32 Leadership Lessons From The Best Small Church Pastor Video I’ve Ever Seen

If you are a small or rural church pastor, this post is written to encourage you.
Andy Stanley is an outlier.  Perry Noble is an outlier.  Bill Hybels is an outlier.  Rick Warren is an outlier.  Most of the world’s pastors are like Southern Seminary alumnus and First Baptist Church of Hamlin (TX) pastor John Powell.    
If you have not heard of Hamlin, TX you are not alone.  It is a small, rural town which is shrinking.  There are few jobs.  People are moving away.  But the Gospel still needs to be preached there.  And Pastor Powell has been called to Hamlin to minister to and reach its people.
His amazing story is shown in the video above.  It is the finest video I have ever seen on small and rural church leadership.  Take 9 minutes and show this video to your entire staff.  It will challenge your ministry paradigms and definitions of success.
As I watched this incredible story, I gleaned 32 Leadership Lessons From The Best Small Church Pastor Video I’ve Ever Seen.  All the quotes below are from Pastor Powell.

1. Small Church Pastors Work Long, Hard, Thankless Hours – “Hard work.  Long hours.  Thankless work sometimes.  Most people don’t know what goes into the life of a pastor.”
2. Small Church Pastors Are Very Intelligent – “I have theological knowledge.  I wield the Sword of God very well.”
3. Small Church Pastors Are Shepherds – “There’s a reason God didn’t call us ‘cowboys’ and called us ‘shepherds’.”
4. Small Church Pastors Are Leaders – “Shepherds don’t push from behind.  They lead from the front.”
5. Small Church Pastors Must Have Tender Hearts – “There’s a tenderness to a shepherd that isn’t there in a cowboy.”
6. Small Church Pastors Must Train Their Congregations – “He trains them to hear and trust his voice.”
7. Small Church Pastors Are Seen Everyday – “And they see him everyday and become acquainted with him so that he can lead them into the fold.”
8. Small Church Pastors Must Be Gentle – “I need to foster tenderness and gentleness because cowboys in the ministry don’t shepherd people.”
9. Small Church Pastors See The Warts Of Their People More Than Many Large Church Pastors – “I see some of the warts of Hamlin but I love it more.”
10. Small Church Pastors Simply Know All Their People In A Deeper Way – “I know it in a deeper way.  I know the people in a better way.”
11. Small Church Pastors Become Part Of Their City – “It’s becoming part of me.”
12. Small Church Pastors Have A Ministry Of Presence – “Little church ministry is a ministry of presence.  There’s no way to sequester myself away in my office for 40 hours a week and be an effective church minister in a rural town.”
13. Small Church Pastors Must Be Wherever The People Are – “Being an effective rural church minister means being present wherever the people are.  And oftentimes that’s on the steps of a tractor or in a hardware store or in a cattle pen.”
14. Many Small Church Pastors Go To Small Cities Intentionally – “Coming to a small town for me was intentional.”
15. Small Church Pastors Have Great Opportunity – “There’s a great opportunity for the Gospel to be proclaimed through just the simple everyday life of a man’s life in a small town.”
16. Small Church Pastors Are Known By Everybody – “I can’t go to the grocery store without someone knowing that that’s the preacher of the First Baptist Church.”
17. Small Church Pastors Must Always Be On Their Game – “A small town pastor lives his life in public so I’ve always got to be on my game.”
18. Small Church Pastors Are Often In Shrinking Towns – “The town I’m in is shrinking.  No one is moving to Hamlin to find a job.”
19. Small Church Pastors Understand Reality – “80-85% of the United States lives in an urban area.  I understand we want more resources where there is more prospect for investment and return.”
20. Small Church Pastors Are Raising Up Missionaries To Go To Larger Churches – “Those cities are gaining people everyday.  Where are they coming from?  They’re coming from places like Hamlin.”
21. Small Church Pastors Affect Change – “If we can affect a Gospel change here, they will carry that wherever they go.”
22. Small Church Pastors Are Desperately Needed In Forgotten Places – “There’s a need for the Gospel to go everywhere and let’s make sure we’re not forgetting anywhere.”
23. Small Church Pastors Face Similar Struggles As Large Church Pastors – “I thought I was doing everything right and I wasn’t seeing fruit.”
24. Small Church Pastors Often Want To Quit – “Maybe I should not be a pastor.  Maybe I should just be a really good Christian layman.”
25. Small Church Pastors Need Encouragment – “These friends of mine that I made from Southern Seminary, they gathered around me and for several hours last year asked me tough questions and they prayed with me and they encouraged me.”
26. Small Church Pastors Have A Different Definition Of Success – “Success was not more people.  It may be less people.  Success is faithfulness ever when it’s hard, even when you want to give up.”
27. Small Church Pastors Desperately Need Godly Wives – “I would have burned out in ministry in two years if I would not have had these friends of mine I made from Southern Seminary that recognized my need in a Godly way and a Godly wife my need and came and pointed me to Christ in a desperate hour.”
28. “Ministry has a way of humbling you.”
29. Small Church Pastors Make Up The Large Majority Of American Churches – “America is dotted with small towns with little-bitty churches like mine.”
30. Small Church Pastors Will Be Honored For Their Faithfulness – “There’s a Kingdom coming where He will reveal a sort of faithfulness that drives you day-in and day-out, the stuff that no one sees.  God sees and He will make known.”
31. Small Church Pastors Must Serve To Honor Jesus – “You’re not doing this for the acclaim of people.  You’re doing this for the honor of the One who saved you and called you for His purposes.”
32. Small Church Pastors Should Take Heart And Run Hard – “So continue on.  Take heart and run hard.  Cause He’s worth it.”

I hope this encourages you.  Once again, this is the best leadership video I have ever seen about small church pastoral leadership.  BTW – these leadership lessons apply to medium and large church pastors as well.

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