Pastor/Church Leadership

Just as CEOs, Presidents and Managers in the workplace cannot ‘do it alone’, neither can the Church Pastor. And just as in the business world, ineffective leadership and leadership staffs hold back ‘productivity’ in the church…whatever productivity means to you?

Whether a Manager in the workplace or a Pastor in the church, leadership doesn’t just come naturally. In either case, the leader achieved this role in life due to his/her own passion, calling, experience, knowledge and/or other expertise. Nothing necessarily occurred in their natural progression to develop necessary leadership and management skills. This void hurts the productivity and growth of the business and the church as well.

Experience working with both worlds assures me that there is little difference in the dynamics, needs and solution. The organization (church) is being held back due to this lack of understanding leadership and how to practice it. Leadership is again, assumed ‘stuff’ that all possess…how’s that working out for you . This assumption is 95% of the time, flawed thinking. This is not about personal leadership skills, but leadership that is involved with actually leading people, teams, organizations and churches.

The natural evolution of leaders and teams that report to them, is the initial reliance on and belief that the leader has the marketplace on the best ideas, thoughts and solutions. Unfortunately, in many cases, the leader thinks this also! This can be decisions as small as how to arrange chairs at a Prayer breakfast or as large as next years budgeting! The leader is looked upon for all decisions. Stagnation, plateau-ing and doing things the same ol’ way occur and decline in every sense, likely is on the horizon. At worst, and more the reality is a dropoff in attendance and involvement, poor morale, conflict, relationships dwindling, personal agendas, cliques, distrust, etc. You get the picture huh
- been there, done that maybe?

Leadership skills, practices and behaviors are not natural by-products of people putting in time and gaining experience. It just doesn’t happen that way. Even in positive times, where growth is occuring, people are happy, people are getting help, involvement is good, etc….effective leadership is not necessarily the reason. In many instances, sooner or later, this natural momentum just begins to slow down, and now is when untrained and ineffective leadership begins to become visible. Until then, the thinking is that we have great leadership….the people AND the leaders both fall into believing this, but sooner or late, reality will set in.

Business and organizations of all types experience these same dynamics and suffer in much the same way. The leader and/or leadership team’s flaws become evident, and just as in most all organizations, this is when leadership, relationships, communication, teamwork, conflict, managing, etc all suddenly become a priority! Where were your leaders to get this stuff anyway:

• Facilitating problem solving
• Visioning and gaining buy-in
• Managing and resolving Conflict
• Building relationships and teams
• Growing people
• Project management
• Understanding and improving systems
• Teaching / Facilitation skills
• Building organizational trust
• Understanding, facilitating and implementing change
• Strategizing and goal-setting

Know a church or pastor who might need to consider all this? Is it all working well in YOUR church?

Take care and God bless, D. Booker