Arranging the Passengers on the Bus

Recently at work, I had to look in the eyes of someone and tell her she could no longer be part of our team. Her final day would be in two weeks. She looked back, unblinking, almost uncomprehending, and then her large, brown eyes began to well with tears.

Her friends on the team felt hurt by the decision. The farewell party, despite the fancy cake, was visibly strained.

Meanwhile, I was reading Good to Great (HarperBusiness, 2001), in which Jim Collins explains the traits of leaders who transform good organizations into great ones. “We expected that good-to-great leaders would begin by setting a new vision and strategy,” he writes. “We found instead that they first got the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seat—and then they figured out where to drive it.”

Makes eminent sense: If you get the right people, in the right seats, then you and they will be able to figure out where to take the organization. Once you’ve heard, “First, get the right people on the bus and the wrong people off the bus,” it seems self-evident. Before we dutifully apply this principle as Christian leaders, however, we’d be wise to consider a few things.

In an employment situation (a business or church staff), you can “get the wrong people off the bus” for reasons of competence. But in a voluntary association such as the church, you can remove people only for reasons of character (as Paul asked the Corinthians to do with a person who slept with his father’s wife and was unrepentant, even boastful, about it).

Thus, 98 percent of the time, pastors don’t have the freedom to disembark misfit passengers. Instead, the issue is more how to get people in the right seats. What do you do with the worship leader who is a talented guitarist but resentful when you offer direction? The longstanding volunteer who falls behind on the books and sometimes messes them up? The faithful man of prayer who alienates people with his hardline views on politics? It’s tempting to say, “I’m here to minister more than administer” and avoid the confrontation.

Still, as a leader you are implicitly charged with ensuring the long-term health of the organization. Therefore, you must choose the church’s needs over the needs of any individual in it. And to place the church’s needs first, you must sometimes ask people to change seats—remove them from a ministry.

Meanwhile, as a pastor, you know the worth of a human soul. You don’t want to inflict pain, so you recoil at the idea of removing an entrenched but ineffective worker. Even reframing your action as “I’m really helping this person find his or her right place,” confronting a problem worker can be (as one leader put it) “throw-up time.”

Then you add in the fear—often legitimate—that by removing someone from a ministry, he and his family and friends will create conflict in the church. It just doesn’t seem worth the hassle. Still, the faithful leader must choose the long-term health of the ministry over the short-term need of any person in it.

The sign you’re a leader is that you get the right people in the right seats. The sign you’re a Christian leader is that when you do, you sometimes want to throw up.

Kevin A. Miller heads resource development for Christianity Today International and is editor-at-large of Leadership.

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