Mary Beth L. attends a growing Georgia church near the South Carolina border. Though the church has no denominational affiliation, Mary Beth feels at home there.

"It seems like the Southern Baptist church I attended as a child," she said. She was fairly active in church until her parents divorced when she was eight years old. "I never returned to church again until the past two years."

The 32-year-old mother of two became a Christian only five months prior to our interview. We asked her the questions that we asked of all the 350 formerly unchurched we interviewed. Of course the key question was, "What was the single greatest factor that led you to choose this church?"

Her response was quick and straightforward. '"That's easy — the pastor," she said.

Of course we wanted more details. What specific issues related to the pastor attracted her to the church? His preaching? His personality? His vision-casting ability?

"All of these things were important," she told us, "but more than anything else was Bruce's transparency, his willingness to admit mistakes; he is just a real person."

The "real person" description was stated numerous ways in our interviews with the formerly unchurched. Many of these new Christians expressed surprise at leaders' openness and transparency about mistakes.

"I expected a 'holier-than-thou' pastor and I saw just the opposite," Mary Beth said. "I remember the second time I heard him. He told the church about a mistake he made. I was f1oored that a pastor would admit he had any weaknesses."

Though our research team did not necessarily have the same level of surprise as Mary Beth, we were keenly aware of the "real person" issue as the leaders responded to our questions. These leaders of effective churches readily shared not only their perceived strengths, but their weaknesses as well. Our questions to leaders of effective churches were open ended. Two simple questions led to many insightful responses:

What do you feel your greatest strengths are in the area of leadership?

What do you feel your greatest weaknesses are in the area of leadership?

Of all the possible responses, 11 strengths and 12 weaknesses were cited by at least 50 percent of the leaders. Our research thus presents 23 insightful leadership factors to help us better understand how to reach the unchurched.

The next few articles are a mini-manual of leadership principles. The information you are about to read profoundly impressed me. Listen as leaders give self-appraisals of their leadership skills, both strengths and weaknesses. These are not theoretical. They come from the real-life experiences of key influencers in effective churches.

"When I came to the church nine years ago the church did not have a clue where it was going," an Ohio pastor told us. "The leaders told me that they were willing to follow me anywhere if I could just tell them where we needed to go."

The ability to cast vision does not always mean that the leader knows precisely where the church should go. He may communicate that obedience to the Great Commission is imperative, that reaching the unchurched is not an option, and that ministering to those in need is the cultural mandate for the church. But the leader of the church may not have a clear idea where this obedience to God may lead.

I once asked Bob Russell, pastor of the huge Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Ky., how he developed a vision to become one of the largest churches in North America. His response?

"I didn't."

He explained to me that he never once planned to be pastor of such a large church. "We just tried to be obedient to what God called us to do and to do everything with excellence."

Two elements of vision casting were mentioned frequently. First, the leader is confident. Such confidence comes from experience and from a sense of God's presence in the vision. Second, the vision is communicated with passion and inspiration.

"When Pastor Paul talks about the vision for our church," Helen D. observed, "the whole church gets fired up. We believe in God's vision for our church because the pastor is so enthusiastic about it."

Yet rarely did we hear of a leader who had developed a precise plan to lead a church to growth. One point, however, is clear: regardless of the lack of detail, the communicated vision in almost all of our surveys included a clear and compelling picture of reaching lost people. The formerly unchurched were reached in no small part due to the vision of a leader who passionately communicated the urgency to reach the lost.

We asked the leaders of these churches to categorize their leadership style as sustaining, reactionary or visionary. Sustaining refers to a style that seeks to preserve the status quo. Reactionary is a style that responds when needs become apparent. And the visionary style anticipates needs before they are apparent.

Ninety-five percent of the leaders considered themselves as visionary, four percent were reactionary and one percent said they were sustaining. No matter how we asked the question, the response agreed with what the formerly unchurched had told us — the leaders said that they were visionaries.

Look for more leadership strengths next week in the Church Health Today.

Thom S. Rainer, Ph.D., is the president of Church Central Associates LLC and is founding dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Considered one of the leading experts on the church today, he is the author or co-author of 16 books on the church and has written articles or reviews for more than 30 publications. Dr. Rainer has also served as a pastor and interim pastor in 10 churches and has consulted with more than 300 churches, denominational entities and other religious organizations.