"Good is the enemy of great," Jim Collins wrote. He began his book "Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap … and Others Don't" with this powerful statement about mediocrity. After reading his work about American companies, I wondered what the implications would be for American churches seeking greatness.

With the encouragement of my publisher, I elected to write "Breakout Churches," (Zondervan 2005,) modeled on the "Good to Great" framework.

My research team and I borrowed Collins's research process, the structure and outline of his book, and the architecture of its ideas. So it wasn't completely surprising to find similarities with the research in "Good to Great." In fact, the leadership characteristics we uncovered in churches fit into what Collins called "a compelling modesty."

A compelling modesty

In interviewing people in "Breakout Churches" about their leaders and other pastors, we heard words such as: modest, humble, quiet, others-centered, deflects accolades, and open to criticism. In fact, the combined characteristics of the breakout leaders formed the pattern we call "Acts 6/7 Leadership." Let's look at our term and the meanings behind it.

When Collins led the research for "Good to Great," he insisted that his team avoid the trap of crediting or blaming a company's performance solely on leadership. He writes, "I gave the research team explicit instructions to downplay the role of top executives so that we could avoid the simplistic 'credit the leader' or 'blame the leader' thinking common today."

Collins's research team could not rest with that mandate. They kept finding the critical role of leadership as these companies moved from good to great. Collins mused, "I kept insisting, 'Ignore the executives.' But the research team kept pushing back, 'NO! There is something consistently unusual about them. We can't ignore them.'" How did the debate resolve? Collins admits, "Finally-as should always be the case-the data won." Good-to-great leaders "were all cut from the same cloth."

I did not ask my research team to ignore factors of leadership in the turnaround of these churches. But I did fear that leadership traits would be such a major factor that most pastors would think, "It's no use. I can never be that kind of leader." Our project, however, had a different approach from Collins's. Our criteria demanded that the senior pastor must have been a part of the decline and plateau of the church as well as the breakout growth. In other words, the process of breakout included more than the transformation of a church; it included the transformation of a leader.

Characteristics of a breakout leader

I spoke in Visalia, Calif., where a pastor from the area asked me with bluntness: "Dr. Rainer, I really do want to have a ministry that makes a difference, but I just don't have the same leadership skills as some of the megachurch pastors. Is it possible to learn how to be a better leader? Or am I doomed for mediocrity the rest of my ministry?"

"Breakout Churches" is the story of churches and leaders that broke from the shackles of mediocrity to become great churches and great leaders. What does a breakout church leader look like?

Acts 1: The Called Leader

The early church leaders were called to be witnesses of and for Christ (Acts 1:8). The Twelve were called to be the leaders of the church, including the calling of Matthias to replace Judas (Acts 1:21-26). All the breakout leaders whom we researched have a definitive testimony of God's call in their lives for vocational ministry; particularly in the local church.

In reading about the called leader, you might question why this first stage is even mentioned. After all, are not all church leaders called by God? The answer is an unequivocal no. We have worked with and interviewed a number of church leaders who see their ministries as no different from a secular job. But we have never come across a breakout leader who does not have a clear sense of being called into ministry by God.

Acts 2: The Contributing Leader

Most of the second chapter of Acts is devoted to Peter's sermon. We see leader Peter carrying forth the basic and essential elements of preaching (Acts 2:14-39) and prayer (v. 42). Glimpses of the first church are evident in verses 42-47.

Again, one may wonder if all church leaders are contributing leaders. Do not all pastors preach? Do not all pray? The answer is that only a minority spend significant time in these foundational ministries. In our research on effective evangelistic churches, we found that the leaders spent approximately 20 hours per week in sermon preparation and prayer. The leaders of the comparison (less evangelistic) churches spent only five hours per week in sermon preparation and prayer. And only 4 percent of churches in America met our criteria to be an effective evangelistic church.

Acts 3: The Outwardly-Focused Leader

In the third chapter of Acts, Peter and John venture beyond the gathering of the church described at the end of chapter 2. The message of Christ and its healing power were delivered to the beggar who sat at the temple gate that was called Beautiful (Acts 3:1-10).

The third stage of leadership is found in leaders who consistently and persistently move the church to look beyond itself. These leaders give evangelism a priority, and they lead the congregation to other types of ministries beyond the walls of the church.

Editor's note: We will look at the remaining three stages of Acts 6/7 Leadership in the next Church Health Today. To learn more read Dr. Rainer's book "Breakout Churches" is available at Church Central and most Christian retailers.

Thom S. Rainer, Ph.D., is president of Church Central Associates LLC and founding dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth at 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 religious organizations.