Leadership Pain Series

Topic: My topic today is Leadership pain – I knew we would have a lot of young people going into the ministry and the number 1 lesson I feel you need to hear is on this subject!

My message is based out of three books today – I highly encourage you to read all three of these books to prepare for ministry!

Highlight three books:

Leadership Pain by Samuel Chand

Insanity of God by Nik Ripken

Spiritual Leadership by Blackaby

Teaching on Leadership Pain! FCA leaders meeting

Our theme this year is Come Alive in 2025. It is based out of Ezekiel 37:4-10:

4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! 5 This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breatha enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’ ” 7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. 9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ ” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.

Introduction:

Power Point 1

Quote: “You’ll grow only to the threshold of your pain! To grow more, raise your threshold.”

Quote: “Leadership is a magnet for pain!”

Thesis: Leadership pain is the school of personal growth and ministry growth – you will enroll in it when you start leading! You may not like the lessons which roll into and out of your life but you must learn pain management to be a successful leader in the Kingdom!

Introduction:

I heard a song at IHOP Kansas City a few years ago while I was there for a prayer retreat- I was in the prayer room when a spontaneous song broke out and this is what they started singing: “Pain is the school to growth – growth is the lesson of pain” – But this is why it’s called “Growing pains.” I laughed as I was praying and listening to this song – I thought how true and then reflected on this leadership discussion I was leading for the FCA today.

I wonder how many FCA pastors have been dealing with leadership pain factors this last year – even currently or something from the past?

I remember graduating from Bible College and being ready to save the world and not realizing the pain of leadership in front of me. I did not know “You’ll grow only to the threshold of your pain.”

My first church was in Mn a small town of about 250 people. The first year and a ½ the church grew – we started a Royal Rangers/Missionettes program which had around 40 kids in it (prior they only had a few kids in their kids programs), I approached the public school about releasing to us grades k-6th grade to us on Fridays for Release time for 2 hours – they agreed we had over a 60-70 kids – we were teaching the kids Bible and things were off to a great start. But then leadership pain hit at about 1 ½ year mark – at the time I did not understand that pain could and would lead to spiritual growth and ministry growth. I did not realize pain came with leading.

As I was leading my first church – seeing so much fruit – others on the leadership team saw my flaws – so a meeting was called by an Elder and Deacon his wife (both on the board) and I came into the meeting thinking they are going to tell how great everything is going – but instead they produced a yellow legal pad filled with over 100 things that were wrong with my leadership and my pastoral ministry! I was blown away – stunned – in shock– as I was starring at the yellow pad filled with my faults numbered 1-100 – I was thinking this is not how leadership is supposed to go! This hurts!

Here were some of my faults if you were wondering: I was criticized for having the heat to warm in the parsonage – I was criticized for not appeasing all the people in the church by making them happy – For example: I was not posting in the paper when I preached on tithing so those who disagreed with it could stay home. I was wrong for not telling the newspaper all the people we had over at our house for dinner – I was to Holy Spirit minded and offending people who do not believe in the Holy Spirit – I was too busy doing the other young ministries and not focusing enough on the older people! The list went on and on – then they attacked my wife - so I looked at the leadership and I quit.