Missing in Action

By Dr. Dean Radtke

One day I called Dr. Jerry Savelle’s ministry. While on hold, I listened to a recording of Dr. Savelle’s teaching. At that particular moment, he said, “I can’t even count how many times I have heard pastors tell me they can’t take it anymore.”

Why do so many ministries stagnate, marriages fail, strange doctrines appear, sinful behaviors become commonplace, and leaders quit? Why are so many pastors and ministry leaders overwhelmed, burned out, frustrated, and contemplating quitting? Because they have not been properly trained.

WE SHOULD HAVE SEEN IT COMING
We should have seen the tragedy of September 11, 2001, coming. We had warnings, the first bombing of the World Trade Center, The Kenyan Embassy, the U.S.S. Cole, etc. We can say the same thing about the tragedies we have witnessed in ministry. The following statistics about pastors have been available for years:
• 1,800 leave the ministry every month
• 40% will not be in the ministry in 10 years
• 15% contemplating leaving the ministry every Monday morning
• 65% would leave their position for a similar paying position
• 50% feel unable to meet the needs of the job
• 80% believe that pastoral ministry has adversely affected their families
• 40% will have an extramarital affair career
• 70% say they have lower self-esteem than when they started in ministry
• 89% say they do not have the gift of leadership

For years, pastors and ministry leaders have been asking:
• How can I gain significant ground, sustain vigorous and healthy growth, be uniquely able to
accomplish all that God has given me, and survive myself?
• How can I get to the point where I’m not dealing with it alone?
• How can I stop living my life at full bore with burnout and lessening knowledge of who I really am?
• How can I feel once again close to my first love, Christ?
• Where do I go from here? I’m frustrated, overwhelmed, and weary. Life seems like a cycle of endless work.
• How can I remain strong so that I don’t ever retire but maintain my health, enthusiasm, zeal, and supernatural love and compassion for people?
• How can I have confidence that I can say someday before the Lord, “I have finished the work that You gave me to do?”

As founder and CEO of the Institute of Ministry Management and Leadership, I have provided many years of executive counsel, vision facilitation, and strategic planning to ministry leaders, as well as conducted foundational and advanced training CEO workshops throughout the world. My research and personal findings reveal that the questions listed above stem from three universal dysfunctions:
• Most pastors and ministry leaders are operating out of position and underachieving the vision, with an unprotected anointing, with a lack of intimacy with God and family, and with no clarity about how to leave a legacy.
• Most pastors and ministry leaders have so much needless chaos in their lives that they do not face the facts but avoid them, at great cost. Major ministry opportunities are missed and major mistakes made.
• Most pastors and ministry leaders do not lead or properly disciple,
coach, teach, train, or mentor those God has entrusted to them.

WHAT CAUSED THE TRAGEDY?
The principal reason for the dysfunction that manifest in frustration and eventually quitting the call is that ministry CEOs have never learned the following:
• The wisdom to achieve all of God’s mandates while maintaining the quality of life He prescribes.
• The practical application of how to build a ministry organization.
• The methods, systems, and processes required and how to execute them.
• The tools that must be worked versus the clever slogans, sayings, steps, ideals, and theories.
• The skills that must be practiced so that the art of execution is passed down.

Pastors and ministry leaders have said to me repeatedly, “I’ve read all the books and listened to all the tapes. Can you please show me how to do this?” Most ministry CEOs have never been taught and trained in the foundational principals and behavioral performance proficiencies of building a successful and efficiently functioning organization. All they have been told is “Preach the Word, and they will come.”

THE WORLD’S SYSTEM SUFFERS FEWER FATALITIES BY APPLYING SCRIPTURAL PRINCIPLES
Secular organizations in corporate America know how to apply biblical management and leadership principles very effectively. As a result, they are exceptionally successful in comparison to ministries. They do not attribute, in most cases their success to the Bible— the greatest management and leadership book every written—or to Jesus Christ—the greatest leader ever to live. God is not a respecter of persons. His wisdom, understanding, and knowledge are there for the taking. (Proverbs 24:3-4)

For example, secular organizations understand discipleship. They don’t all it that, but they execute and emulate the principles required to disciple—and for good reason. They understand that to have consistent growth and to expand into new and emerging markets, they must place a premium on training and developing their people.

Last year, IBM spent $100 million to develop 30,000 new leaders (disciples). GE has had a world-class training center for decades. You do not get a raise at GE if you do not train and develop your people and create successors. Two years without a raise, and GE fires you. This has allowed GE to expand from the appliance business into other sectors, such as aerospace, finance, healthcare, and biotech. That is the “sending” process.
Secular CEOs call this leadership development, constructing the leadership pipeline, and developing a leadership engine. In the ministry we have not developed enough leaders to meet God’s mandates. It must start with the CEO.

International Family Church is the host for the northeast CEO & Leaders Workshop with Dr. Dean Radtke. The next meeting will be held on September 20-22, 2007. For more information or to register, please visit www.ministryinstitute.com