Two Things Every Christian Leader Needs to Know

Leadership is challenging, but Christian leadership comes with unique responsibilities. In this episode, Kevin shares two fundamental truths every Christian leader must understand to lead with wisdom, integrity and lasting impact. If you're serious about leading well and finishing well, this episode is for you. 

Series: Lessons in Leadership
Speaker: Kevin Moore
Episode: 4 of 4, Two Things Every Christian Leader Needs to Know
Episode Transcript: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2627823/19571626-two-things-every-christian-leader-needs-to-know/transcript

Kevin Moore is the regional director at the North Central Region of the Missionary Church and the senior pastor at Noble County Community Church. 

Let's Talk: Life, Leadership & Making Disciples is a weekly Christian leadership development podcast for pastors, church staff, elders, ministry leaders, volunteers, church planters and disciple makers. Every week we provide valuable insights to train, inform and inspire healthy leaders who will go on to build healthy churches.
Follow our podcast on your favorite platforms: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2627823 

The Missionary Church, North Central Region, in obedience to Jesus Christ her Lord, is committed to being holy people of God in the world and to building His church by worldwide evangelism, discipleship, and multiplication of growing churches, all to the glory of God. As a family of churches that is biblically grounded, we exist to inspire, challenge, and resource one another in that task. Find out more at https://mcncr.org/ 

Elevate Church Leadership Conference.
November 2, 2026
Nappanee Missionary Church in Nappanee, Indiana
Learn more and sign up at https://mcncr.org/events/2026-elevate-conference 

The Timothy Project (Youth Leadership Conference)
November 14, 2026
St. Mark Missionary Church in Mishawaka, Indiana
Learn more and sign up at https://mcncr.org/events/the-timothy-project 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to Let's Talk, a podcast about life, leadership, and making disciples. Let's Talk is brought to you by the North Central Region of the Missionary Church, where we want to empower everyday people to love like Jesus and live like missionaries. To find out more about our events and ministries, go to mcncr.org.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Well, thank you so much for listening to Let's Talk. My name's Kevin Moore. I'm the regional director here at the Missionary Church North Central Region, as well as your host for this podcast. And today, before we get into our content, I want to let you know about the Leadership Development Network. What is the Leadership Development Network, you might ask? Well, I'm I'm glad you asked. The Leadership Development Network is our leadership arm at the North Central Region. We have a full-time residency program as well as a part-time residency program where we place leaders that feel called to ministry into local churches. We also give, they get hands-on training at the local church, but then they also get bi-weekly live training from our pastors and other leaders on best practice of ministry. And they also receive a coach, a ministry mentor to walk alongside of them. So if you are feeling a nudge, a call of God on your life to step into ministry, we would love to talk with you. Maybe, just maybe, a full-time residency or a part-time residency is for you. And so if you want to find out more about our residency program, just go to mcncr.org and click the residency button. There you'll find out about the things that we offer. And we'll also, you can uh email us and we can start a conversation. If you feel a nudge into ministry, a call into ministry, maybe you're right out of college, or maybe, maybe you're you're you're 32 years old, you're married, you got a career, you got a couple children, but you're feeling like, man, I feel like I'm supposed to take a next step into ministry. I feel like I'm supposed to really begin to pursue ministry. Go to that website, mcncr.org, click the residency button, drop us an email, and we'll start a conversation and see how we can serve you. Really excited about our content today. Today, I'm going to be talking about two things that every Christian leader needs to know. Two things that every Christian leader needs to know. The past few weeks, we've talked about one main thought, one main story, one main principle. Today, we're going to talk about two. There's there's two things that I really feel that you as a Christian leader need to know, to comprehend, to walk out, and to under to clearly understand. And so today, grab a tablet, grab a notebook, grab a pen. However, you take notes, however you grow, grab that device and let's get ready to grow. Hey, it's an honor to be speaking with you once again today on our Let's Talk podcast. Today, I want to give you two things that you need to know as a Christian leader. These are just two thoughts, two situations that that I've kind of lived through that that you need to know and understand as a Christian leader. These two things have really shaped me in my thoughts and in the way that I think and the way that I lead. And so I just want to I just want to share them with you. All right. So so here's here's the first thought. Here's the first thought. Let me tell you a story. My family and I, we had we had just moved uh to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and uh we we moved there to serve as the the youth pastor of 180, a church called Church on the Move. And at that time, our our oldest son, Jordan, was 14 years old. And we we were moving from Indiana, and Jordan had a few of his buddies that actually from Indiana made the trip with us to Oklahoma to you know help us to help us in the move, them and their family. They came down and you know, helped with this move. It was a lot of fun. The road trip and the moving and all those things. We had we had a blast. So they were going to come down for a few days and then they were gonna go back home to Indiana and we were gonna stay in in Tulsa. Now, if you're if if you're not familiar with the youth ministry of 180, um, let me just let me just say that the the facility is is massive. I mean, Church on the Move really invested and still invests in its student ministry in in crazy ways. And I was an honor to be the youth pastor there. And on this night when we uh Jordan shows up to the youth ministry for the first time, um he he walked into something he had never been into before, him and his buddies, his buddies were there with him. So that very first night, Jordan went to youth group at 180. He walked into a 93,000 square foot building just for youth, 93,000 square feet just for youth. It had a basketball court, a cafe, it had over 100 video games, a pool room, a water bar, an auditorium that set 1,400. I mean, this place was amazing. It was an unbelievable facility. And that first night Jordan went with his friends, they were blown away. They had so much fun together. I'll I'll never forget watching the three of them playing basketball, they're talking to girls, they're grabbing some pizza from the cafe, they're talking to some more girls, they're they're shooting some pool while they talk to girls. They they they were all over this facility. They enjoyed the service. They had so much fun. Jordan and his buddies, to say they were having a blast would be a massive understatement. That night, Jordan enjoyed everything that 180 had to offer, from the facility to the worship, the games, everything. It was it was an amazing time for him and his friends. But the following week, Jordan's friends had already gone back to Indiana. And the following week, Jordan walked into 180. The same facility, same 93,000 square feet, the same basketball courts, the same video games, the same all those things, the same worship, the same everything was the same, except he walked into it alone. His two friends had already moved back. And now it was just him. Do you know where Jordan was before the service? He was in my office chatting with his friends from Indiana on my computer. Do you know where he went the very minute after the service dismissed? After the worship, after the message? Did did he go back out into the game room? Did he go grab something from the cafe? Did he go shoot some pool? No, you know where he went? He went back up to my office so that he could chat with his friends from Indiana on my computer. It was the same facility. It was the same games. It was the same cafe. It was the same service as the week before. One week Jordan is running around, he's enjoying everything. 180 has to offer, and the next week he's up in my office alone talking to friends. What was the difference? What caused the change? It's really pretty simple. One week Jordan had friends with him. The next week he didn't. Relationship was so important to my 14-year-old son that he would rather sit alone in a room and chat with friends that were 13 hours away than he would be alone in this amazing facility with people he doesn't know. Here's a principle that I want you to know as a Christian leader. Relationship trumps everything. Relationship trumps everything. Now I know relationship doesn't trump Jesus, it doesn't trump God, it doesn't trump the Word. I get that. I understand that. However, it is relationship. Relationship is the conduit in which change flows. If you want to have the opportunity to share the gospel, you got to build a relationship. If you want to have the opportunity to share the word of God, you got to have a relationship. Relationship is the conduit in which change flows. I'll never forget that. My son would rather sit in an office alone than be in an amazing 93,000 square foot facility with every toy you could ever imagine with people that he doesn't know. What did he long for? Relationship. So, with all that being said, let me just ask you a few questions, okay? What are you doing every week to cultivate real relationships with your people? What experiences are you putting together to cultivate true, real relationships? Because it's not about the facility, it's not about the light show, it's not about all those, you know, trappings, it's about relationship. John chapter 1, 14, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. He built relationships. What are you doing every week to cultivate real relationships with your people? Here's another question. What what do you have in place for your people to cultivate real relationships with each other? Real relationships with your volunteer team, real relationships with small group leaders, real relationships with with other people of your church and the community. Here's a big one. Is it working? Is is what you're doing working? We're trying this. We're setting up experiences for people to connect with God and with each other. We're setting up experiences for people to to to to cultivate relationships with volunteers and and also pe people uh in the ministry themselves. But is it working? And here's your last question: what can you change? What can you change? Because relationship is the conduit in which change flows. If you create spaces and environments in your week and in your ministry for people so that they can know and be known, I don't think you'll have enough chairs in your facility to hold them. But if all that we do is focus on great facilities, cool services, amazing bands, you know, all the trappings of ministry, I call it the tail wagging the dog. I I I don't think we're going to get the results we're looking for. If you want to see true life change in people, build relationships. Because it is through those relationships that the Word of God, the Spirit of God, and change will flow. I think that's one thing that we need to know as Christian leaders that relationship trumps everything. Relationship is the conduit in which change flows. But here's a second one. Here's a second thought. This is a very um crucial season in my life and ministry. So I'll just share it. It was actually around the spring of 2000, and I was a youth pastor at Trinity Assembly. We've talked about this church previously in one of the podcasts. And Pastor Parks, who has a huge mentor of mine of life, he he he brought me onto the team as a full-time youth pastor and staff position. Um the church really truly wasn't very large. The staff wasn't big. It consisted of myself, Pastor Parks, his wife Esther, and then and that was that was the staff. I I loved Pastor. I loved Esther. It was just an honor. It's an honor. My wife and I talk about it often. What an honor and amazing season that was. So we're full-time, I'm a full-time youth pastor, and our student ministry, quite honestly, had been steadily growing. At that point, we were reaching around 100 teenagers every Wednesday night. And the worship was great, the room was full, more visitors coming every week, our volunteers were faithful, kids giving their heart to Christ, getting involved in our discipleship ministries. It was really kind of running and gunning. Well, one day, Pastor Parks pulls me into his office and he says, Hey, hey, Kevin, let me ask you an odd question. I said, Sure. He said, Hey, do you do you pray for your teenagers and volunteers? I said, Well, sure, I do. I I pray for mom all the time. He said, No, no, no, no, no. I mean, do you pray for him? Do you pray for him by name? Well, I, to be honest, I I couldn't really say yes, so I told him the truth. I said, I pray for our group. And I I pray for some names of people, but I don't pray for all of them by name, no. And it was at that point that Pastor Parksy made a statement, I'll never get it. He said, he said, he said, Kevin, if you don't, if you don't pray for the people that God gives you, you should go ahead and quit the ministry. And that man, that hit me. If you don't pray for the people God gives you, you should go ahead and quit the ministry. And he went on and he said, Kevin, you're good. But you'll never be, you'll never be good enough to do what God can do. So Pastor Park said, I want you to pray for your students and volunteers by name every single Tuesday morning. See, Tuesday morning was when we we had a prayer time as a staff. And he wanted me to literally write those down, those names, and begin to pray for them every single week. Now I can honestly say that I did what he asked me to do. I did. I went to my office, I wrote out the names of every single teenager in our student ministry, the volunteers in our student ministry, and when Tuesday mornings would come, I literally would go to the auditorium, I would pray for every person. And the more I prayed, the more kids came to our services. The more they came, the more names I put on the list. The more names I prayed over on the list, the more young people joined our ministry. And for then three years, that that ministry grew from a hundred to or more than two hundred students, and nearly five hundred students came to Christ. There were so many teenagers out of that youth ministry that became pastors, youth pastors, missionaries, church planters in a town of only 4,000. And I'm convinced that that happened not because of the building, not because of the band, not because of the events, not because I'm a good preacher, because that's not the case. I I know the reasons that those lives were eternally changed and continually to be changed, is that Pastor Parks inspired a youth pastor to simply pray. Pray. If you want to see something change in your ministry, if you want to see change broken off of the people in your area, listen to 2 Chronicles 7.14. If my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray, seek my face, turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and heal their land. The healing of land comes after we pray. The key to the hearts of people being healed is humbly coming to God and praying. And if you're not willing to do that, do yourself, do your ministry, do the people around you a favor, and quit. For real. For real. If you and I think that a young man, if you and I think that a person's addiction to pornography is going to stop simply because of our speaking ability, man, we're sadly mistaken. If you and I think that that people are going to figure truly figure out who they are in Christ and be set free from sexual gender questions and all the things that people are dealing with today, just because of our latest lighting package and decor, you're crazy, man. Listen, if you if you don't pray, you might as well go ahead and pack it up because you are not that good. That's some of the greatest advice Pastor Parks ever gave me. Kevin, you're good, but you are not that good. You are good, but you are not good enough to do what only God can do. We don't wrestle against flesh and blood, we wrestle against spiritual forces. And the only way to win a spiritual battle is to step out of the physical, step into the spiritual, and let God move. That happens when we pray. So I want to give you the same advice that Pastor Parks gave me years ago. This is the second thing. This is the second thing that I want you to know. You're good, but you'll never be good enough what God can do. So pray. So here's two things I want you to take away from this podcast today. The first one is this how can you create environments where people can build authentic relationships? Because relationships are the conduit in which change flows. And here's the second thought, the second takeaway. Become a person and stay a person of prayer. Because you are never good enough to do what only God can do. Hey, as usual, it's an honor to speak with you. Can't wait to talk with you next time. Well, thanks so much for listening to the podcast today. Today, you know as well as I do, leadership is challenging. Leadership is challenging, but Christian leadership, it does. It comes with unique responsibilities. And I hope that these two fundamental truths that you as a Christian leader need to know. I hope that knowing them and understanding them and walking these out are going to help you lead with wisdom, lead with integrity, and lead with lasting, not short term, but lasting impact. Here at the North Central Region, we want to help you grow. We want to help you grow. So here's what I encourage you to do. I want to encourage you to lean in with us. If you're one of our pastors, man, lean in with us. We have Coffee Connects that we do on the regular. My email was right there on the website. I would love to meet with you, talk with you. Our team would like to meet with you, talk with you. How can we serve you? We want to see you live better, lead better, and make more disciples.

SPEAKER_00 19:29

Thanks for joining us for Let's Talk. If you have any questions, topics you want us to discuss, or a story you want to share, email us at info at mcncr.org.