Who will be the next leaders in your church?

Everything rises and falls on leadership. I've written this time and again in this blog. You'll find that phrase in 2-3 of my books. I write it and speak about it so often because it is true. No organization, including churches, can rise any higher than its leadership. This includes both pastoral and lay leadership. Since leadership is so important it would seem obvious that one of the most important things a church can do is to ensure good leadership. Unfortunately, that doesn't always occur.

Too many churches rely on the same people for everything. We may complain that 20 percent of the people do 80 percent of the work, but how often do we ask any of that 80 percent to take on a task? How many of that 80 percent are we preparing to accept a leadership role in our churches? Too many times when a task needs to be done we immediately think of the same people we always turn to.

Churches need to have people in their leadership pipeline. We can't wait until we need a new leader and then ask someone to accept the role. We need to be developing people so we always have people ready and equipped to meet the leadership needs of our churches.

Almost every church wants to grow, but how many churches prepare for growth? Example - Your church begins an aggressive outreach effort to reach new people. What happens if you're successful? Will you have sufficient Sunday school classes or small groups to disciple these new people, or will you suddenly realize you need more teachers and have no one trained to teach? Perhaps the growth exceeds your pastoral care capabilities. How will you ensure that those needs are met while you are training new persons to provide that care? Similar questions can be asked about every area of your church life such growth would impact. Here's an even tougher question. Why would God bless your church with growth if your church isn't prepared for that growth?

Even if your church doesn't grow, it will still need new leaders in the future. Your current leadership will eventually be unable to serve. Who will replace them? To avoid burnout it's often a good idea of have a rotation system for your lay leadership, but do you have people to take their place when they rotate off for a year or two?

One of the primary tasks of your current leadership is to develop new leaders. Personally, I think the pastor should oversee that development. This does not mean he or she has to do it, but he or she must ensure that it is done. Eph. 4 is clear that the role of the pastor is to equip the saints for the work of ministry. If you are a pastor, and you are not intentionally developing new leaders for your church, you are neglecting a very important aspect of your ministry.