A team leader stands in front of a group of seated team members, gesturing toward a wall with notes and leading a discussion in a professional meeting. The blog post title 'Developing a Ministry Lead Team' is overlaid on the image. — Photo by Parabol | The Agile Meeting Tool on Unsplash

One simple truth about leading in church is that you’re not going to be there forever. It may be hard to think about the day you will leave, but it is a simple reality. You will leave. Either you feel the Lord calling you somewhere else, you will retire, or you will die. There will come a time when you’re no longer the leader of your ministry.

The best thing you can do for your church and your current leaders is to prepare them for this eventuality. But how do you do that? How do you get to a place where you can trust those who serve with you to lead faithfully and competently?

The key is to start now. It doesn’t have to be complicated or difficult, you just have to start.

1. Identify Leaders

The first step to developing leaders is to identify them. This is more of an art than a science. But once you know what to look for, with a little practice, you’ll become better at it over time.

In the past, my lead team was made up of ministry leaders of Royal Rangers, Mpact Girls Clubs, Preschool and Nursery. However, some churches that’s not possible. In this case, use people who are already leading, just without a title. You can eventually hand out titles, but you’re looking for owners of the ministry, not renters.

I talk about it more in this training. But a renter shows up, does their job, and leaves. Owners on the other hand put down deep roots. Serving is not a job to them, it’s a calling. They show up early and stay late. They see problems and offer solutions, sometimes without even being asked. They are passionate and care about the mission of the church and the people they serve. They innovate, welcome change, and push through tough times.

When you’re trying to identify leaders in your ministry, look for the owners. Most of the time these people are leaders in the making. Other times, you have ready-made leaders that want to serve; you just haven’t given them the responsibility. Which leads us to our next step in developing leaders.

2. Give Away Your Responsibilities

I’ll admit this was one of the hardest parts of leadership for me. When I started, my ministry was the David Reneau show. But since then, I’ve learned. Giving away responsibilities is essential to your long-term success. To get started, you can use the following exercise adapted from Marcus Buckingham's book, Stand Out.

For one week, make a list of everything you do. This isn’t a time sheet—just a task list. As you write everything down, create two columns: one that brings you joy and life, and one that drains your energy. After the week is over, go over the joy/life list and ask, “Did this really bring me joy? If it didn’t, move it to the other column.

Now, look at the list of things that you don’t like to do, are bad at, or drain your energy. These are the responsibilities you need to give away.

It will be easy at first as you give away the things you truly hate to do. But you get to the things you enjoy, things will get tougher. I wish there was an easier way to do this. But you really just have to swallow your ego, make the ask, and trust that person to do the job.

You’re not going to be at your church forever. Most likely, they’re not going to have your successor in place the following week. The people you’re serving with now are going to have to carry the ball. It’s best to prepare them now.

3. Establish a Consistent Meeting Schedule

Now that you’ve identified your leaders and decided what responsibilities to give away, you need to meet. You are building a team, and a team can’t function without meeting together on a regular basis.

When I first started my lead team meetings, we started meeting together once per quarter. Then we moved to once a month. Since all my ministry leaders have been volunteers, I never felt right asking them to meet more than a once a month.

Before COVID, getting them all together in a room was relatively easy. The church served a meal before Wednesday night service, so I could meet with them for 45 minutes and feed them. However, that rhythm didn’t work as well at other churches. Then COVID made it really difficult to get everyone together. So, I moved our in-person meetings to once-a-month Zoom meetings. They weren’t as personable, and we didn’t eat together. But they were easy to organize, had a low time commitment, and we saw each other in person regularly.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with different options until you find a place and time that works best for your team.

There are some things to keep in mind to make the meeting successful and well attended over time. I write about that here.

4. Encourage Your Potential Leaders to Read

John Maxwell has famously said that leaders are readers. There are so many great resources out there that will expand the team’s thinking and awaken them to things they may have never imagined.

Many of your leaders will not have had the training you had. Regardless of how you found your position, most likely you’ve been exposed to ideas that the average volunteer has not. It's your responsibility as the leader to share these ideas.

As we met once a month, we spend a portion discussing a chapter or so of the book we were reading together. The conversations were vibrant, and we all grew from it. We also didn’t limit ourselves to just kidmin books. We read books on leadership, the church, theology, child development, and more.

If you’re looking for some books to get started, you can see a list of my favorite books here.

5. Train Your Leaders in High-level Ideas

Now you’ve identified your leaders, shared responsibility, met with them regularly, and expanded their thinking. A few of your leaders will be showing readiness for the next level. This is usually the level where I identify my potential successor. I introduce these few prospective leaders to higher-level ideas and let them have more of a say in the direction of the ministry. Their biggest opportunity for involvement comes around calendar planning and budgeting.

Around September, I would give them a budget worksheet and a blank calendar for the next year and challenge them to plan out their events. Then, we would work together to figure out the cost of each of those events and plan for growth.

Even though this information was not final, their input was vital when I presented the ministry budget. I saw more growth coming from the leaders trained to do this than almost any other thing I did.

I am proud to say I have always tried to do my best to set up teams for success if and when I should depart the church. At one church where I served seven years, I left confident that they had all the tools necessary to keep the ministry going. And they have. As of this writing, my successor is still leading, the team is still in place, and many of the programs I started are still going strong.

I pray that will be true of your church when the day comes for your departure. Finding and developing leaders is essential to the stewardship of the ministry God has given you. Get started today.

This post was adapted from my book Next Level Kidmin: A Children’s Pastor’s Practical Guide to Building a Thriving Ministry. It releases September 16. You can pre-order your copy today here.