Tag Archive: leadership

The Minister Disconnect – An Interview with Eric Geiger

Until Eric Geiger’s move to Lifeway just over two years ago, Eric had spent his career serving as a minister in the local church. With God’s blessing clearly evident on the work Eric was doing, he most recently served as an executive and teaching pastor at Christ Fellowship in the Miami area.

Now Eric ministers to ministers as a Lifeway Vice-President, and leads its Church Resources Division. Through that role, his influence in leadership, speaking, and writing has reached evangelical Christians serving churches, both as paid staff and volunteers.

Eric has not given up his love for or service to the local church since being at Lifeway. He continues to serve the local church in interim and volunteer roles. However, a new position, outside of the day-to-day work of local church ministry has provided Eric a different perspective. Once having the perspective of a church minister, now he has one more similar to a church members’ view of the church and its ministers.

I recently interviewed Eric about the misunderstandings that ministers and church members have of each other and what advice Eric has on how each group can better understand each other, for the purpose of working more synergistically.

My questions are in bold, followed by his responses:

Now that you’ve stepped away from full-time local church leadership, has your perspective changed regarding church leadership?

In some sense, my perspective has changed because I interact more regularly with local expressions of the body of Christ in more locations than I did while serving exclusively in one church. Through that lens, I see more and more how each church is unique because the local communities are unique and diverse. At the same time, I also have more firmly realized that many issues are not unique at all. For example:

People need the gospel preached to their hearts continually.
Churches must develop their leaders or the body won’t be as mature as she should be.
Healthy leaders lead healthy churches.
Churches must move people to participate with one another in community, not just merely attend and associate with one another.

So I have a sense that churches are unique in some ways and a stronger view that many important aspects of church life are not unique at all.

How are ministers often misread or misrepresented by members within the church?

I don’t think it is possible to know fully the burden that ministers carry—a blessed burden, but a burden nonetheless—unless you have served as a minister. Because of that, I think some church members at every church will saddle the ministers with expectations that are completely unrealistic and unhealthy.

What do church ministers most often misread or misunderstand about church members?

As I interact with people who don’t see me as “a pastor at that church,” I realize more and more how little the average person who attends church thinks about church throughout the week.

The implication for me in this observation is that church leaders are wise to give simple and clear direction about what the church is about and where the church is headed. Over-communicate the important things. People are bombarded with a plethora of messages, so give clarity of mission and clarity of direction.

What advice would you give ministers to help them better understand the average person in the church?

Smell like sheep. Be among people.

What are the biggest needs of church ministry leaders?

Training is going to be a continually increasing need for church leaders, for at least two reasons:

(1) Churches are more frequently hiring from within the church. They are hiring people who have not served in full-time ministry before and have not received formal ministerial education. These churches will need to develop leadership development pathways for the new staff members they bring on the team.

(2) Ministry is becoming more and more specific in terms of the needs that people in the congregations face, and many ministers have no specific training around the new challenges facing churches today.

Healthy churches will not only have trained ministers, but they will have trained ministers who excel in training all of God’s people for ministry (Ephesians 4:11-13).

I am grateful for Eric’s time and wisdom, and if by chance you don’t know about Eric, his books, read his blog or follow him by Twitter, I highly recommend that you do–you won’t be disappointed.

Leadership and Art — A resource

Throughout my life, there’ve been many people who have positively influenced my work in the local church. My dad was the first (serving as pastor), and I’ve continued to be around great people all my life who have served as supervisors and mentors. The last two years I’ve been influenced by Jim Baker (@SacredStructures).

Jim was serving at Brentwood Baptist as Executive Pastor when I first became connected with them. The context of my first interaction with Jim was this discussion: the idea that I might come and serve alongside him at the church. In that first conversation, he began to teach me.

For almost two years, I’ve had a front-row seat to witness his excellent leadership. Selfishly, I’ve enjoyed being the primary focus of his development. But now I’m going to have to share him. Jim and his wife (Lisa) are beginning a new adventure, where they can enjoy some of retirement’s benefits while devoting more time to things they love… art, and the development of others.

Lisa will continue her ministry as a spiritual coach (The Sacred Within), and Jim has begun a ministry called ‘Sacred Structures’. (One element of Jim’s ministry is his art… and not just any art. Trust me – you should see what he can do with biblical metaphors.)

With the launch of ‘Sacred Structures’, Jim now will have the ability to influence even more churches through consulting. Like Jim himself, his website hosts a vast array of resources. If you serve a church and want to improve as a spiritual leader, I suggest at a minimum that you check out his website.

I’ve benefited greatly from Jim’s influence, and I hope he can have a similar influence on you.

Jim’s website: Sacred Structures, Organizational Tools and Resources for Minister and the Churches they serve.

It's Not Cheating! It's Collaboration

Collaboration isn’t cheating. I blame my school system for misleading me for so long.

In one of the first TED conference talks, Englishmen Sir Ken Robinson spoke on the future of education. He stated that what schools prohibit and call “cheating” is most often called “collaboration” in the workplace.

Embarrassingly, from grades 6-10, I cheated in school. I had some elaborate cheating techniques, which I’ll provide to readers for a price. But it didn’t get me very far.

The $2 for lunch money I paid my smart friends to do my math homework worked really well until test time. I got an F which meant ineligibility for sports, detention more than once, and of course, grounding. (Meanwhile, the recipient of my $2 daily, Eric Stenner had plenty of money for baseball cards and ice cream sandwiches)

Those cheating techniques aren’t very transferrable to what I consider collaboration in my current work environment. I’ve discovered that having multiple brains is better than having just one.

You’re missing out if you don’t collaborate. Invite think tanks, solicit feedback, and request borrowed perception from others.

In a team environment, it’s not about getting credit or really even giving credit. If it’s mutually understood as a value, your church or organization will be better for it.

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