Clearing a Lane

A tough conversation today…

   As a church consultant, I’ve seen a scenario play out over and over. A motivated, capable, hard-working, and faithful pastor builds the church as best as he’s able. He has to do everything, because there is no one else. Over time, by the grace of God, growth does occur and the church has impact. The pastor realizes that the church has grown beyond the ability for him to handle alone, and knows that he bears the responsibility to equip the congregation to serve. Several high-quality volunteers help the church to grow even further, and staff are eventually brought onboard.

   The pastor is now a Senior/Lead Pastor. He knows he has a problem, however… He’s become a “funnel” – every decision flows through him. So he searches for an executive pastor to share the load, finding a capable and experienced leader willing to step into the role. However, from day one there are problems, and the new executive pastor is gone within six months, stalling the growth of the church. What happened?!

Usually, it’s that the Senior Pastor can’t let go. He’s entrepreneurial and likes doing a lot of different things. Truth be told, he also likes calling all the shots – ALL the shots – even though in his heart he knows he shouldn’t. There’s no room for the new exec because the Senior Pastor fills every lane. This causes the new exec to become disenchanted, bitter, or – worse yet – bored by ministry. The reason should be obvious. He has nothing to lead.

   Lead/Senior Pastors, many of you will hire leaders to help your churches to thrive. That’s wise. However, leaders, by definition, do one thing – lead. They are different from implementers. An implementer is given tasks to complete. Leaders are given goals to achieve. The most effective model to make this happen is when a vision is cast for the leader of where the senior/lead pastor wants to get, and then the new leader figures out how to get there. If they are not given that chance, they won’t stick around. Leaders won’t stay if they have nothing to lead, and – truth be told – implementers can only take you so far.

   So make room. We’ll talk tomorrow about how…