Lessons On Church Leadership, Compliments Of Lane Kiffin

To understand the context of this post, please click here to read an mind-blowing article of Kiffin’s leadership of the UT football program.

Last night Lane Kiffin shocked the college football world. Well, in a new way. He has a tendency to shock NCAA fans with off-handed jabs and blatant recruting violations, but this was a new kind of shock. After only a year at the helm, Kiffin was leaving the Tennessee program to return to USC. As a die hard Georgia fan, all the disarray is very entertaining.  But if you had a chance to read the article I linked, you could discern that he never really left USC in the first place. In his mind, USC was the pinnacle of all college football. Whatever school he coached, he was going to force the vision, strategy, and style of USC down their throats.

Before we hammer Lane too bad, we do that in church life all the time. I’m sure we all have churches that we admire immensely. Churches like Northpoint, NewSpring, Port City, Fellowship Bible, etc. But the mistake comes when our admiration of their church’s DNA becomes our church’s DNA. Admiration becomes copyright infringement. We copy their sermon series, small group curriculum, stage design, logos, staff structure, etc., all because CHURCH X did it (and look how successful they are)! The reason CHURCH X was successful was because they did what God wanted them to do. When we carbon copy other churches, it allows no room for God to create a unique and successful culture in your setting. I do agree that there is one thing that we should copy from these churches (which I really look up to). The one thing we should copy is their passion. These churches are reaching people because they have a whatever-it-takes attitude. Imitate the passion of successful churches, not their programming. Be unique. Our God is a creative God. Be the church he wants YOU to be.