I love checking out creative church environments. And I’m a huge fan of high-influence churches. That’s why I was SO EXCITED last week when I got to attend Celebration Church in Jacksonville, Florida. 
Not only do they have 8 campuses in Florida, but they also have a campus in Georgia, Zimbabwe, Costa Rica, and are soon launching in Belfast and Athens!
When I travel, there are only about 6 things I LOVE to do: visit friends, chill in nature, read, try new restaurants, visit historical sites, and check out cool churches. 
I first heard about Woodlands Church and pastor Kerry Shook from Catalyst, and it was WELL WORTH bussing 4839km to get there from Panama. (okay, it was only 45 minutes from where we were staying in Houston!)
Buuuut down to business.
Founded in 1993, today Woodlands hosts 17,000 people over 5 campuses and 18 services each weekend.
It’s a super creative church, and are using their influence to spread the gospel, including broadcasting the message on 5 different TV channels. 
Michelle said it was the best sounding music she’s ever heard in church, and the message was awesome. The place is super beautiful and inviting, and I’ve included a few pics. I LOVE it when churches do stuff with excellence, even the bulletin!
This should get all ya’ll future church-planters drooling!
In my business bachelors, I took a few leadership courses. In one of my courses, we attempted to define leadership. We came across three definitions. If you consider yourself a leader, which one are you?
Managerial Leader: meet the day-to-day, short-term objectives. Motivate workers to accomplish direct goals. These leaders are essential to get things done!
Visionary Leader: create long-term goals and objectives. Motivate a team seeing the overall perspective and pushing a team toward a long-term goal. These leaders are essential to create and cast vision for people to follow and be motivated.
Strategic Leadership is defined this way: “Influence others to voluntarily make day-to-day decisions that enhance long-term viability, while maintaining its short-term financial stability”
I was interested to take this definition of a strategic leader and apply it to church ministry. When I look at Jesus, I see Him more of a strategic leader: he cast vision & met the daily needs of people.
Here is my working definition of a Pastor (I know that having a definition for a role is kind of weird sometimes, but it helps me know what to focus on and stay focused):
“A Pastor must focus to positively influence the congregation to voluntarily pursue involvement that supports community, advances the church and glorifies God, while challenging personal growth and developing spiritual multipliers.”
I would be very interested to know your thoughts on this!
For Jesus’ Fame,
JK
There’s a cool Quaker dude here in Costa Rica named Wolfe Guindon. He’s known as “the man who saved the cloud forest.”
But it wasn’t as easy as all that.
See Quakers rule by consensus. Which means everyone must agree, so that no one feels resentful or bitter. So that there’s unity, not division.
At the time, the cloud forest was starting to be developed. More and more trees were being cut down, and the land was being ruined. Not big deal right? Except that the cloud forest is THE source of water for the entire area.
Ben F. Says:
A great ideology. But kind of like how communism is a great ideology haha.
Especially in a culture that enjoys deconstructing ideologies more than anything!
And promoting "Self Ideology", tell me if anyone hasn't heard something like "this
is true for me". Usually a little more subtle and vague but that's the overarching theme.
I wonder what the implications would have been for Paul. Or Jesus. How far does
the conses issue go? Just innovation? Morality? Justice (This would be really difficult)?
Jay Brock Says:
I sorta agree. What do you think the implications would have been for Paul or Jesus? What about when the apostle said "It seemed good to us and to the Holy Spirit?" Obviously we're not going to apply democracy to theology, but maybe it'd help church leaders work on the same team better?
Courtney Dravis Says:
I love that you are constantly throwing new ideas out there, Jay! That's why we love you! With this one, I have to say that a consensus module within the church does not seem right. Maybe I'm oversimplifying it, but isn't it true that if decision-makers of the church are all abiding in and heeding the voice of God, there will be a unified response? When making any decisions within the church, God's own will should be sought out by all. If there is any dissension within the directions which are being pursued, then it seems that the problem lies within the hearts of the persons in leadership (keeping in mind that God does not demand opposing objectives from the same group). Just because one truth speaker stands amidst an entire world of darkness dwellers, does that make him a liar? In this corrupt day where we have seen Satan desperately attempting to strangle the throat of the church by stirring misconceptions about the absolute truth of God’s word, the validity and purpose of Christ's teachings, the focus of the Christian life etc., it scares me to hear about how many pastors, elders, deacons and other church leaders themselves have lost sight of the Truth. I have seen this destructive spiritual epidemic creep in and destroy the foundation of several churches, and the thought of a consensus form of leadership scares me because of it. True Christians - abiders of the Truth - are minority, and will continue to dwindle down until the day that Christ once again demands control over the world. Personally, I believe any decisions being made within the church need to be solely the result of the Lord's direction and granting, rather than our own. If the perfect body of Christ were to implement a consensus module form of leadership, I would think that every proposal would result in an all-or-nothing response. As humans who are full of sin, error and pride, our vision can easily be clouded - our perspective easily distorted. This is why we have to pray fervently for the direction and guidance of our perfect God, who has a will, a purpose, a plan and a path chosen for His servants here on earth.
I’m ready a book right now whose every page is ruining me in all the right ways.
I’m being filled with a holy desperation for something more.
My heart is craving for a community of people who are heaven-bent on loving others to Jesus in every radical way possible.
We’d rather play church.
But it seems we’ve settled down on earth and forgotten heaven completely.
Am I the only one? Is there a longing in your heart for a community like this?
Karen Brock Says:
Yes, Yes, Yes…having just got back from Sudan I want this even more. Let me know if you find it (or maybe we should just be living this way and keep asking for God to help us create this community ourselves:))
March 18th, 2010 at 4:03 pm
Wondering… shouldn't a church at all three types of leaders as pastors?
March 20th, 2010 at 5:16 am
I think that one of the toughest, yet one of the most rewarding parts of being a leader (particularily as a pastor) is the part where you are motivating people to do something voluntarily. Difficult because you can’t use force when you are trying to change and impact the state of someone’s heart, but so rewarding bc you know that at the end of the day, that person made the decision voluntarily and you know it goes deep a a result.
I also like the phrase “spiritual multipliers”… I have my hunch as to what you meant by this James, but care to elaborate?
March 22nd, 2010 at 4:57 pm
Jay - I think it would be good for a church to have all three, but sometimes a church ain't big enough to have them all - in that case, I would hope they have a strategic leader rather than the other two.
Leah, Great comment and great question about spiritual multipliers (yes I know its a little christiany lingo). I had the same comment asked by someone on my blog, and here was my answer:
"First, a spiritual multiplier is energizer bunny discipleship - it keeps going and going. The idea is that if you and I hang out, and I really built into you, the hope is that you would then go out and do that with a few other people, and so on." - does that suffice?