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 How to Develop Leaders in Your ChurchFit each person’s unique gifts.
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Bill Hybels once said, "The church is the hope of the world, and leaders are the hope of the church." Who among us with any local church experience would disagree? I'm not aware of any church that would post a sign on its marquee out front announcing, "No leaders needed!" So why don't churches develop leaders? The number one reason is that most simply do not know how. Also, many churches simply do not have the time. It is difficult, if not impossible, for the senior pastor to find the time as well as have the expertise to develop and maintain such a vital process—especially in a large church. And if you leave their development up to the leaders themselves, it may be sporadic at best, if it happens at all. A third is that Satan does not want churches to develop leaders because of the positive impact such a process will have in promoting God's kingdom over Satan's. A Model for Developing LeadersWhat then should leadership development look like? I'm convinced that a good strategy is two-fold. It begins with staff development that, in turn, leads to lay leadership development. First train the staff, and then let them train the leaders, because the staff development process should serve to mirror and model your lay leadership development process. You begin by designing a unique, consistent development plan for each staff person. What staff desperately need is a personal leadership development plan that takes who they are—their uniqueness—into consideration. This plan itself consists of the three Ds. Design. Help the staff person to discover his or her divine design or how God has sovereignly and uniquely "wired" them. It specifically addresses the person's natural and spiritual gifting, passion and temperament (I would include both the DiSC and the Myers-Briggs temperament tools). This is a reasonably simple approach that will guide one's initial exposure to the divine design process. At the Malphurs Group we use a number of tools that will help staff persons understand their divine designs. And these tools can be found in my books, Maximizing Your Effectiveness and Being Leaders (Baker Books). Direction. Once the staff person understands his or her divine design, they have a much better read on God's ministry direction for their lives. For example, if one discovers that he or she has a gift of leadership, then it is obvious what God wants them to do—lead! If they have a gift of evangelism, God is telling them to do evangelism. If they have a gift of teaching, God's will for them is that they teach. Equally important is their passion. Passion will often provide a direction for the exercise of their gifts, such as with children, adults, orcollege students. And in some cases what this does for staff is to signal that they are not doing what God has designed them to do. Therefore, this serves both the staff person and the church as a ministry corrective by moving them to a position that's much more in tune with where they should be serving, whether in the same or a different ministry. |        
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