wilderness of Africa. They marked their maps with their discoveries, rivers, waterfalls and mountains. I looked in vain for the x that marked the spot where they may...

For the most part here in the UK, lockdown is over and people are coming out of their self made bunkers and breathing in the fresh air. They are according to the media trying to live in the "new normal" and get their lives back on track.   Getting back on track for them may mean losing the weight they have accumulated over lockdown, or staying fit now that it is over. It may mean relief to shell shocked parents who can at last know that their children will go back to school in their lifetimes. Children can now go wild, knowing that they can see their friends again while silently admitting that they have missed school. For many, sadly, it can mean they can now publicly grieve the loved ones they have lost.   But what of churches and Christians? What does their post lockdown world look like?    Churches are not yet able to meet as they did before lockdown. Christian Leaders are trying to interpret the government guidelines and protect their flocks at the same tim...

The last few weeks have been eventful. I have come down with the dreaded Coronavirus Covid 19 and survived. I have had a dry irritating cough, a very high fever, shortness of breath and a very tight chest. Along with this I appear to have lost me sense of smell. Fortunately I have no under laying medical conditions and am relatively healthy and fit for my age. Like most Christian Leaders my job revolves around meeting with and interacting with people. Like every Christian I know, I shake hands so it is not surprising that I caught the virus. I have come into contact with the unseen monster of horror and apocalypse movies, this plague that moves through the population as easily as putting a hot knife through a slab of butter. Yet at no time through the last 14 days have I ever felt fear or the hand of death. Why? You may ask. Well I believe that God hadn't shown me it was my time to die, and also the science said that if I was fit and healthy and had no under laying ...

Last week I listened to the announcement made by Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the UK, in regards to the Coronavirus. He was surrounded by the scientists and the line was follow these steps and try and be safe. He said it was a once in a lifetime event that the world had not seen in generations. But unlike other Prime Ministers in the past he did not call the nation to prayer. Over the last 12 months we have had as a nation a political decision that divided us and now is the time to heal. The floods we have experienced have been once in a life time events, but these events are happening every few years. Crops and agricultural lively-hoods have been destroyed The UK fisheries industry has had the worst winter in living memory. Now of course the nations of the world are being laid low by a virus that we cannot see. Self isolation is the call. Food is being hoarded by people who live in fear. It is time Christian Leaders, Arch Bishops and politicians to call the nation to prayer....

I was reading a number of blogs this last week, where the authors were discussing and disparaging the need for 5 year plans. One of them thought that it was impossible to do any forward planning for churches, because of the inconsistency of human beings and therefore the inability to predict with any certainty the future. The other blogger was a little more circumspect saying that the maximum he could future plan was 2 years. They also discussed the God factor and the need to be open to the moving and working of the Holy Spirit and how human plans interfered with this. Both bloggers were right but both were also wrong. Church Planning, particularly Strategic Church Planning isn’t about setting firm, guaranteed targets or goals. Nor is it about stepping in the way of any move of the Holy Spirit. Planning is for your benefit and the benefit of those you lead. In churches you would ask yourself, as leader, where you as a church would like to be in 5 years’ time. You look at the visi...

A Spiritual homily. How should you as a young Christian Leader handle Criticism? A simple question that has huge implications for the young leader. Get this wrong and you may well destroy what God has already built. For example, in days gone by the normal way to criticise was to face the person in open debate. It allowed both parties to defend their positions and for people to come to a conclusion as to the critics complaints. Later rather than openly debate they would write a letter to the editor of the local newspaper in order to vent their spleens on a particular topic. However today, the first recourse of those that have a complaint or criticism is social media, for all and sundry to see regardless of audience. Once it is out there it’s out there and there is nothing we can do, it would appear that today’s generation has very few filters. Criticism can be divided into three categories, True, Untrue or malicious. If it is true then respond do not react, do not appear t...

One of the hardest things for us to do is to predict the future with any certainty. We may plan for our own lives and what will happen tomorrow or even next week, but it gets harder for us to predict our fortunes the further forward we look. Circumstances in politics in community in our environment may and will change and these things will impact on our lives in some way or other. I remember where I was and what I was doing on December 31 st 1999 like it was yesterday, but now 20 years later, I could never have predicted the events that have occurred in my life. Being expelled from the country of my upbringing, by a despot, whose greed knew no bounds and who systematically destroyed a country that was the breadbasket of Africa. Today that nation has 8 million people starving, 90% unemployment and no economy to speak of. None of these things we could have seen with any great degree of certainty. What then does this have to do with young Christian Leaders you may ask? Well I think...