[We continue “Forward to the Basics,” a look at best practices in church wellness. This week: Leadership Development: Part 2.]

Last week in Part One I started with the negatives, or challenges, that tend to undermine the leadership that congregations need.
 
  Most church leaders are volunteers and beyond accountability.
  Nearly all are untrained in church leadership.
  They rarely understand how congregations work.
  Conflict is their default behavior.
  Wealth tends to get in the way.

To move forward, congregations need to address these challenges and recruit, train and support leaders who can function effectively in a context marked by volatility, unpredictability, complexity and ambiguity. This will mean working in partnership with the clergy, and not in opposition to them, and accepting their need for training and accountability.

RECRUITMENT

It is a common mistake to accept whatever leaders present themselves for key slots, as if wanting a position confers the ability do it effectively. The best practice is to recruit the best possible leaders, the people you want, and not to settle for a willing person who might lack leadership skills or have a negative agenda.

It is another common mistake to keep returning to the same leaders because they are a known quantity and usually available. The best practice is to mix new and long-standing, young and old. You need the newer and younger in order to bring fresh ideas and to forge relationships with newer and younger constituents. If the average age of the congregation is pushing past 60 (as it is in mainline congregations), the average age of the leadership cadre should be closer to 40.

Finally, it is a common mistake to seek leaders who are steeped in the congregation’s history and traditions. The best practice is to seek leaders who are intensively engaged in the outside world, for that is your mission field.

In recruiting leaders, both for top-level councils and mid-level activities, you want people who will challenge the congregation to see things in fresh ways. If the only fresh voice is the pastor’s, you are guaranteeing conflict.

TRAINING

Church leadership isn’t like any other kind of leadership. The church exists to transform members’ lives and to make the world better through servanthood. Leaders are always nudging, even pushing, people to lower their defenses and draw closer to God. Leaders do that by example, by supporting the clergy, and by actively pursuing mission work, solid stewardship, and servant leadership as the model Jesus set. Leaders aren’t called to preserve the church’s traditions, to stymie change-oriented clergy, or to soothe the wealthy. They are called to nurture a strong and open community grounded in spiritual discipline. Knowing how to balance a budget is a minor part of their work, and could be left to a financial professional.

Church leaders must let go of the idea that being leaders in their professions somehow equips them for church work. It doesn’t. They need to learn about the complex dynamics of a faith community, such as:

  projection
  family systems
  dysfunctional systems
  chaos theory
  conflict resolution
  spirituality
  grieving
  change management
  organizational development

This isn’t about making widgets or selling cars. It’s about engaging with people at their deepest levels and leading them to new ground.

Ideally, when people enter lower-level leadership slots, they begin to receive this training. Thus, they will be ready to serve effectively at higher levels of responsibility. Clergy should know how to provide this training. But if they don’t know how, bring in an outside resource. Don’t let it just slide. Training needs to be prerequisite for serving as a leader.

SUPPORT
 
Too often, church leaders are put in position and then abandoned to sink or swim. They need to be supported. One primary job of the senior pastor is to support leaders. Not to get over-involved in pastoral care and preaching – the old model – but to nurture a large, enthusiastic and expanding cadre of leaders who trust the pastor, are willing to take risks and learn from failure, and are eager for innovation and fresh ideas.

Support means one-on-one conversations, small group life, a steady flow of helpful information, and attention to personal issues. Support also means processing group life, perhaps with the help of a trained therapist. It means dealing effectively and openly with the inevitable conflicts that arise in a dynamic organization. Support means dealing directly with people, not falling into rumoring and sides-taking.

As you can see, leadership development goes far beyond getting people to say Yes to a leadership slot. They need to be the right person for the slot, they need to be trained, and when things go sour, as they generally will at some point, they need to be supported. That’s a lot of work. But the cost of not doing it is broken systems, frustrated leadership, and loss of organizational direction and vitality.
 

About the Author

Tom Ehrich is a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is the publisher of Fresh Day online magazine, author of On a Journey and two national newspaper columns. His website is Church Wellness – Morning Walk Media