HEALTHY CHURCH: Building Leaders

God’s call to leadership requires a focus on leading yourself and then on leading others to God’s agenda. The challenge is not just teaching people to live like Jesus but to also lead like Jesus. Begin simple, where you are, and realize that leadership development is an extension of your discipleship pathway. Mac Lake refers to discipleship as “intimacy with Jesus” and leadership as “influence for Jesus.” Discipleship focuses on character, and the journey of leadership development begins by adding competencies and skill sets to that character building. You must be able to lead yourself well in the ways of Christ in order to lead others.

In developing leaders, it is vitally important to remember three principles:

• Think smaller not bigger. What two or three people can you begin demonstrating what leadership looks like up close?

• Think slower not faster. This is not an assembly line where the production of numbers drives the process. Dumping information on them does not produce transformation.

• Think strategic not generic. What competencies does this unique person God has called really need to fulfill their mission? This is the beauty of smaller being better and more strategic because you can customize the content according to the needs of the potential leader.

Begin the leadership pathway by prayerfully identifying potential leaders. As a leader in the church, you should always be looking for potential leaders by knowing what you are looking for. The practice of most is to look outside their church for leaders doing well in other ministries, but commit to first focus on those God gives you out of your harvest. Always have your eyes open for the young potential leaders God brings your way to mentor. How will you enable them to take the next steps and walk with them in their development? What regular rhythm can you develop to spend time with those you identify and allow iron to sharpen iron? 

As you begin to invest in the potential leader, remember that it is not about mass production and teaching generic leadership principles but individual customized training. There must be a process in place where they can receive what they need to properly equip them for leadership. They must be trained in the message (how to handle the gospel and to have a strong theological foundation), the mission (applying the gospel to their context) and the ministry (putting into practice what they have learned). This can happen one-on-one or even one-on-two or -three. First, teach them to walk with Christ and build an intimate relationship with Him.

The time has now come to hopefully initiate the potential leaders. There must be entry-level places of service and ministry. God has given us the perfect track for coaching them in the skills needed for leadership — discipleship! They need to be taught to make disciples and should not be given leadership responsibilities unless they are making disciples. There must be “on-the-job” training opportunities where they can put into practice the skills they will use, whether beginning small groups, serving on ministry teams, building missional communities or planting churches. Allow them to start small and build into more responsibility.

The process must provide room for some trial and error and the opportunity to practice what you are teaching them. The transformation into strong, godly leaders occurs with good information (What do they need to know?), planned practice (What do they need to do?) and ongoing coaching (What do they need to be aware of and improve?). Workshops are great, and you should appreciate the knowledge that is unloaded in them, but where the rubber meets the road is in the implementation. Begin by determining the one competency they need to work on and help them learn it and then practice it.

Be careful here because the norm in leadership development, if you are not intentional, is to teach the concept over and over again but then never allow the one you are developing to put it into practice. Disciple them, then have the nonnegotiable expectation for them to disciple someone else. This requires identifying those who can reproduce and are willing. Mac Lake states, “We teach the concepts, but we don’t let them swing the bat.” Show them how and give them the opportunity to hit it out of the park. Then sit down and assess how it went by coaching them on how the experience went.

A useful tool in the coaching aspect is walking them through a W.I.N. Remember that leadership transformation occurs when there is knowledge, practice and coaching:

• First ask them, “What do you believe went Well?” Always begin with the positive and help them to see the bright spots of the experience.

• Then ask, “Where do you believe you could Improve?” There is always room for improvement, and this is a golden opportunity to help them sharpen and polish their leadership competencies.

• The last question is, “What do you need to do Next?” Help them to zero in on what their next steps are to become a better leader. 

A healthy church will plan and implement a process to multiply disciples, multiply leaders and reproduce themselves through multiplying churches. This process will enable you to produce more qualified leaders. There will always be leaders at every level as they develop the character (spiritual walk), competency (biblical understanding) and confidence (skills) to serve. You can always recruit, but you also need to be raising up leaders from within. So, where is that young potential leader whom you can begin their customized leadership training journey with, and when will you get started?