Church Leadership Takeaways from Summit 2019

As attendees gathered for day two of Summit, church leaders came refreshed, inspired, and excited to share what they learned—and even more excited to put it into action back at home.

As we wrap-up day two of the conference, we’re thankful for the amazing line-up of speakers that delivered meaningful messages and insights to help churches thrive and better nurture community engagement. Here are some of the key highlights and takeaways from the day…

Leadership Challenges Everyone Faces

Carey Nieuwhof, author and founding pastor of Connexus Church, kicked off the morning keynote discussing his new book, Didn’t See It Coming: Overcoming the Seven Greatest Challenges That No One Expects and Everyone Experiences. As the name suggests, it focuses on the seven success killers to becoming a great leader. The group was captivated by his enthusiasm and practical insights, and it was hard not to be as he unveiled the seven leadership success killers to the crowd: Burnout, disconnection, pride, compromise, irrelevance, emptiness, and cynicism.

Carey painted a picture of the challenges our church leaders are facing today and the complex demands of today’s digital era. He claims that ‘burnout is a new epidemic,’ and that we as leaders need to cut through the noise in order to remain refreshed and revived. That’s the only way leaders can sustainably serve their communities well.

Lead from your heart, soul, mind, and strength

Jenni Catron, CEO and founder of The 4Sight Group led a break-out session in the morning on the four dimensions of extraordinary leadership. She shared her story in ministry and what led her to where she is today. Simply put, it was God. In faith and spending countless hours reading scripture through a leadership lens, Jenni has invested time in learning from our most fearless leader—Jesus.

She looked to Mark 12:30 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength,” and drew parallels from scripture to how we should lead as today’s stewards of faith. She believes that leadership is sacred work and it’s our responsibility to invest in becoming effective leaders through our…

Heart: Intentional relationships
Soul: Spiritual awareness
Mind: Wise counsel
Strength: Relentless vision

Jenni focused on a concept from author John Maxwell who says “leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less.” She challenged that if leadership is about serving others, we need to lead ourselves well so we are equipped to lead others and that when leaders have a healthy understanding of leadership, that leads to having healthy teams.

“I believe that you were made to influence the world in a way that no one else can.”

—Jenni Catron, CEO and founder of The 4Sight Group

The Future of Church in a Digital Disruption

Respected pastors and evangelists Clay Scroggins, lead pastor of North Point, and Bobby Gruenewald, pastor and innovation leader of Lifechurch.tv delivered the closing keynote for a memorable end to the conference. They provided an optimistic look at being a church amidst today’s digital disruption.

“If we want to reach people that no one else is reaching, we have to do things that no one else is doing.”

—Bobby Gruenewald, pastor and innovation leader of Lifechurch.tv

Bobby challenges that the purpose of creating online church was not to connect people to content. Rather, it was created to connect people to community. We are in an era where the model for Sunday service has changed. People have prioritized convenience over community and churches are falling behind. You and the other leaders in the room are now tasked to meet the challenge of a distracted, convenience-hungry audience and nurture them into true, Biblical community.

As leaders in ministry, we often put our personal development and growth on the backburner as we focus on supporting the development of others. Though noble, it means many leaders are burned out and struggling to stay engaged. Your leaders deserve more; your church deserves more.

Stay tuned for video recordings of the Summit keynote and breakout sessions coming to you in the weeks ahead. We exist to serve the Church and are excited to share some world-class resources with you and your team.

Or maybe your leadership team is healthy and everything mentioned above is common knowledge on your staff. Great! Be sure to check out our free book, 7 Ways To Beat Church Decline today and discover how, other than well-equipped leadership, churches are encouraging healthy, sustainable growth in an era of decline.