Leadership Development

Dear Pastors

I’m thinking a lot about the reasons as to why we are struggling in NZ in terms of church vitality and growth. Could it be that we haven’t given enough attention to the much needed ministry of leadership development?

I believe that a healthy and functional local church can be a fabulous ‘incubator’ for the training and releasing of new leaders especially young leaders. 2 Timothy 2:2 reminds us, “And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit to faithful people who will be able to teach others also.” Here we see the transference of the core teachings of our faith to new leaders who will teach others.

Recently I joined the Raglan Surf Life Saving Club (SLNZ). As you know SLNZ do great work on our beaches every summer. I joined amongst other reasons to give them a hand with the Nippers (5-12 year olds) programme and learn to swim in particular. My point in sharing this is that like most all sports codes they are constantly looking at their ‘pipeline’. How many youngsters have we got coming through? They put all sorts of activities on to attract children and young people (and their parents) and then they work hard to incorporate them so that they ‘will catch the bug’. And they do. Sure, it is a bit more challenging these days but they are remarkably good at what they do. They INVEST heavily into this.

A quick literature review on this topic and you come across some other terms that are all saying much the same thing. Phrases like:-

• Creating a Leadership Pipeline
• Creating a Leadership Culture
• Creating an empowering environment
• Transformational Leadership

And last but certainly not least

• The Equipping Ministry of Ephesians 4.

Here are three ‘mindset’s to think about to achieve a truly rich and deep leadership development culture in your church.

1. From One to Many and from Me to We. This is a philosophy of ministry issue. In other words do I as pastor of this church see as one of my KPI’s the creation of a culture where everyone is invited to be a ‘Minister’? Where permission giving is the order of the day and ‘trust’ levels are high? I maintain that there may be as many as 40%-50% of your adult congregation that are at least open to be ‘invited’ in and offered a ministry/leadership role. Yes, 40%-50%.
2. From safe and predictable to messy and risky. It seems to me when Jesus was ‘training the twelve’ that He took a few risks and it certainly wasn’t always perfect, in fact far from it. As pastors committed to transformational leadership we should probably relax a lot more and when it gets messy we should quietly and calmly use that as a teaching moment. My goodness, I can’t tell you how this dynamic played out in my life as a teenager and young adult and even as a young pastor. Powerful!.
3. From inward focus to outward focus. This mindset is summed up like this “Our church leaders think as missionaries and work to understand the cultural context in our neighbourhood and town”. When a local church sees itself as the mission agency of the community it is located in then opportunities for initiative, problem solving, entrepreneurship and leadership abound. And lets be honest here for a moment, isn’t this what we all as Gospel people so desperately desire?

So what do you think Pastor? I know you have a lot on your plate already. But isn’t that precisely the point. If you could ‘pivot’ to incorporate these three mindset’s you may be surprised the effect it has on your work load, probably not immediately but certainly in a year or so……if you stick at it. And that is a big IF!

If you need a little ‘hand’ to get started (or to keep going) please don’t hesitate to be in touch.

Blessings

Alan

Alan Vink is currently the Executive Director for LeadershipWorx. Prior to this role he has been the Executive Director of Willow Creek Association NZ (WillowNZ), a Baptist pastor (23 years), Bible College teacher, and church consultant.