Jeff Lockyer has been the Lead Pastor of what is now Southridge Church since he was in his early 20’s. He talks about what that journey was like, team leadership, ministering to LGBTQ in his city, and how his church has made reaching the poor part of their mission of reaching people.
Welcome to Episode 019 of the podcast, which you can access on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.
Guest Links
Jeff on Twitter | GLS Podcast
GrowingLeaders.com | SouthridgeChurch.ca
Links Mentioned
Canadian Church Leaders Conference
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The Church of Irresistible Influence by Robert Lewis
BRAVE WOMEN: Building Bridges to Transformation, a Compendium by Ellen Duffield
A Mission Partner
Looking for a mission partner? Compassion Canada helps release children from poverty around the world, and they do it through the local church.
They can help you develop a mission strategy for your church that can change the world, whether your church is large or small.
For a free consult, contact them at church@compassion.ca.
Want to Reach More People?
Can Canadian churches reach their communities? You bet.
The vision behind the Canadian Church Leaders conference is simple: to help you reach more people.
The conference is back, and this year we’re focusing on how to lead change in your church and in a changing culture.
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It’s three days of intimate, interactive connection and our speakers will be bringing all new talks that will help you and your team lead change in your church.
This years speakers include Laurel Buckingham, Shaila Visser, Jon Thompson, Jeff Brodie, Rich Birch and Carey Nieuwhof.
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3 Insights from This Episode
1. Healthy succession requires transferring authority and responsibility
Does your church have a succession plan in place? It’s always smart to be engaging and developing the next generation even if you’re decades away from replacing senior leadership. Start by evaluating your leadership pipeline and general processes. Do you have space on your team for excellent, younger leaders to thrive? It’s okay to get outside of your current system and design opportunities for the next generation to gain experience and responsibility in a creative way.
Make sure your succession plan includes transferring both authority and responsibility to the incoming generation. You can’t give away responsibility and expect to retain authority. Likewise, the recipient can’t hold authority without the role of responsibility. It just won’t work long-term without both.
Be looking for the emerging leaders around you who could take the next steps towards senior level leadership. Investing in them now immediately serves to grow those young leaders and in turn will better serve your church in the years to come.
2. Team Ministry needs the skill set of a Team Leader
Team ministry has its plus sides. Biblically we know moving the Kingdom forward takes many gifts and working hands. It’s fun and rewarding when a collaboration of minds successfully pulls off great things most people couldn’t do alone.
But there are definitely some pitfalls. You can lead collectively up to a certain point, but nothing ever comes together perfectly. As soon as a disagreement arises, that team togetherness is broken. There is a difference between structure and function. You can function as a team, but you can’t structure as a collective because there’s no backbone when people disagree.
That’s where the team leader comes into play. The team leader has the skill set necessary to make those hard calls without dividing the team. The team leader isn’t there to move his or her own vision, but the fundamental beliefs of the church.
3. There’s a way to combine attractional and missional church philosophies
If your church suddenly disappeared, would anyone in the surrounding community notice? There’s a way for your church to be attractional and missional. The key is not being hyper-focused in either area. You can’t devote 100% of your time and resources into the needs of missions and ignore being prepared for weekend services; and vice-versa. Know the blueprint of your church and what you want to be known for by the people. Find ways to engage people in both areas of your church that will grow the hearts of all involved.
Here are the three ways Jeff’s team measures and cultivates discipleship within Southridge Church:
Attendance Rate – How many people are coming to your weekend services?
Connection Rate – How many life groups does your church host and are they actively pursuing community?
Engagement Rate – How many people are volunteering to get out of their comfort zones and serve the needs of the community?
Quotes from This Episode
CCLP 019: Jeff Lockyer on Ministering to LGBTQ, Young Leadership, Women in Leadership and Reaching The People and the Poor in A City Share on XCCLP 019: Jeff Lockyer on Ministering to LGBTQ, Young Leadership, Women in Leadership and Reaching The People and the Poor in A City Share on XCCLP 019: Jeff Lockyer on Ministering to LGBTQ, Young Leadership, Women in Leadership and Reaching The People and the Poor in A City Share on XCCLP 019: Jeff Lockyer on Ministering to LGBTQ, Young Leadership, Women in Leadership and Reaching The People and the Poor in A City Share on XCCLP 019: Jeff Lockyer on Ministering to LGBTQ, Young Leadership, Women in Leadership and Reaching The People and the Poor in A City Share on XThe podcast releases the first Thursday of every month
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Next Episode: Danielle Strickland
Danielle Strickland is one of the best communicators of our generation, and she’s Canadian. Danielle talks about how she discovered she was a communicator, walks us through her preparation process for speaking and preaching, and talks about how being a teenage rebel prepared her to serve in an established church structure.
Subscribe for free now and you won’t miss Episode 020.
