Great Pastors

I think the mark of a great pastor is one who is willing to help, support or encourage other pastors. That's something I strive to do. I've met pastors in the past that have the attitude that they are in competition with other churches and therefore other pastors. In Fairfax County, where I serve, there's about 1.6 million people, and the last stat I read said that about 75% of them are unchurched. So to be in competition with another church is silly. The harvest is truly plentiful.

I had a great meeting last week with Rod Stafford who pastors Fairfax Community Church. Rod is a great guy and was a huge help to me. He's incredibly genuine and I really appreciated his encouragement. I hope to get to know him better down the road.

I'm meeting in a couple of weeks with Ray Bearden at First Baptist Woodbridge. I've known Ray for about 10 years. I don't know him really well but he has a great reputation in our local network of churches.

The reason I'm meeting with these guys is to pick their brains a little about some of their best practices in church growth. When they became pastors of their churches, the churches were in similar places as our church is now - about the same size and wanting to impact their communities but needing to strategically plan and organize themselves to do that. And in my opinion they have both been successfully in leading their chruches to impacting their communities.

So I think I can learn from Rod and Ray. And I'm thankful that they are willing to be a part of our churches success.

Along the same note I just want to stop and take the time to thank some other pastors who have taken the time to mentor, encourage, support and teach me along the way:

-My dad, Charles Magnet (first and foremost), Rod Mooney, Rev. Harold, Art Turner, Bill Shoulta, Vernon Cole, My brother Chuck Magnet, Joe Gill, Steve Welch, Samford Beckett, Greg Loewer, Bob Felts, Rusty Coram, Rick Warren, Joe Long, Mark Batterson, Rich Hurst, and the ones that I'm sure I've forgotten.