Episode 14 - 8 Ways To Build Relationships With Your Church Board

With our 200churches blog and podcast, our purpose is to encourage, support, and inspire pastors of smaller churches, churches that range anywhere from 20 to 200 or more. That’s it! That’s why we exist. Our podcast today aims to better equip you to build some serious, major league relationships with the members of your church board or leadership structure. We believe that if we are serious about leading our church, and growing our people, it all begins with our relationship with the church leaders. Real personal growth and life change happens best in relationship – in community.

Do your board members act like animals?? Maybe they're just following the leader! :)

We also believe in what Rick Warren has long stated: “All leaders are learners, when we stop learning, we stop leading.” Part of our learning is to listen to good podcasts and leadership lessons, and… enroll in graduate programs, but that’s another story! One of our favorite podcasts is the “This Is Your Life” podcast by Michael Hyatt. You can find it on iTunes and at www.michaelhyatt.com.

On last week’s podcast at michaelhyatt.com, titled The Three Components of Job Satisfaction, he took a question from Brent Dumler who asked, “What would you say to a 20-something church leader who finds him or herself in the midst of an unhealthy church? When would you advise them to start looking for something else?”

In Michael’s answer, he talks about a young pastor who was frustrated with his board because they just “didn’t get it”. That question and Michael’s answer prompted this podcast about how, if we are not going to just bail and skip off to another church, we must build relationships with our boards if we are to have any hope of creating positive change, with them, in our church! We talk about what we think are perhaps the eight most important ways to build those healthy, trust-filled relationships with our church leaders.

Here are the eight ways up front, and we hope you enjoy today’s podcast and are challenged to implement some of these practices right away in your 200church!

1. Spend time with your leaders – off property.
2. Learn to really listen to them.
3. Sincerely ask for their input… and mean it!
4. Talk about values with a goal toward shared values.
5. Exchange expectations, in both directions.
6. Affirm, encourage, compliment, and praise them – all privately and publicly.
7. Challenge them to use their gifts and expertise for Christ and his body – all leaders need a challenge.
8. Counsel them in their areas of struggle.

Watch this video before the podcast if you want to get one of the lines we use about "real life." This is a classic, viral YouTube video with over 118 million views! Have fun...