Principles of Effective Leadership

Mark 2:1-5, 12 Deacons / Deaconate

Pastor Steve Hartland, speaking at a Trinity Baptist Deacons Conference, expounds Mark 2:1-5, 12 to delineate seven principles of effective leadership for deacons. He uses the four men who brought the paralytic to Jesus as a paradigm, arguing that excellent deacons are men of faith, gripped by biblical objectives, willing to sacrifice, observant, men of initiative, resourceful, and capable administrators and delegators. Hartland emphasizes that deacons' faithful service removes barriers to the ministry of the Word, enabling souls to be ministered to and God to be glorified.

3 illustrations in this sermon

Principle 3: Excellent Deacons Are Willing to Sacrifice

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Pastor's Sacrificial Hours

The point: Be willing to sacrifice your time, energy, and money to serve the King of Kings.

The speaker shares his personal principle of spending more time in ministry than he is paid for, modeling sacrifice for the congregation and emphasizing that if he expects others to volunteer, he must also go above and beyond.

My brethren, I have always had it as my objective, as my principle that I must spend more time in the ministry than I'm paid to spend in the ministry. I would not be a mere hireling, put in my 45 hours and say that's it, punch my time card and I'm out. No, if I expect the people of God to sacrifice and volunteer their time, then I must model that and so I must put in my time for which I'm paid and then over top of that, put in hours for which I'm not paid and I'm gladly able to do that knowing that many of God's people are with me and sacrificing their time and their energy and their talents. ...

27:24 - 28:49 Read in full sermon

Principle 4: Excellent Deacons Are Observant

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Churchill's Observant Eye

In this part of the sermon: The fourth principle emphasizes that excellent deacons are observant, noticing needs and opportunities for improvement even when others do not. Nehemiah is presented as a model of…

Winston Churchill, even during WWII, observed a laborer moving dirt inefficiently and drafted a memo to suggest a better method, illustrating the quality of being observant and noticing opportunities for improvement.

And it is even a quality commended to us in the common grace of God by the men of this world, many of whom are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. I was delighted to read a two-volume biography of Winston Churchill over last winter. And one of the things I observed about Churchill was that he was always observing, always noticing things with an eye to improvement. For example, during the time of World War II, when, I think I may say, the fate of Western civilization hung on his shoulders, he was up in his office one day, looked out the window, and saw a common laborer movin...

31:19 - 32:02 Read in full sermon

Principle 5: Excellent Deacons Are Men of Initiative

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Leaking Vestry and Unmoved Note

The point: Be deacons who show initiative, seizing opportunities and making things happen in the church.

A pastor friend from overseas left a note for deacons to fix a leaking vestry before going on vacation, only to return and find the leak unfixed and the note undisturbed. This story highlights the lack of initiative in some deacons.

A pastor friend of mine from overseas was telling me about a pastor friend of his in a large, in a huge church in another land. And that pastor friend was going on vacation, on an extended vacation. He would be gone from the church for some time. And the vestry of the church had been leaking.

37:48 - 38:08 Read in full sermon

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