Often the challenges we encounter when developing leaders are self-inflicted.
A key personal issue we must settle before we can develop others is whether we are ready to give up power. The only people who can empower others are people who can easily relinquish power.
I can do that when I realize there is an unlimited supply available to me. If this is the only paper clip I think I am ever going to have, I am not going to give it to you; I need to keep it. But if I know we have got 10,000 paper clips in the supply closet, I will say, “Want a paper clip? Take a whole box.”
So I would suggest pulling together the gifted leaders in your church and letting them recruit and develop potential leaders. This requires the pastor to have tremendous security within, but we will have that security when we understand what fosters loyalty from the congregation’s leaders. Loyalty is a result of respect. You will not be loyal to a person you do not respect. In my dad’s day, the people were loyal to the pastor because he was the pastor. These days, people will not be loyal to anyone unless they respect the person and know that the leader respects them in return. People respond with loyalty when they think, I am a better person because of that leader.
Even the pastor who does not feel like a strong leader can develop others to be leaders if he is secure not only in turning over leadership to others but also in showing a willingness to develop himself. Any pastor who recognizes the importance of leadership will work to develop his or her own skills.
A second personal issue that enables us to be more effective in developing leaders is learning to be passionate about ministry rather than driven. There was a time when I was driven. I was too impatient and goal-oriented. Today, though, I would say I am a passionate leader. I think there’s a world of difference between being driven and being passionate when it comes to leadership. Leaders who are driven are trying to seek approval for something. They focus on the goal alone. Leaders who are passionate in leadership savor the journey as much as the destination. Those that are driven usually depend on the attention of others; those passionate work from a spiritual center within. Driven people burn out. Passionate people do not.
A third personal issue is whether or not I am willing to admit my limitations. Knowing my limitations brings me greater spiritual health and enables me to foster the same openness in the leaders I am training.
For example, I am only now getting a better perspective on the inevitable fatigue of ministry. I used to think fatigue was the price you paid for working for God. But I no longer believe that the most spiritual people build the biggest churches or work the hardest. Fatigue is no indication of spiritual maturity. My motivation for admitting and dealing with fatigue comes from knowing how vulnerable it makes me to sin and error.
Everywhere I have served, I have prayed for God to send me leaders to build his church. For 14 years, at least once every month or so, I would meet someone visiting Skyline church for the first time. We would introduce ourselves. Then God would speak to me and say, John, here’s one. It was the most humbling thing to me because I didn’t do one thing to bring these people in.
After I resigned, I was together with about 75 church leaders at a farewell dinner. I got up and said, “All my life I’ve prayed for leaders. Let me tell you how God answered those prayers.”
Then I went around the room telling each one about the time I met them and how God had said, Here’s one. By the time I was finished, we were all bawling.
Someone asked, “How could you remember meeting everyone in a church this size?”
I replied, “I do not remember meeting every person. But I remember meeting those people whom God indicated to me as potential leaders.”
If you pray for leaders, if you have a heart to develop, lead, and empower people, and if you have a God-given vision, he will give you your heart’s desires.
John Maxwell; Growing Your Church Through Training and Motivation; The Potential Around You; pp. 20-23.
