The Leadership Blog Interview: Rob Ketterling

Rob Ketterling

Bio: Rob is the Senior Pastor of River Valley Church in Apple Valley, MN which he started in 1995. He has a wonderful wife Becca and two awesome sons.

Church: River Valley Church
Blog: Rob Ketterling

The Leadership Blog Interview Questions
1. Rob, What gives you the greatest joy in being a leader?
Rob: “I have two joys that get me choked up. One is when someone comes to faith in Christ. The other is when we send someone out from RVC to be part of a church launch or to be a Pastor, Teacher, Evangelist or Missionary. We're called to be a sending agency and not a keeping agency so I love it when we've discipled someone and they want to be sent out from us. Ron Wilson, (My best friend from Kindergarten) came to faith in our church and now after 10 years at RVC has been sent out as a missionary to Mexico, that's a home run for me!”

2. What is your biggest pet peeve as a leader?
Rob: “People in the church that pull a flea flicker. For us a flea flicker is when a pastor delegates something to a person in the church and then after a little while the person gives it back to the pastor unfinished! This is usually accompanied with an excuse of being too busy and some lame spiritual excuse.”

3. Who made the biggest influence in your life as a leader?
Rob: “It has to be my dad. He lived it and was the real deal. He was in the military, active in the church and the best employee anyone could have ever asked for. He could have written Maxwell's book "The 360 Degree Leader" because he lead from the middle of the organization. Second to my dad is Bill Hybels, one visit to his church was all it took for me to realize that we could do things differently in our church than we were doing them.”

4. What books have changed your life?
Rob: “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, The Externally Focused Church, The Foxe's Book of Martyrs”

5. What's your biggest challenge as a leader?
Rob: “Time Management. How do all of these pastors of really large churches answer emails, lead their churches, meet with everyone, spend time with family, develop leaders and maintain their devotion life? Whenever my wife thinks I work or travel too much I have her read Mark Batterson's Blog! “

6. What goals do you have as a leader?
Rob: “To make a global impact. I started with a goal to impact a city, then it turned to a state and I skipped right up to the world. God really hit me with something when I was thinking that "Other churches, the big ones" would change the world and I realized, He wants to use us, we're part of the global plan and everyone has to do their part.”

7. Where do you see yourself in ten years?
Rob: “I would love to be at RVC and the only thing that would tempt me to leave would be to do something with a greater global impact. I've heard it said that following God is like traveling on a winding road, you never know what's around the next corner, so I wouldn't be surprised by anything that's up ahead.”