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Developing Leaders: Part 1
One of the most common questions I hear is, “How can I find great leaders?”
My answer is, “Don’t try to find them… Develop them.”
Please don’t miss the power of that simple thought. Most churches try to recruit leaders from other churches. While this can work, I believe it is MUCH better to develop leaders than recruit them!
Think of Jesus. When he called his disciples, he didn’t put up signs that read, “Disciples Wanted. Taking Applications.”
What did He do?
- He called those no one else wanted.
- He didn’t call a single person from the traditional religious establishment.
- He saw things in people no one else saw.
- He challenged his disciples. Listened to them. Asked them questions. Answered theirs.
- He took risks on his disciples. When they failed, Jesus corrected them.
- After they were trained, even though they didn’t feel ready, He asked them to carry His message to the world.
- Two thousand years later, the Church continues to be a light in the darkness.
Jesus didn’t recruit leaders… He built them!
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Craig,
I agree. I have a further question. How would you attract progressive people to be part of a transitioning church? We changed a lot when I came here. One way was focusing on discipleship. But the problem is our attendance dropped significantly. Now those who have stayed are growing spiritually. I’ve been instilling “investing and inviting” but many of the people who visited aren’t ready for the work it takes to transition. This isn’t a criticism because I don’t know if I would do it if I were in their shoes.
Is it just a God-thing? Do I just keep praying that God will send some that we can develop or is there more to it?
Kevin,
Thanks for the question. Can anyone offer some wisdom?
When I first began attending a church I found it extremely welcoming because there was no pressure. Nobody was in my face about doing anything. After helping set up, I would attend church and then tear down. Never was there any pressure to join a LifeGroup. Eventually, I and my relationships grew to the point that a group was something I sought out.
First, offering those things that enable new people to relax (i.e. modern worship, teaching that keeps their attention, and a comfortable atmosphere) is very important to new people. Second, discipleship is a scary word to a nonbeliever. You are on the right track thinking like a new person and admitting that you may not be comfortable “in their shoes”.
Third, try something new. My church decided to do a Mythbusters series and made there ridiculous videos about us attempting to bust myths. They were insanely goofy, but new and entertaining. People are still asking for more of them. It built the excitement and people began inviting others in response to those videos.
Hope this helps.
P.S. If you only have 30 people, but God is using those 30 to change families then you are a success.
Craig,
While I have no wisdom on the above comment, I am very much looking forward to the blogs this week. I’ve realized during my time in ministry (and now out of it) that so much of “leadership development” in and out of the church is really “find a pre-made leader and put him into the right spot” rather than development. This could be a really long comment, so I’ll just fire off my questions:
What “patterns”, to use a Paul word” do you have to actually develop and not just find leaders?
You have to be focused on raising up people to lead church things, but what responsibility does the church have to raise up community leaders? Should we be doing the training, or just casing the vision and facilitating the training?
Do you feel that the church focuses so much on raising up leaders for church things that people miss serving in the community?
Craig,
This is a very relevant post for me and my church. We are currently at the stage of trying to find the right leaders and place them in the right positions for God to use them to help our church. I had heard from some other progressive church leaders that the best way to help make your church the best it can be and to grow your leaders is to have a sort of “zero tolerance” policy. A “slow-to-hire, quick-to-fire” type mentality. I can see the effectiveness in this strategy but your post has got me thinking that patience is the key. After all, what if Jesus had fired a disciple every time they didn’t live up to the standards? Great post! Thanks for getting me thinking.
I think a good leader is simply someone who draws the leadership abilities out of other people and then gives them something to do with great expectations.
It seems to me, kind of like you say above Craig, that Jesus had the ability to take ordinary people and draw the leadership qualities out of them. He then gave them the responsibility to lead and…
…in the end, Jesus gives his disciples this huge responsibility. He has high expectations and he trusts his team to carry out the message (to the ends of the earth! Wow, that’s a long way). And it seems to me, we’ve seen big results…
Craig is right. There is no greater joy than watching someone come into your church, see their life change, and then watch them grow into leadership. Granted it can be a slow process, but these can be the key people who stick with you in the long run because you watched them begin and grow in God.
Those who are new in the faith can be very eager to learn and ready to commit. Just try to not burn them out quickly, but I’ve found that they can be a genuine source of wisdom as far as how to reach out to other non-believers. They have not been in the church world so long that they still have very close friends that aren’t believers and they are very eager to reach them as well.
Well, that’s about as much wisdom as a 23 year old can give.
Thanks for reading =D
Patience is a virtue. Several years ago I joined a small group at church. After doing so I discovered that the leader and his girlfriend were living together though not married. At some point the leadership knew about this but allowed them time to grow (they were living together before becoming Christ followers.) They eventually married and now he is a small group leader intern.
Craig,
I am a children’s pastor and this summer i am losing much of my volunteer staff to a satellite church in another city and a few moving away all at once. I am a bit frustrated my leaders and I had invested quite a bit into each of these people. It took me quite a few years to get to a place where i had a couple layers of quality leaders. Now I am back were i started.
We are launching some new vision for our children’s ministry. Do you think this is the devil stealing or God stretching? And, do you think I did something wrong?
Sam,
It doesn’t sound like you’ve done anything wrong. It sounds like you’re doing some good things by launching some new vision.
When people leave, I always ask God to bless them and send me someone who will be even more effective.
Clayton asked, “Do you feel that the church focuses so much on raising up leaders for church things that people miss serving in the community?”
I think that is a real possibility. Hopefully many of the “church things” we are doing are focused on serving the community. If they aren’t, maybe we should re-think our strategy. Great question.
Craig,
Have you ever read “Disciples Are Made, Not Born” by Walter A. Henrichsen?
I am currently being led through this and it seems very relevant to what your talking about.
Kyle
I’ll take a shot at Kevin’s question.
Take a few steps back and see if you can get a more systemic view of what’s going on in your environment.
Some questions you might ask to get to this kind of view.
What are the assumptions the people who attend this church have about why we exist? What do we do and say that re-enforces this mindset?
(for example: Is there an underlying assumption that spiritual growth can be separated from discipleship? Is there an assumption that the church is about growing great people so they can be spiritual and reach their potential… if so it why is this disconnected from implementation.
What barriers are in place which keep leaders from participating in your church? Every church has them in one way shape or form. Another way of saying this is: Is it that there aren’t any leaders, or that the leaders that do come, get frustrated, place in roles that don’t fit, or can’t get involved? It’s my experience that many churches have this problem. What are we doing that is keeping leaders from owning the ministry here?
The second part is something I’m sure you are doing. Work with who you have, God has a history of working through people who aren’t great “leaders”.
Sorry for my lame attempt at answering your question. It’s something of a shot in the dark from here. May God show you the leaders you have in your community and bring you leaders you don’t already know.
Craig,
I agree that we must be constantly evaluating how much we’re attempting to put on the plate of those serving. I think this goes back to an awesome post you did a while ago about how many “things” we tell people to do, and how we should trim it down.
I also wanted to ask, have you ever told a leader “no” to leading something? I’m not talking about someone who’s perhaps a little immature, I’m talking about the person who’s schedule is filled with things and could perhaps handle leading more, but you try not to put more on their plate so they don’t burn out. Just wondering…
Clayton,
Yes, I (we) tell leaders “no” all the time. Sometimes it is a part of helping them become a better leader.
Years ago when I was denied a leadership opportunity I really believed I was ready for, God used it in a significant way in my life.
Thanks for your insight Riddle.
Your welcome Kevin… I hope it was helpful.
Craig,
In the church I go to I only get to hear about pastors and preachers (there is one pastor and two regular preachers). The word ‘leader’ is never used (I haven’t noticed). Is it important to distinguish between ‘pastors’ and ‘leaders’ for example? Is there anything in a leader that a pastor hasn’t got?
Thank you.