Leadership pipeline

In yesterday's post I wrote about the challenge smaller churches have finding pastors and gave some suggestions where they might look the next time they need to call a new pastor. An additional challenge many smaller churches face is finding lay leadership. Numerous small church pastors have told me their churches struggle to find good leaders for the leadership positions they have. Even mid-size churches have problems in this area.

Many of these churches need to take a hard look at the positions they are trying to fill. Frankly, many of them were created when the church was larger and it's doubtful they are still needed today. Most smaller churches I have worked with are greatly over-structured for the size they are now. Eliminating some of these unneeded positions would help with finding good leaders for the positions the church does need filled.

Churches also need to begin now identifying young people with leadership potential and start training them. I realize that some of them will not be at the church when they get older. It's important to remember that you are not just training them to serve your church. You are training them to serve the Kingdom of God wherever they might live. And what happens if you don't equip them to do ministry and they stay? Zig Ziglar used to say that the only thing worse than training someone and losing them was not training them and keeping them.

Every church, regardless of size, needs a leadership pipeline so when leadership opportunities come up there will be people prepared to take them. Ephesians 4 reminds us that a principal role of the pastor is to "equip the saints to do the work of ministry." If you don't have people prepared to serve in ministry positions in the church whose fault is that? According to that text it would be the fault of the pastor. I know that's painful to hear. It was painful for me when I realized it in my own ministry, but it's still the truth.

People need to be helped in identifying the ministry gifts God has given them, and then they need to be trained in how to use those gifts. Those with leadership gifts need to be trained in leadership. Don't ask someone to accept a leadership role if you have not prepared them to lead. It's scary to lead, especially if you haven't been trained in how to lead, and it's no wonder people turn down those positions.

Part of that training needs to be hands-on. Allow young people to be involved in ministry experiences. Don't just stick them in the youth group and entertain them every week. Give them opportunities to lead, to plan, to implement those plans and then review how well those plans succeeded. Give them honest feedback. Find an area of ministry where they are most likely to succeed and give them the freedom to operate within that area. As they mature and become better equipped give them more challenging opportunities. If you'll do this, when the day comes you need someone for a major leadership role in the church you'll have people prepared to step into that role.