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1.  Natural-  Some are leaders by nature.

2.  Positional-  Some are leaders by position.

3.  Entrepreneurial-  Most pastors aspire after this one and it is the most dangerous.  Dreaming and scheming can be dangerous.  Your laymen will compete with you here and many of them are better than you here. 

4.  Spiritual- Your people will not compete with you here, but they will follow you becasue you are appointed and anointed.  If you don’t have a sense of a call, admit it and get out.  You have to be divinely called.  Ministry is the worst profession, but the greatest calling.

I’m a big believer that young-age, middle-age, or older-age has nothing to do with going higher and achieving some dreams.  Truett Cathey, who is 87 years old, proves this statement to be true.  As you know, Mr. Cathey is the CEO of Chick-Fil-A and has a created a dynamite business that is closed on Sundays and serves no alcohol.  Well, at 87, he is launching a new pizza place called Upscale Pizza in Fayetteville, GA.  It will also be aimed at families, closed on Sundays, will not serve alcohol, and hold to the high standard of good customer service.  A great concept Mr. Cathey uses in his leadership training is this statement: “Courtesy is very cheap, but it always pays great dividends.”  I like it!  He also says, “Success is not guaranteed.”  That concept is real to all of us when we plant a new church, huh?  Upscale Pizza represents a new chapter in his life, Mr. Cathey says.  Such good lessons for all of us in planting a new church.  Nothing is guaranteed except faithfulness and obedience.  In the end, I think we have to be very careful what we design success to be in our minds and hearts.  I have a good feeling the God defines it much differently than you and I.  You can read the complete story right here.

Through the years as a lead pastor, God has seemed to use me to help churches raise a new standard and to challenge them to go to the next level.  Call it going higher, seeing more, enlarging the vision, or creating new identities, it still boils down to the fact that every church can always be more productive.  I love the hunt of seeing something improve.  I love seeing it before you see it.  Regardless if a church is 5, 10, 50, or 100 years old, there is always the need to write a new chapter.  My friend Ike Reighard says that we should re-invent ourselves every 3-4 years.  No doubt about it!  Ben Arment says this: 

“The enemy of innovation is success.  Even the most creative people are tempted to stop being innovative when their ideas become successful. They subconsciously create a rule that says, ‘This idea worked, so don’t do it differently.’ They “rubber-stamp” instead of “re-create.” I’ll say this as clearly as I can: If you are executing the same creative ideas you did last year because they worked, you are already on the decline.”

For instance, if you are a 5 year-old plant, or a 25 year-old established church, there needs to be adjustment along the way to stay effective.  For some it means to re-brand, re-name, re-locate, re-start, or re-plant.  I’ve done all of these and it works!  Gary Lamb, in Canton, Georgia, started a church with one name and a few years in, re-named the church.  It changes the whole concept for another launching of the same church.  There is such a thing as adopting a brand new DNA.  My friend Chad Clemons, lead pastor of Anthem Church in Gainesville, FL, relocated his church from the north part of the county and merged with the church I pastored, and is experiencing his finest hour as a six year old church!  It’s fresh!  It’s like starting all over again, except this time, the foundation is much stronger.  I’ve noticed that we all get comfortable along the way, and our personal creativity of good ideas have become our own sacred cows, just like the ones we led our church away from in the beginning.  What kind of radical decisions and leadership do you need to give for your church to excel like it did when you arrived?  Do you feel you are too old for this?  Do you need to tear out what you implemented because it is dated?  Are you afraid of what people may think of you if you kill your own creations?  It’s understandable, but lives are disinterested in our churches as they are, for the most part.  You may need to publicly re-engineer your church even if it’s for something you said you would never do. Trust me, you will be engraved with another dimension of admiration and respect from the people you lead and love so much.  It’s in you!  Go do it again!