Comedy-Driven Leadership: Think Like a Comedian, Move Forward Like a Leader by Jonathan Herron & Perry Noble

Author:Jonathan Herron & Perry Noble [Herron, Jonathan & Noble, Perry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Christian Books & Bibles, Churches & Church Leadership, Church Leadership, Pastoral Resources, Religion & Spirituality, Ministry & Evangelism, General
Amazon: B00J2KN4HA
Publisher: First Punch Press
Published: 2014-03-17T00:00:00+00:00

We’ve all seen the success stories of leaders who risked it all and then have seen God bless their efforts. But what about the stories of leaders who take a risk and it doesn’t end well? Allow me to share how I once got fired.

We were going all out in reaching people far from God: throwing Easter eggs out of flying helicopters, covering current songs by groups like Foo Fighters and Beyonce that tied in with strong gospel messages, yelling at men to man up, etc. The fruit of our ministry was fantastic! In less than two years, we saw 328 professions of faith and 135 public baptisms all in a town of less than 5,000 people.

The life-change was awesome. Marriages were being healed, teenagers were getting fired up in their faith, and as a church we were aggressively paying off building debt. Other church leaders throughout our region were even coming to see what God was doing in our midst.

Then it suddenly came to an abrupt stop. As it turns out, our cutting-edge ministry techniques were being misunderstood by a very small but vocal pocket of hard-core traditionalists. They didn’t like all the new people coming in with tattoos and leaving cigarette butts in the parking lot. Since I was the senior pastor, I became their secret target. It was a shadow campaign of whispers and character slander as the ugly face of insider church politics quietly took root.

Forget Matthew 18; without my knowledge they leapfrogged straight to the executive pastor and church board with an ultimatum: “Him or Us.” With a newly-hired and inexperienced executive pastor, swaying the board became easy. I was abruptly tossed out.

Did I mention that this leadership coup happened while I was at home on medical leave recovering from two back surgeries? Adding insult to injury, the church staff were instructed to completely cut-off all contact with me and my family. When the worship pastor reached out to me, they shamed him into thinking he was somehow personally responsible for all this happening. The board publicly announced that I had chosen to resign my position when that could not have been further from the truth.

Out of nowhere, my life became a real-life country song: I lost my health, I lost my job, and our closest friends and small group all bailed on us... I felt like I was reenacting the Book of Job. The stress even gave me boils like Job. It was awesome.

This was the most painful season our family had ever experienced as we were faced with deep betrayal, widespread gossip, and the Amish weapon-of-choice: shunning. If you’ve been in ministry for any length of time, you will understand: ministry hurts. Hurting people hurt people. Sheep bite. The Bible is true when it reminds us that a prophet is not honored in his hometown. You will be misunderstood, misperceived, and mishandled. Even Jesus had a Judas.

God, however, is not surprised by the junk that happens in your life. Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble.

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