{"id":717174,"date":"2020-07-28T21:00:53","date_gmt":"2020-07-29T01:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?p=717174"},"modified":"2020-07-28T16:52:25","modified_gmt":"2020-07-28T20:52:25","slug":"a-pop-quiz-for-pastors-and-church-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/a-pop-quiz-for-pastors-and-church-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"A Pop Quiz for Pastors and Church Leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"

Based on what I\u2019ve learned about church leaders via years of church consulting, here\u2019s a pop quiz for pastors and other church leaders. Many leaders with whom I\u2019ve worked could not answer these questions \u2013 questions I believe strong church leaders <\/span>should <\/span><\/i>be able to answer:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. What are your church\u2019s mission and vision statements?<\/b> You might be surprised how many leaders can\u2019t answer this question.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. What are the demographics of the community within 5-10 miles of your church?<\/b> Too often, leaders guess at this answer.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. What are the names of your community\u2019s government officials?<\/b> Spiritual leaders in a community should know these names, particularly to pray for them.<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Is your church growing?<\/b> If so, is it growing by evangelistic growth? Transfer growth? Biological growth? You should know the source of your church\u2019s growth.<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. What is your church\u2019s baptism\/conversion: resident members ratio?<\/b> This ratio (baptisms\/conversions per resident member) hints at the church\u2019s level of evangelistic effectiveness.<\/span><\/li>\n
  6. What is your church\u2019s facility capacity (# of parking spaces, education capacity, worship center capacity)? <\/b>An administrator may know most of this information, but pastors should be aware of these important data as well. My guess is that COVID has resulted in more churches raising these questions.<\/span><\/li>\n
  7. What are the names of your staff members\u2019 spouses and children?<\/b> Not knowing suggests an unhealthy disconnect between the leader and the staff.<\/span><\/li>\n
  8. What is the testimony of your primary leaders?<\/b> It\u2019s a tragedy if you serve with people every week whose Christian stories you don\u2019t know.<\/span><\/li>\n
  9. Is your church meeting budget?<\/b> If you don\u2019t know this information, you might be surprised some day by what you find.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  10. What percentage of your active attenders have joined within the past three years? <\/b>Being aware of this figure helps you know if the church might be in a leadership transition (older members vs. newer members).<\/span><\/li>\n
  11. How many church planters, missionaries, and pastors has your church sent out during your ministry? <\/b>If you\u2019ve never asked this question, my guess is that the number is probably small.<\/span><\/li>\n
  12. What percentage of your active attenders are involved in a small group? <\/b>If the small group is the place where your members get connected, you should know this answer.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  13. Do your church\u2019s leaders affirm the church\u2019s doctrinal statement?<\/b> You might assume they do, but do you know for certain?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  14. How many mission trips is your church sponsoring this year, and to what places are the teams going? <\/b>Leaders who can\u2019t answer these questions likely aren\u2019t as involved in missions as they need to be.<\/span><\/li>\n
  15. What is your vision for the church five years from now?<\/b> A generic \u201cI want the church to be reaching more people\u201d really isn\u2019t sufficient. A good vision has some level of specificity based on the church\u2019s history, context, and leadership.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    If you assume a value of 6.5 points for each question, with a 2.5 point curve just because we all need grace, what would you score on this pop quiz?<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Based on what I\u2019ve learned about church leaders via years of church consulting, here\u2019s a pop quiz for pastors and other church leaders. Many leaders with whom I\u2019ve worked could not answer these questions \u2013 questions I believe strong church leaders should be able to answer: ","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":717175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"publish_to_discourse":"0","publish_post_category":"1","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[184,175,177,178,180],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-717174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-discipleship","category-grow","category-lead","category-membership-and-assimilation","category-outreach-and-evangelism"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA Pop Quiz for Pastors and Church Leaders | Church Answers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Many leaders with whom I\u2019ve worked could not answer these questions \u2013 questions I believe strong church leaders should be able to answer:\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/a-pop-quiz-for-pastors-and-church-leaders\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Pop Quiz for Pastors and Church Leaders | Church Answers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Many leaders with whom I\u2019ve worked could not answer these questions \u2013 questions I believe strong church leaders should be able to answer:\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/a-pop-quiz-for-pastors-and-church-leaders\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Church Answers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-07-29T01:00:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/mark-fletcher-brown-nN5L5GXKFz8-unsplash.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chuck Lawless\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chuck Lawless\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/a-pop-quiz-for-pastors-and-church-leaders\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/a-pop-quiz-for-pastors-and-church-leaders\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Chuck Lawless\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/09e294734245d3978e67deffd6991c7f\"},\"headline\":\"A Pop Quiz for Pastors and Church Leaders\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-07-29T01:00:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/a-pop-quiz-for-pastors-and-church-leaders\/\"},\"wordCount\":516,\"commentCount\":7,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/a-pop-quiz-for-pastors-and-church-leaders\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/mark-fletcher-brown-nN5L5GXKFz8-unsplash.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Discipleship\",\"Grow\",\"Lead\",\"Membership & Assimilation\",\"Outreach & Evangelism\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/a-pop-quiz-for-pastors-and-church-leaders\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/a-pop-quiz-for-pastors-and-church-leaders\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/a-pop-quiz-for-pastors-and-church-leaders\/\",\"name\":\"A Pop Quiz for Pastors and Church Leaders | Church Answers\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/a-pop-quiz-for-pastors-and-church-leaders\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/a-pop-quiz-for-pastors-and-church-leaders\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/mark-fletcher-brown-nN5L5GXKFz8-unsplash.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-07-29T01:00:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/09e294734245d3978e67deffd6991c7f\"},\"description\":\"Many leaders with whom I\u2019ve worked could not answer these questions \u2013 questions I believe strong church leaders should be able to answer:\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/a-pop-quiz-for-pastors-and-church-leaders\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/a-pop-quiz-for-pastors-and-church-leaders\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/a-pop-quiz-for-pastors-and-church-leaders\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/mark-fletcher-brown-nN5L5GXKFz8-unsplash.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/mark-fletcher-brown-nN5L5GXKFz8-unsplash.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":800},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/a-pop-quiz-for-pastors-and-church-leaders\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A Pop Quiz for Pastors and Church Leaders\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/\",\"name\":\"Church Answers\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/09e294734245d3978e67deffd6991c7f\",\"name\":\"Chuck Lawless\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b99cf3a5686c69c6ee0fa69473f5a659bee7daaa31ff24217be46675fd10a5bd?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b99cf3a5686c69c6ee0fa69473f5a659bee7daaa31ff24217be46675fd10a5bd?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Chuck Lawless\"},\"description\":\"Dr. Chuck Lawless is a leading expert in spiritual consultation, discipleship and mentoring. As a former pastor, he understands the challenges ministry presents and works with Church Answers to provide advice and counsel for church leaders.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/author\/clawless\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Pop Quiz for Pastors and Church Leaders | Church Answers","description":"Many leaders with whom I\u2019ve worked could not answer these questions \u2013 questions I believe strong church leaders should be able to answer:","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/a-pop-quiz-for-pastors-and-church-leaders\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Pop Quiz for Pastors and Church Leaders | Church Answers","og_description":"Many leaders with whom I\u2019ve worked could not answer these questions \u2013 questions I believe strong church leaders should be able to answer:","og_url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/a-pop-quiz-for-pastors-and-church-leaders\/","og_site_name":"Church Answers","article_published_time":"2020-07-29T01:00:53+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":800,"url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/mark-fletcher-brown-nN5L5GXKFz8-unsplash.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Chuck Lawless","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Chuck Lawless","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/a-pop-quiz-for-pastors-and-church-leaders\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/a-pop-quiz-for-pastors-and-church-leaders\/"},"author":{"name":"Chuck Lawless","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/09e294734245d3978e67deffd6991c7f"},"headline":"A Pop Quiz for Pastors and Church Leaders","datePublished":"2020-07-29T01:00:53+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/a-pop-quiz-for-pastors-and-church-leaders\/"},"wordCount":516,"commentCount":7,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/a-pop-quiz-for-pastors-and-church-leaders\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/mark-fletcher-brown-nN5L5GXKFz8-unsplash.jpg","articleSection":["Discipleship","Grow","Lead","Membership & Assimilation","Outreach & Evangelism"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/a-pop-quiz-for-pastors-and-church-leaders\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/a-pop-quiz-for-pastors-and-church-leaders\/","url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/a-pop-quiz-for-pastors-and-church-leaders\/","name":"A Pop Quiz for Pastors and Church Leaders | Church Answers","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/a-pop-quiz-for-pastors-and-church-leaders\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/a-pop-quiz-for-pastors-and-church-leaders\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/mark-fletcher-brown-nN5L5GXKFz8-unsplash.jpg","datePublished":"2020-07-29T01:00:53+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/09e294734245d3978e67deffd6991c7f"},"description":"Many leaders with whom I\u2019ve worked could not answer these questions \u2013 questions I believe strong church leaders should be able to answer:","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/a-pop-quiz-for-pastors-and-church-leaders\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/a-pop-quiz-for-pastors-and-church-leaders\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/a-pop-quiz-for-pastors-and-church-leaders\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/mark-fletcher-brown-nN5L5GXKFz8-unsplash.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/mark-fletcher-brown-nN5L5GXKFz8-unsplash.jpg","width":1200,"height":800},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/a-pop-quiz-for-pastors-and-church-leaders\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A Pop Quiz for Pastors and Church Leaders"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/","name":"Church Answers","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/09e294734245d3978e67deffd6991c7f","name":"Chuck Lawless","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b99cf3a5686c69c6ee0fa69473f5a659bee7daaa31ff24217be46675fd10a5bd?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b99cf3a5686c69c6ee0fa69473f5a659bee7daaa31ff24217be46675fd10a5bd?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Chuck Lawless"},"description":"Dr. Chuck Lawless is a leading expert in spiritual consultation, discipleship and mentoring. As a former pastor, he understands the challenges ministry presents and works with Church Answers to provide advice and counsel for church leaders.","url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/author\/clawless\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717174"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":717176,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717174\/revisions\/717176"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}