Leadership

Listening to Leadership Development: A Working Model with Steve Stroope.

Some great stuff on this Defining Moments audio training from the Willowcreek Association.

As I was listening I was reminded of my past church experience where there was a committee on committees that annually calls church members and recruits them to do their time.  A person may be called out of the blue, as the C.O.C. goes through the church phone book, and asked to serve on the children's team.  The member may have no passion or desire to work with kids but say, "yes" out of guilt.  Probably most people don't know how to say "no".  I have learned how to and am good at it.  The member agrees to serve and then more than likely gets zero training. The person then serves for three years because that is the term  of that committee position.  As Steve Stroope said, "We don't want anyone to get too much power."  Those poor people who are actually serving where God has shaped them have no hope of longevity in serving where they find joy and are passionate because they can only serve for 3 years.

I hear criticism from church folks at times.  They can be critical of a leadership approach where some great leadership skills and tips come from the corporate world or even from some of the "mega" churches.  Yet many churches model their leadership after the structure of our government.   Hmmmmm....which one works best?

I think Moses was given some great advice from his father-in-law to spread out the leadership, you can't do it all.  Many committees (at least the ones I have experienced personally both in the church and small town government) do nothing more than talk about getting something done.  Teams work together to accomplish the task.

The lesson I've learned today is never lead alone.   As a leader I should have someone working along side of me learning to lead.  Every leader of every team needs to have an assistant leader.  This is the process building up the leadership team in the church.  Leadership Development is vital to church health.  Many churches in America have no strategy for leadership development and as a result their growth is stunted because for one pastor to try to lead a whole church is not Biblical.  There are lots of great leadership models out there.  Find one that is working and customize and adapt it to work in your church setting.  Jesus led twelve and through that process those twelve became leaders.  We should be doing the same.