Leadership Discussion Guide

Leadership Self-Assessment

Answer honestly. Do not fill in the answer you wish were true.

1. When was the last time our leadership team said Verse 12 aloud — 'We have no might . . . neither know we what to do'?
2. Do our sermons, prayers, and pastoral care imply that faithful believers will be spared serious adversity?
3. Do we practice the Established-Witness Principle before responding to reports about members, staff, or programs?
4. Where has our praise become technique? Where has it become the outgrowth of trust?
5. How often do we climb the watch tower together — a leadership retrospective of what God has done?
6. What are we doing to leave a Berachah register for the next generation of leaders?

Cultural Diagnostic

Rate each on a scale of 1 (rare) to 5 (embedded). Then discuss the two lowest scores.

• Members can name adversity honestly without fear of being told they lack faith.
• Leaders model transparent lament from the platform.
• Prayer is the first move in a crisis, not the last.
• Diversity of worship posture is welcomed and biblically taught.
• Congregational testimonies regularly name valleys as places of blessing.
• Posterity — remembering God's provision for the next generation — is intentionally cultivated.

Case Studies

1. A long-tenured member's marriage collapses after a season of faithful ministry. The board's first instinct is to search for hidden sin. What does the Occupant Principle require?
2. A staff report about a ministry leader arrives from a single source. The board is under pressure to act quickly. What does the Established-Witness Principle require?
3. A worship service is dividing the congregation over posture and style. What does Chapter 4 teach the board to preserve, and what to release?
4. A ministry initiative is quietly succeeding but no one is celebrating. How does the board institute a fourth-day rhythm of barak?

Leadership Decisions

• One preaching decision: what corrective sermon does your congregation most need this quarter?
• One pastoral-care decision: where must you replace prosperity assumptions with 'common-to-man' empathy?
• One governance decision: what two-or-three-witness practice will you formalize?
• One rhythm decision: what quarterly watch-tower retrospective will you calendar?
• One posterity decision: what will you begin recording now for the next generation of leaders?

Prayer as a Board

Close the meeting by praying Jehoshaphat's prayer aloud, dividing the movements among the board: Exalt · Remember · Claim · Stand · Admit. Do not hurry. Let the room feel the weight of the fifth movement.