At some point, most of us will end up working under someone we don't see eye-to-eye with. In this week’s Church Leadership Podcast, Watermark Resources Project Coordinator Ashley Lawrence breaks down how examining your motivation and mindset can empower you to take the right action steps.

Actionable Steps:
1. Be a champion, not a criticizer
  - Are you gossiping and complaining or praying for your leadership and bringing solutions?
  - Commit to put effort behind the decision that was made, even if it wasn't your first choice.
2. Receive and give feedback
  - We need to be able to receive feedback before we can give it.
  - It's important for leaders to have people in their corner who can tell them the hard truth. Be one of those people.
  - When you have feedback, always ask "Can I ask you a question" or "Are you open to feedback?"
  - It's not loving to withhold feedback from people you care about, if you love your leadership, help refine them.
3. Assume the best about your leadership team
  - If you consistently negatively interpret their actions or motives, that's only going to make you more bitter
4. Find people that are thriving
  - Who around you is highly motivated, loves what they do, and wants to encourage others?
  - Ask these people questions and learn from them!
  - If you don't have anyone like this around you, be the catalyst! It's contagious.
5. Pray constantly
  - If you feel frustrated by your leadership team, pray for them - it's much harder to be bitter towards someone when you pray for them.

If your church is looking for a practical way to care for marriages, don’t miss the upcoming Re|engage Training Conference on September 23-24 in Indianapolis, IN or on October 15-16 in Dallas, TX. Re|engage is discipleship-based enrichment tool for every marriage—the healthy, the struggling, and the broken. These upcoming training conferences will help you learn more about how you can start or strengthen this ministry in your church.  

Register for Indianapolis, IN on September 23-24. 

Register for Dallas, TX on October 15-16. 

The joy of the Lord is our strength, and lighthearted fun strengthens a team. In this week’s episode of the Church Leadership Podcast, Braun Brown and Sean Hill share the importance of not taking yourself too seriously and how church leaders can harness the power of fun to bring people together for effective Gospel work. The last of Watermark’s four staff values, having fun is one of our defining traits—and one we think any church can adopt.

Watermark's Staff Values

If your church is looking for a practical way to care for marriages, don’t miss the upcoming Re|engage Training Conference on September 23-24 in Indianapolis, IN or on October 15-16 in Dallas, TX. Re|engage is discipleship-based enrichment tool for every marriage—the healthy, the struggling, and the broken. These upcoming training conferences will help you learn more about how you can start or strengthen this ministry in your church.  

Register for Indianapolis, IN on September 23-24. 

Register for Dallas, TX on October 15-16. 

Just like a finger won’t survive long if it’s severed from the hand, our spiritual health depends on connection to the rest of Christ’s body. We’re meant to function together, and without unity as one of our core values, our mission will fall apart. Caitlin Van Wagoner and David Penuel join this week’s Church Leadership Podcast to talk about how church staff can not only avoid gossip and division, but also pursue each other relationally and prioritize collaboration. 

Watermark Staff Values - Download
"Resolving Staff Conflict" - David and Caitlin's Talk from CLC
Conflict Roadmap - Download

If your church is looking for a practical way to care for marriages, don’t miss the upcoming Re|engage Training Conference on September 23-24 in Indianapolis, IN or on October 15-16 in Dallas, TX. Re|engage is discipleship-based enrichment tool for every marriage—the healthy, the struggling, and the broken. These upcoming training conferences will help you learn more about how you can start or strengthen this ministry in your church.  

Register for Indianapolis, IN on September 23-24. 

Register for Dallas, TX on October 15-16. 

Churches that do not encourage their staff to excel are missing an opportunity to honor God and inspire others. On the other hand, churches that pursue excellence for the wrong reasons have made an idol out of something that should be an offering. On this week’s Church Leadership Podcast, Watermark teaching pastor John Elmore joins John McGee to talk about faithfully executing our work to the best of our abilities without losing sight of our mission.

Watermark Staff Values - Download

If your church is looking for a practical way to care for marriages, don’t miss the upcoming Re|engage Training Conference on September 23-24 in Indianapolis, IN or on October 15-16 in Dallas, TX. Re|engage is discipleship-based enrichment tool for every marriage—the healthy, the struggling, and the broken. These upcoming training conferences will help you learn more about how you can start or strengthen this ministry in your church.  

Register for Indianapolis, IN on September 23-24. 

Register for Dallas, TX on October 15-16. 

Too often, we assume that we don’t need to tell church staff to rely on God. But Christians routinely affirm spiritual dependency as a concept without living it out practically, valuing strategy over sensitivity to the Spirit. This week’s podcast covers why dependence on God is at the top of Watermark’s core values for its staff and what this looks like practically.

Watermark's Staff Values - Download

If your church is looking for a practical way to care for marriages, don’t miss the upcoming Re|engage Training Conference on September 23-24 in Indianapolis, IN or on October 15-16 in Dallas, TX. Re|engage is discipleship-based enrichment tool for every marriage—the healthy, the struggling, and the broken. These upcoming training conferences will help you learn more about how you can start or strengthen this ministry in your church.  

Register for Indianapolis, IN on September 23-24. 

Register for Dallas, TX on October 15-16. 

Even in full-time ministry, when imperfect human beings work closely together, conflict is bound to arise. As leaders, we have the opportunity to reflect Christ in a uniquely tangible and powerful way through how we resolve conflict. In this talk, first given at CLC 2023, two of our veteran staff members walk through a conflict they personally experienced and how they were able to restore peace biblically.

Conflict Roadmap PDF
Video Download

If your church is looking for a practical way to care for marriages, don’t miss the upcoming Re|engage Training Conference on September 23-24 in Indianapolis, IN or on October 15-16 in Dallas, TX. Re|engage is discipleship-based enrichment tool for every marriage—the healthy, the struggling, and the broken. These upcoming training conferences will help you learn more about how you can start or strengthen this ministry in your church.  

Register for Indianapolis, IN on September 23-24. 

Register for Dallas, TX on October 15-16. 

As fallible humans, anyone who serves in ministry for a significant length of time will have some regrets—opportunities they should have taken, relationships they should have invested more in, and words they should have said (or not said). In this week’s Church Leadership Podcast, Watermark Director of re:generation Dave Bruskas reflects on the things he would do differently if he could go back, and how other church leaders can minimize their own regrets.

If your church is looking for a practical way to care for marriages, don’t miss the upcoming Re|engage Training Conference on September 23-24 in Indianapolis, IN or on October 15-16 in Dallas, TX. Re|engage is discipleship-based enrichment tool for every marriage—the healthy, the struggling, and the broken. These upcoming training conferences will help you learn more about how you can start or strengthen this ministry in your church.  

Register for Indianapolis, IN on September 23-24. 

Register for Dallas, TX on October 15-16. 

The seeds you plant when your church is still young can grow into a life-giving, God-honoring community in the years to come. On this week’s episode, John McGee recalls the ideas that shaped the early days of Watermark Community Church, the fruit that’s come from them, and how you can identify the values that are most important to focus on in your church body. 

If your church is looking for a practical way to care for marriages, don’t miss the upcoming Re|engage Training Conference on September 23-24 in Indianapolis, IN or on October 15-16 in Dallas, TX. Re|engage is discipleship-based enrichment tool for every marriage—the healthy, the struggling, and the broken. These upcoming training conferences will help you learn more about how you can start or strengthen this ministry in your church.  

Register for Indianapolis, IN on September 23-24. 

Register for Dallas, TX on October 15-16. 

This week, John McGee broaches a topic that many church leaders grapple with but hesitate to speak about: feelings of discouragement and burnout in ministry. The weight of guiding a congregation, meeting expectations, and constantly pouring yourself out can sometimes be profoundly exhausting. If you've ever found yourself on the brink of giving up, you might need to be reminded of the truth we shared with thousands of church leaders at CLC 2023: "Don't quit - we're not home yet."  

If your church is looking for a practical way to care for marriages, don’t miss the upcoming Re|engage Training Conference on September 23-24 in Indianapolis, IN or on October 15-16 in Dallas, TX. Re|engage is discipleship-based enrichment tool for every marriage—the healthy, the struggling, and the broken. These upcoming training conferences will help you learn more about how you can start or strengthen this ministry in your church.  

Register for Indianapolis, IN on September 23-24. 

Register for Dallas, TX on October 15-16. 

Your team can be a place of gratitude, where people feel seen and celebrated--or a place of discouragement and drudgery. It largely comes down to what you cultivate. On this week’s Church Leadership Podcast, veteran Watermark leaders Braun Brown and Joey Tisdale discuss how to craft a vision for your staff’s culture and then nurture it into being.

If your church is looking for a practical way to care for marriages, don’t miss the upcoming Re|engage Training Conference on September 23-24 in Indianapolis, IN or on October 15-16 in Dallas, TX. Re|engage is discipleship-based enrichment tool for every marriage—the healthy, the struggling, and the broken. These upcoming training conferences will help you learn more about how you can start or strengthen this ministry in your church.  

Register for Indianapolis, IN on September 23-24. 

Register for Dallas, TX on October 15-16.