When a tree topples, cleanup happens in a few days and grass is often planted where the tree was. When a leader topples, the damage is much more far-reaching and the cleanup takes a lot longer.

Storms plus unhealthy roots lead to disaster. Leaders, storms are going to come. We lead in a broken world. There will be challenges and challenging seasons. So, it is the roots we must be concerned with.

Two trees in the same field can respond very differently to a storm. The one with healthy roots endures while the one with unhealthy roots doesn’t. While both trees looked similar before the storm, the storm revealed what was already true about the roots of the trees. J.C. Ryle said it plainly: “Men fall in private long before they fall in public.” Focus on the roots, on your integrity and your walk with God, more than the storm. To endure, focus on the roots, not on the storms.

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Leaders, we need some time off to rest and receive from God. One advantage of being a Christian leader is that you are not only pouring yourself out in service to others, but you can receive wisdom and power and strength from your Heavenly Father. Take time to receive from Him so that you are healthy. Those you lead benefit from you being healthy. And take time to remind yourself that you are not in charge by taking some time to rest and not work. Some have said the most spiritual thing you can do is take a nap, because you are trusting that God is working while you are napping. You are releasing control to Him and not depending on yourself. 

I still take a day off each week, and the best practice for me is to receive from God through what scholars call general and special revelation: general revelation being creation and special revelation being Scripture. My most fruitful and enjoyable days off combine some time in His creation and some time in His Word. 

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Here is what I have learned. Character first, but go with chemistry second. Two reasons: (1) The collective competence of the team can raise the competence of the person. (2) But the collective chemistry of the team does not raise the person’s chemistry. The opposite is true. One person not fully bought into the mission and values of the team can actually lower the collective chemistry of the team. The team can help fill in competence gaps. The team suffers from chemistry gaps. Character first. Chemistry second.

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If you become obsessed with making people happy, you won’t be an effective leader. You will be enslaved by what people think, and you won’t think about what is best to serve the people you or your organization are positioned to serve. If you want to be a leader, you can’t be a people-pleaser, though your role is to serve people. And if you want to be a people-pleaser, you can’t be a leader. The difference between a leader and a people-pleaser comes down to motivation. A leader is motivated by a burden to serve others. A people-pleaser is motivated by applause.

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Many people only think of the direction of leading downward, of influencing people you are responsible for. But that is only one aspect of leadership. Most important is self-leadership, because if you can’t lead yourself, you can’t lead anyone else. Leading upward is influencing your leaders. Lateral leadership is influencing your peers. 

Here’s what I’ve found after years of these conversations: one of the best indicators that someone is ready to lead more is if they are an effective lateral leader. Because lateral leadership is the hardest kind of leadership. There’s no paycheck to leverage. No reporting lines to reference. The people who excel at lateral leadership excel at coordination with people they don’t have positional authority over. They are able to influence others by their credible character, the strength of their vision, their commitment, their ability to communicate and execute, and their servant’s posture toward others. Someone who excels in those attributes is a good candidate for a position where they will need to lead a team or lead downward. 

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His challenge has resonated with me for years. Yes, there are decisions that rest on a biblical conviction and not on what is considered to be best practice. For example, if it were ever decided that “best practice is to not teach the Scripture in worship services,” that counsel should be fiercely ignored. But when the best practices are (a) related to strategy, (b) in no violation of biblical principles, and (c) grounded in research, a wise leader will pay attention.

Here are four research-informed best practices church leaders commonly ignore.

1. Integrating teenagers into the whole church

The research behind Kara Powell’s book, Sticky Faith, found that pulling teenagers out from the overall life of the church hurt their faith and the likelihood that they would be connected to church after high school graduation. If a teenager’s only experience with church is the youth group, they are much more likely to graduate from church when they graduate from the youth group. Helping students serve in the church where they are surrounded by adults who encourage them is best for the students, and high school students hearing the same sermon as their parents helps the parents discuss the message with their teenagers.

Best practice: Integrating teenagers into the whole church

Commonly ignored by only having teenagers separated from adults

2. Prioritizing groups

Ed Stetzer and I wrote Transformational Groups based on research about spiritual formation and groups, which showed that people connected to a small group show significantly higher marks in Bible engagement, serving, prayer, and generosity. Groups must not be viewed as an optional add-on, but as essential for discipleship and care. As a church grows, scaling groups is immensely challenging, but it is also extremely important.

Best practice: Prioritizing groups to help people experience biblical community

Commonly ignored by viewing groups as one of many programs on a calendar

3. Launching a church with multiple services

This point is likely in the casual observation bucket more than a research-based bucket, but I still believe it is a best practice. Craig Groeschel challenged churches many years ago to launch with two services because doing so allows people to attend one service and serve one service. We want to make worshiping and serving as easy as possible for people, and multiple services help accomplish that goal.

Best practice: Launching a church or campus with two services

Commonly ignored by launching with one service

4. Being ready to help those in a trial

The research behind the book, Transformational Discipleship, which I wrote with Michael Kelly and Philip Nation, revealed that seasons of spiritual transformation often occur in the midst of suffering and trials. A trial puts someone in a teachable posture, and when God’s truth and grace are applied in the midst of that season by a trustworthy leader, God often uses the trial to develop a more mature faith. We don’t send trials, but we can be prepared to meet people with prayer, shepherding, and care in the midst of their trials.

Best practice: Having clear pathways for those who are hurting to receive care (special groups, recovery classes, ways to access receiving prayer, etc.)

Commonly ignored by not considering how to serve those who are in pain

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50 Days to Embracing (and Enjoying) Who God Says You Are is out now, and our prayer is that teenagers will learn to anchor their identity in how God defines them—not in how the world defines them. For more information on the devo, click here.

Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. (Colossians 3:12)

From Eric:

We live in a world that loves us based on how we look or what we do, not based on who we are. Think about how the world works: Play really well on the team, win a championship, and then we will love you as a hero. Make great grades, participate in lots of extracurricular activities, and then we would love to have you attend our university. Look and act a certain way, and then we would love to have you in our friend group.

The list could go on and on.

The reason we have a difficult time believing that God loves us just because He is love is that His love is so different from the world’s. It also can bother us a bit if we’re honest because we like to think we have done something to earn His love. But notice the order of the passage above and how different God’s love towards you is. Fill in the blanks below:

Since God chose you to be ___   _____   _________    ___    ___________, you must…

If God loved you the way the world does, the verse would read like this: “Clothe yourselves with mercy, kindness, and humility, and then God will love you.” Do you see how different God’s love is? God wants you to obey Him, not so that He will love you, but because He already does.

Because He loves you, you must live like He does, and that means it’s time to wear some new clothes. Not clothes you get at the mall, but clothes that really make you stand out, that last, and make an impact on others. These are the clothes of mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. You have to decide to wear those each day, to put them on. It’s not always easy because putting these things on means going against the current rhythm of this world. But you are able to clothe yourself with mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience because you have received the otherworldly love of God, and His love motivates you and keeps changing you!

From Eden:

Earning someone’s love is something we see on every social media platform and throughout daily life. I can think of so many movies where the girl feels like she has to change herself to be liked. I think of that kid who feels that he needs to change to be loved by his parents. Or maybe we think, I will only be popular and liked if I’m a better athlete. The list goes on and on. It’s so easy to believe this is true because of what the world tells us.

God’s attitude toward us could not be more different! This verse says that God chose me. He chose me because He loves me. He didn’t choose me because I’m a great athlete or because I’m pretty. He loves me because He loves me. The world can beat us up as teens. It is honestly really hard to even believe someone could love and choose me just because they love me. It’s also a daily battle to remember this and respond to situations with this in mind.

Sometimes I just don’t want to be kind and gentle to someone who has hurt me. But God is kind and gentle, and He invites me to be the same way. My parents often remind my sister and me of this. When we struggle to respond in a Christlike way, it’s because we have forgotten what He has done for us. This is true! If I struggle to show mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, it’s because I have forgotten how freely God shows these to me daily. These are not my natural responses in my own skin. But because of the Holy Spirit, I can put on my new clothes!

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I thought about his comment all day. He said it with a sense of regret. “The only time I come to the lake now is for work.” He moved to the area for the lake, but now the lake is only work for him.

His experience is a massive danger and a caution for ministry leaders. Just as he moved for the beauty of the lake, we can get pulled into ministry because we see the beauty of God transforming lives. But just as he has lost his sense of awe because the lake became his job, we can lose our awe as the work of God becomes commonplace for us.

If our awe for what God is doing through us is greater than our awe for what God has done for us in Christ, ministry becomes an idol. Ministry is an idol when we start to enjoy ministry more than God. Eventually, we will be left disappointed and empty, as anything that is not Him will always disappoint us. I know because, at times, I have replaced the God of ministry with ministry as my god on the throne of my life. By God’s grace, He has brought me to repentance and back to Himself.

We must fight to not lose our wonder for God. In my thirty years of ministry, here are four ways I have learned to fight.

1. Find ways to stir your wonder and awe.

I have learned that a long mountain bike ride, looking at His creation and listening to a sermon or worship music as I ride, stirs my awe for Him.

2. Tell yourself and others stories of His grace.

The daily grind of ministry and the reality that the job is never done necessitates moments when we take a step back to see all God is doing and watch in awe. Our team has a 45-minute story time where we hear stories of God’s saving, sustaining, and sanctifying grace, and the stories remind us of God’s grace in our own lives.

3. Don’t graduate from the basics.

Time in God’s Word, prayer, and fasting, worshiping not to evaluate but to enjoy—don’t move on from these sacred disciplines that God uses to keep us.

4. Do something you would only do as a Christian, outside of your role.

Go on a mission trip, volunteer to lead a high school Bible study (I did for four years, and it was so good for me), or serve as a greeter on your weekend off. Doing something outside of your role that reminds you of your identity as a servant will remind you why you got into this to begin with.

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The devotional I wrote with Eden is officially releasing today! You can get more info on the devo here.

This High Priest of ours [Jesus] understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. (Hebrews 4:15)

From Eric:

Being a teenager has always been challenging. Lots of books have been written about the struggles of teenage life. Your body changes, your mind develops, and you have to make choices about your future. You face struggles with friends or fitting in, and you have to stay on top of schoolwork and other activities too.

Teenagers sometimes forget a very encouraging truth: Jesus was a teenager once. When He walked this earth, Jesus was fully God and fully human. He lived in a teenage body and faced all the teenage pressures you face. We have only a few verses in the Bible about Jesus as a teenager, but we know that He “was obedient to [his parents] . . . [and] grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people” (Luke 2:51-52). Jesus went through puberty and grew physically. Jesus learned in school and grew mentally. Jesus made friends in His neighborhood and grew in relationships with people.

Whatever age you are right now, Jesus has already lived that very age. Struggling with people disappointing you? Jesus knows what that is like. Feeling overwhelmed with everything? Jesus was overwhelmed too. Whatever pressure you are facing, Jesus understands.

From Eden:

Transitioning from a kid to an adult is what we call adolescence, and it can be pretty weird and awkward. Now that I’m a junior in high school, I look so different from how I looked as a freshman. Things change a lot, and they change fast.

It’s a bit weird at first to think of the Jesus I worship and follow being a teenager. However, when I do, it’s actually really comforting. I’ve heard adults say they wish they could have skipped the horrible teenage years. That has always bothered me because, come on, teenage years can’t be all bad, right? Jesus could have easily chosen to skip the teenage years Himself, but He didn’t. Being fully God and fully man, He chose to experience all the teenage emotions. He had moments of sadness, He experienced emotional hurt, and I bet He even had friendship issues. Knowing that He went through these years so He could relate to me makes me remember how much He loves me.

Do you ever feel like no one understands you? Jesus does! Not only does He understand us, but He knows our innermost thoughts and feelings. The ones that no one else knows. The ones that hurt too much to say aloud. He knows them, understands them, and has great compassion on us. When I’m going through tough times, I do my best to remember that He understands because He experienced pain too. He experienced the worst kind of pain—the weight of all of my sin on the cross. He was thinking about us in that moment too!

Knowing that Jesus understands what it’s like to be a teenager is really inspiring too. Even though we are not perfect, we can still serve and impact others as Jesus did. We are not too young to be used by Him! I am currently seeing this to be true in my life. Along with a team of others, I help lead a Friday night Bible study for juniors and seniors who want to go deeper in their faith. It’s amazing to see what God is doing in our lives as we lead, but also in the lives of the teenagers who come every week. I am truly in awe that He is using me because I am so far from having it all together—but I am so thankful.

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Here is Day One of the devotional—the first half written by me; the second half written by Eden. The whole devotional is designed that way: encouragement from a pastor to a teenager, followed by encouragement from a teenager to a teenager.

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. (Psalm 139:13-14)

From Eric:

If you long for the day when you will be able to drive yourself to school or to Starbucks or to a friend’s house, you are not alone. Getting into a car—without your parents or a driving instructor— and driving down the road is a major milestone. If the car you want to drive (or are driving) is like most cars, it has around 30,000 parts and takes manufacturers 18 to 35 hours to make. You look at the car of your dreams and think, “This thing is awesome.” You never think, “This car just happened.” The fact that the car has been designed means it had a designer.

In a similar way, your incredibly intricate body points to a much greater Designer. It didn’t come into existence by chance.

Just think about the complexity of a car versus the complexity of the human body:

The car: 30,000 parts
Your body: 30,000,000,000,000 (30 trillion) cells

The car: 35 hours (on the high end)
You: 6,570 hours (or nine months)

God spoke the world into existence and created everything in six days. He said, “Let there be light,” and there was light (see Genesis 1:3). But with you, He took extra time. He did not just speak. He knit you together.

Just as your dream car points to a designer, you point to a Designer. God designed and created you, which means you are worth much more than a car. Not only because you have more cells and took longer to make, but because your Maker is God Himself. Your dream car will be worth less five years from now. That’s called “depreciation,” a word you’ll probably hear in some economics class. You don’t depreciate, though. Your worth remains because the One who created you set His image on you. (We will talk more about this on Day Two!)

From Eden:

As a teenager growing up in the social media era, the comparison game is real. Body image is a major concern for many of us. It’s challenging not to fixate on how we appear to others or how we stack up against people with tons of likes on Instagram or those stunning models. I have felt judged based on my style, my fitness, and even my height. It’s easy for our self-esteem to take a hit, and I’ve found myself wondering, “Why do I look like this?!”

“Ten years from now, no one will remember that pimple,” a friend might say. True, but today is today, not ten years from now! I need something to help me right now.

Psalm 139 helps me remember this. God is the One who made me, and He never makes mistakes. What He thinks of me is far more important than anyone else’s opinion. Next time you feel insecure about your appearance or abilities, remind yourself that you’ve been wonderfully made by the Creator of the universe!

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