Ep. 040 | Attributes of a Next Level Church Leader

Episode 40: Attributes of a Next Level Leader

Revitalize My Church Podcast | Guest: Ed Short | Host: Bart Blair

Keywords: next level leader, church leadership development, pastor leadership skills, small church revitalization, leadership attributes for pastors, how to become a better church leader, coaching pastors

TL;DR — 4 Key Takeaways

Next level leadership is not about jumping from good to great overnight — it's about intentional, incremental growth from wherever you are right now.
Effective church leaders develop a set of core attributes including God-dependence, self-awareness, relational competence, and a bias toward implementation.
Self-awareness may be the single most critical leadership skill: knowing your strengths to capitalize on, and your weaknesses to neutralize or delegate around.
Pastors don't have to do it all alone — identifying implementers and key people on your team who complement your gaps is a legitimate and powerful leadership strategy.

Episode Overview

What separates a good pastor from a truly effective church leader? In episode 40 of the Revitalize My Church Podcast, host Bart Blair sits down with church leadership coach Ed Short to unpack the key attributes of what Ed calls a "next level leader." Whether you're pastoring a congregation of 40 or 140, this conversation is packed with honest, practical insight designed to help you take your leadership from where it is to where it needs to be.

Ed draws on decades of ministry experience — from student pastor to executive pastor to lead pastor of three churches including a church plant — to offer a grounded, real-world framework for leadership development that doesn't require a massive budget or a seminary refresher. Just honest self-assessment and a commitment to growth.

About the Guest: Ed Short

Ed Short is a church leadership coach and consultant who serves on the Assist Church Expansion team alongside host Bart Blair. His ministry journey spans student ministry, executive pastoral leadership, and lead pastor roles at multiple churches. Ed is passionate about two things above all: evangelism — reaching people far from God — and discipleship, helping new believers begin to look like Jesus.

Ed's wife Carol is, in his words, "the best ministry worker I have ever been around" and serves as his most trusted ministry advisor. Ed's coaching work focuses on helping pastors identify their leadership ceiling and take measurable steps to break through it.

Note: Ed previously appeared on Episode 15 of the Revitalize My Church Podcast, covering how churches can navigate a pastoral search process. That episode remains the most downloaded in the show's history.

What Is a Next Level Leader?

Ed uses the analogy of a five-tool baseball player — think Willie Mays or Mike Trout — to frame what it means to be a next level leader. Just as the elite players in baseball excel at hitting for average, hitting for power, speed, fielding, and throwing, great leaders develop across multiple dimensions simultaneously.

But the goal isn't perfection — it's progress. As Ed explains:

"If you're a four, how do we help you become a five? If you're a six, how do we help you become a seven? Nobody goes from being a four to a nine."

The framework Ed has developed identifies a range of attributes, qualities, abilities, and mindsets that characterize next level leaders. Rather than feeling overwhelmed by the full list, Ed encourages leaders to identify three things they can capitalize on and two or three areas they need to neutralize or delegate around.

Key Attributes of a Next Level Leader

1. God-Dependence

Ed opens with what he calls his own weakest point — and it may be yours too. God-dependence means prioritizing prayer and reliance on God above strategic planning. Ed admits freely: "I would rather plan than pray." This honest vulnerability is itself a leadership quality.

For pastors in struggling churches, the temptation to rely on programs, outreach strategies, and revitalization frameworks is real. But sustainable renewal begins with leaders who are genuinely surrendered to God's direction.

2. Self-Awareness

Bart identifies self-awareness as possibly the single most glaring leadership deficiency he sees across the pastors he coaches. A next level leader knows who they are — their strengths, their blind spots, their default tendencies under pressure.

Self-awareness enables you to:

Capitalize on your natural gifts rather than hiding them
Neutralize weaknesses by building systems or delegating effectively
Invite the right people into your leadership circle
Avoid the trap of trying to lead in ways that are fundamentally misaligned with how God wired you

3. Relational Competence and Emotional Intelligence

Small churches live and die by relationships. A pastor who cannot build trust, manage interpersonal tension, or read the emotional temperature of a room will struggle to lead change — no matter how sound their vision.

Ed and Bart discuss how relational intelligence enables leaders to motivate volunteers, navigate conflict, and create cultures (not just programs) that sustain long-term health.

4. Vision and Communication

Next level leaders can articulate where the church is going and why it matters. But vision casting isn't just about big-stage moments — it's the consistent, everyday practice of helping people connect their effort to a larger purpose.

This distinction between management (telling people what, how, and when) and leadership (casting vision and guiding people toward it) is a consistent theme on the Revitalize My Church Podcast. Next level leaders lean toward leadership even when management feels more efficient.

5. Being an Implementer

Both Bart and Ed agree: the ability to implement — to take a vision off a whiteboard and actually make it happen — may be the most glaring gap in pastoral leadership today. Many pastors are strong visionaries but poor executors.

Ed's advice for non-implementers:

Identify someone on your team who is a natural implementer and empower them
Be honest about your wiring — if you write with your right hand, don't try to lead with your left
Read The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber for a practical framework on the difference between workers, managers, and leaders

Bart shares a powerful example from his own ministry: a part-time staff member who could take a big-picture concept and execute it flawlessly — leaving no stone unturned. You may already have that person on your team. You just haven't been looking for them.

6. Generosity and Stewardship Development

A next level leader understands that financial health in a church is downstream of spiritual and cultural health. Rather than simply hoping the budget improves, they take deliberate steps:

Preach on generosity, stewardship, and giving
Offer financial discipleship tools like Financial Peace University
Reach new people and then invest in discipling them toward biblical generosity
As Bart notes, you may not be able to draw a straight line between these efforts and budget improvement — but doing nothing guarantees nothing will change.

Practical Application for Small Church Pastors

If you're leading a smaller or struggling church, here's how to put this episode to work immediately:

1. Do a personal leadership audit. Identify your top 3 strengths and your 2-3 biggest gaps. Be honest — the goal isn't a performance review, it's clarity.

2. Stop trying to lead with your non-dominant hand. If implementation isn't your gift, find the person in your church or on your team who does it well and empower them.

3. Build a culture, not just a program. Culture takes time, but it starts with intentionality. What are you doing consistently to create cultures of generosity, evangelism, and discipleship?

4. Start praying before planning. Even if — especially if — this doesn't come naturally to you.

5. Read The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber. It's older but highly practical for understanding the worker-manager-leader distinction.

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber — available on Amazon in digital format (~150 pages, highly accessible)
Episode 15: How to Help Your Church Find a New Pastor — the most downloaded episode of the Revitalize My Church Podcast, also featuring Ed Short
Assist Church Expansion — assistcx.org
Revitalize My Church Podcast website — revitalizemy.church/podcast

About Revitalize My Church Podcast

The Revitalize My Church Podcast is produced by Assist Church Expansion and hosted by Bart Blair, Director of Church Revitalization. New episodes release on the 1st and 15th of each month. The show exists to help pastors and church leaders navigate change, recapture vision, and move their congregations toward a new and healthy future — without pretending they have unlimited budgets, staff, or energy.