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Where Are the Leaders?
Equipping the next generation for leadership.
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Your pastor suddenly announces that he's retiring. A major industry in your community closes and your leadership moves away. Your congregation grows and you suddenly realize your current leaders are unable to keep up with the demands on their time. These events are part of the natural flow of life. But it still leaves churches with a constant challenge—where do you find qualified leaders to replace those who have left? There are two questions we need to answer:
What is God looking for in a church leader? In John 13, Christ gives us a picture of leadership. Immediately after washing the disciples' feet, he asked them if they knew the real meaning of what he had done. Jesus then taught them an important double-edged lesson. Messages on this Scripture often focus only on the serving aspect of this lesson. But notice what Jesus says afterwards: "You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord' and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet" (John 13:13–14). Although Jesus was taking the role of their servant, he was still their leader! He instructed them to serve as he did. So how did he serve? Jesus, while keeping his role as King of Kings, Leader of Leaders, took on the role of the lowest servant to wash the feet of even his betrayer. That is servant-leadership. Christ calls us to do the same. He calls you to a quality, godly leadership role while you are serving your congregation—even those who oppose your leadership. One of the key ingredients in your role as a quality godly leader is to ensure that your congregation is never without quality, godly leadership. That is a tough assignment. How can you get that leader for your congregation? The first question to ask is, "How did this generation of leaders come to be leaders?" I interviewed five present-day leaders, from missionaries to business leaders, to discover how they learned to lead, who taught them, and what they learned. The five people had different leader development experiences and different mentors/disciplers. However, all recognized the benefit of a more experienced person coming alongside and developing them—a process I will refer to as mentoring. Despite the diversity of mentoring approaches and various mentor relationships, all five of the leaders testified to the same benefit of the experience. The missionary leader expressed what they all felt, "What impressed me about my leader [mentor] was his heart for God. It was like he was God's representative in my life and the lives of all around us. He treated everyone with love and respect, from the president of the country to a poor farmer in the mountains. He knew God's heart. I saw it in how he lived." The missionary's leader/mentor was the kind of "servant-leader" that Jesus modeled. |              |
