Reading List: Take the Lid Off Your Church

An article by Matt    1 Comment

A couple of weeks ago I was given a copy of Tony Morgan’s new book to read and post a review for today. Last week was the first time in two years that this blog has gone dark for more than a day or two. My life changed significantly last week, and I look forward to sharing some of what has happened, and will happen over the course of the next several weeks.

I am a church geek.

I love connecting with churches, getting to learn their stories, seeing what makes them tick, and helping better pursue their calling. Through the years, I have gotten to connect with churches of all shapes and sizes, doing church in all different ways. While I have never experienced two churches that were exactly the same, I have found one common link between churches that are successfully doing what they have been called to do: a healthy senior leadership team.

Now, before you write off the rest of this post, realize that every church has a senior leadership team. Whether you are a church of twenty, or a church of twenty thousand, there is a group of people who are making decisions and leading the church forward. If this team is unhealthy, dysfunctional, or openly at war with one another, your church is doomed. This is where Tony Morgan’s new book comes in.

Take the Lid Off Your Church is a short book that has the potential to help you make decisions that will serve your church for years to come. This is the type of book that makes a great discussion starter for your leadership team, and can help guide you through some of the difficult questions that church leaders need to ask from time to time. My favorite question of the book was who should be on your senior leadership team? Rather than allowing position to decide who is a senior leader or not, Tony suggests a different criteria… asking questions like:

• Do they have leadership gifts?
• Are they big-picture thinkers?
• Do they think strategically?
• Can they build teams?

What I like about this book is that Tony has crafted a tool that helps church leaders develop healthy teams, without taking a formulaic approach to church leadership. Instead of laying out fourteen steps to a killer church leadership team, Tony gives us the tools needed to self-diagnose along with guidance as we move forward.

How do YOU build a healthy senior leadership team?

Related Stories

Church Leadership Reading List: Who Stole My Church?

Church Leadership Reading List: Growing a Farmer

Church Leadership Reading List: Love Wins

Reading List: Turn the Ship Around