Kent Shaffer is an influencer, a creative genius, and apparently never sleeps. One of the best church leadership blogs I follow is Church Relevance. It is considered an honor to be considered for one of Kent’s lists of top churches or top Christian blogs. He is the co-founder of Acre Scout, which helps connect buyers to commercial real estate, including churches. He is an active part of Lifechurch.tv. He consults regularly for churches and ministries wanting to become more effective and efficient. You can follow Kent on Twitter HERE.
Jon Acuff is a funny, intelligent, mega-blogging leader at Stuff Christians Like. When I originally started this series I honestly overlooked some of the best leaders, because I falsely limited myself to people that have positions in a church or ministry. Jon has one of the most read blogs in the church world today. If Jon posts something, others instantly take notice. I call that influence, and if leadership is about influence, Jon is one of the best.
Ben spent several years leading a major department at Lifeway Christian Resources and now is a full-time generosity strategist for Generis. Ben’s wisdom certainly exceeds his years. He has taken a specific interest in helping churches fully fund their vision. If your church is in need of a consultant in that area, I recommend Ben to you.
Dave Ferguson is a pastor and mentor to hundreds of church planters around the globe, including me. His church, Community Christian Church, is a pioneer in the multi-site movement. Dave is an influencer, a teacher, and a visionary leader. I appreciate his responsiveness to those of us that desire to learn from him. I also appreciate his commitment to his family. The one meeting I had schedule with him had to be canceled because of a school program for one of his children. I admired that in him. He has befriended my son in Chicago. I previously wrote about that HERE.
I consider Jenni Catron a friend and ministry partner. Jenni serves as the Executive Director at Crosspoint Church in Nashville. The church’s proximity to our church helps me learn from their success. Jenni is a hard-working, genuine leader. I love the transparency she shares through her blog and the intentionality she brings to her ministry. I am fully convinced that much of the success of Crosspoint is due to Jenni’s leadership. You can follow Jenni on Twitter also.
Scott Williams is a great leader I have learned to admire online. I haven’t met him personally, but social media has allowed me to connect with him to the point I feel I can call him friend. Some day we will actually meet. In the meantime, I love learning from Scott at his amazingly popular blog Big Is The New Small.
I’m sure there is a perfect definition of this, but for me worship happens when you forget about yourself and recognize more about God in that moment. You can put that in the context of a worship service, where a person recognizes that I don’t care about myself or my struggles; I just care about God, or you can put that in terms of a work situation, where a person says, “None of this matters except for me bringing glory to God.” When self disappears and the image of oneself disappears and God’s purpose, design and plan becomes the most important thing, that’s worship.
Geoff Surratt is part of the church famous Surratt brothers of Seacoast Church. I have had to the privilege of meeting several of them and I am always impressed. I sat in a breakout at a conference last year where Geoff spoke last year. He’s funny, witty, and smart. His latest book, Ten Stupid Things That Keep Churches from Growing, is a frank and honest book that identifies the most common mistakes pastors make. You can follow Geoff on Twitter also.
The team at Seacoast is packed with sharp people and Mac Lake is one of their best. Mac and I have never met, unless the world of social media counts. If it does we’ve met frequently. I’ve enjoyed our emails, Twitter, blog and TokBox correspondence. Mac is a deliberate and strategic thinker. I don’t know anyone currently more passionate about developing leaders than Mac Lake.
Carlos Whitaker is one of the most creative and inspiring leaders in today’s church culture. Carlos also has one of the most read blogs among Christians. Carlos is an architect of visions and his current work is with the launch this Spring of Soul City Church in Chicago. (I wrote about Soul City’s Jarrett Stevens HERE.)