06 Mar Leadership Clusters Part 3 Connection
Steve King
Sr. Pastor, Cherrydale Baptist Church, Arlington, VA
Part 3 – Connection
Connection with other pastors and ministry leaders must be rooted in genuine care for each other. Start with the ones you know or the ones in your community that you should know. Share your convictions by modeling your message – genuinely seek to get to know your co-laborers in Christ. Listen, learn, love and pray.
When I first attempted to start a fellowship, I tried to build it around a National Association of Evangelicals Doctrine statement. Our group could all sign the document without hesitation but I discovered this was not the place to start. It created an environment in which we were trying to label and categorize each other. When I shifted the focus to relationship first, then the doctrine agreements on the essentials of the faith were naturally revealed in the context of friends who know and trust each other. We were freed to share our convictions and dream together.
When I speak in the first person about my connections with other leaders, our people are encouraged and challenged. So by modeling connection, I hope to influence our congregation to follow my lead and reap the benefits in their own contexts.
The bottomline is that progress will occur at the speed of trust and trust is built over time in a relational context.
- How might you get to know more pastors and ministry leaders in your area? Are there existing groups? If not, could you start one?
- Is connection being impacted by competition and how might this barrier be overcome?
- When ministry gets tough and you are struggling with doubts and fears, whom do you lean on with only your best interests at heart?
- Do you have someone who is a step ahead of you in ministry who will listen and coach on life, ministry and spiritual growth?
- What would it look like if the pastors and ministry leaders actually loved each other and worked together to advance the gospel in your community?
Check out the OneHeartDC Leadership Cluster Covenant.
We are praying for you – that you are connected with others who walk in similar shoes, and that you are thriving in life and ministry!
Pastor Steve King has been serving as the Senior Pastor at Cherrydale since October 2 of 1983. Entering his third decade of ministry, the challenges and opportunities are as inspiring to him today as they were more than 30 years ago. Pastor King has watched God accomplish marvelous things in the lives of His people, and under his leadership at Cherrydale, the church family reaches out to all areas of the Northern Virginia/Metropolitan DC region and throughout the world.