When people combine passion with their Spiritual gifts, they will joyfully serve in Gift Oriented Ministry. Scripture teaches that the Holy Spirit gives each believer, at his/her point of surrender to Christ, special giftings to assist in carrying out the work of God, Spiritual Gifts. I believe at that same moment, we are instilled with a passion to serve God.

This passion may change some with age, but we always have a passion to serve God through serving others. Example of a change in passion; At one point in your life, you may have a strong passion to work with teenagers. Later in life, you find that your passion has shifted and you long to help young adults starting families, or senior adults. Passion may shift, your gifting does not.

Depending on the circumstances God may elevate certain aspects of your gifting to meet the needs of your congregation and community, but He never scraps your giftings to start over. There have been times in my life where teaching was my primary gift called upon. Other times God needed to elevate my Administrative gifting to meet the needs of my church or organization.

Leading about forty people from one church through a series of self-assessments and realizing over half the members in the room had the gift of Discernment as their number one or two Spiritual gifts, I was asked, “Why is it so many of us have the gift of Discernment?” Knowing the church had recently come through a difficult season, I asked them to reflect on their recent past. “What have you experienced?” Within a few seconds they began to realize, God had elevated the gift of Discernment to help them through the tough time.

A particular role of church leadership is always to assist members in identifying individual Spiritual gifts and connecting each person to ministries that align with those Spiritual gifts. When that connection is made people will gladly serve out of a God-given passion. This is not to be left to the pastor alone. There are people in each congregation gifted to assist the church in this alignment process.

Gift Oriented Ministry happens when people properly align their Spiritual gifts with particular ministry endeavors. Your passions will always align with what you are gifted to do. If you are not gifted to serve a particular ministry, you will not be passionate about serving. Yet, when all three are aligned, Joyous will be experienced. God gives us Spiritual gifts to serve, He gives us ministry opportunities to serve, and He gives us a passion to serve. All so we can experience the Joy that only comes from God.

Combining these three, Spiritual gifts, ministry opportunities, and passion, will eradicate the term sourpuss Christian. You cannot be unhappy when you are serving through what you are gifted to do through ministry opportunities to others with passion. The only thing you can experience is God-delivered Joy. If you’re using any other method of ministry, you’re missing out.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

Have you ever wondered what makes some leaders excel and others flounder or simply plod along? I have written several articles over the years on this subject. Some of them you can find on this blog page. Today, I want to point you to another man’s writing and encourage you to read his book on the subject. Patrick Lencioni has written several books on leadership and organizational health.  One of those is The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive[i].

The book is a great read (or listen) for all leaders and gives notable  insight to becoming a leader that excels. To entice you to read (or listen) to the book, and to honor copyright laws, I will not list his four obsessions that effective leaders observe, but I will give a hint to what those obsessions may require.

1, It will require work, dedication, and commitment. But not work as usual and not by one person alone. It requires creating a specific culture, starting at the top and filtering all the way through the corporation/church.

2, As Thom Rainer wrote in Simple Church, Clarity is a key obsession of the church culture which excels. Without an understanding of clarity throughout the church, unity cannot be achieved. Without unity, God’s best can never be reached.

3, Myself and many others have written about overcommunicating. You can never communicate too much. In retail management by the time an ad reached the sales floor, I had been reviewing it for six months. I was tired of seeing it and each of the products in it. Yet, I had to remember the sales team had only recently learned of it. When you think you’ve communicated a subject enough, you’ve only just begun.

4, Reiteration of the key components of your core values must be continual. What’s important to the church and why must be continually communicated with meaning, not like a commercial that repeats itself every five minutes. Sales pitches get old quick. But reiterating key components of the church’s mission must always be delivered with compassion.

As I have written before and as Lencioni writes in his book, this is not to puff you up but to assist you in becoming a more effective leader championing a greater Great Commission church. Be certain of what you are obsessing over.

Pick up your copy of The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive and read it to improve not only your leadership, but also the Great Commission effectiveness of your church.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

[i] The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive, Author, Patrick Lencioni, Jossey Bass, August 2000

It matters not what position you hold or where you serve, your adversary is always looking to distract and misdirect you. When attempting to do God’s work, God’s way, you will be reminded (by the adversary) that you are not good enough. With a desire to lead their church to be a more praying church Pastor’s often hear, “You hypocrite, who are you to…Your prayer life is not…”

In writing a sermon, we hear similar thoughts. Yet, every Bible study teacher and every preacher must wrestle with the truth they are preparing to teach, before they can openly present it to their audience. Expect the adversary to be there whispering in your ear of your weaknesses and failures.

A billboard once read, “If your day is too busy, don’t worry about doing your devotion, one day won’t hurt…signed the devil”

Our adversary works overtime trying to distract us and to dissuade us (leader and members) from carrying out our obligation to Christ. Distraction and deceit are perhaps the two biggest lies used to hinder God’s people in God’s work.

We do well to remember every journey, no matter how long, is accomplished one step at a time. Take courage in realizing it is not the journey completed that is our task, but to put one foot in front of the other one step at a time. It is not the completion of the journey that should obsess us today, rather it is how we take the next step.

With that in mind it is good to lay out the journey in steps. If traveling from Roanoke, VA to San Diego, CA, you cannot drive it in one day. Break the journey into steps. What can we reasonably do in one day (month, year)? What stops will we need or want to make along the way? What can we do ahead of time to prepare for obstacles that may arise?

Know that each one of these steps can be thwarted by the deceiver in an attempt to distract you and even take you off course.

Regarding that devotion time mentioned above, by beginning your day with Christ in prayer and devotion, you are inviting our Lord to start the day and walk beside you, and He will help make smooth the path in front of you. Smoother than the days we begin without Him.

Rely on your scripture memorization to reject negative thoughts and lies of deceit and distraction throughout the day. When the enemy plants thoughts in your mind, he can control your mind, attitude, and results for your day. Choose rather to believe and think on the greatness of God and His truth planted in your heart and mind.

“Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.” Phil.4:8

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

Ephesians 5:18-21 – The broad stroke application of this section of Paul’s letter is for believers to live as wise men. Not in the wisdom of worldly thought, but with the wisdom of God through His Holy Spirit.

In Latin, Paul would say Carpe-diem, seize the day. Not for your pleasures and desires, but for Christ who suffered and died for us to overcome the evil around us. Rescue the time as best we can from the evil functions in this world.

All men have a desire to be filled with something. God created us with this desire to be filled pursuing Him, to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Paul draws a contrast between the pagan and Christian assemblies. The unbeliever finds his pleasure in drunkenness & worldly pleasures. The Christian, on the other hand, finds his pleasure and joy in being filled with the Holy Spirit.

We see three characteristics of the early church being filled with the Holy Spirit in this passage.

1, The early church was a singing church. They sang psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. The early church experienced a Joy that made them sing. Not only happiness but Joy.

Verse 19 says speaking to one another in…Not only in their worship to God, they were encouraging one another with psalms, songs, and spiritual poetry -throughout the week.

Men, we need to lead the way. When your children (of any age) see you not singing, they see an example of something that “must not be necessary”. Sing, speak, praise God, and edify one another through psalms, singing, and speaking words of encouragement all week long.

2, The early church was a thankful church. The instinct was to give thanks to God for everything in their lives. “The early church was a thankful church because it was still dazzled with the wonder that God’s love had stopped to save them;” They were also a thankful body because every member had such a consciousness of being “in the hand of God”. “No man can pluck them from my Father’s hand.” (John 10:28)

How conscious are you of being continuously “in the very hand of God”? Are you dazzled?

3, The early church was a group of people with mutual respect and honored one another. Paul states that this mutual honor and respect was due to their reverence of Christ and His sacrifice for every believer.

They recognized each other not in light of their status in the church or society, but in the light of Christ. Since Christ died for that man/woman, we must recognize the dignity of every man/woman brother and Sister in Christ.

“Neglecting these biblical truths, believers will fail to experience the Spirit-empowered and fruitful lives God intends for His children,” Let’s pray this week to lead Holy Spirit filled lives and churches.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

I have never met a person who entered ministry to be a manager. Have you ever heard anyone say one of the following: “I want to be in ministry so I can manage people.” or “I think ministry is right for me because I want to manage programs and facilities.”

My guess is, you’ve never heard these or similar statements because no one enters the ministry to be a manager. Rather, a ministry calling involves the desire to lead; leading people to faith in Christ, leading others in deeper spiritual intimacy with God, leading people in discipleship maturity, etc. It is all about leading. We want to lead. Our passion is to lead.

When you look up the word lead in the dictionary or thesaurus you find words as guide, direct, and steer. When you look up the word manage you see the words; to cope, control, and handle. Ask yourself, “Do I prefer to be guided or controlled?” The answer is always guided. Your people, your staff, team, volunteers, and members are the same. They want to be guided, to be led. No one wants to be controlled. It is not an enjoyable lifestyle.

I do understand in leadership there are times when you must manage. However, when our focus becomes managing instead of leading, we have missed God’s calling. While no one enters ministry to become a manager, too often ministers and ministry leaders become managers – managers of people, programs, and facilities. When managing occupies your time you are not leading. In our churches and religious organizations of North America we must return to leading as God ordained and called each of us.

Effective Christian leaders…

…are good communicators. Strive to continually improve your communication skills with one on ones and groups.

…demonstrate a mentor model desiring every employee or member to grow in his/her skills, abilities, and performance. Mentoring is not holding people back with threats and derogatory remarks. Mentoring is encouraging and championing the work (ministry) of others.

…are releasors, delegating to the right people, assisting with training, resources and support as they progress in their work/ministry. God has blessed you with people around you to take on tasks. Releasors do not hold people to strict-no variations course of action but release them to think and do as led by God.

…empower others through adequate resourcing, regular and frequent encouragement, & support with more than idle words.

How will you strive in the next quarter to be a more effective communicator, mentor, releasor, and empowering leader? Leave the managing behind, become an effective leader.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

“George, you don’t stay at one church too long, do you?” came the query from a young lady, who had become a friend in the church I was serving. I knew my answer, but asked, “What makes you say that?”

“Well, you are a change agent. You create change, then you can move on once the church is moving forward. My response, “I never take a position unless God calls me to it. I never enter a position thinking of a timeline other than retirement. If God moves me before retirement, fine, I will follow. But if not, I am here until I retire or God calls me home.”

I held positions in the corporate world deemed, “manager”. While I learned a lot in those positions, manager was not my calling. My desire is to be a leader led by the Holy Spirit.

I am not a self-proclaimed leader, I simply trust in following the leading of the Holy Spirit. God has allowed me to part of some spectacular experiences in the lives and ministry of others. I am eternally grateful for each of those experiences. Yet, I do not for one second believe that “I” did anything to bring about those wonderful outcomes. To God alone be the glory – Always!

Leadership in the church is not relegated to the Pastor alone. We are all leaders in some respect and area of the Christian life. In the church too often, our leaders have been commissioned to be managers, not leaders. Others have taken on the role of manager, leaving the leadership seat dormant. Let’s look at some of the differences between managers and leaders.

Manager                                     Leader

Reactive                                      Proactive

Control                                        Create change

Hoards information                 Communicates openly

Self-preservation                     Team player

Respect demanded                Respect earned             

The boss                                     Mentor

Transactional                            Transformational

Maintain order                          Guide toward a shared vision

The list goes on and on. I trust you see the differences. In what areas above do you see yourself as more manager than leader? In what areas do you see yourself as a leader but recognize the need to grow? What will you do this week to become the Christlike leader God intended? May you follow the Holy Spirit’s leading in becoming a more effective, Christlike leader.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

Pastor Mike, the founding pastor of 25 year old Solid Rock church was perplexed that the church couldn’t seem to break the 500 mark. I’ve witnessed this query with churches wanting to break the 45 mark, 60, 100, and other numbers. For Pastor Mike, we put together a team and worked through the Reaching the Summit Process. The first order in the process is always, get the church in a consistent deeper, than their normal, praying mode.

After this, the team looked at where they were and through some tough questions and rigorous debate, identified a couple of areas that needed adjustment. Mindsets would need to change and traditions given some serious attention. Pastor Mike knew some of this and wanted someone from the outside to come in and ask the tough questions. Some of the questions he himself would have to struggle with.

As we prayerfully worked through identifying issues and possibilities the first five months the team entrusted the church with greater prayer responsibilities. There were no definitive, “we’ve got to do this or that…” There were some minor adjustments made including one new seating plan change for the worship service.

At the next monthly team meeting, the pastor came in excitedly and asked, “Did anyone notice that we have been over 500 the last two weeks in a row?” (It even startled him.) Now, mind you he was not boasting in the numbers. Quite the opposite, he was bragging on God. The church had tried repeatedly in man’s ways to reach a certain number, but it was not until they through church-wide prayer turned the matter over to God asking to break them to be the church God wanted, did God give the increase.

I have witnessed it in churches of various sizes, cultures, and economical status, God’s ways are much higher than any of our ways. It is easy to drift while thinking we are doing it God’s way.

In his book, The Antioch Effect, my friend, Dr. Ken Hemphill wrote, “Church growth is not something we do to the church; rather it is the by-product of a proper relationship with Christ…the growth is not an end in and of itself, it is the result of a super-natural empowering.”

Last week’s post spoke to that same topic; the numerical growth of any evangelical church is always the by-product of a right relationship with Christ through the Holy Spirit leading members and the total church in spiritual maturation, ministry expansion, & missions awareness.

When Solid Rock entered into a new deeper commitment to church-wide prayer, God began to put the pieces together and gave the increase without any fanfare or special events or programs – simply hearts asking to be broken and renewed. Each church is different and God works differently in each church, but you too can see signs of God’s design. Perhaps you simply need a small adjustment in your spiritual walk. Small adjustments bring super-natural results.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

Ask most Christians what it takes to grow a church and most answers will have something to do with adding people. While it sounds prosperous, this is where most churches miss the mark. I have written about four areas of growth in a church as identified by Gene Mims. Unfortunately, most churches get these out of order – and it is costly to Christ’s church.

1. The first area of church health leading to growth is Spiritual Maturation. When both the individuals of a church and the church corporately are growing in their spiritual maturity certain things begin to happen, allowing the Holy Spirit to move in the lives of those who make up the church. Spiritual maturation does not happen without spiritual disciplines in the lives if individuals and through the actions and ministries within the church.
2. As the individual members of a church and the church corporately grow spiritually together, an awareness begins to unfold. Ministry Expansion is the natural outcome of spiritual maturation in any church. The speed, and levels of spiritual maturation along with the needs within the congregation and the community will determine the ministry expansion required. It could be more Bible study classes, expanded nursery and children’s areas, mentoring processes, or any number of others.
3. An outgrowth of ministry expansion is always Mission’s Awareness. As people in spiritual maturity, ministry expansion is needed to accommodate continual growth. As that growth continues, people become more aware of the needs in the community and around the world. As this awareness arises, the church must be prepared to equip members and present opportunities for mission fulfillment. When you see pockets of mission’s awareness rising up in your church, smile and know spiritual maturation is moving full steam ahead.
4. The fourth area of growth in the church is a by-product of the other three. When Spiritual Maturation is taking place among the members individually and corporately, Ministry Expansion is a natural outgrowth. With Ministry Expansion comes an inclination for Mission’s Awareness. As these three are clicking on all cylinders, the natural by-product is Numerical Growth. If you and I can talk someone into something, someone else can talk them out of it. Numerical growth of God’s church does not come through a program or series of events. Numerical growth comes only by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Does your church have the right order? Or are you continually contemplating how to get more people into the church building? Begin today with prayer, asking for God’s guidance in His super-natural process of building His church.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

Churches know how to plan, but few strategically plan for greater, Great Commission results. Many, churches leave results to chance. Churches may or may not have an evangelistic presence, or an opportunity for members to pray with guests. Honestly, one of the greatest evangelistic events I’ve ever been a part of planning had a very low-key gospel appearance. Yet, this event, held quarterly, drew more people to our church with long-term evangelistic success than any other I have ever witnessed.

Successful strategic event planning for greater Great Commission results requires more planning than most churches consider. Personally, I generally led our churches to spend a year or more praying, planning, and preparing for major events. (We did the same before making any major ministry changes.)

Having been asked to speak on this topic for a large group of churches, I prepared a simplified flow chart to include in my presentation.

Begin 6-12 months out. Pray about what your church giftings are, what true needs are in your community, what are the possibilities. Then wait and listen for God’s response. (If it is not in God’s timing, it will not be fruitful). Wait until you are clear of God’s direction.

The next step is to brainstorm with other leaders and those in your organization with giftings in the main areas of the event purpose. (Giftings in the event purpose is not the same as giftings in areas of the event – set up, food prep, etc.) What is needed, what will be required of the church, finances, resources, manpower, calendar dates and time, training?

Around the nine-month time frame begin to assemble a team to work together to implement a successful event. Team members should consist of at least one person for each area needed leading up to, during, and follow-up of the event. This team should meet at least monthly for the next six months, bi-weekly for the next two months, and as often as weekly the final month leading to the event. Prayer should be a major portion of these meetings.

Set the date and time no earlier than nine months out. Enlist program personalities, and performers, locate venue, all a minimum of nine-months out.

At seven months begin a seven (7) touch promotion. More about the seven touch promotion at The Key to a Well Attended Event | George’s blog . Seven is the minimum. (For community events, replace the words pastors or churches with homes in your community.)

Referring to the flow chart, remember it is a simplified chart. Delve into details at every meeting, mail listing, and phone call.

For more information on any part or how to apply this to your ministry, please contact George Yates. It costs you nothing, but it could cost you a bundle to keep doing things as per normal.

We apologize, the link to the flow-chart is broken. We are working to repair it. Contact me for a pdf copy.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

In the church we leave a lot on the table when it comes to our events which could be resolved with a different preparation schedule. Churches know how to plan, but there is a major difference in planning and strategic planning that leads to implementation for greater Great Commission results.

We call VBS a success because we had some children show up and no one went to the hospital all week. Regardless of the event, we pull out what we can & say it was a successful event. We should find the good in an event recognizing what went well. Yet, what if when we get to heaven, we are able to view a video and see what divine results we could have encountered?

One of the first steps in planning any event, new ministry endeavor, or even teaching a Bible study class, is to give yourself adequate time for preparation. Through the years I have led conferences, consulted and coached churches in strategic planning that brings Great Commission results, being a practitioner of the same. I was once told, “We have never seen an event in that region draw more than 250 people. 200 will be a success.” To which I replied, “I’ve asked our team to pray for 400.” We had 520 show up the first year.

Adequate preparation is critical. I believe Bible study teachers should, “Prepare throughout the week. Do not wait until Saturday to prepare your lesson.” If you wait, you cheat yourself and your attendees of a great Holy Spirit led lesson. Study a part of the lesson each day of the week. This allows you to wrestle with the truth and your delivery come class time. You need that time for adequate preparation.

After service one Sunday morning, Ron, a middle school Sunday School teacher, came by my office. “George, I had to tell you this. Last week I was studying my lesson all week and could not understand how to transfer it to my kids. Wednesday, I just said, ‘Lord, I can’t do this! I have no idea how to do this Sunday.’”

Friday evening, he was at the office a couple hours late. A fellow employee came by his office and made one statement about his commitment, being in the office that late on Friday. Ron said, “George, I kid you not, at that very second, as soon as he made that statement, everything fell into place. I knew exactly how I was going to deliver the lesson Sunday. If I had not been preparing all week like you taught us, I would have missed the Holy Spirit’s working through that employee, giving me the lesson. I’m sure glad I didn’t wait till Saturday to start.” I asked Ron how the lesson went that morning. With a big grin he said, “It was one of the best lessons we’ve had all year.”

Adequate preparation with the Holy Spirit as your guide is not only important. It is critical! Whether a Bible study lesson, a special event, or a ministry project, give yourself adequate time and resources to prepare with the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.