Every church I have been called to serve has come already equipped with
lay leadership. In some cases the preexisting leadership was really quite good.
In other cases that lay leadership in place proved to be a crucial problem when
one began addressing the issue of why the church was unhealthy and had been
unable to grow for several years.
The reason for such differing experiences was due, in a large part, to
the fact that most churches fail to develop lay leaders. Instead they fill
positions dictated by the governing rules of the congregation. It is less about
giftedness, spirituality and the call of God on one’s life and more about
filling slots so we can present a full slate of candidates at the
congregation’s annual meeting. When it is more about filling positions and less
about spiritual discernment, there will be problems.
There is a necessity of developing lay ministry and lay leaders for a
church to transform and grow. Those of us who pastor local churches are almost
always looking for ideas, ministries, plans, programs, books, articles; just
about anything we can find that might help us grow the local church. Some want
to grow the church out of a theological understanding of the scriptural mandate
for sharing the gospel with a lost and dying world that gives them a strong
evangelical verve. Others seek to grow the church they serve from a desire to
be seen as successful. Let’s face it; you have probably never attended a
conference or seminar that featured as the keynote speaker the pastor of a tiny
and struggling church. As much as we would like to deny it, we in the church
often see bigger as better. Still others have a sense of urgency to grow the
church because of a sense of impending doom; a sense that the church will soon
die from a lack of growth.
Whatever it is that drives us, a vast majority of pastors are seeking to
see their churches grow. And, if the research is correct, a very small minority
of us is serving growing churches. Though we may be working hard at finding and
implementing evangelism and church growth programs to grow the church, it is a
fair generalization to say that what we are doing is not working. The lack of
results tells me that we need to try something else. Business as usual is not a
good idea.
Invest time and energy in lay leader development. For several decades
those in the church growth business have been telling us that a church will
only grow to a certain size with only the pastor ministering in the church and
providing leadership. For the church to grow, more people need to be included
in ministry and leadership.
Developing lay ministers and lay leaders is easy to desire but very
difficult to produce. The difficulty lies in the truth that we pastors are
already completely swamped just trying to maintain the status quo – we are busy
working to keep the ship afloat. The idea of adding leadership development to
an already full schedule is ridiculous. Most of us would tell you that we are
already doing more than we have time to do.
This dilemma exposes one of the great challenges of doing church
transformation. To do what needs to be done to grow a healthy church means we
must make some difficult choices… choices about what we will do and what we
won’t do. Before we can chose to invest time and energy in lay leader
development we must choose to no longer do some things we are already doing.
These are difficult choices because we may enjoy doing what we are presently
doing and may be very good at it. There is an excellent chance that if we stop
doing some of the things we are presently doing, several of our church members
may become very unhappy with us and will feel the need to share their concerns
with us and anyone else who will listen. (This is the voice of experience and I
am being nice here.)
Qualities to look for in church lay leaders. There is no way to list all
of the qualities needed in a leader. Some are a part of who they are and some
skills can be learned. When looking for lay leaders in the church I suggest
that the last filter you apply is education – what they know. Just as when we
hire paid staff, the last thing we look at is education. Unfortunately many
churches make the mistake of asking that all applicants for a position possess
a certain degree. Degrees are great. Education is good. I have one… I have
several… from several different institutions of higher learning. But when it
comes to what we are looking for in a paid or lay leader, education is one of
the few things we can provide after the hire. The others are what I call
“tangible intangibles.” If you have the qualities we are looking for, we can
teach you the skills to do the job.
Some of the “unteachable” things we are looking for in leaders are:
- A deep abiding love for God
- An unquenchable desire for people to come to know and love God
- A love for people
- Willingness to give much while receiving little in return
- Be personally spiritually growing
- Have a pleasant personality (Plays well with others)
- A willingness to take chances (Will run with scissors)
- Is a self-starter and doesn’t need a lot of supervision
- Mature social skills
- Fully supports the mission and vision of the church
- Biblically literate
- Seminary education – gee, that would be nice
Mentoring and Coaching must be a part of the process. Having found a
person or some persons with the qualities of leadership listed above, the
pastor begins the process of leadership development. The pastor must evaluate
the strengths and weakness of the potential leader and begin a process of
moving them forward. This process will almost always include mentoring and
coaching. To develop a leader in the life of a church, the present leader(s)
must pour their lives into those they are developing. The process is long term
and time consuming.
Because most of us pastor types have spent many years in the formal
educational system, we tend to attempt to provide lay leadership development in
a classroom type situation. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with having
some leadership classes for potential leaders. But, for the process to be as
successful as possible, other forms of educating leaders must be provided.
Among those I would highly recommend are coaching and mentoring. The
mentoring/coaching process is less like a classroom experience and more like a
friendship. You must spend time together. You will come to know, understand,
accept and trust each other. You will have many teaching moments as you share
life and share ministry together. This process provides opportunities for
hands-on learning and on the job training.
Finally allow lay leaders to minister and lead. The final difficulty
that must be addressed if lay leaders and ministers are going to be developed
in the local church setting is launching people into ministry. The launch phase
is difficult because of a fear of failure, fear of not being prepared to lead
and do ministry. This fear is often shared by both the “launcher” and the
“launchee.” It is not unusual for the pastor and the lay person to fear that
the lay person doing ministry or taking on a position of leadership will not do
it as well as the pastor would. The stark reality is that doing ministry is not
rocket science and lay people are usually quite capable in caring for others.
The lay minister or leader may do the work a little differently than the
pastor, but most of the time different does not equal wrong… just different.
In the context of the ongoing
relationship, the work of the lay leader can be reviewed and any needed
corrections can be made and any new skills that need to be developed can be
addressed. Not doing something perfectly or even doing something poorly is not
enough to keep us from developing leader in the church. It is a process. It is
sometimes a long term process.
But, if we are going to grow our
churches, it is a process that we must begin.
Copyright © 2012, William T. McConnell,
All Rights Reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment