There are six of us. All are pastors. All of them lead mega-mega churches. And we get together every January for a Pastors’ Roundtable Retreat.
This year I saw that these successful friends of mine have three things in common.
- They show up.
- They stay long-term.
- And they never stop learning.
A ton of great books have been written on what it takes to succeed, but filling a whole book means it gets complicated.
Try these simple behaviors of my successful friends:
1. Successful people show up every day.
Wannabees find excuses. They get sick and stay home. They get criticized and quit. They get busy and stop learning.
Successful people overcome obstacles. “Yeah, but…” isn’t in their vocabulary. They get sick and still preach. They get criticized and learn from it. They get busy and keep learning.
I’ve been huddling with this group of large church pastors for almost ten years now. We all get sick; we all take vacations. But in those ten years, only one of us has missed a scheduled preaching assignment, and that’s because he was in the hospital with a detached retina.
2. Successful people stay long term.
Wannabees waver. They see greener grass, greater salaries, or more prestige elsewhere. So they go there.
Success is like digging a huge hole. It happens one shovel-full at a time. Digging a big hole takes a long time.
Of the six pastors in my group, one of us accepted a job as a college president three years ago; the rest of us have all been in our present pastorates for more than fifteen years.
3. Successful people never stop learning.
Wannabees let the tyranny of the urgent keep them from the primacy of the important. They start working on a degree, but get stopped by distractions, or financial mis-management, or family stress. They hire a mentor, but quit for lack of time.
Success is a journey, not a destination. Those who arrive do so by getting a little bit better, a little bit wiser, a little bit more godly every week.
The reason my buddies get together is to learn from each other. One of their favorite things to share is the books we’ve read. They all have mentors. They all have advanced degrees. They all are over 50. And they all intend to keep learning like mad.
Advanced lessons in success include great vision, great skills, great leadership and a dozen other factors.
But these three are primary: show up, stay there, keep growing.
Now What?
How can you apply these simple behaviors in your life?
Further Reading:
- How to Be a Strategic Pastor and See your Church Grow
- The Best 21 Truths I Learned from Rick Warren
- Do you Know these Top 10 Goals for Pastors?
Hal Seed is the founding and Lead Pastor of New Song Community Church in Oceanside, CA. He mentors pastors who want to lead healthy, growing churches with resources at www.pastormentor.com.
Start Here to learn more about the resources available for you at PastorMentor.