Re:Vision: The Key to Transforming Your Church

by Aubrey Malphurs

Following are the summary findings for Discovery 1 regarding the characteristics or attributes of turnaround pastors: Score of mid to high D or i or D/i combination on the DiSC personal profile. Passionate and visionary. Have a mentor/coach more often than not. More outgoing with good people skills. More innovational than traditional. More energetic (this is essential). “Young in ministry,” regardless of their biological age. Better team players. Better at delegating. Better at training new leaders. Focused and determined. Able to embrace necessary change and willing to pay the price to do so. Good conflict resolution skills. Better than average communicators (vision and direction as well as preaching). Passionate use of their primary spiritual gifts and ability to empower others to use theirs. Other Observations In addition to the above information, there were several other significant findings. The length of pastoral tenure and its impact on numerical growth differed for TAPs and NTAPs. Long tenure of a TAP produces steady and continuous growth. However, long tenure of an NTAP at best produces a plateau and in most cases steady decline. Though researcher George Barna says the age limit for a TAP is the midforties or younger,[4] I found that seven of twenty-one TAPs began their last turnaround at age forty-eight or older.[5] Barna says these pastors normally experience only one turnaround in an entire lifetime.[6] I found that seven pastors have led two or more churches i...

What a TAP should be, and who they are