“One thing I always say is, ‘Pay now or pay later, but if you pay later, you’ll always pay more.’”
“What’s fascinating to me is in Matthew, when Jesus went up to the wilderness to pray for 40 days, if you really look at it, he was attacked by pride…then Jesus comes back down from the mountain, preaches the Sermon on the Mount, the most popular sermon ever. And his opening line is, ‘Be poor in spirit.’ In other words, choose humility.”
“I think it comes down to creating a transparent relationship. I think it’s important for the lead pastor to create an environment of transparency and honesty.”
“There’s a tension between your strengths and the leader’s weakness. That’s a tension that you’re going to have to manage. That’s not going to go away.”
“In Matthew 18, Jesus said, ‘Go to your brother at once.’ He didn’t say, ‘Go to your brother if it feels good, if it feels comfortable, if you think it’ll turn out good, if he doesn’t have a chip on his shoulder.’”
“Live as far away from mean-spirited as possible, but never enter into artificial harmony.”
“If you’re the leader, lead pastor or the leader of that department and you’re checking out this podcast, here’s the thing that I would say to you: I believe that it’s up to you to create the culture.”
RELATED: Barnabas Piper: Why a Culture of Belonging Has To Start With a Church’s Leaders
“You have to lead that environment so that the…person that maybe is farthest away from you as a leader has the comfort ability to have that tough conversation.”
“If you don’t have that environment, fight for that environment, teach about it, take ownership, apologize where necessary, but don’t just do it once.”
Mentioned in the Show
Church BOOM
“Indispensable Church: Powerful Ways to Flood Your Community with Love” by Chris Sonksen
“Saving Your Church from Itself: Six Subtle Behaviors That Tear Teams Apart and How to Stop Them” by Chris Sonksen
Check out Chris’ website
Follow Chris in on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter
“Sam Chand: Why Pastors Must Embrace the Pain of Leadership” by Jessica Lea on ChurchLeaders
