Charles Stone, Author at Healthy Leaders

Author

Charles Stone

About the Author

Both Charles and his wife Sherryl have a heart for pastors and pastors’ wives. They have taught hundreds of pastors and their wives in the United States, Canada, Nicaragua, Colombia, and Mexico.

Charles earned an engineering degree from Georgia Tech, a Master of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a Doctorate of Ministry from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He just began another master’s degree in Neuroleadership. He’s also an avid Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket fan.

He has been professionally trained in these areas by these organizations:

Life Coaching through the Professional Christian Coaching Institute

Strategic Planning through Ministry Advantage (certified)

Vision Clarity through the Church Unique Process (certified)

Conflict Management through Peacemakers

Charles is the author of three books – Daughters Gone Wild – Dads Gone Crazy (Thomas Nelson, 2007), 5 Ministry Killers and How to Defeat Them (Bethany House, 2010), and People Pleasing Pastors: Avoiding Pitfalls of Approval Motivated Leadership (Inter-Varsity Press, January 2014).

He loves to fish, ride his recumbent bike, and go to the movies with Sherryl, his wife of 33 years (he always gets the jumbo bag of popcorn with a free refill). They have three grown children: Heather, age 30, who is married to Charlie; Joshua, age 29, who is married to Deborah; and Tiffany, age 26, who lives at home.

One canine also makes his home with them in Spring Grove, Illinois.

What NOT to Say to Someone in Pain

Words carry great power. The book of Proverbs tells us they have the power of life or death and that a well-placed word is very valuable.

5 Questions that Reveal your Leadership Strengths

Kevin Cashman lists several questions that can help reveal where our leadership strengths lie. In this article, these five questions have been adapted. I suggest reading these questions slowly and reflectively every day for the next five days.

How to Foster “Aha” Moments in Your Team

Rather than solving a problem analytically, when we focus our attention outwardly on the problem, insight occurs when we turn our attention inward and becomes less focused. This inward focus can help us experience a sudden “aha” solution. This historical illustration about insight describes the “aha” process well.

What I Wish I Had Known 20 Years Ago as a Pastor

If you are just starting out in ministry, here are five key lessons Charles Stone learned over the last 20 years as a pastor.

Are You a Grateful Leader?

The big deal Jesus made about gratefulness in the one leper (and the lack thereof in the nine), points to the high value He places on a grateful heart. I believe leaders above all should evidence a grateful heart. Evaluate your level of gratefulness against these three gratefulness indicators.

5 Traits of a Flourishing Leader

Leaders fall into two categories ‒ those who flourish and those who don’t. What are common traits of flourishing leaders? I believe what happened in the early church gives us clues to traits of a flourishing leader.

4 Signs Decision Fatigue is Degrading Your Decisions

Christian leaders, or any leader for that matter, face a kind of fatigue that can rob our energy and diminish leadership effectiveness. “Decision fatigue” refers to the way decisions degrade in quality after a long string of successive decisions. In other words, the more decisions you make, the more the quality of those decisions declines.

5 Ways to Avoid Becoming a Defensive Leader

Every leader at times has probably reacted defensively to another. I have and I regret every single time I did. Leaders naturally face situations that can easily provoke a defensive reaction. But seldom does defensiveness move our churches and organizations forward. So how can we avoid defensiveness? I suggest five proactive ways.

Gratitude: Why every Leader Needs It

Problems come. Difficulties arise. Challenges persist. Yet, an attitude of gratitude can keep our hearts hot for Him, our focus in the right place, and our leadership most effective.

10 Signs a Leader May Need a New Challenge

It’s easy for leaders to get stuck in life, but we need to be constantly moving forward. Charles share 10 signs that you might need a new challenge.

A Leader’s Dumb and Dumber Mistakes

Humans make dumb mistakes. With more than 33 years in ministry, Charles has committed his share of dumb mistakes, as have we all, without ill will or an evil heart. Even so, these mistakes are … well, just dumb.

A Simple Exercise that will Infuse Life into your Staff

Gratefulness expressed to others is not only biblical, but it brings with it many practical personal benefits as well. Science is now telling us what the Bible has for centuries: showing gratitude, saying thanks, and affirming others is really good.

Pastors Who Make $25 a Month: What I Learned About Leadership from Them

During a recent trip to Cuba, I was able to spend time with local leaders. All together, we served about 150 pastors that represented conservatively over 8,000 people in their churches. Here’s what I learned.

4 Questions to Ask When You Face Conflict

Everybody faces conflict. Wise leaders, however, know how to manage conflict when it comes. Four good questions arise from Acts 15 for how to face conflict.

When Plans Get Interrupted, What Should You Do?

What do you do when your plans get interrupted? Fume … fuss … cuss? I tend to fume. I recall two experiences that interrupted my well laid-out plans. In the process, I also learned a few important life lessons.

The Hidden Bias that Trips Up Leaders

I’ve experienced one that I believe often trips leaders up. It’s called the confirmation bias. It’s a thinking bias that looks for information that supports our preexisting attitudes, beliefs, and actions. So, how can leaders counter the confirmation bias?

Three Kinds of People that Fill Every Church

In the Leadership Labyrinth, Judson Edwards describes 21 paradoxes in ministry. He defines the “relationship paradox” in this way: the people who like you most will be the ones you try least to please. He writes that three kinds of people fill every church. Would you agree with his assessment?

10 Ways Leaders Build Trust

Trust is having strong conviction in the evidence of something, or agreeing the evidence is true. That is why no one trusts a bridge they can plainly see is broken. Building trust depends upon actions that are the evidence that a person is trustworthy. Here are ways leaders can ensure the trust bridges are strong and true within a team.

What You Don’t Know About Your Church May Kill You

Water can do a lot of damage to rocks and roads as this view of Bourke’s Luck Pot Holes in South Africa reveals. Everyone knows what happens when you slam into a pothole. It could be the same when you encounter a pitfall in a new leadership position at a church. When a pastor moves to shepherd a new church, some unhealthy patterns may emerge, and some members may have unrealistic expectations of their new pastor. Charles suggests some ways to avoid the pitfalls and some questions to ask the church leaders to better shepherd the congregation.

4 Things I Wish I Could Do Over as a Parent

We have three grown kids, one grandson, and one grandchild on the way. We love all of our kids and they love us. As I reflect over my parenting years, I’d give myself a solid “B+” in the parenting department. But, I also would have parented differently in several ways.