No gimmicks here. I told them they should fire me.
Practically, what this is all about is spreading out the leadership. In fact, this is one of the principles that Andy Stanley lays out in “7 Practices Of Effective Ministry.” It’s called, “replace yourself.” You should read that book ASAP!
What’s so funny about this is that the perception of “spreading out the leadership” can be misconstrued as lazily wanting other people to do your job. After all, the most common question youth pastors are asked is, “What do you do all week?”
So what do you do all week?
Seriously. Have you ever made a list? Because I made a list. And it’s long. I’ll spare you the self-gratifying look at that list (you’re welcome).
So here’s why I’m writing this:
There’s a really good chance that we’re mentoring our students to expect everything to be done for them. I hope you heard me clearly; it’s not their fault. It’s ours. It is the calling of the pastor to disciple people to follow Jesus and to raise up leaders to take over the leadership of the church.Here’s what I’m learning in this realm.
1. You’re probably doing things that you shouldn’t be doing. By that, I mean that there are things that you were created to do. You should be spending the majority of your time in these areas, to increase your effectiveness. To be certain, there are things about your role that aren’t fun. I’m not advocating that you shirk your responsibilities. I’m implying that we need to work smart.
2. You’re holding back your ministry because you’re not delegating well. For a guy who doesn’t delegate well, this one is tough. A couple practical elements here. Don’t spend time doing things that are in your “weakness” column. There are people who do things better than you do; which means that you’re holding people back, by not giving them a chance to operate within their spiritual gifting. And isn’t that what we’re supposed to be doing?
3. You’re limiting the future of your ministry when you don’t raise up leaders. This is as practical as it gets, but we, as ministers, somehow miss this one. None of us will be around forever. Let us not repeat the mistakes of Joshua, who experienced a successful reign, but died without passing the baton to a capable leader (Judges happens next and it’s not pretty).
4. If there’s an emergency and you can’t make it, do you freak out knowing that there are things only you know how to do? If you can’t be gone, something’s wrong. Remember, the success of a leader is not that you do a bunch of cool stuff for the church. It’s about raising up leaders. If you can’t step out at a moment’s notice, you haven’t raised up leaders. I would suggest that needs to be at the top of your to do list!
5. If you’re feeling the tension of not having enough time to get everything done, maybe you’re doing too much. Bill Hybels wrote a book called, “Too Busy NOT To Pray.” The same principle is at work here. I know what it’s like to get to the end of your day, only to look at a to do list that still has a lot of items that haven’t been touched. It will take a lot of your time, but if you make the investment into investing into people, so that they can use their spiritual gifts to bless the church, those hours will pay for themselves. I promise you. It’s a hefty investment in the beginning, but you’ll be teaching people how to lead well, allowing people to thrive in their gifting, and freeing up your time in the future.
6. If you made a list of everything that you do (I mean everything), I bet you’d throw up. There are things on that list that require no brain space, but they do require time. Why on earth would you spend your precious hours doing things that aren’t in your wheelhouse? There are opportunities for leadership in your church that people would thrive in. Even moreso, these opportunities may very well drain you. This isn’t rocket science, folks.
7. If you made a list of everything that you do, I bet your people would say things like, “Wow! I didn’t realize how much goes into planning services!” This means there’s a total lack of unbalance. As long as your people are in the dark as to how ministry happens, they won’t show up to help. Here’s a hint: The majority of people in your ministry don’t perceive that ministry is hard work. Bring trusted people alongside you. Chances are, you’ll hear this: “Wow! I didn’t realize how much goes into planning services!”
8. Job security isn’t in hogging all the leadership; it’s in raising up leaders to take over major leadership roles in the church. If that seems counter-intuitive, that’s normal. But it’s true. That’s what church is supposed to be all about.
9. Transitioning to this style of leadership isn’t easy. That’s why most people never do it. It’s extremely time-consuming and energy-depleting. But it’s an investment that pays Kingdom dividends. You
10. Stop saying you’re too busy to raise up leaders. If you are content with doing everything yourself, please read your Bible. You’re too busy NOT to raise up leaders.
Let us not forget the admonition from Acts 6. the apostles were perceptive enough to know when they needed to raise up leaders in the areas that were not their strengths (or even main responsibilities for that matter). They got distracted. Feelings got hurt. And they found people who could help them. Problem solved.
But no. It’s so much more than that. Pay attention to one of the characters we meet in Acts 6. We are introduced to Stephen, who is always described by being, “a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit.” We would later see him preach one of the strongest messages in the entire Bible (Acts 7). So if you think “serving the widows” isn’t a big deal, think again.
Tonight, our students are officially taking over and I couldn’t be more excited! They have done everything from sermon prep, to vacuuming, to picking up supplies, shooting video illustrations, setting up chairs, and even taking out the trash. Simply put, every single thing that will happen tonight, will be a result of their hard work. I can’t wait to show you how it goes! I am so proud of our brilliant students!
[Recommended Reading: First, Break All The Rules by Marcus Buckingham // For those of you who are in ministry and hate business books, put that aside for a second. In this series of books, Marcus simply advocates that we work smart. I would recommend these books to any pastor, as a means of learning how to work smart, and how to apply practical steps to bringing people alongside us to assist us in the tasks of ministry]