My Leadership Development Wake Up Call

I remember when I had my leadership development wake up call. I was fresh out of seminary working as an associate pastor at Pawleys Island Community Church. I was young, enthusiastic and thought I could do it all. But it wasn’t long before I was overwhelmed and overcommitted. I was responsible for weekend worship, midweek teaching, small groups, Sunday school, outreach, youth ministry and the summer children’s program (I had a slight case of Superman complex).After a year and a half of this madness I told Cindy, “They’re going to fire me.” She told me I was crazy, the church loved me and there was no way they would get rid of me. So I explained, “Oh, they’re going to fire me, they just don’t know it yet!” I was juggling way too many responsibilities and was about to drop the ball with all of them. My enthusiasm and inability to lead through others had painted me into a corner and I was headed for trouble. That night I couldn’t sleep, so I wrote down the names of the volunteers who reported directly to me. I was shocked when I saw the list totaled 88 people.God showed me two things in that moment: First, I needed to make leadership development a priority and second I needed a leadership development strategy. That night I decided to build a wall of protection around myself by choosing seven key leaders to oversee the various ministries. From that point on I started pouring into those leaders so they could pour into their teams. For the first time in my life I truly started doing leadership development and it saved my ministry.I look back at those days and see 6 signs that I needed a wake up call.

  • I was a doer not a developer
  • Replacing myself wasn’t even on my radar
  • Others leadership success threatened my sense of leadership security
  • I gave people responsibility but not authority
  • I had no intentional plan for developing or equipping leaders
  • There was a severe shortage of leaders in our ministry

Do you see any of these signs in your ministry?  Have you had your leadership development wake up call?

Previous
Previous

There's Got to be a Better Way

Next
Next

Out with the Old, In with the New