I’ve been in church work for nearly 20 years. I have had the privilege of being in small churches and big churches. I have been in rural churches, urban churches, and even suburban churches. On top of my personal experience, I have cultivated relationships with many pastors from various backgrounds. I have observed in every single one of these churches that there are never enough leaders.
I operate under the assumption that every church that exists does so because God has called it to do so. Is it likely that some churches started without God’s approval or have held on far beyond their blessing? Probably, but I have to believe those churches are the exception and not the rule.
God, then, has called every church to exist for a reason, and that includes yours and mine. The reason for existing is what I like to call “vision”; God can see who He wants us to be.
Most pastors I know, regardless of their ministry’s size, understand God’s vision for their church and want nothing more than lead and shepherd his people into fulfilling this call. However, knowing God’s vision for the church and getting the church within the vision are two different things. Most pastors I know have, at some point, run into frustration trying to lead the people where God wants them.
The reason why most churches aren’t able to fulfill their God-given calling isn’t a lack of desire but a lack of leadership.
When I say “lack of leadership,” I don’t mean that the pastor is doing a lousy job. What I mean is that there is a lack; there’s not enough. For a church to do more for God, more people are needed to serve, lead others, and take on responsibilities. The pastor cannot do it all, and if a church is going to follow God, others need to step up.
Any pastor reading this knows exactly what I’m talking about. You’d love to start a new ministry, but you don’t have time to lead it, and you don’t know anyone else that can do it.
What is to be done about a lack of leadership to expand the mission? There are four options:
- Do nothing and watch the church eventually die for not following God.
- Do everything yourself.
- Hire everything out to “professionals.”
- Raise up volunteer leaders.
This is not the blog to detail all four of these options, but the answer to having enough leaders to fulfill God’s calling is number four. God would not have called your church to do what He has called it to do if the people to do it weren’t there already.
The trick to raising leaders is that there is no trick. It takes training, correction, encouragement, hard work, and most importantly, time. It takes time to convince people that they can be useful for God. It takes effort to teach them skills. It takes correction to grow them in character needed to wield the skills. However, once you’ve put in the work, you’ll have a leader that believes in the mission, is loyal to the church, and is prepared to take on the needed responsibility of growth and faithfulness.
