Where Are All the Leaders?

In a recent email blast to subscribers (www.elementalgroup.org), I asked for a response to a simple question: As a pastor or leader of an organization, what is the most challenging issue you’re currently dealing with?

• financial strains

• finding volunteers

• leadership development

• budget management

• effective preaching

• staffing challenges

• political polarization

• an aging congregation

• fatigue—spiritual, emotional, or physical

• a difficult board

• facility needs

• personal spiritual disciplines

The subsequent responses were clear:

The highest need—numbering almost two-to-one—was leadership development.

 This is a tricky one for a variety of reasons, so let’s look at several:

This could be a system issue:

Meaning there is no discernable pathway from attendee to leader. In other words, people simply don’t know how to get engaged in leadership at your church or organization.

It might be that there has been no clarion call for leadership.

Perhaps people attending don’t realize or don’t even know that leadership is needed in different areas. They are simply happy sheep munching on spiritual food each weekend, blissfully ignorant of the issue.

Your pool to draw potential leaders from is too small. 

Suppose you need someone to lead worship music, but you only have forty adults attending each week…and only one of them is a musician. And she only plays accordion. Probably not going to work well for your needs. The church hasn’t reached a critical mass yet in which to recruit and develop the leaders you need for the ministries you want. You simply can’t do what you want to do at this point in your church’s growth.

If the pool is too small for the potential vision you see for your church or organization, then there are other things to consider:

maybe what you’re offering is not what the people you want to reach need.

In other words, they’re not buying what you’re selling. Your relevance-factor is a zero. Or maybe—and this may be difficult to hear—your ability to gather people is not in your gift-mix…or you need to change your strategy for connecting new people to your church.

You’ve developed “worker bees” instead of leaders

There is no real leadership-culture, but simply a list of tasks to get done. Leaders must be taught to recruit, train, and deploy other leaders…and to always be leading themselves out of a job. A leadership-culture doesn’t happen overnight, but it is intentionally developed.

One last thing:

I often hear pastors complain about how people in their church are maxed out time/energy wise.

They have kids involved in thirty different sports activities…or they’re working ungodly amounts of hours each week…or whatever. I have no doubt that’s true for many folks. But from a personal experience perspective, there was a time when I was working fifty+ hours a week but had gotten involved in a new little church plant. When the pastor asked if I would take over the small group he had started in our apartment, I tentatively said yes. But it turned out to be the highlight of my week. Yes, my vocational job was hard and wearing, but the once-a-week small group I led was the highlight of my week and energized me…much more than my “real” job. Likewise, I was eventually leading worship at this new church every weekend for four years as a volunteer…and once again it brought me energy and life, despite being difficult during certain seasons.

 Fact is: it was all tapping into my leadership potential. And life-giving. As a leader, don’t be afraid to ask someone to step up. It’s okay of they say no.

 But you might be surprised.

Read more blog posts by Dave Workman