I recently drove around with a colleague who is a young pastor – just over a year out of seminary and as we drove around his church’s neighborhood, it was clear that he saw things. And then he responded. And then there was obvious impact.
- He noticed a couple who owns the independent coffee shop and he introduced himself and now he has a relationship with them as local business owners.
- He noticed the school down the street and he met the principal and now he volunteers there and he has a relationship with teachers, staff, and parents. And probably some kids.
- He noticed the new real estate developments, the For Sale signs, the road construction, the other church buildings, the homes literally on the other side of the tracks. And then . . .
You get the idea.
The future of the Church is in leaders who see things.
They see who is in the room and who is not in the room. They notice who speaks up and who doesn’t. They notice the signs – both the physical signs and the figurative ones.
Look at the photo above. What do you see? (What you see tells me a lot about what kind of leader you are.)
We need more pastors who know how to read the room, how to exegete the community, how to notice who’s not there. My colleague who is the newish pastor totally gets this. As he was driving me around, I asked him, “Who taught you how to do this?” and he said, “Hmm. I think I’ve always known.”
We also need leaders with this kind of emotional intelligence. And emotional intelligence – like reading a room and exegeting a community – can be taught. Please reach out to someone if you need to learn this. It will make your ministry so much more fun and life-changing.
Unknown image source.
A Church for Starving Artists 