Unfortunately, sometimes the answer is that you may have put yourself in that position.

I call this “painting yourself into a leadership corner”.

And the best way to deal with these challenges is to avoid putting yourself there in the first place. Here are four of the common corners that church leaders often paint themselves into, and a few ideas for how to avoid them.

1.   The My-door-is-always-open corner
Granting such unlimited access to everyone in your church is a noble-sounding sentiment, and can possibly be managed when your church has fewer than 100 people. But good luck with this when your church grows to 1000 or more.

Effective leaders must be strategic about where, when, and with whom they invest their time.

2.   The Let’s-put-up-a-memorial-plaque corner
Church leaders love to recognize “fallen saints” by sticking a plaque honouring their memory on a piano, a pew, a classroom or entire wing.

But if you need to renovate, I wouldn’t want to swing that sledge hammer through a memorial plaque. And neither should you.

Find ways to honour the past without limiting your future.

3.   The You-deserve-a-raise-today corner
Rising stars need to be recognized and rewarded with appropriate increases in compensation, with added responsibilities, and with titles that reflect their responsibility.

But proceed with extreme caution when doling out such recognition. Because while it’s easy and fun to hand out these rewards, it’s almost impossible to pull them back. A premature promotion can come back to bite you.

4.   The Let’s-call-this-the-FIRST-ANNUAL corner
Don’t give away your calendar.

There is no upside to calling something a “First Annual” anything. Nor should you announce a feature in your weekend services will happen “the first Sunday of every month”, nor any other declaration that will hand-cuff your planning calendar.

Each of these promises can have short-term gains but often result in long-term pains. So be very wise about issuing these kind of public promises.

Because leadership is a lot more fun when you’re not painted into a corner.

What leadership corners have you found yourself in, and how did you get out?

But actually being authentic in your communication isn’t always easy. It requires the effort and discipline to be yourself.

On the other hand, being inauthentic when you communicate is actually quite easy. It simply requires these 5 easy steps.

1.   Make sure there’s no connection between your real-life and your communicating
If there is a disconnect between your personal life and your communication you can be sure you’ll be perceived as inauthentic. For example, talking about good stewardship when you’re wracked with debt is a good starting point.

2.   Communicate completely differently than the way you talk
I knew one pastor who talked very normally in every day conversation, but the minute he stood behind the pulpit suddenly he pronounced the word “scriptures” using five syllables.

Creating a wide chasm between how you communicate in the church lobby and how you communicate in the pulpit guarantees inauthenticity.

3.   Never disclose any areas of struggle in your life
A sure way to be seen as inauthentic is to communicate as if you have all the answers and have everything in life nicely sorted out.

Since your congregation is dealing with real-life issues every day you’ll be sure to be seen as weirdly different from everyone else.

4.   Include content designed to make you look smart
These are the cool nuggets of trivia you uncovered in your research that really don’t add a lot of value to the talk, but which might make you sound clever.

Inauthentic communicators cram their talks with this stuff.

5.   Lace your talks with important-sounding names and places
Instead of saying, “I was talking with someone” you say, “I was talking with someone while on a flight from Rome to Bangkok.”

Instead of saying, “I was at an event recently…” you say, “I was the guest of honour at an event recently…”

This kind of communicating doesn’t have a lot of power, but it can make the preacher look good.

On the other hand if your goal is changed lives through the power of God’s Word, ignore these five steps.

And just be real.

How do you make sure you are as authentic as possible when you communicate?

• “Did you hear what they’re saying about Rick Warren?”
• “You know, I really think we need more teaching about the end times.”
• “You have to read this email that’s going around. It has a lot to say about the direction of our churches these days.”

If this kind of talk is going on, chances are your church is being infiltrated by Internet Christianity.

During our recent series of Innovate leadership forums, our National Pastor Tim Schroeder provided valuable coaching on this growing phenomenon, where members of our churches are being swept up in internet-fueled side issues.

In its mildest form, Internet Christianity can deflect a church off its mission. At worst it can cause internal strife and division.

Church leaders must be vigilant to lead decisively against this infiltration by speaking truth boldly and by correcting error clearly and lovingly.

How can you tell if Internet Christianity has infiltrated your church? Watch for these warning signs:

1.   Fringe doctrinal issues are gaining a foothold
Be on the lookout for a sudden increase in conversations about topics like the place of sign gifts in the church or the role of women in leadership.

2.   Other churches, ministries and pastors are being criticized
Internet Christianity obsesses over the words and actions of well-known Christian leaders.

Were people in your church clucking their tongues over Andy Stanley’s stand on homosexuality? If so, chances are Internet Christianity has crept in to your church.

3.   The authority of blogs is replacing the authority of scripture
Don’t think the irony of blogging about this is lost on me.

What I’m talking about here is the growing, concerning trend where people in your church may be taking their direction from a handful of influential bloggers, instead of the scriptures being preached from your own pulpit.

Online resources can obviously be a wonderful tool for the spiritual development of your congregation. But without great discernment it can also lead to distractions and divisions in your church.

Stemming this tide may be one of your highest leadership callings.

How have you responded to the growth of Internet Christianity in your church?

From Vancouver to Moncton, one of the words we heard over and over was this:

Stuck!

We then profiled Canadian church leaders whose church had found ways to get things moving again. These were the key discoveries:

1.   Leaders must be secure
Laurel Buckingham, senior pastor of Moncton Wesleyan Church, the largest church in Atlantic Canada, stressed that in order for a church to find new traction the point leader must be secure in themselves.

Only out of a secure place can the leader find the courage to ask the tough questions that must be addressed when a church is stalled.

2.   Leaders must focus on soul-care
It’s not possible to lead your church toward renewed momentum when your soul is dry.

This was a key observation of Greg Hochhalter, lead pastor of Sherwood Park Alliance Church near Edmonton.

Greg noted that his marching orders from his board are that he must lead “out of a deep well”, and that his board has provided the means by which he can find the spiritual nourishment he requires.

3. Leaders must be willing to shake up the team
Drawing on more than 30 years of pastoral ministry, our national pastor Tim Schroeder reminded us that the team that “got you stuck” is unlikely to be the team that gets you “unstuck”.

Tim wasn’t advocating the arbitrary dismissal of your leadership team, but did challenge leaders to have the courage to shake things up.

4. Leaders must focus mission and strategy around the church’s core strengths
If a church is to get unstuck it must relentlessly focus on its distinctiveness.

Tim and Greg each reminded us that many stuck churches simply provide too many ministry offerings, thus dissipating precious resources and leading to a lack of ministry focus. A related trap, we learned, was in following trends of other churches, particularly “celebrity churches”.

Instead, we were reminded, to get moving again you must recognize your church’s unique strengths and focus there.

The bottom line in all this?

• Churches do get stuck
• They won’t get unstuck by themselves
• To get things moving again is up to the leader whose heart is fully yielded before God.

Is your church stuck? What are you doing to get things moving again?

How many of these statements, or statements like them, have you used;

• “That was the best (event, class, earnings quarter, meeting) we’ve ever had!”
• “This promises to be the best (baptism service, board retreat, youth outreach, stockholders meeting) ever!”
• “There is an unbelievable sense of momentum and excitement building in our (church, company, ministry, club)!”

If you find that these types of hyped-up, hyperbole-filled statements are creeping into your leadership communication, watch out. Your leadership could be taking hits that you’re not even aware of.

As a leader you must certainly project optimism. But when you cross the line into hyperbole, you run four significant risks:

1.   You can be seen as inauthentic

Let’s face it. Not every event can be the “best ever”. If you use this kind of language excessively people will start to see you less as a leader, and more as a pitch-man.

Remember, you need to cast vision, not sell a ShamWow.

 2.   You can lose credibility

You know that service you described as the “best ever”? Well guess what. Your people were there, and they know it wasn’t the best ever.

When your communication creates a gap between what your people know to be true, and what you claim to be true, you start to lose credibility.

 3.   Young people start to tune out

At a recent INNOVATE leader’s forum, Greg Hochhalter, senior pastor of Sherwood Park Alliance Church in Alberta, made this important observation. Young people today have their radar on “full alert” for anything that smells like hyperbole, exaggeration or hype.

You can’t afford to alienate this group with your communication.

 4.   You create a culture of “desperation”

As a leader your words have a powerful ability to form and shape culture.

When your communication is flavoured with constant hype you are creating a culture of desperation. For your followers it’s a short walk from desperation to suspicion.

Because of my own optimistic nature, I’ve learned that I need to be vigilant to ensure that hyperbole doesn’t creep into my own communication.

And I would urge you to be just as vigilant.

Because if you can keep away from exaggeration and hype it will be the absolutely greatest thing ever.

(In case you missed it… that was hype!)

How do you keep from over-hyping your communication?