You had better learn to lead

It took us awhile to get everyone on the same page.

Our church parking lot had been showing signs of deterioration so we had it sealed last week. That meant that a lot of black, sticky, oily goo was all over the parking lot and needed to dry before anyone could walk or drive on it. 

Ordinarily, that wouldn't be a problem except for the fact that there is a lot of traffic on our parking lot throughout the work week. Particularly on Mondays - Thursdays, our preschool program is in full swing with about 120 children needing to be dropped off and picked up. That makes for a lot of parking and traffic.

To keep tires and feet off the oily part of the parking lot while it was being resealed, some of the church and pre-school staff made our way out to the parking lot to direct traffic. Working together, it went extremely well.

As I directed traffic, I couldn't help but think of how wonderful it would be if ministerial leadership were that easy. Just point in the direction you want someone to go and they do it. Hold your hand up and they stop until you motion for them to move.

But, anyone who has been in pastoral ministry for long realizes it rarely ever works that way. You don't have financial leverage over your army of volunteers and your staff often has a significant number of "followers" in the congregation.

John Maxwell has said that pastoral leadership is leadership in its purest form. If you rely upon your title to get people to follow you or if you rely upon your ability to affect someone's paycheck to get them to do as you say, you'll never make it in the ministry. You'd better learn how to inspire, to motivate those who you desire to lead.

Let me direct you to a book that has proved extremely helpful to me in understanding the concept of leadership. It's called "The 5 Levels of Leadership" by John Maxwell. In it, he describes the 5 levels of leadership which essentially become a stairway. You begin on the first step but must continue up the stairway to gain greater influence and leadership competency.

Level 1: Position
It begins with a title. A church entrusts to you the title and position of pastor. But, if you want to lead them, you'd better not rely on your title for long. "Follow me because I'm the pastor" may work for the first few weeks of your new assignment but it will get old quickly. You'd better progress to the next level.

Level 2: Permission
This level is all about building relationships. Get to know your congregation and let them get to know you. Then, they will begin to follow you not simply because you are the pastor but because they like/love you and they know you like/love them. But, if you desire to be used by God to accomplish great things, you can't stop here. You need to progress to the next level.

Level 3: Production
This is the level of goal-setting and achieving. You are leading people to accomplish objectives and they develop a respect for you as a competent leader. They see that you can get things done so they are more likely to continue following you.

Level 4: People Development
This is the level where those who follow you realize that you are not only producing positive results in the church - you are producing positive results in them. As they follow you, they realize that they are becoming a better person ... and they like it. (Jesus did this! He told the disciples that if they followed Him, He would develop them into fishers of men. He developed people!)

Level 5: The Pinnacle
This is the level that very few achieve. After you have poured yourself into your congregation for years (decades!), your love for them is unquestioned and they love you back, your track record of success is impressive and they realize that they are so much better for having followed you, then you have reached the top. How do you know that you've reached this 5th level? You know that you are there when people follow you ... simply because you are you. They trust you completely and would follow you anywhere.

So, if you want to follow God's call on your life and bless those who call you "pastor," then you'd better learn to lead the right way. Do all that you can to be the best pastor your congregation could ever have!