4 Steps to Develop a Ministry Leader
Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash
I came to this one harsh truth early in my ministry. I can’t do everything. Sure, many of us kids pastors think we can. Sometimes It feels like the job requires it. But you can’t change diapers in nursery, give out snack in preschool, and lead worship in elementary on the same day. Most likely all those groups are in different rooms. At some churches, different buildings!
Since you can’t be in two or three places at once, you need to develop leaders. People you can trust to maintain the standards and expectations you want to see in each of those areas. Even if you don’t know exactly how to do the job, you probably have a good idea of what you want.
But how do you find these people? And, more importantly, how do you train them to lead?
Whole books have been written on this topic, and I’ve read a lot of them. So, I’m not going to go into great depth here. But I will give you 4 basic steps to develop a leader in your ministry. Then this person can take a load off of your plate and maybe even continue to carry it long after you’re gone.
1. Invite to read together
I know book club sounds so exciting. But the truth is, leaders are readers. If you want your people to grow from workers to leaders, you have to expand their thinking. So, before you hand out titles and job descriptions, invite them to meet with you once or twice a month and read a book together.
I have several of my favorites listed here.
The great thing is you don’t have to do this one on one. In fact, it may be better to do it in a group. As you read through the book you can guide their thinking and measure their commitment level. At this point, you’re looking for someone who takes responsibility for the ministry as their own. In other words, you’re looking for an owner not a renter.
If they stick with your through a book or two over six months, you probably have a winner, and you can move to step two.
2. Give small responsibilities not titles
You can probably do this simultaneously with the book reading, but I’m keeping this in a logical order. The key here is to see how they do with a little more responsibility than the minimum.
Depending on what you want them to take over, you can ask them to take some of those responsibilities on. For instance, if you want them to help you lead worship, you can let them develop the worship set. If you want them to help in the nursery, you can ask them to manage the scheduling for the next few months. If you want them to coach other small group leaders, you can have them train new volunteers.
You don’t want to give out a title yet. People love titles. They’ll raise their hand to do something just to get one, even if they have no intention or idea how to do it. So don’t give out the title…yet. Give them the responsibility and see how they do. If they master the task and humbly ask for more, you can move to the next step.
3. Trial Period
Now it’s time to hand out the title but call it temporary. Sometimes people can do great with the few tasks you give them. But when you give them a title, they can fail in one of two ways. One, they let the new title go to their head and become a tyrant. Or two, they act like they’ve arrived and quit doing any work, expecting their underlings to fill the gaps.
A key to successful leadership is humility. A humble leader will serve faithfully and not lord it over the others. They will be honored by the trust you’ve shown them.
A trial period is recommended because the person may humbly accept. Then they get into it and realize they can’t do it. They hate it, feel overwhelmed, not have time, or a myriad of other things. And that’s ok. By calling it a trial period, let’s say 3-6 months, they have the freedom to step away if its not working. You have the freedom to do the same.
4. Teach them to do it your way
Now that they’ve passed the previous three steps, you can safely entrust them with the full title. When you make the announcement, most people will not be surprised because the leader is already doing the job.
Through each step, and continuing through this one, you’re teaching the person how you think. You want them to solve problems the way you want them solved. You want them to see that they’re part of a larger organization, not just their room and their kids.
The key to this training is to solve problems together. When they come to you with a problem, ask them what they think might be three good solutions. If they don’t know, work with them to develop some or send them out to come up with their own.
Next, when they bring up another problem, they should already have some solutions. They’ll most likely ask you which one you want to choose. But don’t just pick one. Show them the thought process. Why would you pick that solution? The new leader needs to know how you think so they can do this on their own.
Later, after several of these conversations, the leader will come with a problem and several solutions. But this time they’ll tell you which one they’d like to pick. If it’s the one you’d pick great. If not work through the thought process until you can come to an agreement. Their solution might be better than yours. And that’s ok.
Eventually, the leader will come to you and tell you about a problem and how they fixed it. Now you have a fully trained leader, and you can entrust them with more. Even have them start training others.
Training leaders isn’t an easy task. It takes time and intentionality. It’s not an 8-week course. It’s walking through life and ministry with them, so they learn how to lead. Then one day when you’re gone, they can step up and take over. Or you’ll say goodbye as they step into a new ministry you’ve trained them for.
I’ve done both and I can tell you there’s little better feeling. It’s worth it.
