Are you really leading, or are you just taking a walk? As the Chinese proverb said it well, “If you think you’re leading and no one is following you, then you’re only taking a walk.” Losing touch with your people is a huge leadership landmine.
We believe everything rises and falls on culture and culture rises and falls on the leader. So as christians leaders in our culture the fundamental question we must ask is, “Am I really leading?”
These are four warning signs that you perhaps are not really leading your team as you ought to lead;
1. Uncertain leader forsakes priorities of ministry.
The people are wanting the leaders to do more vision casting, raise new leaders, and press onward – but there just seems to be nothing happening. As if the leader seems to have stopped leading; we must ask the question “Why?” There can be many reasons why a leader stops leading but one of the reason may be that the leader has no vision/conviction! Proverbs says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish;” (Proverbs 28:18)
Church leaders give responsibility (position) without appropriate authority to individuals, which ultimately handicaps the leader and causes grave confusion. This leads people to either immense frustration or apathy on the followers.
If you do not feel uncomfortable with the reality of not carrying the vision, it may be time for you to step down from the leadership role.
“Vision without Action is day dreaming. Action without Vision is a nightmare” – Japanese proverbs
2. Insecure leader that none can question.
There is a real sense of fear in leadership. You may have been thinking how long this job will last or maybe even make it till the weekend! Leadership is hard. But sometimes it’s not nearly as hard as we make it out to be. At times the cause is not just the organization or the position, but it is the insecurity of the leader himself/herself.
To be such a leader is to be a dangerous leader. How do you know if you’re an insecure leader? If you are never confronted, you are really in isolation and there’s a divorce between you and the people.
“If your leadership can’t be questioned, you are a questionable leader.” – Robby Gallaty
3. Stagnant leaders who fear the followers
Dietrich Bonhoeffer – the philosopher, pastor, spy and martyr, famously said, “Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.” The author of the book, “The Cost of Discipleship,” believed that unless one followed Christ in a serious fashion, it was to cheapen the grace of God. Church without discipleship is no church at all. You may rather just close the doors down and move on as you will passively watch you self-destruct one day.
Why does the church continue on insist on reaching the world without making disciples? Because it is easy and comfortable. Jesus called people to a commitment that we’re afraid to call them to…. we’re more content with keeping a crowd.
The three great idols in the church today: Comfort, Consumerism, and Nostalgia. The gospel calls for sacrifice, service and adventurous heart.
4. Coasting leaders that do not multiply.
Churches too often are preacher centered, program centered or building centered. We are good perhaps at, “growth” but not so much on “reproduction.”
Additional Model – Winning 365,000 People per year for 25 years
| Numbers | People | Numbers | People | Numbers | People |
|
1 |
365,000 |
11 |
4,015,000 |
21 |
7,665,000 |
|
2 |
730,000 |
12 |
4,380,000 |
22 |
8,030,000 |
|
3 |
1,095,000 |
13 |
4,745,000 |
23 |
8,395,000 |
|
4 |
1,460,000 |
14 |
5,110,000 |
24 |
8,760,000 |
|
5 |
1,825,000 |
15 |
5,475,000 |
25 |
9,125,000 |
|
6 |
2,190,000 |
16 |
5,840,000 |
||
|
7 |
2,555,000 |
17 |
6,205,000 |
||
|
8 |
2,920,000 |
18 |
6,570,000 |
||
|
9 |
3,285,000 |
19 |
6,935,000 |
||
|
10 |
3,740,000 |
20 |
7,300,000 |
Multiplication Model – One gifted pastor equipping 30 people to each one win one per year doubling each year for 25 years
| Numbers | People | Numbers | People | Numbers | People |
|
1 |
30 |
11 |
30,720 |
21 |
31,457,280 |
|
2 |
60 |
12 |
61,440 |
22 |
62,914,560 |
|
3 |
120 |
13 |
122,880 |
23 |
125,829,120 |
|
4 |
240 |
14 |
245,760 |
24 |
251,658,480 |
|
5 |
480 |
15 |
491,520 |
25 |
503,316,480 |
|
6 |
960 |
16 |
983,040 |
||
|
7 |
1,920 |
17 |
1,966,080 |
||
|
8 |
3,840 |
18 |
3,932,160 |
||
|
9 |
7,680 |
19 |
7,864,320 |
||
|
10 |
15,360 |
20 |
15,380,640 |
If you don’t give yourself to your team, you are really just coasting through. Leadership is influence—nothing more, nothing less. (John. C. Maxwell)
Therefore, if you’re ineffective in the present, and unable to lead toward the future. It might be time to step down and allow new leadership an opportunity to take the church to a new level for the sake of the Great Commission.
“Well Jonathan, it just sounds overwhelming, I don’t know how to do this”
When we look at the life of Jesus in reproduction, I honestly think anybody can do it. The investing in the few was incredibly intentional and reproductive. Just find a few, pour into them and people tend to reproduce what has been done to themselves. We need to simply just step up and begin to make disciples.
Jesus saw the tremendous value and make the investment in the few as he himself called the disciples to, “Therefore, go make disciples” and he saw the importance there.
Why is it so hard for us to get leadership through the concept of discipleship?
The churches in North America model tend to have the prayer prayed and done. They’ve prayed the prayer and the task of evangelism & discipleship is now given to the super Christian leadership (The Additional Model)
The model Christ put forth was, “Multiplication” which was a brilliant idea. This is the harder level of genius idea on Christ of reproduction strategy. There is a reason it is hard as it takes more intentionality, time, thought and effort. Pastors too often want to settle down with the Preaching as making disciples, however we look in the life of Christ, he invested in the few. Throughout the gospel account, we see Jesus spending time with the masses 17 times and 49 times with the few.
Bible study alone doesn’t make you a disciple. You have to spend time one-on-one and to know what is happening in their lives. A.B.Bruce wrote a book, “Training of the Twelve” written in 1812 that mentions a lot of this idea of intentionality through the relational environment.