We’d like to introduce you to Gavin Adams, one of our newest ministry consultants here at The Unstuck Group. Gavin is the Lead Pastor of Woodstock City Church, a campus location of North Point Ministries. Under his leadership, the church has grown from 400 to over 8,500 attendees in eight years.
I caught up with Gavin to hear his story and discover some of the principles he’s learned about making leadership transferable.
TIFFANY: Tell us a little about your background and experience that led you to become a part of The Unstuck Group’s team?
GAVIN: Twelve years ago I transitioned from the marketplace as a business consultant into ministry with the desire to help create churches that would engage anyone and everyone in a community, regardless of their faith, church background, or disposition to Christianity.
After helping launch a church, I transitioned to become a lead pastor in a North Point Ministries partnership church. Two years into my tenure, we became a full campus location with North Point, where I still serve as the lead pastor. My experience within multisite and North Point combined with my desire to help churches be great led me to engage with Tony and the Unstuck team.
TIFFANY: How did you discover you had a passion for helping churches get unstuck?
GAVIN: When I was in the marketplace, I had a defining day consisting of board room meetings with a Fortune 100 company followed by an Elder meeting at my church that evening. The concern for excellence that I experienced in the board room was so evidently missing in the church room, and in that moment, I decided that I wanted to help our church, and eventually many churches, think differently, work differently, and engage with their community differently.
The church is the most important organization and organism on the planet, and if anyone better be great at their mission, it should be the church. I believed, and still believe, this is possible for every church in every community. As the church, we should set the marks for excellence, not just in the spiritual elements, but in organizational leadership.
TIFFANY: What are some of the principles you’ve learned over the years about making leadership transferable?
GAVIN: Information is helpful, but information without application is somewhat worthless. Making something transferable is the process of simplification combined with comprehensible application. That is what I attempt to do within my blog, but it’s also how I attempt to approach preaching and local church leadership. Simply and applicably.
TIFFANY: How would you encourage a pastor who is trying to make the transition from being the primary ministry “doer” to building a culture of transferring leadership and ministry to others?
GAVIN: God created each of us uniquely — with unique gifts, capabilities, and skills. When we begin to embrace that part of our uniqueness and release tasks and responsibilities that are not within our unique gifting to others, we remove ourselves as barriers and position the church to be increasingly dynamic.
Leaders attract leaders, and doers attract fellow doers. The church needs more ministry leaders, not doers, because leaders will find a way for the doing to be done, while attracting fellow leaders to grow and expand the breadth and depth of the local church. The delegation of tasks and authority is one of the most underutilized leadership skills in the ministry world today.
Pastors are not called to be everything to everyone. They are called to lead in a way that everyone receives what they need. Obviously, that task is too big for any one person.
