Lance Witt

Lance Witt has been called a Pastor’s Pastor. He is committed to the church and passionately believes in the transformational power of Jesus through the local church. Lance’s experience includes:

• over 25 years as a local church pastor
• 20 years as a senior pastor
• serving as an executive pastor at Saddleback Church
• being one of the weekend teaching pastors at Saddleback Church
• helping develop and lead the 40 Days of Purpose and 40 Days of Community campaigns
• developing the training materials for these campaigns that have now been used around the world
• writing and teaching several DVD small group curriculums
• taught national and international conferences on topics such as Small Groups, Spiritual Formation, Preaching, Leadership, and Purpose Driven Church
• consulting with churches in the U.S., Canada and the Asia
• providing Life Coaching for pastors
• helping develop and provide content for a new campaign called Live Like You Were Dying
• extensive experience in missions and training pastors around the world in more than 15 countries

Lance’s broad spectrum of ministry experience blended with gifts of leadership, strategic thinking, and organizational development give Lance a unique perspective into the world of pastors and church leaders.

Strengthfinder Results

• Achiever
• Strategic
• Input
• Arranger
• Includer

Lance has been married to his wife, Connie, for 29 years and has two children, Jonathan and Meagan. His son Jonathan is married to Ryanne. His daughter Meagan was most recently married to Mychal John Maltbie. Both kids and their spouses are involved in ministry and serving churches in California and Texas.

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Replenish

The church of Jesus Christ is the hope of the world. It is breathtaking to ponder the possibility that the Great Commission could be completed in this generation. There is unprecedented opportunity, unprecedented technology, unprecedented cooperation, and unprecedented resources. Never before has the church been so poised for global impact.

A LEADERSHIP CRISIS

However, along with unprecedented opportunity, there is an unprecedented leadership crisis within the church. Pastors are leaving the ministry in record numbers and that is just the tip of the iceberg. Discouragement and disillusionment is epidemic among those who lead churches.

• The Alban Institute estimates that 17 percent of pastors are experiencing burnout.
• 40 percent described themselves as “heading for burnout”.
• 1500 pastors leave the ministry each month due to moral failure, spiritual burnout or contention in their churches.
• 50 percent of pastors are so discouraged they would leave the ministry if they could, but have no other way of making a living.
• 50 percent of those who go into full time ministry drop out within 5 years.
• 70 percent of pastors do not have a close friend, confidant, or mentor.

These statistics are sobering and have enormous implications for churches and their impact. The Great Commission will not be completed by human ingenuity or innovative thinking alone. This God-sized task will only be completed by spirit-filled, spiritually healthy churches. These churches will not be spiritually healthy unless her leaders are spiritually healthy. In ministry, you cannot separate leadership from the leader and you cannot divorce the message from the messenger.

God always has and always will choose to use men and women who are healthy, holy, and humble.In the past 25 years, we have become better leaders but not better pastors. The focus has been on strategy, leadership, management, church growth, and “best practices”. Certainly these are needed and have benefited all of us in Christian leadership. However, we have neglected the fact that a pastor’s greatest leadership tool is a healthy soul. Inadvertently, there has been ade-emphasizing of the pastor’s inner life. There has been a drift away from soul care. The result is men and women leading our churches who are emotionally empty and spiritually dry.

INSIDE OUT LEADING

Somewhere along the way, many of these leaders stopped paying attention to their souls and to their relationships. They didn’t intend for it to happen. It has been incremental and at times imperceptible. They know something is wrong, but aren’t quite sure what to do or where to turn.It is time for someone to raise high the banner of spiritual health in the life of the pastor. This must happen at 4 levels; from the inside out.

1. Healthy Souls

Pastors must get back to the basics of soul care. Someone must come alongside the pastor and provide mentorship of the soul, helping the pastor know that his highest calling in life is to love God. His life and value should not be defined by how fast his church grows or how big his church gets.We need to provide coaching for pastors that helps them practice Sabbath, pray with power, feed on the word of God, be quiet before the Lord, pursue personal purity, and live a life of integrity and holiness.

2. Healthy Relationships

We are no longer shocked when we hear of a pastor who has had to leave his ministry because of moral failure. Almost always, you can trace a thread of isolation in that man’s life. No one really knew him. No one was in his life speaking the truth. If pastors are going to survive the demands and pressures of 21st century ministry, they must relentlessly pursue relational connection. Pastors need friendship. This also means giving attention to the relational world of the pastor’s family.

3. Healthy Teams

Pastors must work with teams; deacons, staff, elders, volunteers. However, most pastors seem to lack the skills to foster community and spiritually develop those they lead. Staff and lay leaders in churches often feel that no one in senior leadership is “investing” in them. Equipping pastors with tools and resources that can build healthy teams is vital to the health of the church.

4. Healthy Ministries

It is time to help people understand that the church and the Christian life is more than programs. Living out the purposes of God begins by living in the presence of God. In order to DO the work of God, we must BE the people of God.This means being intentional to coach and develop believers in the spiritual habits that bring sustained health.