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Have you wished
you had access to a personal life, leadership, or ministry coach?
Are you at an impasse with your staff?
Are you
having difficulty getting your leadership to understand your vision?
Could you benefit from a trained person to help
define a strategic plan?
Could a fresh pair of eyes help bring clarity to your situation?
Perhaps you have said,
"If I just had someone who could help me understand this..."
Dr. Shane L. Johnson has worked with over 7,000
current and emerging leaders, consulting and training clients in leadership strategies ...
- Providing leaders
with an innovative process to move beyond difficult situations
- Processing leadership fundamentals in a leader's life
and ministry through one-on-one coaching
- Personal development strategy for goal setting, priorities, time management,
balance...
- Re-examining mindsets and techniques for church ministries and para-church organizations, church leaders
and congregational members...
- Local congregations
- Clergy associations
- College and seminary groups
- Denominational leaders
- Leadership networks
- Ecclesiastical judicatories...
Dr. Johnson works on
both a short and long term basis with church and para-church leaders and congregations, helping to explore expectations and
define areas of need, resulting in facilitation to meet your goals in areas like...
- Leadership training
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Board development
- Skill development
- Facilitating change
- Conflict resolution
- Transition
- Assessment and planning
- Staffing and team building
- Personal life, leadership and ministry coaching
- Other needs specific to your situation...
Barnabas Consulting...promoting balanced living for leaders and
church health.
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FAQs
Q- What are some of the more common issues you deal
with as a leadership and church consultant?
A- Unfortunately, sexual sin and dysfunction is more common than it should
be, among both church and secular leaders. the easy access of internet pornography, and lack of biblically balanced teaching
on sexuality leads to issues which, left unaddressed,are wreaking havoc among leaders today. Church and parachurch conflict
is another common issue. A third would be a need for coaching in general leadership areas such as time and stress management,
communication skills and balance issues.
Q- I've been in my current leadership context for some time now, with little
positive change. What am I doing wrong? Does everything rise and fall on leadership?
A- You may not necessarily be
doing anything "wrong" per se. Indeed, if everything rose and fell on leadership, then Moses would be at fault for Isreal's
40 years in the wilderness, and Paul would be at fault for the carnality of Corinth. One does not become the leader of any
group over night. It takes time, good decisions and wisdom. According to Dr. Richard D. Dobbins, "wisdom is the product
of good decisions, which is the product of experience, which is the product of bad decisions." Part of a good leadership
philosophy involves owning and then addressing your own shortcomings as a leader, and politely refusing to own those shortcomings
belonging to others.
Additionally, there is nothing the shepherd can do which will overcome what the sheep will
not do. What does this mean? Spritual leaders can and should cast vision, speak the truth in love, and care for the flock,
but those leaders cannot force followership. Sometimes a leader is most like a biblical leader when he/she is standing alone
on biblical principle. The prophets, Jesus and Paul all modeled this.
Q- There is so much literature today regarding
success and leadership. How do I know what to believe?
A- A Christian paradigm of leadership needs to start with Scripture,
not sports or business analogies. There were those in the Bible who would not be read or followed today for thier leadership
prowess, but who nonetheless were, in a word, faithful. Success, from a Biblical perspective, is doing the right thing over
an extended period of time. Can we learn good leadership fundamentals from the sports or business worlds? Of course- "all
truth is God's truth." (Arthur Holmes) But we need to lay these methods and values against the template of the Word.
Q-
As a Christian leader, how do I know what my priorites should be?
A- Picture a target in your mind. Your most important
relationship needs to be your relationship with your Lord. This is represented by that innermost ring, the bullseye. Your
second most important relationship needs to be your relationship with your spouse. Your third most important relationship
needs to be your relationship with your children. Your forth most important relationship needs to be your ministry/work.
Naturally, you will spend more time at work (ideally, no more than about 50 hours a week), but in order of importance and
prioritization, you need to think from the innermost ring to the outermost ring, in that order. Show me a leader who loves
work more than children, children more than spouse, or spouse more than Lord, and I'll show you a leader whose priorities
are misplaced.
Q- How can I make my church or group grow?
A- You would be far better off to think in terms of
church or group health rather than growth. Much growth in the American church today is not really growth at all, but rather
tranfer from one group to another. What constitutes church health? The latter portions of Acts two indicate the ways in
which the church was loving and ministering to each other-- all signs of health. Further, the leader must ask him/herself,
"why do I want my group to grow?" Often our desire for "growth" is rooted ultimately in ego. Bigger is not better, bigger
is more. More can be better, but it is not necessarily so. Jesus spent 3 1/2 years pouring His life into the lives of only
12 men. A numerical success? No, but He still changed the world.
Q- I feel overwhelmed with the pressures of leadership--
what should I do?
A- It sounds like it might be time for some serious evaluation. Stephen Covey reminds us that there
is a difference between the urgent and the important. Many leaders today give themselves to the urgent, which is a never
ending cycle, and quite often not all that importnant. The goal is to move toward a lifestyle that spends more time with
the important and less time with the urgent. The urgent will always be there, but the more time we spend giving ourselves
to the important (what Covey calls quadrant two living), the less our time will be consumed by running from one "crisis" to
another.
Q- I'm a bivocational pastor, and feel frustrated and less "successful" than other, full-time pastors. What
can I do to change my situtation?
A- No doubt, you could get more done in ministry were you "full time." However,
Jesus was a carpenter and Paul made tents. Were they "less effective" in ministry because they happened to work a "secular"
job along with thier ministry? There are many clergy today who have never earned a living apart from ministry. If this group
is not careful, thier worldview can be rather narrrow. Often, a pastor who has never had to work apart from the ministry
does not know the frustrations of commuting, home maintenance, or juggling ministry/work/home obligations. In sum, being
bivocational is nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, the bivocational pastor can and does have a visceral feel for the secular
workplace that the "fulltime" pastor might not have.
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