As a “church leader”, I want to give you 3 essentials for effective leadership. These are biblically based, and are non-negotiables, for me. They are not new, or innovative. They are proven, and their presence, or their absence, will make or break you as an effective leader:
#1: The purpose of a leader is to empower others.
We equip others to do the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:12)
One way that we measure success is by assessing the number of volunteers we have in significant roles of leadership.
A leader’s job, is to work themself out of a job. Multiply yourself!
The highest capacity leaders, who are capable of doing a good job with large and complex organizations, are not leaders of followers. They are leaders of leaders. Some leaders make followers. Others multiply and empower leaders.
If you think being an effective leader requires that you control or lead everything, there is a problem. If you have fewer and fewer high capacity leaders serving under you, there may be a problem.
The solution: Invest in high capacity leaders. Listen to them, work closely with them, and empower them.
#2: Effective leaders are servant leaders. To be comfortable being a servant, a person must first deal with their pride and their insecurity. Servant Leaders are humble, and they take great joy in seeing others succeed.
They realize that those above them and below them organizationally will often have better ideas, valuable input, experiences that they don’t have, and their perspective should be sought out.
Servant leaders don’t care about titles, positions, or “seats”.
They are not threatened by strong personalities, younger people, more mature people, or great talent. They love what each person brings to the table and they see the importance of the diversity of their team.
#3: Effective leaders love people. They are able to love the people they serve, and they love the people they serve under. They are loyal, caring, and supportive. They understand what it is to lead as a friend. There is no room for bullying, manipulation, gossip, or passive-aggressiveness.
There is joy, unity, and love within the culture they create.
Although leaders must spend some time on organizational structures, plans, and procedures, those things merely facilitate communication and the administrative processes. They don’t deal with the development of people.
It is way more important to spend time on individual discipleship than organizational structure. So develop yourself, and develop the leaders around you.
Today remember these three things: Empower, serve, and love.
In early August I will be teaching a class Christian Leadership at North Coast Bible Institute. Click here for registration information.
