Shawn Lovejoy is the Founder & CEO of CourageToLead.com. His heart beats for coaching leaders and helping them all conquer whatever’s keeping them up at night. Shawn has been a church planter, a megachurch pastor, but he has now now devoted himself full-time to coaching leaders and training coaches to coach leaders. Shawn’s newest book, Be Mean About the Vision released in 2016. Shawn has been married for 24 years to his best friend Tricia Lovejoy, and has three children: Hannah, Madison, and Paul.
Key Questions:
You and your team talk to and coach a lot of church teams. What are the most pressing issues you notice?
What is the difference between a team a staff in a church?
What role should systems have in ministry? What do we learn from Scripture about systems?
Key Quotes:
“Pastoring is a lonely world.”
“You reproduce what you are—not what you want to reproduce.”
“It’s always good for pastors to finish the race sane, centered, and married.”
“Culture [in a church] happens by design or by default—you don’t have to build one. It will naturally happen.”
“One of the common mistakes leaders make is try to get too much culture-building done from the pulpit and the platform.”
“If we want to rebuild, reconstruct culture in the church…you’ve got to begin in circles—not in rows.”
“Leadership first begins one-on-one, with the few—not the crowds. That’s how Jesus did it.”
“No one likes change unless it’s their idea.”
“I really believe that if one more program would save the day, the church would have already saved it.”
“The reason why tithing sermons aren’t working these days is because Dave Ramses tells us Americans spend 127 percent of their income on average now.”
“Anyone can build a system if they just know where people are now and where God wants them to be.”
“When I finished pastoring in a local church context, I was most proud of three things: We stayed true to the vision, my wife liked me, and my kids loved the church.”
“I’m all for the Great Commission, just not at the expense and neglect of the Great Commandment.”
