In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Dan Iten are joined by Rusty George who serves as the Lead Pastor at Real Life Church in Southern California, a multi-site church with campuses in Canyon Country, Lancaster, Simi Valley, Valencia, and a large online community. In this episode, they discuss who Rusty is learning from currently, where his leadership emphasis is focused, how Rusty deals with crisis within his church community, and how to stick with a long-term strategy for church leadership.

BEST QUOTES

“It's mind blowing the value of putting constraints on your brainstorming because we've all been taught to think of hypotheticals like, ‘what could you do if you had no budget?’ But that doesn't help you.” – Rusty George

“There's always a new strategy out there and there's always a new idea out there. So just stick with one for at least maybe six weeks to three months, 90 days or so. And if it's not working for you, then try something else. But you got to give it a go in order to see if it's if it's going to work. Strategies only work if you if you put the effort in.” – Rusty George

“I spent so many years reading books, going to conferences, interviewing pastors, looking for the one thing that makes churches grow. And it really is about context. It's about gifting. It's about right person, right place, right time, and it's different for everybody. So, I would spend years in Kentucky trying to adopt models from Seattle and that didn't work. Or I would spend years in California trying to adopt models from Kentucky and that didn't work. The notion that there's a silver bullet that works for everybody is just ridiculous.” – Rusty George

“Have a clear finish line to the day. When am I done? When's my finish line? Then what I'll do is drive to a gym, exercise and listen to a sports podcast that has nothing to do with church, or my soul or anything like that. But it feeds my soul because it's disconnecting. And then when I get home, I feel like I'm relaxed, ready for my family and for whatever my wife has planned for me.” – Rusty George

“As my kids have gotten older, parenting has become more like coaching. It's a lot more question asking like, ‘what do you think about that? Is that a wise thing to do? Where's that going to take you?’ I think a lot of it is just helping them process stuff rather than giving them a hard yes or no.” – Rusty George

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

The Beautiful Restraint by Adam Morgan and Mark Barden

Leading Through Crisis (Digital Course) by Rusty George