Everyone wants to follow a confident leader. But many in leadership positions find themselves unable to provide this. They are underconfident leaders.

I recently wrote a post on the dangers of underconfident leaders. For those who consider themselves underconfident, the obvious question that arises from this post is, “How do I move from underconfident to confident?” One of keys to this answer is to develop a more accurate view of leaders and their leadership.

To elaborate, I have provided six considerations that can help increase your confidence as a leader.

1. Know there is no such thing as a fearless leader.

You are not alone. All leaders have fears. They all have doubts, even in their own ability to lead. But the greatest leaders push through those fears and doubts because they know dwelling on these things will get them, and everyone they lead, nowhere.

Christ Church (here) just celebrated its 30th anniversary. Since I am the founding pastor and Rector, I have been doing a lot of thinking and reflecting for the past few weeks. I am so very, very thankful for the opportunities I have had there. It has been a tremendous experience and, by God’s grace, I trust it will continue.

As I have reflected over these past few weeks, I made up a list of learnings and lessons from the past three decades. Most of these will not be new to most readers. And some of these I still struggle to learn as a leader of this parish. But for what they are worth, here are 30 lessons from the past 30 years. (Most of these have been learned the hard way or read or discovered through day to day ministry. I have embraced some of these ideas from other people and have long since forgotten their source. I apologize.)

Here they are:

1. There is no secret sauce or magic pill that will make a church grow or prosper. Generally speaking, growth is a by-product of other non-measurable things. This makes it hard to ‘make’ numerical growth happen.

2. Congregations have their own culture; a parish-wide attitude and way of doing things. People may come for the program, location, music, or the preaching…but they will stay or leave because of the culture.

3. To that end, programming and small groups are seldom the front door for visitors and new members. It’s the Sunday experience of worship! Worship is what your people will invite their friends to.

Many Americans today don’t think they have a place for church in their lives.

“But they believe the church has a place for them, when or if they are interested,” said Scott McConnell, vice president of LifeWay Research, which issued a new survey Wednesday (June 3) on perceptions of religious denominations.

The findings show that as many as 45 percent of Americans will look at the church brand on the sign out front — Catholic or Baptist or Methodist or whatever — and drive past, thinking it is “not for me.”

And yet, McConnell said, the survey reveals an openness in most people — if not a very theologically deep one — to stopping by, even if they declare no religious identity, the “nones.”

“Many people view a church like the ice cream parlor down the road. They think, ‘When I’m in the mood, I can go.’ Church leaders can take it as good news: People haven’t ruled them out. But they have to be a little unsettled at how little people are thinking about this,” said McConnell.

The LifeWay survey, “American Perceptions of Denominations,” asked 1,000 U.S. adults last fall to give a favorable or unfavorable rating on nine traditions, or say they don’t know enough to form an opinion. Every group had more favorable than unfavorable ratings, and the largest groups led the way:

• Baptist — 61 percent favorable
• Catholic — 57 percent
• Nondenominational — 53 percent
• Methodists — 52 percent
• Southern Baptists — 49 percent
• Presbyterian — 46 percent
• Lutheran — 46 percent
• Assemblies of God — 45 percent
• Pentecostal — 38 percent