Leadership 101

 This evening I decided I would start re-reading John Maxwell's book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. In my opinion, it is the best book on leadership available today. I attended a conference he led when the book was first released, and it changed my life and ministry. He began discussing the first chapter which was "The Law of the Lid." What he said about that law impacted me so much I don't think I heard anything he said about the next two laws.

As a bivocational pastor who owned a business, I was often frustrated. I complained the church wasn't doing enough because I couldn't get people to do what needed to be done. I had the same complaint about the business. When Maxwell said that the lid of the leadership is what enables an organization to thrive or decline, I realized I was blaming the wrong people. It wasn't the congregation or the people who worked for me that was limiting our growth; It was me! My leadership (or the lack of) was holding both the church and our business back. I realized I had to grow as a leader if I wanted our business to succeed and if I wanted to see our church more effectively minister to our community.

This is a book that I believe needs to be read by every pastor because many of us do not see ourselves as leaders. Many seminaries do not teach pastors to be leaders; they teach us to be managers. There is a huge difference. Many pastors have responded to surveys that they do not see themselves as leaders. They do not believe they have the gift of leadership. Worse yet, they do not realize that anyone can grow as a leader.

The majority of our churches in the US are in decline, and the reason for the decline is the lack of leadership from pastors. Before you argue that some churches won't allow the pastors to lead, I recognize that, and I would also argue that, as a pastor, you either lead or let that church continue its slide towards death, and go somewhere where you are allowed to lead the church to grow and effectively serve its community. 

I also realize that some pastors take leadership to an extreme and become bullies in the pulpit. A number of mega-church pastors in recent years have been forced to resign or terminated due to the way they began to bully staff and congregational members. That is certainly not the kind of leadership to which I am referring. I believe Jesus modeled the type of leadership that should be practiced by ministers today. When He needed to be firm, He was, but He never stopped loving people even to the point of giving His life that they, and we, might have our sins forgiven.

If you've not read this book, I encourage you to do so. If you don't see yourself as a leader, I would ask that you begin to pray about that. Our churches will never rise to their potential if the pastor does not grow as a leader.