Welcome to our tribe (w/ JC Worley)

05/26/22 • 23 min

JC Worley leads Go Church in South Atlanta. He and his wife, Kimberly, lead Go Church.

Go Church was the host location for the first-ever Courageous Pastors Gathering, and— more relevantly to this talk— JC is taking a more proactive role with CourageousPastors.com.

From 2006 until 2013, JC was the youth pastor at Go Church, for his father-in-law. He left to plant a church in the Metro D.C., area, with his father-in-law’s blessing.

They launched— and led— the church for 4 years.

His father-in-law approached him about retiring and taking over his home church at that point.

After much prayer— and wise counsel— JC and his wife relocated BACK to Atlanta, transitioning the Maryland location into a satellite.

This year, at Easter, Go Church launched a 3rd campus in the Atlanta area.

Just before the pandemic, Go Church was— under JC’s leadership— one of Outreach Magazine’s Top 100 / fastest-growing churches.

A former client himself, JC is a coach on the team. And, he’ll begin hosting the Courageous Pastors podcast.

His believes Courage to Lead provides two things:

#1 = Quality. It’s been tested over-and-over, and has a developed framework. So, there’s consistency.

#2 = Content. The system includes information which pastors can use and apply in their unique context— immediately.

These two factors create a consistent experience for others...

... and it provides an on-ramp to help others apply the content and receive incredible results.

Feel alone?

You don't need to-- join the tribe.

______________

Schedule a Strategy Session at www.CourageousPastors.com/strategy

Learn more about Go Church at https://www.mygochurch.com/

Follow JC on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/jcworley/

JC Worley leads Go Church in South Atlanta. He and his wife, Kimberly, lead Go Church.

Go Church was the host location for the first-ever Courageous Pastors Gathering, and— more relevantly to this talk— JC is taking a more proactive role with CourageousPastors.com.

From 2006 until 2013, JC was the youth pastor at Go Church, for his father-in-law. He left to plant a church in the Metro D.C., area, with his father-in-law’s blessing.

They launched— and led— the church for 4 years.

His father-in-law approached him about retiring and taking over his home church at that point.

After much prayer— and wise counsel— JC and his wife relocated BACK to Atlanta, transitioning the Maryland location into a satellite.

This year, at Easter, Go Church launched a 3rd campus in the Atlanta area.

Just before the pandemic, Go Church was— under JC’s leadership— one of Outreach Magazine’s Top 100 / fastest-growing churches.

A former client himself, JC is a coach on the team. And, he’ll begin hosting the Courageous Pastors podcast.

His believes Courage to Lead provides two things:

#1 = Quality. It’s been tested over-and-over, and has a developed framework. So, there’s consistency.

#2 = Content. The system includes information which pastors can use and apply in their unique context— immediately.

These two factors create a consistent experience for others...

... and it provides an on-ramp to help others apply the content and receive incredible results.

Feel alone?

You don't need to-- join the tribe.

______________

Schedule a Strategy Session at www.CourageousPastors.com/strategy

Learn more about Go Church at https://www.mygochurch.com/

Follow JC on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/jcworley/

Previous Episode

Increase your “care equity” (w/ Michael Turner)

Michael Turner is the founding and lead pastor of Turning Point Church in McDonough, GA— south of Atlanta. The church turned 19 in March 2022.

Recently, Michael gifted everyone on his staff with a Fitbit— as part of a 30-day fitness challenge. They decided to evaluate three areas:

Steps per day
Weekly weight loss
Sleep hours per night

This quick accountability— especially the “sleep part”— highlighted what was truly happening with everyone’s health. And, as Michael reminds us, the challenge connects us to the idea that we’re about TOTAL HEALTH and wellbeing, not just spiritual health.

Furthermore, this step was important because it helped him lead his team towards PERSONAL development as well as the PROFESSIONAL development we usually focus upon.

Lately, Michael actually HAS been working on some of the PROFESSIONAL things, though...

For instance, his church has focused on reclaiming the “in person” gatherings.

Sure, there are a lot of empty chairs.

(The truth is that, post-Covid, most churches have MANY empty chairs.)

“But preaching to SOME empty chairs,” Michael says, “is much better than preaching to ONLY empty chairs and a camera.”

As they reclaim the gatherings, they’re adjusting their metrics as well.

“Attendance isn’t the only indicator,” he says. “There’s so much more... like engagement. And connection.”

They’re also evaluating things like finances and relationships and other items we may not have measured in the past.

Michael embraces the perspective-shift. His church has experienced seasons of fast-growth. And, when they did, he learned that EVERYTHING— including unhealth— replicates quickly.

That is, unhealthy culture multiplies.

Hidden assumptions, underneath-the-surface hurts, and other doubts replicate quickly, as well...

“You can’t outgrow unhealth,” he says. “At some point you must deal with the issues.”

He’s learned to celebrate those moments of fast growth, but to pay attention to the things that mater even more— like the pulse of his staff, as well as their personal lives.

“We’ve got to care about them,” he says, “more than we care about growth.”

During the pandemic, he learned to focus even more on caring for people— not just his team but others in his church, too.

“We began reaching out and actually CALLING people on the telephone,” he says.

Then— “We also sent hand-written birthday cards. And DoorDash gifts...”

The connections multiplied as they discovered new ways to connect and reconnect.

“We even dropped by people’s homes and visited them,” he offers. “Everyone was always so excited to see us.”

He refers to all of this as “Care Equity,” and suggest it’s one of the most important metrics you have.

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Shawn’s book, Building a Killer Team Without Killing Yourself or Your Team: www.KillerTeamCoaching.com

Personal Gears of Growth = take the assessment here: https://www.courageouspastors.com/offers/PzhK2GiJ/checkout

Access the free Killer Teams Crash Course at www.CourageousPastors.com/cc

Learn more about Michael’s church at https://turningpointchurch.tv

Next Episode

A healthy you creates a healthier org (w/ Jonathan Moore)

Jonathan Moore is the Founding and senior pastor of NorthRock Church in San Antonio. He met Shawn at the Velocity Conference, over a decade ago, when Shawn was in Atlanta.

NorthRock launched a campus during the middle of the pandemic AND relaunched second campus in a different spot (this campus was in a school, which could no longer be used).

Right now, Jonathan is telling leaders to take care of themselves.

“Self-care has always been important,” he suggests, “but the previous two years have highlighted why we need to pay attention to it.”

As he works to “rebuild the church” he’s also working on rebuilding himself.

This “rebuilding you” occurs when you start scheduling you first— your time alone with the Lord, your time to exercise, your time to connect with your spouse. A healthy you is a better you and can more readily lead the church forward in healthy ways.

“This also includes,” Jonathan adds, “living with healthy rhythms...”

Those rhythms include things like—

Daily diversions (moving away from the grind of the urgent and into the un-rush of the important)
Weekly withdrawals (Sabbath, a true day off)
Quarterly quarantines (these may be different, depending on where you are— but certain season deplete us and necessitate rest)
Annual abandonments (taking a vacation where you completely check out)

Jonathan encourages leaders to be intentional about their time off. “Work on you while you’re off,” he says. “Use that time to do something that builds you.”

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Personal Gears of Growth = assess the five areas where we all need to grow, find the weak point, and gain momentum by starting there: https://www.courageouspastors.com/offers/PzhK2GiJ

Connect with Jonathan online: @JonathanDMoore

NorthRock Church, San Antonio = https://www.northrocksa.com

Schedule a free strategy session at www.CourageousPastors.com/strategy