Earlier this year, Leadership journal asked pastors, "What challenges do you face in the area of leadership training?" The nearly unanimous response was the challenge of motivating leaders to be trained.

Why are board members and other lay leaders not motivated to receive training? Most leaders want to serve well and would benefit from biblical and strategic leadership training in the unique context of church ministry. So why the resistance? We found four commonly mentioned reasons:

1. People are too busy or don't have time. Pastors lamented, "Too often the attitude is that leaders feel too busy and do not want to take the time to be trained."
   
   
2. My folks don't consider themselves leaders. One minister explained, "The deacons in my small church are scared by the term leadership development. They don't consider themselves leaders."
   
   
3. They think they already know about leadership and don't need training. Said a pastor, "I've got businessmen who consider they've already been trained sufficiently." And another: "My challenge is helping people to see the need for training."