Recently Mark Batterson, the pastor at National Community Church in Washington, D. C., was a guest speaker at a staff meeting at Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Batterson said that as his church has grown over the years, he's made certain reflections on leadership in a growing church. Here are some of the thoughts he shared that day.

The more our church grows…

1. the greater the PRIVILEGE. Batterson says, "I never want myself or anyone on our staff to have a sense of entitlement. We're only servants" (I Corinthians 3:5).
2. the more COMPLICATED things get. Sin complicates our life in negative ways. Growth complicates our life in positive ways. Learn to thank God for complications!
3. the harder it is to maintain UNITY. Vision is the key to unity! The larger our church gets, the more frequently we need to cast vision. Unity doesn't happen by default (Ephesians 4:3).
4. the better STEWARDS we need to be. Growth raises the stakes. With greater responsibility comes greater accountability.
5. the more ABOVE REPROACH we need to be. I Corinthians 10:23 says, "Everything is permissible but not everything is beneficial." Batterson says that as leadership expands, there can be an unhealthy and unholy tendency toward the permissible end of the spectrum! Guard against it. As our influence expands, leaders need to move toward the beneficial end of that spectrum!

These are just the top five…there are five more that you can read at Batterson's blog, Evotional.com.

You can email me at trhoades@mondaymorninginsight.com). Have a great week!

Todd