Bert and Ernie Plant A Church
POSTED IN: Blog Posts, Church Planting
In recent years I’ve had the opportunity to observe a number of church plant models and the leadership teams that make them work. One thing that everyone agrees on is that there are a lot of church plant models and even more ways to make them work. The guys who planted churches 10 or 15 years ago did so without the help of conferences, church plant coaches or books. These are the true pioneers who helped clear the path for this new generation of churches.
Like I said, I’ve observed a lot of different leadership models for new churches but one in particular intrigued me. There’s a church I’ve gotten to know where two pastors share the leadership responsibilities equally as co-pastors. If you would have asked me three years ago I would have said this model couldn’t work and might have even quoted something I’d heard repeatedly, “Anything with more than one head is a monster.” And yet I’ve seen this co-leadership model work quite well for this church.
A couple of disclaimers. First, I should note that both of these guys have been friends and worked together for over 10 years. After working together that long you’re definitely aware of any quirks or personality traits that could de-rail the relationship. Second, as with other models, this setup doesn’t work everywhere. As a matter of fact I would venture to say that they’re probably more of an exception to the rule. There’s a reason you don’t see many organizations with two CEOs.
And yet this leadership setup has intrigued me. Here are two guys who are each working together and playing to each others strengths to create a powerful leadership duo. The one is a big-picture visionary, eccentric, dynamic leader while the other is a former accountant, systems guy who keeps them grounded in reality and helps create a framework for implementing the big dreams they come up with.
As I was thinking about them the other day I had a hilarious mental picture of Bert and Ernie planting a church. On their own, each has their own quirks. Ernie was slightly crazy, carefree and obsessed with his rubber ducky. Bert was like the more mature older brother who helped balance out some of Ernie’s goofiness.
Regardless of the model you utilize in your church or organization there’s something to be said about finding people to complement your strengths. The best leaders surround themselves with high-level people who are skilled in areas that they aren’t. They look for strengths they lack in their leadership and personality make-up and then find people who can thrive in those areas.
Leaders who try to lead from their strengths without finding people to complement them in the areas where they’re weak will soon discover it’s about as challenging as running a race with only one leg.
Like Bert and Ernie. On their own, they each have their quirks but they’re great together, aren’t they?
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June 9, 2010
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Brad,
Fun perspective on church planting. I mean, any time you can work puppetry into leadership models, you’ve hit a home run in my book.
My wife and I participated in a church-planting venture nearly 18 years ago. We’re part of the Sovereign Grace Ministries family of churches, and our approach is to surround the founding pastor with a team of mature believers who can provide service and support. Please know that the word mature should be in parentheses when applied to my life.
Church-planting can be quite an adventure. And I don’t mean the angelic visitations and miracles dripping from my fingers kind of adventure either. More like the “count it all joy when you meet various trials” kind. But seeing the Gospel affecting the lives of people makes it all worthwhile.
Can I get an “amen” here?
Dave
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June 9, 2010
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Brilliant post once again, Brad… I love the way your mind works!
I have a Bert & Ernie relationship example — my best friend and I. I’m the Ernie in that duo, and I depend on her Bert qualities. We’re both obsessed with the Rubber Ducky, though — ours has a name, His name is Jesus! We share Him well.
We’re planning to go to Africa next year on a mission trip, our first together, and it’s going to be one amazing adventure for The Rubber Ducky.
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June 9, 2010
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Sounds very, very tricky to me. In fact, I’d go so far as to say I’m pretty skeptical of that model. I’d bet that even if they share all the responsibilities equally on paper, one functions more in a leadership role and one functions in a support role.
Maybe I’m too much of a cynic.
It’s interesting, though – something that’s intriguing to consider.
-Marshall Jones Jr.
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June 9, 2010
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That’s an awesome comparison..
also happens to be my fav Sesame Street video of all time!
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June 9, 2010
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I’m totally Bert, man…totally.
It’s easy to look at one successful method and adopt it for all, but God is a creator, not just a duplicator. He’s always doing new things, so I think that this partnership in ministry is one of those new things. It may not work for others, but it doesn’t have to, IMO.
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June 9, 2010
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Yeah, you definitely don’t want to find a model that works somewhere else and just assume it will work everywhere. It’s important to apply principles rather than practices.
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June 9, 2010
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Indeed….I guess I should’ve clarified that my first comment was in response to my friend Marshall up there.
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June 9, 2010
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I love Bert and Ernie! Ernie is one of my fave Sesame characters of all time.
The question you pose here intrigues me. I’m in a graduate program for spiritual formation, and the people in my cohort (who happen to live all over the US and world) are some of the most beautiful people I’ve ever known and been privileged to walk through life with.
We’ve joked for the past two years that we should start a church together since everyone has such different gifts. We keep calling it the Starfish Community Church — and it’s totally up the alley of what you’ve described here.
The name came from a book I’d been perusing called “The Starfish and the Spider” … basically a business book describing the different leadership models in organizations and cultures. Most organizations (the spiders) have a culture with one head … but if you “kill” the head, the whole thing falls apart. But there is such a prevalent emergence of the starfish model for leadership and organizations these days where the community makes decisions together and leadership is shared.
Totally intriguing to think about, especially when trying to apply it to a church setting. Might be a book worth reading as you continue to think on these things.
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June 10, 2010
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I’d say I’m a little bit of both, but more Bert. For a while I’ve co-pastored with my Dad. It’s been interesting because we’re family, but we come from different generations and often see things differently.
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June 15, 2010
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I would definitely be the Ernie type person. My wife would be the Bert of our team. We are still in the planning stages of our plant but plan to work as a team.
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October 31, 2010
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it is a good idea to look for book reviews first before buying an expensive book `
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November 24, 2010
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oprah also makes some good book reviews, i always wait for the book reviews of oprah “-*
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February 28, 2012
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That’s how our plant is working. I have an Associate Pastor that is a great friend and fellow pastor. Bert & Ernie is actually a real good comparison.