A Word to the Wise: Your Leadership Role Opens Up New Conversations If You Let It
 
Your title, authority, and influence make you interesting to anyone who holds a similar position in another enterprise. Yet most leaders never think to expand their learning network to include peers in organizations across the landscape.
They miss the opportunity to build relationships and learn from scores of leaders outside their organization who would welcome the connection and conversation.
These external relationships offer something no one in your internal network can match: a fresh perspective, different approaches, and insights from entirely different contexts.
The best leaders are deliberate about building external networks of experts to learn from.
Your Leadership Role Opens Up New Conversations If You Let It (Admired Leadership Field Notes – Excellent article!)
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​A Word to the Wise: Most churches aren’t short on people—they’re short on invitations.
 (Mac Lake)
 
A common belief is that staff are responsible for recruiting new leaders. But when recruitment depends solely on staff, leadership development becomes limited and the pipeline runs dry.
 
Here’s the truth: one of the biggest factors in recruiting new leaders is the relationship to the person making the ask.
 
Think about your first invitation into leadership. Who asked you? Why did you say yes?
 
For me, it was my high school English teacher, Marjorie Willis. I was the shyest kid in school, but because I had a relationship with her—because I believed in her belief in me—I said yes.
 
Every church has people who would never say yes to a staff invitation but would say yes to a trusted friend.
 
That’s why your best recruiters aren’t on your staff—they’re already in your congregation. The key is empowering their voices to invite others into leadership.
 
*When you release people to be leadership scouts, you multiply your reach. You move from recruiting out of need to recruiting for vision—just like Jesus in Luke 10, who had already recruited 72 but still said, “The harvest is plentiful… ask the Lord of the harvest to send out more workers.”
 
Here’s your challenge:
Don’t just ask, “Who am I recruiting?”
Ask, “Who am I empowering to identify and invite future leaders?”
Because when recruitment doesn’t rise or fall on you, your leadership pipeline never runs dry.
Mac Lake, 10.27.25, The Secret to Filling Your Leadership Pipeline (Without Burnout or Begging)

A Word to the Wise: The 8 D’s of Aging (Paul David Tripp)
 
Realities that every person might experience in their life as they get older: dissatisfaction, disorientation, discouragement, dread, disappointment, disinterest, distance, and distraction.
 
Getting older can be, and should be, a beautiful thing. With it comes wisdom, different freedom, and new opportunities for influence. But in a fallen world, where everything is in a state of decay and the surrounding culture idolizes vanity, energy, and youth, it can be very discouraging.

Whether you are in your 30s, your 50s, your 70s, or beyond, experiencing any or all of these “8 Ds of aging”, I want you to remember just two things today.
There aren’t two things in all of life more important than these: that God’s mercy has purchased for you a place in his family and that God’s power controls all things for your good until your eternal inheritance is to be received.
https://www.paultripp.com/wednesdays-word/posts/the-8-ds-of-aging
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A Word to the Wise: Faithfulness amid the Culture War, J. D. Greear
 
J. D. says, “My primary assignment isn’t to build a nation but to be a faithful witness to Jesus.”
 
Recently, he published a book, Everyday Revolutionary: How to Transcend the Culture War and Transform the World. “It’s possible to be faithful and true in everything we say on every public issue and still be unfaithful in the mission of Jesus.
 
Jesus’s mission, you see, was more than just the proclamation of truth; it was the ministry of reconciliation. Jesus spent his energy befriending sinners, bringing them back to God, not just establishing cultural beachheads. That meant he backed out of some important discussions to better focus on the essential one—he “solved” for reconciling sinners to God through the preaching of his gospel. In his day-to-day encounters, he seemed less concerned with saving a nation than he was with saving individuals.
If we’re his followers, that will be true of us too.”
 
Learn more here: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/faithfulness-amid-culture-war/
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A Word to the Wise: Is This Revival?
 
In evaluating the Charlie Kirk assassination, memorial service, and its subsequent impact, John Stonestreet reflects on Jonathan Edwards’ distinguishing marks of a true revival.
John Stonestreet, 10.6.25, Breakpoint, Is This Revival? We cannot manufacture revival, but that should not keep us from hoping, praying, and working for it.

1. Focused on the person and work of Christ
2. A clear call to repentance
3. Grounded in the Bible
4. Produces love, humility, and unity among believers

 
https://breakpoint.org/is-this-revival
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A Word to the Wise
 
How Much Time Should We Spend Reading the Bible? Tim Challies
https://www.challies.com/articles/how-much-time-should-we-spend-reading-the-bible/
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A Word to the Wise: The Gospel Side of the Charlie Kirk Memorial (Kentucky Today)
 
https://www.kentuckytoday.com/baptist_life/the-gospel-side-of-the-charlie-kirk-memorial/article_330192a4-98d7-4d9c-b806-ae37ebb09a29.html
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A Word to the Wise: 10 Statistics/Figures Church Leaders Should Know (Chuck Lawless)
 
Below are ten statistics/figures I would want church leaders to know. See how many of them you know about your church:
 

1. Worship center seating capacity. Knowing this figure can help you prepare for growth. If you don’t know it, measure the pews and assume 18-24” inches per person.  Or, just count the chairs.
2. Parking capacity. Where parking is limited, growth is most often limited as well, even if the building has more room for growth. It’s good for leaders to keep an eye on this issue. 
3. Attendance decline or growth. Sometimes the decline or growth is so slow that few people recognize the trends. Somebody in leadership needs to know reality.
4. Budget giving shortfall/overage. Not only does this figure give you a snapshot of the church’s giving and spending, but it also helps you to pray as needed regarding finances.
5. Conversions vs. transfer growth. Church leaders should know whether the church is growing by reaching lost persons or by transferring members—or both. Most “growing” churches are growing primarily by the latter.
6. Missions giving percentage. This figure helps show whether or not your church has a heart for missions.
7. Personnel budget percentage. Most of the time, this percentage directly affects how much of the budget remains for actual ministry.
8. Number of pastors or missionaries called out from the church. Too few church leaders emphasize the task of “calling out the called” today.
9. Number of unchurched people in the community. Church leaders who have no knowledge of the spiritual state of their community often lead churches that are not outwardly focused.
10. The church’s statistical goals for this year. I realize that numerical goals can become an idol, but having no goals seldom leads to healthy growth. 

Chuck Lawless, 9.17.25, https://chucklawless.com/2025/09/10-statisticsfigures-church-leaders-should-know/
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​A Word to the Wise: 3 Steps to Strengthen Your Leadership Development Strategy by Mac Lake
 
Strengthening your leadership development strategy starts with simple, intentional steps you can practice right now.
 
Here are three simple but powerful steps you can take today:
 
Be a leader worth following.
People don’t just follow vision, they follow spirit and skill. Psalm 78:72 reminds us that David “shepherded them with integrity of heart and guided them with skillful hands.” Leadership is both character and competency.
 
Pray about who to invest in.
Jesus spent an entire night in prayer before choosing the Twelve (Luke 6:12–13). Don’t just fill slots—seek God for the right people to pour into, and then give disproportionate time to a few in order to impact many.
 
Focus on transformation, not just information.
Dumping content into people doesn’t create change. Transformation happens when leaders are developed in both character and competency—when they’re equipped not just to run ministry tasks, but to live and lead like Jesus in every area of life.
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Mac Lake, 3 Steps to Strengthen Your Leadership Development Strategy, 9.8.25

A Word to the Wise: Most Countries Have a Christian Majority (Aaron Earls, Lifeway Research)
 
Christians make up 29% of the global population but are a majority in 120 countries, according to the most recent analysis by Pew Research.