The 14 pastors who lead the 13 breakout churches my research team and I studied for my latest book, “Breakout Churches,” are a diverse group of leaders — racially, geographically, ethnically and socio-economically. Yet we observed three characteristics they had in common that made them both unique leaders and counter-cultural influencers.

Slow progress is fine

When T. Vaughn Walker became pastor of the First Gethsemane Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., the church's budget was under the influence and control of the deacons and trustees. There was a critical need for significant input from other ministry leadership in a more comprehensive budgeting process.

Walker did not want budgetary control, but he needed the process changed so the church would have the resources to carry on the vision. Budget priorities offer insight into the heartbeat of ministry foci. The process at Gethsemane was more focused on maintenance and survival rather than on vision and growth.

Our surprise is not that Walker succeeded in changing this. Rather, we were surprised that it took him seven years to do so.

"It was not a life-or-death need for the church," Walker commented. "I knew I could finally lead the change if I was patient, loving and persistent."

When we looked at some of the leaders of comparison churches, we noticed two broad approaches to leading change. One group was dubbed by the research team "the peacemakers." Because change inevitably leads to some level of conflict, they helped defend the status quo to avoid pain.

The other group was called "my-way-or-the-highway leaders." These leaders tended to be autocratic in their decision making. It was not uncommon during our interviews to hear statements like this one from a pastor in the Midwest:

"I've told the people in my church that the vision is clear. And if they can't get on board with the vision, then they can find another church."

We noticed that these autocratic pastors tend to have a pattern of conflict in the churches they serve. They may see short-term or even mid-term numerical gains in their churches, but any positive result of their ministry is seldom long lasting. Some have been fired from their churches; others have left under pressure. And they have left a trail of hurting and angry members in many of the churches they served.

The breakout pastors, however, tended to approach the role of leadership for change with three levels of awareness. These three patterns seem to be consistent in all of these leaders.

1. Love — They desired to communicate clearly their love for the members of the congregation. They did not feel that people should be readily discarded if they disagreed with the vision.
2. Patience — They recognized that the established church is often entrenched in tradition and therefore change is difficult and often takes time.
3. Persistence — They knew that change must ultimately take place and that goals must be achieved if the church is to move forward. Unlike the peacemakers, they moved persistently and patiently toward their goals.

Thin-skinned

A mentor pastor once advised me that if I wanted to survive in local church ministry, I would have to learn to ignore most of the criticisms I received. But even after serving as pastor in four churches in four states, I found I was just as sensitive to criticism as I was at the beginning of my ministry. I guess I had some level of relief when our team discovered that breakout church leaders tend to be more thin-skinned than thick-skinned.

Xenos Christian Fellowship in Columbus, Ohio, began as a college Bible study at Ohio State University in 1970. Xenos experienced rapid growth in the 1970s and the early 1980s. But the body still did not look like an institutional church until 1982, when it took on its present name and hired the first of its paid staff

Although Xenos clearly has a more institutional flavor today than it used to have, it still is not your typical congregation. So when the leadership started buying property and constructing buildings in the early 1990s, some of the congregants thought the church was becoming too worldly. Further conflict took place when the church leaders confronted a hypercharismatic group in the church, and when they began to question the biblical validity of the counseling ministries.

From 1991 to 1994 the church experienced a mass exodus of 1,200 to 1,500 people. Attendance declined from 3,800 to 2,400. The perception of some pundits of megachurch pastors is to let the critics have their say and then move on with little personal suffering. Such is not the case with the leadership of Xenos.

Dennis McCallum, who serves as lead pastor along with Gary DeLashmutt, described the pain he endured during this time of attrition and criticism:

"Many of the people asked the leaders to leave. It took a church vote to keep us here. We lost a third of the church. It was very depressing. There was a lingering sense of defeat."

We were impressed with the honesty and openness of these leaders as they shared the pain they experienced. In all of the breakout church leaders, we saw very caring men. They said that most of the struggles they experienced were necessary, but the loss of members and the constant criticisms hurt deeply. Criticisms did not just roll off them. They dealt with the critics and persevered but often at great personal cost.

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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 also has served as a pastor and interim pastor in 10 churches and has consulted with more than 300 churches, denominational entities and religious organizations.