\nA man who joined our fellowship came out of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Three\nmonths after his conversion, his daughter died. Then the woman he had been\ndating broke off their relationship.<\/p>\n\n
\nIf that weren’t enough, his business collapsed; it’s now half of what it\nused to be.<\/p>\n\n
\nToday, this man comes to three weekend services. He can’t seem to get enough\nof God. He’s not ready for significant leadership right now. But he’s on\nthe way toward the healing that could one day make him a powerful servant\nleader.<\/p>\n\n
\nWhen will that be?<\/p>\n\n
\nI don’t know for sure. The goal is not to get him well enough so he can get\non with the real business of the church. He is the real business of the church.\nBut as his brokenness heals, his potential for leadership rises.<\/p>\n\n
\nKnowing when a broken person is ready to lead can be difficult to determine.\nHere are five tests I use to measure whether someone is ready.<\/p>\n\n
\nRecently, a former Navy pilot stood in a meeting and said that his charter-flying\nbusiness had gone bust. He lost everything-his planes, his income, his dream.<\/p>\n\n
\nHe told us how he had struggled with bitterness and disillusionment until\nsomeone at church made an offhand comment: “The reason God can’t do anything\nmiraculous in your life is because you want to control everything.”<\/p>\n\n
\nThat bracing remark caused him to search his soul. He admitted to the Lord,\n“This whole thing has been about me and my goals for my life.” He asked for\nGod’s forgiveness.<\/p>\n\n
\nThis story shows the pilot’s true spirit. I can work with broken people who\nrecognize they’re broken. People who can’t admit their sin, though, make\nme nervous. This pilot is now on a trajectory toward becoming a cell group\nleader.<\/p>\n\n
\nSeveral years ago a dynamic man, who possessed a number of spiritual gifts,\nstarted attending the church. He had an uncanny insight into what God was\ndoing in a person’s life (what some call “a word of wisdom”).<\/p>\n\n
\nAs he moved into more visible leadership, I told him, “If you’re going to\nhelp people, you’ve got to be in relationship with them. Otherwise, you’ll\nnever convince them you’re just an ordinary guy working for an extraordinary\nGod.”<\/p>\n\n
\nOver time, I sensed he was balking. I recommended he offer training in discerning\nGod’s will from the Scriptures to several cell groups. I said, “Why don’t\nyou go out to dinner with the leaders of these cell groups? You need to establish\nfriendships.”<\/p>\n\n
\nHis face reddened. “Look, I’m 51 years old,” he said. “What I want to do\nis ministry. I don’t have time to waste on anything as frivolous as building\nrelationships.”<\/p>\n\n
\n“Then you won’t minister at this church,” I replied.<\/p>\n\n
\nHe had failed a critical test of leadership. Community is essential to biblical\nleadership. If a person can’t build deep friendships that include accountability,\nthat person is not ready to lead in the church.<\/p>\n\n
\nKatherine has the poise and stage presence of Snow White and was on our worship\nteam. While never flashy in her song leading, people began to stumble over\nher seeming flawlessness. My concern was people were beginning to think of\nher more as an image than as a real person.<\/p>\n\n
\nI asked her, “Katherine, why don’t you do something other than sing in the\nservices for a while? Maybe you could work the sound board or something like\nthat.”<\/p>\n\n
\nShe intuitively understood my concern.<\/p>\n\n
\n“That’s a super idea,” she said. She gladly took a job out of the public\neye.<\/p>\n\n
\nAfter months of working in an obscure slot, she and her husband eventually\nbecame our worship leaders.<\/p>\n\n
\nI no longer worry about Katherine’s stage presence; I know she doesn’t have\nto be front and center in worship.<\/p>\n\n
\nA person isn’t ready to lead until he or she is ready to disappear, to accept\nan obscure position and find fulfillment in that unseen role.<\/p>\n\n
\nOne of our associate pastors tended to overreact to people when he felt\nthreatened. At times, his defensiveness would almost cross the line into\nbelligerence. I had been patient with him for years, but by allowing him\nto be pushy with people, I risked communicating to our congregation: “It’s\nokay to be brusque and rude with people if you’re a spiritual leader.”<\/p>\n\n
\nThe situation was complex, but as a direct result of this problem, I asked\nhim to resign.<\/p>\n\n
\nThe rest of the story is that I asked the church leadership to participate\nin his restoration. We hired him back as soon as we fired him-but as an assistant\npastor, not an associate. His secretary and some of his perks as an associate\nwere taken away. Today, he’s becoming more flexible and patient with those\nhe serves.<\/p>\n\n
\nJesus said, “If you’ve been faithful in little, then you will be made master\nof much.” I view readiness to lead as a process. It begins months and years\nearlier when people are asked to do something as simple as pass out bulletins.\nOnce they’re found faithful doing that, we move them to something more demanding.<\/p>\n\n
\nI recently told a woman who works on our staff, “In my mind, I actually hired\nyou about three years before you came on staff.”<\/p>\n\n
\nShe looked at me quizzically. “What do you mean?”<\/p>\n\n
\n“I decided to hire you after I watched you and your husband carry those big,\nsilver coffeepots up and down the hallway week after week. No one else knew\nwhat you were doing, but I saw how eagerly you took on the task. That’s when\nI decided you were someone we needed on our staff.”<\/p>\n\n