LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
HI All,
One of the challenges faced by many churches is how to raise up leaders from within one's own congregation. Most churches have no effective, or intentional means to raise up and develop new leaders. Since they have no means to add new leaders, they either need to wait until a new leader comes wandering into their church (not likely, since leaders don't wander), or they will have to settle for sub-par leadership. Therefore their church never achieves the potential it could have, because it doesn't have the leadership horse power to move it forward into effective ministry.
How to deal with this?
There are a couple of factors to consider. The first is a philosophy of ministry issue - do you believe that leadership is a spiritual gift? If you don't, then you are already headed for problems. The Bible teaches us in Romans 12:8 that leadership is a spiritual gift. Many churches say that they believe this, but then have no effective means to place people with that spiritual gift into positions of leadership within the church so that they can exercise their God-given gift.
Here's a test for your church: Once a person becomes a member of your congregation, what is to prevent them from immediately being eligible to be nominated to a leadership position? In most churches, if you are a member, you are automatically eligible to be elected to the highest positions of leadership in the church. If that is your situation, then even though you SAY you believe in the gift of leadership, YOU REALLY DON'T, because you don't practice it.
There needs to be a second stage process for separating out those with the gift of leadership from those who do not have the gift. Find a way to find them and get them together. Do a spiritual gifts inventory, or watch them in action, and then invite them to a separate group just designated for leaders - by invitation only. Watch them, pray with them, work with them and get to know them. Get a farm system in place in your congregation for training and developing leaders.
Then once you have a means to identify those with the gift of leadership, then work that into your church's system of leadership selection. Make some changes so that the only people eligible to be elected to leadership are those who have already been developed. This creates a two-stage development process then: first they must become a member, and then they can become a leader.
Now if you believe that such a system is not fair, because 'everybody's equal in the Body of Christ', then you are more American than Biblical. Because Americans believe in democracy, but Christians believe in the Bible, which states that some have the gift of leadership, and some do not.
Here is what we are currently developing at our church:
1) We have developed a spiritual gifts discovery system so that we can identify and record the spiritual gifts of everybody in the church. From this we can get an initial indication of who may have the gift of leadership.
2) We have developed a leadership 'testdrive' small group for just potential leaders. We invite 8 people to meet with us for 9 months, of Bible studies, meals, videos, coach training, and prayer. By the end of that time, they have grown and developed much in their spiritual life, and we have a much better idea of whom God may be calling into leadership. (If you want to see a copy of the 9-month curriculum, we have developed, feel free to contact me.)
Pastor's of growing churches are actually concerned about two harvests: the evangelistic harvest, and the leadership harvest. We need to keep our eyes on both of them, for the sake of the kingdom, and the church of Jesus Christ.
In Christ's service,
Dr. Bill
One of the challenges faced by many churches is how to raise up leaders from within one's own congregation. Most churches have no effective, or intentional means to raise up and develop new leaders. Since they have no means to add new leaders, they either need to wait until a new leader comes wandering into their church (not likely, since leaders don't wander), or they will have to settle for sub-par leadership. Therefore their church never achieves the potential it could have, because it doesn't have the leadership horse power to move it forward into effective ministry.
How to deal with this?
There are a couple of factors to consider. The first is a philosophy of ministry issue - do you believe that leadership is a spiritual gift? If you don't, then you are already headed for problems. The Bible teaches us in Romans 12:8 that leadership is a spiritual gift. Many churches say that they believe this, but then have no effective means to place people with that spiritual gift into positions of leadership within the church so that they can exercise their God-given gift.
Here's a test for your church: Once a person becomes a member of your congregation, what is to prevent them from immediately being eligible to be nominated to a leadership position? In most churches, if you are a member, you are automatically eligible to be elected to the highest positions of leadership in the church. If that is your situation, then even though you SAY you believe in the gift of leadership, YOU REALLY DON'T, because you don't practice it.
There needs to be a second stage process for separating out those with the gift of leadership from those who do not have the gift. Find a way to find them and get them together. Do a spiritual gifts inventory, or watch them in action, and then invite them to a separate group just designated for leaders - by invitation only. Watch them, pray with them, work with them and get to know them. Get a farm system in place in your congregation for training and developing leaders.
Then once you have a means to identify those with the gift of leadership, then work that into your church's system of leadership selection. Make some changes so that the only people eligible to be elected to leadership are those who have already been developed. This creates a two-stage development process then: first they must become a member, and then they can become a leader.
Now if you believe that such a system is not fair, because 'everybody's equal in the Body of Christ', then you are more American than Biblical. Because Americans believe in democracy, but Christians believe in the Bible, which states that some have the gift of leadership, and some do not.
Here is what we are currently developing at our church:
1) We have developed a spiritual gifts discovery system so that we can identify and record the spiritual gifts of everybody in the church. From this we can get an initial indication of who may have the gift of leadership.
2) We have developed a leadership 'testdrive' small group for just potential leaders. We invite 8 people to meet with us for 9 months, of Bible studies, meals, videos, coach training, and prayer. By the end of that time, they have grown and developed much in their spiritual life, and we have a much better idea of whom God may be calling into leadership. (If you want to see a copy of the 9-month curriculum, we have developed, feel free to contact me.)
Pastor's of growing churches are actually concerned about two harvests: the evangelistic harvest, and the leadership harvest. We need to keep our eyes on both of them, for the sake of the kingdom, and the church of Jesus Christ.
In Christ's service,
Dr. Bill
Labels: coaching, leaders, Leadership development
posted by Dr. Bill at
8:01 AM
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