Episode Details

Thanks for joining us at the unSeminary podcast. We’re talking today with Mark Williams, Executive Pastor at New Day Christian Church in Port Charlotte, Florida.

The last few years have seen a lot of changes for church leaders and their congregations. How do you continue to grow and change when people are burned out and trust needs to be rebuilt? Listen in as Mark shares about the slow and steady changes that have helped New Day build steady momentum leading to growth.

• Make sure both are aligned. // When New Day offered Mark a job, he was hesitant to take it at first. He wanted to make sure the lead pastor had 100% trust in him before he took the job. The lead pastor and executive pastor need to be aligned and trust each other. As part of this process, New Day’s leadership and staff read through The Speed of Trust by Stephen Covey and made it their mantra.
• Take your time to build trust. // Working the first six months as Executive Pastor was a hard time to build trust with some people. Mark took his time, not making major changes right away. He focused on building relationships so the staff could see he cared about them, and waited two years before introducing changes. Even small changes can bring stress, so you may need to ease into them when building trust in some situations.
• Trust lay leaders. // One of the things that Mark changed was the mindset around hiring people. Over-hiring can slow down the progression of a church. Instead of hiring another person for every need that comes up, look at lay leaders and volunteers to see who might be able to help with a project. Who can you develop and empower to help with things the staff is planning?
• Celebrate, don’t beg. // Mark also worked with helping New Day make changes on the finances. One of those was communicating that giving is an act of worship. New Day helped people understand that they have an opportunity to partner financially with the church and see lives transformed. The staff shared stories celebrating the ways that generosity was impacting lives in order to show people how they can participate in that work.
• Plan ahead and make changes. // New Day knows that some things they’ve always done will need to be changed as the church expands to more campuses. So they are preemptively changing some of their leadership development and processes regarding how events are done. They are making the plans for slow and steady change now before encountering troubles that could quickly arise in the future.
• Be the one who pushes forward. // It’s easy to start with an idea, but it can be hard to keep the focus and momentum going over the long haul. The executive pastor can help keep everyone pushing forward and stay focused on the goal.

You can learn more about New Day Church at www.ndcchurch.com.

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