Building church leadership

I had a friend tell me recently he wasn't ready to be a leader in our church because he did not have enough gray hair. Does hair color really determine our ability to lead? Like most churches, the leaders in our church tend to be middle to upper age. Therefore, we need to have a process where we have others come and help us lead or someone to take the ministry from us. If we do not pass the baton of ministry off to the next generation, then Bethany Lutheran Church, or any church, will decline or even fade away.

Just like in business or politics, leadership is important in the church. We need to be intentional about getting others to lead. That is why I have spent the last two years taking a course on Christ-like servant leadership. The class focuses on fostering and multiplying Christ-like leaders in the church and community.

As I started looking at the process of leadership, it took me a bit to realize that we are all leaders of at least ourselves, and possibly our family, at work, or even our communities. Everyone is a leader of something and we all must be cultivated, watered, protected from storms, out in the sun so we can grow and bear fruit.

We are not plants, so what does it mean for a church leader to be cultivated or watered? One of the first points I learned was that a leader needs to fill or care for themselves before they can give to others. This is the same reasoning why in an emergency on a plane, you put your oxygen mask on first before helping others. In the church, that would translate into being in God's word and filling up with all that he has to offer us - such as forgiveness, mercy and grace. The average American works more than 40 hours a week and then has to be at their child's extracurricular activities two or three nights a week and all of Saturday. When do we rest? And when we rest, how do we rest?

Again, as a church leader you rest in God's word, but you can do other things to that give you peace such as walking, sleeping or reading a book. This would be a big contrast between a leader and a Christ-like servant leader. A Christ-like servant leader fills up on Christ. The Christ-like servant leader's perspective is that Christ died on the on the cross for the sins of the world. So a Christ-like servant leader will be motivated to lead and serve others because of what Christ did. The motivation for a Christ-like servant leader is not money or power, but thankfulness for the blessings God gives each and every day.

As a leader, I must be grounded in God's word and get others rooted deeply in his word, too. Just like most plants, you cannot just plant the seed and watch it grow. You must care for it and water it. I cannot call someone on Saturday to teach Sunday school and expect the person to naturally know what to do. There needs to be a process. In this case the process would look like:

' Me showing the new teacher how I taught my last class,

' Then me modeling how to teach a class while the new teacher observes,

' Both of us talking through the task,

' Followed by me observing and evaluating the new teacher while s/he teaches the class and

' Again discussing the process and answering any questions.

You can't Google your way through this process. You have to have the face-to-face helpful modeling, guiding, encouraging, and evaluating during the entire leadership developmental process.

New leaders must know the mission. Existing leaders must be prepared not to go it alone. If one person is doing everything, then the organization will be limited by that person's skill or amount of time they have. It is not just important to cultivate leaders for tomorrow, but to cultivate leaders to help existing leaders today.

In the last two years I have reflected on my own actions as a Christ-like leader. I have been working on being rooted in Christ and regularly being in his word. I have also spent time reading books on leadership in the church such as Life Together, Leading From the Second Chair, and Joining Jesus on His Mission. I have worked on the awareness that we need to be Christ-like servant leaders by holding stand alone two-hour sessions about what it means to be a Christ-like leader, how to be a Christ-like leader in your home, at your workplace, and in your community. I have also started Servant Leader Journeys. This program helps put people in God's word and focuses on a variety of scripture referring to a leadership characteristic. The leader not only facilitates the 8-week journey to the group, but also trains an apprentice to lead the next group. This process has helped my friend without gray hair realize that he can be begin the process of being a leader at Bethany.

We can talk about leadership development until we are blue in the face, but raising others up is more than just a conversation. Leadership development requires leaders to work alongside future leaders, encouraging others to lead with them, beside them and after them. It must be an intentional process of nurturing and growth.

' Randi Petrik is the Director of Christian Education at Bethany Lutheran Church in Cedar Rapids.