Are you looking for a leader for your church, ministry, or organization? Make sure that along with things you do look for in a leader, you do not pick a leader based on the following six characteristics.
Oh, and I learned all of the following the hard way. At one point or another, I allowed people to be leaders based on one or more of the following characteristics, and lived to regret it.
How to Pick a Leader You’ll Live to Regret
- Pick a leader based on how much money they give to the church.
- Pick someone who has lots of influence in the city or in the church. (Note: Though leadership is influence, Godly leadership requires Godly influence.)
- Pick a leader simply based on who wants to be one. (Note: Yes, it’s okay to desire leadership (1 Tim 3:1), but it seems that most who desire it are power hungry.)
- Pick leaders based on who is initially very supportive of you. (Note: If they show up in church one day, and are supportive and encouraging…and want to be a leader, watch out!)
- Pick a leader based on how talented they are at something you desperately need in church (like music, or children’s ministry).
- Pick a leader because they talk a lot about their leadership skills. (Note: Leaders listen more than they talk, and are not proud or boastful.)
Now, after weeding out leaders with these six “disqualifiers” if there is anybody left in our “potential leadership pool” … Congratulations! You’ve found your leader!
And always remember … it’s okay to be “leaderless.”
After all, if we have no leaders, it forces us to look to Jesus as our leader. And He does okay…
Still need a bit more help looking for leaders? Here is my main suggestion: If you are looking for leaders, the best place to look is in the silent servants of the church. Who shows up and just serves, not looking for recognition or glory? These may make you best leaders.
We have “Servant Leadership” backwards. We think that “servant leadership” means that leaders should serve. Actually, when we look at what Jesus teaches about “servant leadership” He is saying that servants should lead and that leaders should be taken from the servants. So you want to find leaders? Look to the servants.
Don’t ask your leaders to serve. Instead, ask your servants to become leaders.
By the way….
If you want to rule your church or organization like a dictator while having the illusion of a plurality of leaders, you can do no better than picking leaders who give lots of money and are very supportive of everything you say and do.
I once worked very closely with an organization that was run this way. Most of the decisions were made by the Executive Director and his mentor (who wasn’t on the board) and then simply rubber stamped by the board members, who were chosen by the leader because they gave lots of money and never opposed the Executive Director (or his mentor) in anything.
To the outside observer, it looks like a very united board. But from the inside (which I observed), it is a very dangerous and harmful way to run an organization. At one point, two board members considered opposing a decision of the Executive Director, and he threatened to resign if they did. They knew that the organization would die if he resigned (that’s a huge red flag!), and so they went along with him. However, they were not asked to be part of the board the next year.
I’ve seen churches run the same way, where if you want to be a leader, you cannot and must not question or challenge the pastor, becuase he is “the Lord’s annointed.” You must follow his lead, or get out of the way.
To read more about this sort of thing, I recommend two books. One is called “The Dark Side of Leadership” and the other is “The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse.”
…I guess I should have made this comment its own blog post! Ha ha.
Jeremy,
As your fellow “competitor” in the Final Four, I want to commend you both on your entry and on this follow-up post. Leadership has been a real challenge for me and for our church. I have discovered that leadership isn’t nearly as easy to identify as I thought. What passes for leadership in many people is simply the desire to be in charge or have a title. Take those things away and “poof” goes your “leader”. I guess it’s true what the scripture says that man looks on the outside, but God looks at the heart. Wish we had that X-Ray vision too.
Blessings on your planting efforts (and your blogging adventure)
Mark,
Thanks for the comment. I have really enjoyed reading your posts over there. I hope to meet you someday.
It is definitely tricky trying to find good leaders. Of course, one other thing I am learning is that lots of grace is needed. We are all flawed leaders.
Jeremy,
I think it is innappropriate to air out dirty laundry. I mean, do you think one wouldn’t know who or what you are talking about with your first comment?
A rebuke is not out of order.
Take it for whatever that you feel it is worth. I don’t believe you will feel you have done anything wrong in your comment; and I believe that will indeed be a shame.
Antonio da Rosa
Antonio,
Are you saying it is okay to run an organization this way?
I was once part of a church that made the husband’s of the wives who were involved and gifted in ministries in the church elders, because women weren’t allowed to be. Guess they figured the men would be influenced by their wives…This was not a good idea.
Thanks again for thoughtful reading. Mike
Wow. I haven’t heard that one before! I can imagine it wasn’t so good.
“After all, if we have no leaders, it forces us to look to Jesus as our leader. And He does okay” Is this possible? Could we return to the days kind of like when Israel had no king but God, and instead of judges we could use the 5-fold ministry of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers and we could take the Anabaptist idea of non-conformity to the governments of the world. I like what Shane Claiborne said, “Jesus for President!” which is totally right. And Jesus’ original message was “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” It could be translated, “Repent, for the government of heaven is at hand.” I don’t know. What do you think. Can the church hear the voice of God enough to make it possible to be lead by Jesus. I don’t know if it is possible, but maybe.
Actually it is possible and I have experienced some measure of it… until someone insisted that we needed a ‘leader’ and he should be it.
I don’t know if it is possible either, but I do know we can learn. I see an awakening going on in recent decades of more and more people learning to follow the leading of Jesus to minister to “the least of these” in society.
This reminds me of the time someone was praying for a young man in the church and they said something along the lines of, “He’s shown what a heart he has for serving, he just gets in and does the job without looking for reward. We know by this that he’s ready for leadership.”
I wanted to stand up and shout out, “No! What he’s shown is that he already IS a leader!”
Excellent! Yes. Very true. Servants already ARE leaders.
“Look to the servants.” Amen and amen!!!