Today my focus is on leaders of leaders or leading through others. That means I’m focusing on pastors, managers, and anyone who needs to get things done through someone else rather than doing it himself or herself. One of the reasons churches and businesses stall in their growth is the leaders are unwilling to move from hands-on leadership to leading through others. Hands-on leadership is often much more personally gratifying than leading through others, which is one of the reasons leaders are unwilling to give it up. In addition, when we lead through others it means giving up control, which is never easy to do.
The reality is unless we move from hands-on leadership to leading through others we will put a “lid” on the growth of our church or business. One of the interesting points about leading through others is the Apostle Paul wrote about it nearly 2,000 years ago in his letter to the church at Ephesus. In chapter 4 of that letter he tells us that Jesus gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to “…equip the saints for the works of ministry.” In other words, the leaders are not to do the works of ministry, but to equip the members of the church family to do the works of ministry. Nearly every pastor I have ever met is well-acquainted with this strategy for carrying out the church’s ministry, but many find themselves overwhelmed with the doing of the works of ministry.
Sometimes such pastors “can’t get others to do anything.” In other cases it’s that they don’t want to give up the control of various aspects of ministry to others, or they don’t think they have time to equip others to do the ministry, or they knowingly or unknowingly don’t want to give up the sense of importance or affirmation that comes with doing the ministry. While I don’t have as much experience in the business world as in the church, I have seen many business leaders and managers who have the same philosophies when it comes to an unwillingness to empowering others to lead or at least to do the work of the business they were hired to do. We’ve all heard the old adage, “If you want the job done right–do it yourself!”
That’s the challenge: we think that we will do the job right and others won’t. The truth is nearly everyone else will do the job differently than we will do it. When I give up control of a task to someone else, the other person won’t do it exactly the way I would do it. When I give up control of leading or managing a certain area of the ministry or business or a certain group of people, the new leader or manager won’t lead or manage exactly the way I would do it. That can be frightening, particularly if you are the one who started the business or the church as is true in my case. The reality is until we learn to lead through others, we will put a lid on our church or business, or whatever type of organization we lead.
What I have learned over the fifteen years I have been the founding and lead pastor of New Life is: When we use God’s means to accomplish God’s plans amazing results follow. Once again, the same is true in a business. After all, God’s means are valid in all areas of life, and a business can certainly carry out God’s plans when the business’ reason for being is to provide a product or service that benefits and blesses others.
Let me give a specific example of what it looks like to lead through others at New Life. Over the past three years, we have moved from a full-time staff of four or five, to a full-time staff of ten people. What that means is in every area of ministry, we have someone who is responsible to equip and lead others to do ministry. Before that, I had a much more hands-on role both in equipping others for ministry and in doing ministry. If a pastoral emergency came up, such as an emergency hospital visit, I would do it, or one of the elders if I were not available. Now, our Care Pastor, Pastor Jayne, has a team of folks who carry out various roles including emergency visitation, and our ability to carry out ministry has multiplied. Pastor Jayne has equipped several dozen people for various types of pastoral ministry, and is equipping more all the time. The doesn’t mean she or I never make a pastoral call. What it means is such calls don’t depend on us, and aren’t limited to our ability to make them. The positive is that many more people get their care needs met, and the church is more effective in this area than ever before.
The challenge for me is leading through others means I don’t always know what is happening–I lose control. I’m also not the one who represents Jesus to others in the situation, so I lose that feeling of importance and value that comes in such situations–until I remember that the key is for the people in need to experience Jesus’ presence and ministry through someone not necessarily through me. This ability to reach others in Jesus’ name has been multiplied through worship, children’s ministry, youth ministry, in the administrative area, and in virtually every area of the church’s life and worship, because we have committed to leading through others as the Apostle Paul challenged us to do 2,000 years ago.
Whether you’re a pastor, a business leader, or a leader or manager of any type, here’s the question: What are you doing to equip others around you, so your ministry, business or cause may reach more people, may be more effective and may ultimate move forward the plan God has for you? The more authority you have in the organization, the more important it is for you to be championing leading through others. After all, if everything that gets done gets done through your hands-on leadership, you have become the lid for your organization’s health, growth and vitality.
Here’s to leading better, by equipping one more person to extend the influence of your ministry, business or organization–today!