One may wonder why it is worthwhile to study church leadership. For starters every pastor is in a position of leadership and he should use this position to its fullest potential. Not every pastor is a gifted leader and that is fine. Pastors have many different gifts just as there are many different gifts that make up the church body. But because the pastor is in a leadership position and will be called upon to make leadership decisions it is invaluable that they know what they are doing.
Church leadership is not just for pastors however. For every pastor there are ten, fifteen, or twenty church members who possess an important position of leadership within the church. These include board members, commission chairpeople, and even those who have no official title but hold significant influence over the opinions of others.
For these reasons and the ones to follow it is important for all church members to study church leadership.
Leadership can be developed and improved
It would appear that some people are born leaders and while it's true that some are naturally gifted, this doesn't excuse the rest of us from studying leadership. Like any other skill, leadership can be learned. We can hone our skills through studying and putting them into practice whenever possible.
More leaders are needed in the churches
Perhaps every pastor has bemoaned the lack of leaders in their church. There are many great ideas that are offered but usually they are thought of with the goal of someone else actually leading up the project, most often the pastor. There has never been a pastor who has dealt with the problem of having too many leaders and not enough work for them to do. If there was ever such a problem the church would be growing by leaps and bounds and would have no problem finding work for their leaders.
Supervising volunteers is harder than supervising paid staff
In the workplace supervisors have a great amount of leverage over those under them. If an employee doesn't perform up to par they risk losing their job and thus they are going to try their best to do what the supervisor asks of them. Within the church most people doing the work are volunteers and have no such outward motivation to do as instructed. For this reason a church leader must be all the more capable so that they will motivate people who are not getting paid for their services.
Church staff personnel are accountable as stewards of the people in their churches
Every person in a position of leadership is responsible to God if to nobody else within the church. If a person has been called by God to a position of leadership they should have every desire to carry out the duty to the best of their capability. Only by studying leadership will a person be able to do so.
Thursday, 3 November 2011
Definition of Church Leadership
If you ask ten church members their definition of what a church leader is, you'll get ten different definitions. More frustrating is that if you ask ten different church leaders their definition of church leadership, you'll get ten different answers. So we must begin by defining what we mean by church leadership.
For the purposes of this blog, church leadership can be defined as the process of influencing other people to work together to accomplish a desired purpose.
For starters, leadership is a process. Leadership does not just happen without effort. Likewise leaders are not just people in positions of authority, leaders are people who do something. Leadership often involves not just one action but a series of actions revolving around a plan to achieve a purpose.
Leadership is also about influence. Real leaders will rarely use the "big stick" method of leading. Leading by threat will not get far because eventually the people will seek a place where they don't feel threatened. Likewise this is not the best way to lead a church as Jesus did not lead through threats. Instead of threats, a good leader will find ways to convince people that his way is best and will gently bring them over to his side.
Leadership requires people to work together. Our circle of influence is really pretty small even in the context of the church. A church leader will only have direct influence over a handful of people but each of those people will have influence over another group of people and the leader's influence will multiply quickly. The goal of wielding this influence is to get everyone to work together for a common purpose or plan.
This brings us to the final point about our definition of church leadership; there must be a goal in mind. In short, a leader isn't leading if he's not taking a group of people somewhere. A walk around the block is not leading when everybody knows where they are going and they all end up where they started. A true leader is going to take a group of people somewhere that they couldn't get to on their own. In the context of the church that may be a successful outreach event, a building project, or a change in the way the church operates.
For the purposes of this blog, church leadership can be defined as the process of influencing other people to work together to accomplish a desired purpose.
For starters, leadership is a process. Leadership does not just happen without effort. Likewise leaders are not just people in positions of authority, leaders are people who do something. Leadership often involves not just one action but a series of actions revolving around a plan to achieve a purpose.
Leadership is also about influence. Real leaders will rarely use the "big stick" method of leading. Leading by threat will not get far because eventually the people will seek a place where they don't feel threatened. Likewise this is not the best way to lead a church as Jesus did not lead through threats. Instead of threats, a good leader will find ways to convince people that his way is best and will gently bring them over to his side.
Leadership requires people to work together. Our circle of influence is really pretty small even in the context of the church. A church leader will only have direct influence over a handful of people but each of those people will have influence over another group of people and the leader's influence will multiply quickly. The goal of wielding this influence is to get everyone to work together for a common purpose or plan.
This brings us to the final point about our definition of church leadership; there must be a goal in mind. In short, a leader isn't leading if he's not taking a group of people somewhere. A walk around the block is not leading when everybody knows where they are going and they all end up where they started. A true leader is going to take a group of people somewhere that they couldn't get to on their own. In the context of the church that may be a successful outreach event, a building project, or a change in the way the church operates.
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