Called to Lead - Week 4: Joe Donahue

Over the last few weeks, we have looked at the Call of Moses, the Call of Jeremiah, and the Call of Moses.  You have heard Pastor Marty, Josh, and Shawn each articulate their Call to Lead in video testimonies. And TODAY, you will hear about MY calling and leadership experience in the church.

I heard somebody once say, “We look like our parents when we are born. We look like our choices when we are old.” Leadership is a choice.  God can call you to LEAD – but LEADERSHIP is still a choice. Today, I am going to share THREE key leadership lessons I have LEARNED over the past 27 years of ministry. Today is more a TESTIMONY rather than a SERMON.

I grew up in a Catholic home with a DEEPLY devoted mom and an ALCOHOLIC, sexually abusive dad. My mom would gather my five brothers and sisters around a bed almost every evening and lead us in praying the rosary.  Meanwhile, we often heard dad stomping around on the porch, yelling inside the house, or playing loud country-western music on his record player system.

Mom would PRAY.  Dad would DRINK.  EVERY day.

My parents divorced. I moved in with my nana for my high school years. I graduated from High School in 1991, began working in construction, and a few months later, I was invited to church in Dover, TN. A few weeks later, I surrendered my life to Jesus. I began READING my Bible and PRAYING. Every MORNING, I would crack open the gift Bible the church had given me and POUR out my heart to God in prayer. Every EVENING, I would read my Bible and pray.  I went to church EVERY Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night.

For three years, I stayed in that church and grew as a follower of Jesus.  Even though I was 18 when I gave my life to Jesus, they let me hang out in the student ministry for a few more years.  That’s where I met Kristy. I went on retreats, mission trips, and summer camps.  This entire time, I was working construction and telling them about Jesus. Then, our church went on a ten-day mission trip to Columbus, Ohio, to work with a NEW church.

We HELPED the church set up, tear down, and clean up inside a local middle school.  We spent time with the Pastor and his family.  NEARING the end of the 10 days, God PLACED a hunger in my heart to KEEP working with this church. By FAITH, I went home and quit my job. I packed my clothes in a black trash bag, loaded up my car, and drove the 7 hours back to Columbus, OH.  Along the way, my car broke down, and I had to SWAP out the water pump, then a TIRE blew out.  I SLEPT in my car at a Rest Area and the NEXT day arrived at the church in Ohio as worship began. When the offering plate was passed, I dropped my last twenty dollars in.

I had no place to live. The church could not pay me, so I had no job. But by the end of that first day, I moved into the HOME of the family of one of the Vice Presidents of Ohio State University.  AND by the end of the week, I was hired as an assistant preschool teacher at “Children’s World Learning Center.” I stayed with that family for a little over a year, worked at the Childcare center for a year, and led two of my coworkers to Jesus.

The FIRST lesson I learned about LEADERSHIP is this…

Provision flows from priority

AS a FOLLOWER of JESUS, my PRIORITY was (and still is) to PUT God’s Kingdom in front of my KINGDOM.  As I sought to honor God and live for Jesus first, God provided for me.

Matthew 6:33 (NLT2)
Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

If you SENSE God has called you to LEADERSHIP, seek God’s Kingdom above everything else in your life.  He WILL provide for you, BUT you must place His Kingdom before your own. That’s true for your business.  That’s true for your family, relationships, and lives. Prioritize God’s Kingdom, lead people to a life-changing relationship with Jesus, and he will provide for you.

About a year later, the church shut down.  I MOVED back to Tennessee and ENROLLED at Austin Peay State University. MY PLANS were to become a Kindergarten teacher and write children’s books. I began to teach Sunday School and helped lead the student ministry at the church where I gave my life to Jesus.

Even though I was SERVING in God’s Kingdom, and tried to KEEP his KINGDOM first, I still had NOT surrendered to God’s call to full-time ministry. But, DURING my quiet times, as I prayed, read scripture, and POURED out my heart to God, I BEGAN to sense God was calling me to surrender to full-time ministry. The first time I sensed that call, I said “no.”

Then my walk with God began to deteriorate.  I stopped reading my bible on a daily basis. I stopped praying as often.  And I missed my time with God. So, I SLOWLY began growing in my RELATIONSHIP with God again.  I read more of the Bible and poured my heart out to the Lord.  Then, through my prayer time, I sensed God calling me to serve him in full-time ministry.

AGAIN, I said “no.” AGAIN, my walk with the Lord crumbled. And I missed God, AGAIN. I knew I was saved. I knew I was born again. But I missed growing in my relationship with God, and my heart ached.

So, once again, I began GETTING BACK in the habit of reading scripture, praying daily, and pouring my heart out to God.  And, once again, I heard clearly from the Lord that He wanted me to surrender to full-time ministry. I said, “God, I want to be a Kindergarten teacher and write children’s books.”

But this time I added, “Please, I don’t want my relationship with you to crumble.  I will pray about this for one week, and if you are really calling me into full-time ministry, please give me a sign.”

On Monday, a FRIEND asked me if God was calling me into full-time ministry. On Tuesday, a CO-WORKER asked me if God was calling me into full-time ministry. And on Wednesday, a STRANGER asked me if God was calling me into full-time ministry.

Later that night, I told God I was sorry for running, and I surrendered to his call on my life to serve Him in full-time ministry. I PROMISED him I would GO wherever he called me to GO. STAY where he calls me to STAY. SAY what he calls me to SAY.  And LEAD, how he calls me to LEAD.

Two years later, a Pastor from a church in Nashville, TN called.  He had received my name from my former college roommate.  He asked me if I would be interested in interviewing to be their next Student Pastor. I prayed, interviewed, and accepted the position.

Around that same time, Kristy and I began to date.  Within a year, I graduated with a Bachelor's degree from Austin Peay, and Kristy and I got married. We began a ministry journey together to help people become more like Jesus.

For seventeen years, I followed God’s calling as a Student Pastor in four different churches and attended Southern Seminary in Louisville, KY. From country churches to inner-city churches to a mega church, we led by faith and did what we sensed God called us to do. Mission trips, summer camps, retreats, lock-ins.

We saw drug-dealing kids give their lives to Jesus.  We saw wealthy kids give their lives to Jesus. Throughout my career in student ministry, God used me to transform its culture by putting God’s Kingdom first and helping students become more like Jesus.

And THEN GOD called me to SERVE him in a DIFFERENT way.

Through PRAYER, I began to sense GOD was calling me to serve as a Lead Pastor somewhere. About ONE year later, a search firm CONTACTED me about a church ROCKED by scandal.  Their lead pastor had been arrested, ALL the pastors had been fired, and the church was hurting.

In 2011, it had been the fastest growing church in America, but in 2014, they were a shadow of who the church they had once been.  Even though Kristy and I saw a sea of red flags warning us NOT to go, we were CONVINCED God was LEADING us to GO.

I was INTRODUCED to the church as the new Pastor of the ROC in Richmond, VA, and seven weeks later, I was GONE. I discovered financial corruption in the church and was immediately fired.  The firing made headlines not because of who I was, but because of who the church had been.

So, jobless…I went back to the mega-church I had left as Student Pastor, to serve the NEW Student Pastor who had replaced me.  I set up tables, swept the floor, stacked chairs, and WAITED for God to lead me to my next calling. I did not know where God would call us to lead, but I was confident God would open a door.

A few months later, GOD led me to a church in Arkansas. I served there for four years as their lead pastor, but I REALIZED early on that God called me there to LEAD difficult changes, and take the hits, SO the next lead Pastor would be successful. God led me there to deal with EIGHTEEN committees. A FAMILY-controlled church. A student pastor who GROOMED and ABUSED a girl from the student ministry. A weekday pre-school director who SLAPPED a four-year-old across the face. We sought to HONOR God, made changes, and tried to STAY out of God’s way.

We REDUCED the eighteen committees to FOUR. The family that CONTROLLED the church LOST control and left. I stood in the center of the student ministry leadership and explained why the student pastor had to be let go, without revealing the name of the girl he had groomed.

If you are a leader, you understand that LEADERSHIP must do HARD things. Not because we want to, but because LEADERSHIP requires you to LEAD through the HARD.

Leading a FAMILY is hard, but lead you must. Leading a BUSINESS is hard, but the weight of decisions does not fall on anybody else. Leading a MARRIAGE is hard because you are always wrong and your spouse is always right.

Now, by this point in ministry leadership, I had learned that…

Influence erodes without integrity

Over the years, I have seen GIFTED, talented, and AMAZING people lose their INFLUENCE and leadership in the church because they LACKED INTEGRITY. I have seen a Pastor have an AFFAIR with a married woman from the choir and lose his INFLUENCE. I have seen a Youth Pastor SPIN a web of lies and DECEPTION, and GROOM two young women from his ministry, and LOSE his influence. I have followed a lead Pastor who was ARRESTED for lacking integrity.

EVEN if GOD has called you to LEAD…your influence will ERODE if you are not a person of integrity. If you FAIL to be a person of integrity, your ability to lead will be TAKEN from you.

Then, in 2018, a family friend reached out and began asking me to serve as the co-lead Pastor and become the Lead Pastor when he steps away in 2022. We believed the Lord was leading us, so we said “yes” and served God there from 2019 to 2023. We saw the Lord do amazing things. The church grew, and in four years, over 600 people were baptized and surrendered their lives to Jesus.

Then, my co-pastor told me he was getting cold feet about stepping down, and a few months later, he said to me, “God told me not to go, and for you to leave. Here’s a severance, and if you don’t accept it, it won’t be good for you or your family.” Good grief.

I had a family of six to take care of, two of my children were diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes within a few months of each other, now, this pastor broke trust and betrayed me.

I sent my resume out EVERYWHERE!  I had no idea where the Lord was going to lead us.  In the fall of 2022, we began a conversation with the Pastor search team here at Beach Church. I was invited to preach in view of a call, and began our ministry here in January 2023.

Over the last three years, our weekend attendance has almost tripled, we have baptized 568 people, seen marriages restored, led people to a life-changing relationship with Jesus, paid off our mortgage three years early, and now have a vision to become a multi-site church.

So, the final lesson I pass on to you today is that…

A seek-first leader creates calm through trust, not tactics
(2 Chron. 20:12)

In LEADERSHIP, difficult decisions are PART of the TERRITORY. I BUILD trust through transparency because I am CONVINCED that TRUTH will never HURT the church.

If God has called you to leadership, lead with transparency. Don’t lie. Don’t manipulate. Don’t use TACTICS to influence people to get them to do what you want. Be honest.  If you don’t know how to lead during a season, tell them you don’t know and look to God for the answers.

Lead transparently.  Answer complicated questions, and as you lead with transparency, you create calm because people will see you are a person of integrity, and they can trust you.