Some thoughts on a leadership myth from Pastor Keith Hodges at Liberty Church in Alabama: Leadership Myth: If I pray more, if I study more, if I preach better sermons, my church will grow. Understand Something: Prayer, studying of the Word and good preaching are necessary ingredients for a healthy church. If we are going to see our churches grow and become what God has called them to be, we have to pray and study and preach the Word in a way that impacts people’s lives. The Flip Side: Those things are not enough. Just increasing your prayer time, your study time, and the quality of your preaching is not enough to effectively grow your church over the long-haul. God is God, and He can do anything in a moment that we could not do in our lifetime. In the natural, in the things we can cultivate and prepare our hearts in, your leadership ability and your ability to lead people into the vision of God, more than anything in the natural, determines the growth of your church. Your church will never outgrow your leadership ability. Your leadership ability becomes the lid to church growth in your local body. The Solution: If I want to increase the effectiveness of my ministry, increase the effectiveness of my church, I have to grow as a leader. I have to increase my leadership ability. When I increase my ability to lead people in the vision of God, it produces supernatural growth where God can work in our lives.