Pastor Paul Chappell Spiritual Leadership Podcast—How to be a Team-Building Leader part 1

welcome to the spiritual leadership podcast with pastor Paul chaplain pastor of Lancaster Baptist Church and founder and president of West Coast Baptist College thank you for joining us today on the spiritual leadership podcast and I appreciate the great response that we have from last night's podcast and I appreciate men and women who desire to be spiritual leaders people that are working in ministry who have a heart to see God move in your ministry the Bible says if we walk in the spirit will not fulfill the lust of the flesh and certainly it's not by our mind or our power but by the power of the Holy Spirit that ministry is done and also want to say thanks for the great questions that were sent in last month if you have questions about spiritual ministry and local church ministry let me encourage you to send those in to QA at Lancaster Baptist dot org and here at Lancaster Baptist Church in West Coast Baptist College as well as striving together publications it's our heart to walk in the spirit and to serve alongside of you in these needy days and some of the questions that came in this last month were really indicative of the fact that the folks asking the questions are right in the trenches of ministry and so let me share some of those with you right now first of all someone said what is your process for planning out preaching developing the themes for the upcoming year and developing the texts and titles for the sermons and for me the process really involves three components number one involves prayer really getting the mind of God for where we are as a church where we are as a culture what would be most needed and helpful secondly it really requires a big picture with respect to planning a calendar and so I like to get away normally in the summertime in the latter part of July for probably a week or two and I'll normally have a week or two of vacation and then a week study I like to get all the cobwebs out and kind of get the stress out so my mind's more creative and during that time I'll look ahead to the new year and by that time I've normally chosen a theme for the year not everybody does this it's just something I enjoy doing we've had 30 different themes this year our theme is continue we've had themes like by faith we've had things like looking unto Jesus and so we choose that theme and then I will develop normally the January am messages January February March around that particular theme continue was a theme that was easy to adapt with respect to stewardship with respect to faithfulness in our families in our church around that theme have continued and I will normally choose the themes on the on the larger scale first before I get into the individual messages normally on Sunday night we're using a book study approach and so I've been preaching through first Timothy which has been fantastic Paul wanted the church to continue through the leadership of Timothy and so it's been a really great Bible preaching opportunity and then a Wednesday night we have normally a theme based study and this particular season of ministry this fall on Wednesday night is on the power of God and I'm doing some of the teachings some of our staff is sharing in that as well the power of God in creation the power of God in prophecy the power of God and inspiration and the power of God and revival and so I'll lay out that general theme so the theme of continue the theme of the power of God and then the the theme of expository preaching through a book on Sunday night once I have those big rocks in place I begin to go through the scriptures and search out the texts and study the text and my goal in the summer is to have every message chosen by text by title and a skeleton outline for the rest of the year and then also for the first six months of the new year to at least have a text and a title for each of those services sometimes I may not have it completely done for six months but normally always for the first three months of the new year so in August I'm setting specific themes and outlines for September through December and then also for the first quarter of the new year normally then after Christmas I'll take time between Christmas and New Year to three days to really refine where we're headed into the new year and then of course we're working on a weekly basis for those next sermons coming up in the next few weeks in the next few months so I think the key is prayer and then a planning calendar and then thirdly adjustments along the way sometimes something comes into society and you're not gonna stay in your series you're gonna preach a message to the issue of the hour so be sensitive to the Holy Spirit that's a little bit of my process I hope that helps and thanks for that great question the second question is how do you continue in ministry with the family that's going through some serious health issues and that's really a great question in fact in the last few weeks we've had a tremendous challenge with our grandson Chandler who's not quite 4 years old and came around a corner at home and slipped and fell and hit his head our kids Danielle and Peter and that call them our kids are in their 30s but they were questioning about whether to have a CT scan they went ahead and had the CT scan it revealed three broken areas of the skull and a blood clot emergency surgery followed and and what do you do when that happens I can tell you what I did I was in Michigan at 10:30 at night I asked the driver to take me back to the airport I prayed through the night at gate 76 that Detroiter National Airport I flew home went to the hospital and stayed there with my family through those very critical hours others preached the meeting that I was going to preach there and Saginaw Michigan the staff prepared the missions conference that was coming just around the corner at the church and I put put family first and I believe that's always the right thing to do now once you're out of the critical moment of that and your family members home I think it's at that point that you continue in ministry with help and with adjustments it may be another family member that helps you to visit the one that is ill it may be a godly deacon or deacons wife in the church that helps with certain appointments or prescriptions or even meals it may be that you study some at home in order to be close by but you must make the adjustments during that time and the tips that I would simply offer would be seek help don't be embarrassed or proud to ask for help be willing to adjust your work hours to be with your family and also be willing to cut back during a season and maybe have an assistant pastor preach the Wednesday night or whatever is is applicable in your situation finally someone has asked how do you get people accustomed to responding even to an altar call in a culture that really doesn't have altar calls and that's an interesting question because it deals also with the culture of our church here as a church that preaches and teaches with the response in mind so I would tell you how I face that issue it's number one I always preach praying for fruit and I preach for life change and commitment so I don't feel any kind of remorse for encouraging people to come and make a prayer of commitment by the same time I don't feel any kind of guilt for a smaller number of people sometimes coming because I believe many people are making decisions in their pews now when it comes to salvation I believe that an altar call specifically on the Sunday morning service is vital and I encourage people to come if they do not know that Christ as their Savior in heaven is their home because we have counselors ready to pray for them and and I just believe there's a measure of confrontational ISM that's involved with someone coming to Christ they need to be confronted with their sin and their need to turn to Christ many churches say if you have a question there's someone standing up here at the front often once that closing prayer is said and the majority people are walking out they don't come so I would just say consistently give people the opportunity to come sometimes the Holy Spirit is moving and many come sometimes the Holy Spirit is moving and few come the results are not really up to you faithfully preaching the Word of God is what we do and the Lord will bring the fruit as as he works and as people respond and so I would just say though it's not culturally normal remember that Christianity is counterculture everything we do calling people to Christ everything we do in the in the way of preaching it's countercultural so yes the altar call is something maybe of a previous generation but calling people to Christ is biblical so I encourage you to stay with that well we took a little time on those questions but I hope that helped and trust that someone else perhaps benefitted and today I want to share with you a lesson that I really believe is needed and I've just simply entitled it becoming a team building leader there's a lot of different kinds of leaders there are autocratic leaders there are my way or the highway leaders but really if you're going to get something done for good and for God you're gonna have to learn how to coalesce people together train and then deploy them out into the ministry one of my favorite passages that really deals with New Testament teamwork is found in 1st Corinthians 3:9 which says for we are laborers together with God ye are God's husbandry ye are God's building according to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise masterbuilder I have laid the foundation and another buildeth thereon but let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ now think about that phrase take heed how he buildeth thereon and I want you to realize that it is God's church it's his habitation it's his building and we're told to take heed as to how we build upon this foundation and so becoming a team building leader is vital in and keeping unity amongst our leaders is vital I heard about a husband and wife who were talking and the fella said to his wife he said you know honey I'd really like to move up to Alaska and maybe just start a new life there and he kept talking about what it would be like to live there without electricity and with his his dogs and animals and he talked about the hunting for moose and driving a sled of dogs instead of a car and and he said to his wife he said if we decided to live there permanently what is it about our modern civilization that you would miss the most and she looked at her husband and she said you and I think there's a lot of people that they're doing work in ministry they're there together physically but they're not real to get together in heart and and I want to talk with you today about how to maintain the teamwork aspect you know the first Sunday I preached in ministry here 30 years ago I preached from Philippians 1:27 which says with one spirit and one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel just last night dr. Dan Sisk was speaking at our church and spoke about the unity in the church and and we have not always had that we've had rough patches but we've always had a goal to have a team building concept and a unity within the church and so I want to take these few moments today and give you the first part and next month's podcast we'll go to part two but the first part of this lesson on being a team building leader and I want to say this spiritual leaders build teams spiritual leaders build teams spirit lead leaders build teams the Bible says in Galatians 5:16 this I say then walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh and Ephesians 5:18 be not drunk with wine where does excess but be filled with the spirit spiritual leaders are not engrossed with self their greatest passion is to exalt Christ and to build for Christ spiritual leaders desire to see God at work in the lives of people they delight in the success of others spiritual leaders seek reconciliation fleshly insecure leaders prefer sparring they prefer splitting they prefer proving themselves they call you out on the internet but a spiritual leader would rather go to a brother one on one and say how can we maintain the unity that's needed for revival spiritual leaders don't care who gets the credit and one mark of a proud selfish leader is that he cannot be happy with the success of someone else so when you're talking about spirit-led leaders you're talking about people who walk in humility and who desire the furtherance of the work of God irrespective of who gets that credit and that's why we're commanded to walk in the spirit that we do not fulfill the lust of the flesh you show me a staff without unity you show me a church without unity there's flesh all over the place as opposed to the evidence of the holy spirit so spirit-led leaders are gonna build teams secondly servant hearted leaders build teams now if the dominant theme of leadership in a ministry is controlling others rather than serving others then there's going to be a spirit in that ministry that is defeatist and oftentimes goals are not being met with the joy of the Lord and and oftentimes we look at the life of the Apostle Paul and we can learn from him how to be strong and contend for the faith but also how to lovingly lead people listen to this 1st Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 7 but we were gentle among you even as a nurse cherisheth her children so being affectionately desirous of you we were willing to impart unto you not the gospel of God only but our own souls because you were dear unto us don't think about that does your team sense that you're just givin them the instructions or from your heart are you treating them as dear unto you in the process did they sense the love of the Lord and leaders really will see in their team the very behavior that they exhibit so if you exhibit servant hearted leadership and compassion you're gonna have a heart in that team that's doing something great for God you can serve your team by teaching them by caring for them rewarding them sometimes by confronting them when things are not properly done you can serve them in many ways but spirit lead leaders and servant hearted leaders build strong teams thirdly we need leaders that are restorative leaders restorative leaders you see when it comes to working with teams problems come up people misunderstand they don't perceive properly sometimes there's just not a good chemistry and we must be the change agents that are willing to go in there and the power of the Holy Spirit and seek restoration now listen to this very carefully God is more interested in restoration than he is in assigning blame now in a carnal staff member carnold church member they want to just say he's wrong I'm right God's not keeping score like that he wants unity in his church and a spiritual leader is seeking to restore at all times and so a spirit-led leader a servant hearted leader a restorative leader and then this leader that's building this team must be a visionary leader we must be showing the way godly leaders know the way they go the way and they show the way and we've got to give that vision we must give a vision that is a preferred mental picture of the biblical future proverbs 29:18 where there is no vision the people perish and you can study that word vision it really refers to biblical understanding we've got to get God's mind on the matter of youth ministry God's mind on the matter of Sunday school and we've got to cast out that vision we've got to give a vision for a faith that's in action first Thessalonians one and three your work of faith your labor of love and so it's vital that spiritual leaders are building teams with these concepts in mind I want to be a spiritual leader that is walking in the spirit that is serving that is restorative and that is sharing the vision with my team and as you're practicing these four principles you'll begin to see a change in the heart of your team and it is a spiritual leader who says I want to build this team for the glory of God not self so those are some early thoughts on what it means to build a team in the local church our first thought today spiritual leaders build teams I hope something I said today will help you to approach a meeting even today a little bit differently in the spirit as a servant with the heart to restore and a heart for godly vision and may God bless you as you do that for his glory we look forward to visiting with you again on spiritual leadership podcast next month as we continue this topic of building spiritual teams have a great day we trust you enjoyed this episode of spiritual leadership podcast if there's a question or topic you would like pastor Chapel to address in future episodes send an email to QA and Lancaster Baptists org hello my name is John guy and I'm one of the assistant pastors in Lancaster Baptist Church and we would love to invite you to join pastor Paul Chapel dr. R viola and other ministry friends from around the world to enjoy a 7-night cruise to Alaska full of encouraging fellowship and great preaching majestic sites unforgettable experiences and encouraging music from Ron and Shelley Hamilton cruise dates are July 29th through August 5th 2017 visit w cbc edu for more information

Channel: Paul Chappell

Views: 1,337

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Id: SYmCdDDJ99c

Length: 20min 3sec (1203 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 04 2016