What I Have Enjoyed Most

I was team leader with our mission organization in Chile and have served as Lead Pastor with three different local churches (KMEFC, Summit and ECF). Recently, Pam and I were discussing the unique joys and challenges of senior leadership. Every ministry role has its own set of nuances.

However, since I’ve spent most of my life in the “first chair,” this is what I’m most familiar with. With this in mind, in this blog, I would like to share what I’ve most enjoyed in my role as a senior leader. In my next blog, I’ll share the greatest challenges that I’ve faced.

Without doubt, what I have most enjoyed as a senior leader has been seeing God’s vision for what could be in the future and then marshalling people and resources to accomplish that vision. By God’s grace, this happened in Chile and it’s happened in the three churches I have served. It’s a source of profound joy for me to visualize life-changing ministry that currently does not exist and then lead God’s people forward to create that ministry.

I am thoroughly enjoying this, again, as Lead Pastor at English Christian Fellowship. The initial months of our ministry in Costa Rica were not promising. When we began in August, 2021, the handful of faithful church members were discouraged and tired. Even Pam and I were not certain what the future would hold.

However, as time passed, we became increasingly aware that there were tens of thousands of English speakers in our area. As people began to trickle through our doors, we saw a clear trend. Most of our guests were English-speaking formerly active Christ followers who had been distanced from church and Christian community for many years. And they were hungry to make healthy new friends and yearned for a grace-filled, Jesus-centered fellowship.

Eventually, God made clear to us that he genuinely desired ECF to become a thriving healthy fellowship. I’m not sure if God’s plan is for ECF to become a church of thousands, but I am very certain that it’s his plan for ECF to become a church of many hundreds. I can see that vision as clear as my hand in front of me. And it’s my current joy to cast that vision to ECF’s leadership and congregation. 

Dreams and visions are my wheelhouse. Having dreams and visions about what could become realities, and then leading people to accomplish those dreams, is what I most enjoy about being a senior leader.

A close second would be creating culture. Another way to say this is that I have enjoyed setting the DNA of the organizations I’ve launched (or relaunched in ECF’s case). Over time (right, wrong, or indifferent) a ministry will begin to reflect the values and heartbeat of the senior leader. To me, this is both humbling and inspiring. This is humbling because I know all to well my own brokenness.

But it’s also inspiring for me. In the organizations I’ve had the honor to build from the ground up, we have had mostly healthy teams, that mostly loved well, that mostly cared deeply for people and that mostly were grace-filled. I chose to insert “mostly” in each of those statements because no faith organization is perfect. And the ministries that I’ve led have not been perfect either.  But, for the most part, they have been healthy, humble and Jesus-centered. This has been rewarding for me as a senior leader. I have thoroughly enjoyed setting the DNA for the ministries I’ve launched.

A third thing that has been life-giving for me as a senior leader has been the opportunity to call people into vocational ministry. Throughout the years in my role as a “first chair” leader, I’ve been able to identify gifts and talents in people that could be leveraged for the cause of Christ and, then, open doors for those individuals to step into full-time ministry. 15 people come to mind quickly. Many of them are still serving faithfully in Chile and in various locations throughout the USA.

It has also been a joy to see the ripple affect continue long after I stepped aside as senior leader. When we arrived “wet behind the ears” in Chile in May, 1982, we had no idea that forty-one years later a thriving national church would still be lifting high the banner for Jesus. It’s been almost two years since we stepped down at Summit and, by God’s grace, the church is enjoying its most fruitful season ever of ministry.

Last but not least, as a senior leader, it has also been a blessing to know that I have made a small difference for the cause of Christ. Long before I was a Jesus-follower, I was captivated by the song “Impossible Dream.” As an adolescent, when I was alone where no one could hear me, I would sing in my “outside voice” about “marching into hell for a heavenly cause.” Eventually, I fell in love with Jesus and better understood what that meant.

As a senior leader for most of my ministry career, it has been an honor to try to live this out. I realize that the world is still filled with hate, injustice and pain. But in a tiny way, in a few neighborhoods here and there around the world, as a senior leader, I think I have made a difference. And that is supremely rewarding.

In next week’s blog I will share the greatest challenges.