Leaders, it’s ok not to call the shots.
As leaders (of anything that is) there are always decisions to be made. As pastors, though, we are called to step out and lead our people that have chosen to call Oak Leaf Church their home. We have to make some hard/decisive/quick decisions sometimes but we are also kind of lucky. You see, since this is a church, and we are working with other Christians that have a vested interest in this venture, we know that God has equipped these folks to do the work of the ministry. Check out 1 Corinthians 12:4-5, 27 and you will see Christians have different abilities to serve each other. That means…
YOU ARE NOT ALWAYS THE BEST EQUIPPED TO MAKE DECISIONS.
I know for a fact that many of you church leaders (and most leaders anyway) out there are probably what we call ENTJs or ENFJs. That is, you like to think you know what is best and you don’t like it when you don’t get to make the call. That’s a natural feeling you will have to accept. It goes along with the territory. The bad part is when we can’t get over it. Our ministries will weaken and it shows a lack of faith in God to bring us what is needed. You can read more about that on Tony Morgan’s blog.
This weekend I got to step out of the way for two of our leaders and actually practice at letting others make the calls. Here’s my conversation with Gerard, our set up Coach (Lead Volunteer in charge of other leaders) in Canton.
Me – picking up a piece of stage
Gerard – “Jody, put that down.”
Me – “I can get it.”
Gerard – “I know but I don’t want the other guys seeing you lift it alone. We want them to work together.”
Gerard had the right idea – as in, it’s safety first and working together as a team to build camaraderie. Good call Gerard!
Second is with Mike Jenkins, Coach for Guest Services on Sunday morning.
Me – “Mike, we need to keep these doors closed during the first song.”
Mike – “The problem is that we have not communicated that with our leaders and there are a lot of people separated from people already in the building.”
Me – “What do you want to do?”
Mike – “Let me get a count for you as to how many people would actually be locked out if we did that then we can make a fully informed decision.”
Mike was thinking about our leaders and the stress of a large amount of people waiting outside in an area not built for waiting. By the way, there was a large number of people that we would have kept out so Mike followed up on his side.
Bottom line – we as leaders can make the calls but sometimes we need to defer to those that serve with us because God has called them to do that specific ministry not us.
I am going to write about another added benefit to this later this week concerning coaching.
Happy Monday!
May 17th, 2010 at 10:27 AM
Good post, Jody!
Another point I’d like to add – letting the people you lead take charge sometimes is a good morale booster. For example, when you ask my put me in charge of a project that you think I’m better equipped to manage, that says to me that you value my ideas and think I’m qualified to handle it. And then I’ll probably do an even better job knowing that you have faith in my abilities.
Just know, though, that I won’t fall for it if you tell me my skills make me a better candidate to handle your phone calls! :]
May 17th, 2010 at 6:51 PM
That is one of the things I like about Oak Leaf. Yes, we have people in charge, but those people listen to those under them/following them for suggestions etc. It def makes ministry more appealing when we know someone is listening and values our opinion. I really appreciate that aspect of our church.
May 26th, 2010 at 10:00 AM
[...] is the follow up from a previous post from last week Leaders, it’s ok not to call the shots. In that piece of writing we discussed that it was ok, sometimes, to allow our people to make the [...]