Either senior pastors have become better leaders over the past five years or they have come to believe they are better leaders. The latest research from The Barna Group indicates that 92 percent of Protestant senior pastors consider themselves "effective leaders." Only about 75 percent thought so in 2001. I don’t know what changed and apparently neither does Barna, but what the latest study does interpolate at length is the differing types of leadership in churches.

For the most part, the pastoral leaders who self-identified as "effective" are motivational or directing leaders, according to Barna. The other types of leadership are also important for churches with more than one staff member, according to Barna. He classifies these other leaders as "strategic, team-building and operational," and says their talents as leaders may be misappropriated or turned away in church staff choices because they differ so much from a directing leader. That is a mistake, Barna writes:

"No single individual can provide the full extent of leadership competencies required by a complex organization, such as a church. The most effective organizations blend the talents and views of the four types of leaders into an effective team, usually driven by the directing leader but greatly enhanced by the special gifts of the other three types of leaders."

Barna has a leadership test you can take for $20. Church Central has a FREE Leadership Assessment.

Speaking of either cheap or free …

In tech news, those pesky Church Web sites just won’t go away. Maybe it wasn’t a fad. May 7, 2006, has been designated as the second annual Internet Evangelism Day. Along with the virtual excitement comes a download of free stuff. The IE Web site has many resources to help Christians understand and use the Internet to touch the world. It explains how to build a church Web site that can reach out into the community, or how to start an evangelistic blog. There is even a free evangelistic screensaver to download.

The site also offers downloadable resources so that any church or Christian group can easily create a Web awareness focus within their services or other meetings, on May 7 (or at any time they choose). These include a PowerPoint presentation, video clips, music, drama skits, posters, handouts and many other ideas.

If you want more help for the Web stuff, you may want to take a look at Communication Resources, a publisher of communication materials for churches. This company is selling geek advice cheap. The company recently launched a new bimonthly newsletter called Church Web Adviser, that provides busy church leaders with practical tips and techniques for engaging Web sites. Subscriptions are about $100/year.
     
If you’re going to have a Web site you should have one that works. The Adviser provides expert advice on how to encourage frequent visits to a church Web site and make the site an effective outreach tool, according to a news release.
     
Each issue also contains creative Web site improvement strategies toward building a complete, interactive, online community that meets the needs of both members and nonmembers.

The newsletter showcases actual church Web site makeovers along with downloadable templates and timesaving code snippets to plug into your own site for an enhanced, professional looking site that didn’t require the expense of a Web programmer.

For more information click: www.ChurchWebAdviser.com/Special.