Written by: gfesadmin on October 25, 2012

During my college years I believed leadership skills were something you were born with. They could be honed and tweaked, but you either had them or you didn’t. During my B.A. and M.Div., I went through several leadership classes and other experiences designed to bring out the leader that was supposedly already inside me. Most of the classes were about inspiring others and motivating them towards a particular end.  

 Is that leadership? Yes. Is that all there is to leadership? No. After working in a church for almost 7 years, I’ve come to believe there is a hole in my leadership development. What I’ve learned most about leadership in the church is that’s it not really about me leading in the traditional sense. It’s about whether I am training others so they can lead.

Training lay leaders is important because churches in the US are in decline. No longer are church sanctuaries full of people who don their Sunday best to worship God. No longer is there an ‘oughtness’ about church attendance. Simply put, church budgets and attendance are much smaller then they were 50 years ago. As a result, how churches go about ministry has changed. More and more churches are seeking to empower lay leaders to carryout the purposes and calling of the church because vocational ministers can’t be everywhere and everything to everyone. A friend’s church in Atlanta went so far as ‘letting go’ of almost their entire staff and asking them to reapply for new positions that focused on training lay leaders. They’re going from a staff heavy, budget tense situation to a more nimble and financially viable system where everyone in the church has to be engaged.

 When I came on staff at Second Baptist Church (2BC), I wanted to be the best minister possible. That meant being everywhere and coordinating everything. As time passed I realized two things. First, the church’s ceiling in mission would be the same as my ceiling and that would be low if I tried doing everything myself. Second, if I moved jobs there would be a significant hole because I hadn’t trained people to lead. Something had to change. My view of leadership wasn’t effective or sustainable.

 Once I realized those two things, a shift in my ministry occurred. Now, I rarely initiate a ministry unless I have a dedicated lay leader working with me.  I’ve gone from primarily hands on coordination to creating an environment where others can minster (coordination is still part of that!).

 I’m not sure I’m particularly good at developing lay leaders, but I do realize it has to happen for the church to move forward and I’m trying anything that might work. Here are a few things I’ve found that are important in helping develop lay leaders (many of these were also talked about in our book):

1. Place folks in an experience that enables them to realize that their skills and passion (bliss) match the world’s needs and then debrief, debrief, debrief that experience.  I recently took one leader to Dallas to see Mission Arlington and he hasn’t been the same. It’s inspired him to start a similar ministry here in Little Rock.

2. Be accessible for conversation and ask good questions, but don’t give the answers.  Struggling isn’t always bad and it’s often good for someone trying to develop the framework and skills for ministry.

3. Lay leaders often develop best if they’re in a small group of people working towards the same goal.

4. Place the current ministry and or project in a larger narrative so lay leaders can understand how what they’re doing relates to the big picture. 

What else would you add?

About the Author

gfesadmin