One concern that I frequently hear from pastors is that the church doesn’t have enough leaders. This typically means one of three things: 1. There aren’t enough people who are willing to serve as leaders, 2. There aren’t enough people who are qualified to serve as leaders, 3. Some who are serving as leaders aren’t qualified to serve as leaders. Pastors and other church leaders want to know what to do about this.
It would take more than a blog post to respond fully, but I’ll start the conversation by organizing some thoughts. First, consider the basic categories of leadership in the church:
- Pastor(s)
- Officers – Elders and/or Deacons
- Staff
- Lay Leaders
Second, consider the qualifications that are required for each of these categories of leadership and whether or not those serving in these roles are truly qualified. If they are qualified, great! But if not, consider whether or not some leaders need to step down from those leadership roles. Wait a minute! If the problem is a lack of leaders, how does it help to ask leaders to step down? Simple – having no leader is better than having an unqualified leader.
Third, consider what is needed to train potential leaders to meet the requirements of leadership and put that training in place. If training such as this has not been in place before, current leaders should receive this training as well as candidates.
Fourth, consider creating a leadership culture in your church. What does that look like? Consider this leadership progression:
Level 1: Leadership of Self – Leadership must begin by a person’s taking responsibility for his or her own spiritual development. To become a leader is first to become self-leading, relying on oneself for growth in the faith. Leaders will always benefit from others who pour into their lives, but that should be part of a comprehensive discipline of self-leading. Independent growth rather than dependent growth is what is needed in a true spiritual leader.
Level 2: Leadership in the Home – Timothy and Titus provide insight into the qualifications for leaders. Both sight the need for leaders in the church to be leaders in their homes as prerequisite to church leadership. Rarely have I seen a congregation look into what’s truly going on in terms of a candidate’s home leadership before placing that candidate into church leadership. Regardless of one’s home scenario, spiritual leadership in that home scenario should be evident before moving into church leadership.
Level 3: Leadership in the Church – Unfortunately most churches skip Levels 1 and 2 and go straight to Level 3, placing people in the corporate leadership of the church without having established self-leadership or leadership in the home. Rather than biblical qualifications being required, often availability is the leading qualification with a productive history of secular leadership following close behind. At best, this will provide short term management solutions but not the substantial spiritual development of the church.
There are two levels to go in my thinking, but I’m going to stop here with this post. Take some time to process what I’ve presented here and there will be more to come next week.
PS: The video recording of last week’s training event went very well and should result in both DVD and online training options by spring!
