Last week I was able to attend the NTLC (North Texas Leadership Conference) in Plano, TX.  Pastor Gerald Brooks and his team of speakers did an excellent job of addressing practical issues of leadership, as well as covering timely subjects such as how to create multicultural churches.  I wanted to share some of my main takeaways with you…

Pastor Gerald Brooks (@Gerald_BrooksTX) of Grace Outreach Center (Plano, TX)

  • Preparation is a forgotten key of leadership.
  • Charisma is what people feel. Character is what people trust.
  • Adaptability is the key to long-term leadership.
  • (Concerning legacy leadership) Will you love the future of your church more than you love your future?
  • Experience becomes obsolete without reinvention.
  • A mentor is simply the stake beside the plant (the younger leader) that ensures it grows in the right direction.
  • God doesn’t give you a platform without responsibility.
  • If a church has high capacity leaders, you don’t need many managers. Leaders won’t stick around in a high management culture.
  • Yesterday’s sacrifice is today’s comfort zone.
  • Are you willing to disobey God by pampering non-performing people on your team? A real leader will do what needs to be done (retrain, reposition or release them) .
  • Having young people in your band doesn’t mean you are a multigenerational church. They need to have the authority to make real decisions.
  • Optimism without reality is a death sentence.
  • A church can save people, but it can kill pastors.
  • The shelf life of a church is 25 yrs.  In the first 25 yrs they are mission minded.  After that they become maintenance minded. (The average US church is 40 yrs old)
  • Who is your target (young leader you will empower)?  If you don’t have a name, you don’t have a target?
  • You need to make sure young leaders realize they are not being hired for a job, but rather for a journey.

Pastor Dennis Rouse (@dennisrouse) of Victory World Church in Atlanta, GA

Concerning multiculturalism

  • Are you able to submit yourself to Kingdom culture, rather than just your own culture?
  • The Early Church (as a result of the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2) was a multicultural expression of God’s grace.
  • Before you cross the multicultural bridge, you need to count the cost.  People that like their “safe church” will leave.
  • Just because you don’t fully understand something (i.e. Black Lives Matter movement) doesn’t mean you shouldn’t acknowledge that there might be a problem we aren’t seeing.
  • You’ve gotta be bold enough to do what God wants, not what the people want.
  • We’re not here to play church, but to do Kingdom business!
  • Transform your life before you attempt to transform your church.

Concerning Healthy Church Culture

  • A large vision attracts high capacity leaders.
  • The reason we don’t evangelize is that we love ourselves more than we love people.
  • When you have a lot of strife in your church, it’s usually because theres’t not a lot happening in your church.
  • Believers go to church to hear what God says.  Disciples go to church to do what God says.

If you are not familiar with the NTLC, you can get more information by clicking here (when it becomes available).  You can also get Pastor Brooks’ Leadership Podcast by clicking here.