You asked what you should give away and what should you keep…

As an exercise, ask yourself what are the three things that only YOU can do. Make those three things your biggest priorities. Try to give away as many other things as you can.

John Maxwell always said, “If someone else can do something 80% as well as you can, let them do it.” With as many ministry opportunities as we have today, instead of 80%, I’m thinking if someone can do it 70% as well, give it to them!

Marcin,

You asked how an average member can ask the pastor for more authority and fewer responsibilities.

My guess would be that a member would “serve” his or her way to more authority. If someone asks me for more authority, I might be hesitant to give it without knowing the person. If that same person serves with integrity, I’d be more likely to trust and give freely.

As I get less involved, more people get more involved. When you get more of the right people involved, it is a win for them (they find fulfillment and own the vision) and a win for the church (growth occurs and the vision is accomplished). And I get the opportunity to focus on the most important thing…leading people.

Thanks!!

The role of a leader in any capacity, is to “surround” themselves with gifted individuals and delegate/empower responsibilites to them that not only fit their giftedness and talents, but most importantly, their strengths. So the task then becomes understanding what your strengths are and also discovering what the strengths of each individual on your team is. There are a ton of resources that can help you do this, one of them is a newer book by the Gallup organization called: “Now Discover Your Strengths.”

Here’s a simple structure that I like to use:
Leader: Cast Vision, Surround yourself with people better than you and GIVE IT AWAY!

I figured as such. It makes me feel better because that is what I’m trying to instill. We are trying some real risky things in our community that has changed. I’m sure we will fail in some areas and have already. But I would rather try and fail than not to try at all.

I’m helping Craig respond today…

Through Craig’s leadership he’s cultivated a culture to take risks and “fail a lot.” He continually challenges our team to “swing for the fence.”

With this mindset our team knows they have the freedom to try new things, so they’re not “in fear of losing their job.” Our goal is to learn from the mistakes in order to continue growing.

Hope this answers your question.

Sarah
Craig’s Assistant

Great stuff. I am not a control freak but do sometimes have a tough time figuring out what do I give away and what do I keep to maintain the quality and cohesiveness of the ministry I serve? Do you have any simple guidelines that could help?

I added a person to my company’s (small) staff a few weeks ago. It’s the first staff addition where the person now has responsibilities that I actually can do and enjoy doing. My other staff members either do things I don’t like to do or things I can’t do.

It’s fascinating to see how much harder it is for me to release authority to staff who have responsibilities I either enjoy doing or think I can do well! :)

How much freedom do you give to people you delegate to? And when people do mess up are they afraid for their jobs or do they feel it is ok to fail as long as they move forward and don’t do it on a regular basis?