
2025 Panteg Ministries

Leadership
​Leadership is a greatly misunderstood and poorly supported aspect of Christian Ministry yet our manual the Bible is full of help and advice concerning the subject.
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The quality of leadership within the church is by and large abysmal; not because we intend it to be but because of the lack of training and development of those who are in leadership positions. Those who enter the leadership team within the church rarely have any knowledge or understanding of what is means to be a leader and who they should become when they take this level of responsibility upon themselves. Most are placed into leadership positions because people 'like' them or they are loyal members while this is understandable this style of electing leaders is poor qualifications for leadership.
The reason for this is that those who lead us do not preach and teach what Biblical leadership means and this is because they have not been taught it themselves. This situation which has been continuing for many centuries within the church and has led to the church's leadership infrastructure demise and this causes splits, abuse, bullying, ineffectual and inadequate teaching and the decline of morals within the team.
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What then do we need for leadership within the church?
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Training, training, training and more training, how much of your budget has your church/organisation allocated for training this year or the next five? Has or have any of your leaders attended any training regarding Christian leadership and ministry which your church has directly funded over the last 1, 10 or 20 years? If your response is negative or very small then how can you hope to honour the one who has called you to lead His church and are you prepared to do anything about it? Christ spent three and a half years with His leaders yet we do not even consider it.
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If you believe in your arrogance and pride that do not need any then you are in trouble, you are going to be in trouble and you are not going to be able to handle trouble. Why does the church believe it can abdicate its responsibility in this area? The pride and arrogance of many who think that as soon as they enter a position of leadership within the church that they do not need to do anything else is astonishing! Christ came to serve and leaders who believe that their mandate is to be anything else destroy that which they believe they are building.
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The saving grace is that most who enter leadership are just trying to do their best and the majority of times that is good enough but it fails when:-
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1. Dealing with conflict
2. Growth
3. Having to deal with difficult situations
4. What to do when things go wrong
5. How to deal with things that really matter
6. Change
7. The future and modification of the organization
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Do not worry too much for you are not in a minority, the majority of the church is in this state and has been happily destroying itself for many decades. There is hope, however, and some churches and men and women of God are trying to change this. Just click on the links below to help you and glimpse of what church life can be.
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Building the church and the team
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Leadership Teams
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I have had the privilege of being a leader within the Baptist church, as a deacon and a lay pastor for many years. My experience has always been the same no matter which church I have attended, and I am sure this is the same for many other denominations, established management teams have the following on their minds 'Fabric, Finance and Calendar', is this a bad thing? Yes, it is. Look at the agenda of your management or church meeting and see how much time is given over to Fabric, Finance and Calendar and then compare this with how much time is given to finding the will of God; your impact upon your community; the development and growth of those whom you lead and who are you going the bless next?
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The situation of Fabric, Finance and Calendar comes about not because we deliberately want it but because those who lead do not teach anything else or encourage the management team to do anything better. The world does fabric, finance and calendar and generally much better than the church and rather than the church lead we tend to emulate or create a poor imitation of what the world offers, "Monkey see, Monkey do" rather than looking at God's word to discover what the church should be.
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Are you prepared as a leader to say and to do that which is different so our Lord will be glorified or are you prepared to preside within a team which is full of stagnation and decline?
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Hebrews 13 verse 17 (NIV), it’s well known but seldom considered seriously:
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“Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.”
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What does this mean to the modern church and those who lead it? In many instances the church uses God's word to tell their members what is going to be done, leaders lord it over those whom they lead and the actions and behaviours of those who are in the position of leadership bring no honour to Christ.
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Changes
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While I was lay pastor I told the management team during our meetings that we as a team are brining recommendations to the church and if the members want to kick those recommendations out then the church is at liberty to do so. I instructed them that they are not to get upset or 'throw their toys out of the pram' if their recommendations are rejected. Yet I saw those whom I led get angry and upset because what they suggested was not followed through. Some resigned because of this and others because of their personalities built a platform of resentment and vengeance and thought they inhabit a form of conflict with us and them. This took place because our attitudes and understanding of church leadership is immature and we fail to understand that the management team brings recommendations not dictates or an abiding law.
Trust those whom you lead, including those who are led, allow the responsibility to be shared rather than owned by a single individual or a small group of people. If those who follow keep rejecting your decisions then get them to help making the decision in the first place. These simple guidelines and biblical teaching help us to get back to how a church should be which means we can get on glorifying God and bless those who are in our congregations and communities the consequence of this will see the halt in our decline of God in our church.
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