How to Develop Leaders in the Church

Recently I was training a group of pastors in how they could train leaders in their churches. I thought I would share a few of those ideas with the rest of my reading audience.

There are basically two types of leaders needed in the church.

1.     Task Oriented Leaders

These are people whom we can assign a specific task to do and they will do it well. (Examples: cleaning the building, setting up sound equipment, preparing communion, overseeing the nursery, etc.) Many people do not want to have to think about all the behind the scenes strategies, budgets, policies and procedures that it takes to operate a church, they just want a job to do and will do it well if we train and empower them. Though some of these people may in time learn how to become more than just task oriented leaders, many will not, and we should accept that.

2.     Decision Making Leaders

These are people whom can help us provide more strategic leadership to the church, such as deacons or elders. They have the ability, and the willingness, to think deeply and provide feedback and suggestions for the overall direction of the church. Though they may start off as task oriented leaders, it becomes obvious that they can, and will do more. In fact, most of these types of leaders will not stay in a church if they are ONLY used as task oriented leaders. Though we must be cautious about people who are control freaks, most people in this category are not.

Regardless of which type of leader we need, we can follow the same pattern for how to develop them:

1.     You watch me do whatever it is that I want you to do

2.     You assist me in doing whatever it is that I want you to do

3.     I assist you in doing whatever it is that I used to do

4.     I watch you do whatever it is that I used to do

5.     I release you to keep doing what I used to do so I can go do something else

The key to transitioning from one step to the next is honest evaluation and discussion. Practice does NOT make perfect. Practice, followed by evaluation and adjustment, produces ongoing growth, which leads to mature leaders.