The REAL Story: Why I Left Woodstock City Church

In this NEW POST on leadership trust and transparency, I give you 10 things trustworthy leaders always do.

I’ve wanted to write it for some time, primarily because of how many times people have asked me or those around me for the “real” reason for leaving Woodstock City Church.

There is no “real” or hidden reason.

So why did so many assume there is? Or believe I wasn’t being honest?

I believe it’s because we live in a world where most leaders aren’t trustworthy. We don’t believe we can believe what they say. Therefore, we struggle to trust leadership.

I get it.

And I think we should do something about it.

If you’ve got 10 minutes, I encourage you to give this a read. It might explain some things you’ve experienced. It may give you and your team something to discuss. Or, perhaps you’ll invite others to help you see what you might not see.

Thanks, Gavin

8 Terrible Reasons People Leave Churches

Perhaps more than ever before, people are leaving (or changing) churches en masse.

There are some good reasons to leave a church. What I’m seeing of late, though, doesn’t fit in the “good reason” category. The pandemic launched several more pandemics — fear pandemic, anger pandemic, political pandemic, racial pandemic, and a church pandemic.

The recent climate has given way to a mass exodus from churches, mostly for terrible reasons.

In this post, I outline 8 terrible reasons people leave churches.

If you’re a pastor, this may explain some of what you’re seeing. If you’re a church attendee, pay attention to these tensions!

3 Temptations Pastors Experience as People Leave Their Church

Right now, people are leaving your church, and it hurts.

I’m guessing every pastor in every church has experienced some amount of congregational exodus during the pandemic. 

I get it. I’ve been there. Several years ago, I took the position of lead pastor at a struggling church. And almost immediately, a handful of families decided to leave the church.

And they all felt the need to tell me they were leaving the church. And why they were leaving the church.

Guess what? It hurt.

Even though I didn’t yet know these people, it still hurt.

When people leave your church, it’s a form of rejection, and rejection is painful.

This pain has a name: Loss. When a person leaves the church, they take something with them AND create a temptation inside of us.

In this NEW POST, I outline three specific temptations every pastor must reject when people leave the church.

This is a 5 – 6 minute read. In a season like this, I think it’s worth the time.

7 Key Questions to Avoid Romanticizing the 2019 Church

Some of you are on the verge of destroying the future of your church.

I realize that sounds like one of those silly, bold statements people make to get your attention. Perhaps it is. Possibly restarting the ministry of your past is exactly what your community needs today.

I doubt it.

I’m skeptical because:

1. The pandemic changed things in our world and our communities. 
2. Much of what we were doing in 2019 wasn’t working in 2019. 

The fastest way to destroy a church is to build a ministry on an outdated model. And that’s what too many church leaders are doing today. Taking old methods and deploying them in this new time.

The reason: We remember our 2019 ministry models with rose-colored glasses. It’s human nature to romanticize the past, but in the case of church leadership, attempting to implement a ministry model that wasn’t working in 2019 in 2021 is a death wish.

In this NEW POST, I give leaders 7 Key Questions to Avoid Romanticizing the 2019 Church.

Answering these questions will help you more accurately remember the past while making decisions in your present.

Three Tactics for Personal Renewal (You Need Them All!)

If you struggle to experience rest even when you’re resting, this post is for you.

I’m exactly two weeks removed from leaving my role at Woodstock City Church.

Yes, it’s a bit weird.

I knew taking a little time off to rest and reset would best position me for my next adventure. I committed to take two weeks off and do nothing related to work — no meetings, writing, content development, preaching, and the like. It sounded like a glorious plan. Leave Woodstock City Church on Sunday, August 1, and ride off into the two-week staycation sunset.

Outside of an afternoon massage and dinner with friends, I awoke Monday morning with an empty calendar. I walked downtown for some coffee. I sat outside under a tree. I looked at Instagram … And I wondered what was happening at church.

That was the single thought that I couldn’t shake. “I wonder what’s happening at church this morning?” “I wonder what meetings I’m missing?” “I wonder what decisions they are making without me?”

I literally had previous work FOMO. I felt I was missing out. And that emotion wasn’t that relaxing. I was trying to rest and reset, but my mind was still back at my old job.

Your current circumstances are different than mine. But, let me ask you a question: Have you ever physically been on vacation but emotionally remained at work? Have you ever taken time off but not felt “off” at all? Have you ever needed a break from your vacation?

It took me a full 3.5 days to start emotionally feeling “off.” That’s a long time. Think about it: If you take a week-long summer vacation and it takes you half the week to begin vacationing, that’s not a great use of a vacation week.

Here’s what my last two weeks taught me (or reminded me): If we want to refresh well, we need to practice resting well.

In this NEW POST, I give you the three tactics to ensure you remain refreshed.

I dare you to give them a try!

5 Leadership Methods to Start Preparing for an Eventual Ending

My last Sunday at Woodstock City Church was August 1.

I’ve had that date circled on my calendar for several months.

It can feel that the race to end well begins when an ending date is defined. The ending date sets a public finish line, giving you a target to run strong through the tape.

Unfortunately, and to stick with the race analogy, finishing well is more about race preparation than the race itself. The finish line may mark the end of your time in the organization, but your race success is determined long before the race even begins.

You probably aren’t leaving your church or company soon, but you will one day. If you want to end well, you need to prepare now. Your leadership race to end well begins today.

In this NEW POST, I outline 5 leadership methods to start preparing for an eventual ending.

I realize it doesn’t feel urgent, but it’s extremely important. When you do eventually transition, you’ll be so grateful you began preparing now.

How can I help?

Coaching ministry and marketplace leaders through change, transition, and transformation is why I created Transformation Solutions. Let me know if I can serve you and your team as you work to make things better and make better things.

Can We Stop Equating Stage Charisma to Leadership Competency?

I recently listened to the Podcast “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill.”

Have you heard it?

There is a LOT to take away, but toward the end of the second episode, one moment stopped me in my tracks.

You can read this NEW POST for the details, but in summary, it reminded me that we too easily equate stage charisma with leadership competency.

We need to stop this, like now.

Hear me out: I love my friends that are great on stage. Some of them are equally great leaders. Some aren’t. Some don’t even want to be. But because they are charismatic in front of people, we assume they’ll be competent at leading with people.

In this article, I discuss this difference and provide a simple solution.

Thanks, friends!

6 Strategies to Keep the Mission Ahead of Your Ambition

Like you, I was born with some ambition.

I feel like ambition gets a bad rap.

For a leader, personal ambition isn’t too problematic until it supplants the organizational mission.

That’s when selfish ambition takes control, dominating the organizational mission, hurting others in the organization, and imploding the leader over time.

In this NEW POST, I offer 6 strategies to help keep the mission ahead of your ambition. I also gave you a key question to ponder with each strategy.

I’d love to hear which strategy feels most helpful to you in your current season of leadership.

As I’m transitioning off our church staff, I’m heavily focused on strategy # 4.

As always, I’d love to help. That’s why I created Transformation Solutions.

Recently I’ve been helping churches with their:
1. Hybrid church strategies, and
2. Staff culture.

Both seem to be needed as we emerge from the pandemic.

3 Reasons I’m Grateful Churches Aren’t Full Again

I’m grateful all our churches aren’t full again. And I’ll tell you why.

All the empty seats are creating a crisis of:

1. Identity
2. Mission
3. Ministry Model

While I certainly don’t love the crisis, I love what it will potentially create in Kingdom growth. Of course, the pandemic was a disruption of epic proportions, but it doesn’t have to be catastrophic to our church or spirit.

In this NEW POST, I outline the details of each crisis and probably say some things that might raise an eyebrow or two.

As always, let me know how I can help. That’s why I created Transformation Solutions!

Two Steps to Make Everyone Else the Hero

As a leader, have you ever played the role of hero?

Perhaps a difficult decision needed to be made and you stepped in? Or maybe an employee made an error and you took the public blame? You played the part of hero by delivering great news or offering a job or increasing a budget.

Point leaders often have opportunities to be a hero, but what about the other “leaders” in the organization?

It’s an important question.  There are lots of people in every organization leading something or someone. There is one point leader, but there are numerous other leaders.

What I see too often (and maybe you’ve seen this a lot, too), is point leaders hogging the hero moments while lower-level leaders are forced to handle the day-to-day, non-hero stuff. And unfortunately, there are not enough “hero” moments day-to-day.

I’m guessing the hero-hogging is mostly accidental. In leadership, there are few things more rewarding than feeling like a hero, mostly because leadership can at times feel more like the “art of disappointing people at a rate they can stand (John Ortberg coined that little gem)!” So hero moments — although few and far between — are to be cherished for sure.

But here’s a thought: The lower-level leaders in every organization — those involved in the more day-to-day tasks — are leading people more directly than anyone. They are closer to the action. If Ortberg is right, then these leaders are disappointing people more frequently than anyone. Pushing people more frequently. And saying “no” more frequently. If anyone needs “hero” moments, it’s these leaders. That’s exactly why point leaders need to ensure they are never “hero hogging.”

Here’s an easy way to avoid being a hero hog: As a point leader (of a company, department, etc.):

1. Choose to own the disappointing stuff.
2. Choose to pass along the good stuff to other leaders in the organization.

Literally, that’s it.

Read the rest of this article to discover easy ways to allow other leaders to be the hero.