While boundaries are proactive rules you set to make sure things work well internally, hedges are protective barriers you build to keep out the onslaught of attacks that will inevitably come your way. Boundaries exist to preserve and bolster what’s within them; hedges exist to keep the bad stuff–the poison, the negativity, and the temptation–at bay.

Satan has many tactics in his derailment strategy for your life. Being aware of his go-to weapons can help you stand against them. Robert Clinton, the longtime professor of leadership at Fuller Theological Seminary, created a list of the six most common downfalls for pastors–or, as he phrased it, six barriers to finishing well.

1. Finances: Leaders, particularly those who have power positions and make important decisions concerning finances, tend to use practices that may encourage incorrect handling of finances and eventually wrong use. A character trait of greed often is rooted deep and eventually will cause impropriety with regard to finances.
2. Power: Leaders who are effective in ministry must use various power bases in order to accomplish their ministry. With power so available and being used almost daily, there is a tendency to abuse it.
3. Pride: Pride can lead to the downfall of a leader. As a leader, there is a dynamic tension that must be maintained. We must have a healthy respect for ourselves, and yet we must recognize that we have nothing that was not given to us by God.
4. Sex: Illicit sexual relationships have been a major downfall both in the Bible and in Western cultures. Joseph’s classic integrity check with respect to sexual sin is the ideal model that should be in leaders’ minds.
5. Family: Problems between spouses or between parents and children or between siblings can destroy a leader’s ministry. What is needed are biblical values lived out with regard to husband-wife relationships, parent-children relationships, and sibling relationships.
6. Plateauing: Leaders who are competent tend to plateau. Their very strength becomes a weakness. They can continue to minister at a level without there being a reality or Spirit-empowered renewing effect.

In order to keep your life and your family from being ravaged by the effects of these poisons, you must build thick hedges of protection around yourself.

– Nelson Searcy

The above excerpt is from p. 53-54 of The Renegade Pastor: Abandoning Average in Your Life and Ministry.

Drawing from Nelson Searcy’s decades of ministry experience, The Renegade Pastor is a relevant, step-by-step resource for church leaders who are ready to step up in surrender to the pursuit of God’s best for his or her life and work.

P.S. – Click here to grab your copy from Amazon today!

Your partner in ministry,

Nelson

© Nelson Searcy. All Rights Reserved.

About Nelson Searcy

Nelson Searcy is an experienced church growth strategist, pastor, church planter and coach, consulting with churches around the world. As founder of Church Leader Insights and the Renegade Pastors Network, he has personally trained more than 3,500 church leaders in over 45 denominations through live events, seminars and monthly coaching. Nelson is also the Founding and Lead Pastor of The Journey Church, with locations across New York City and in Boca Raton, FL. Nelson and his church routinely appear on lists such as “The 50 Most Influential Churches” and “The 25 Most Innovative Leaders.” He is the author of over 100 church growth resources and 18+ books, including The Renegade Pastor: Abandoning Average in Your Life, Ministry and The Difference Maker: Using Your Everyday Life for Eternal Impact, and At the Cross with the People Who Were There. He and his wife, Kelley, have one son, Alexander.