There are some extraordinary people in leadership roles within the church today, and we are blessed to have such leaders.
There is also an abundance of weak leaders in the church.
Why is this?
One reason is we rush through and cut short the discipling process of new or young leaders — that early time of becoming students and learners of Christ — in favor of being mentored by a man regarding his successful methods.
The promising developing leader who wants to be like the rock star pastor seeks mentoring from someone who has achieved the success he wants to achieve, cutting short putting in the initial work of study and personal development of becoming a disciple himself.
Rock star pastors are flattered that so many developing leaders seek their mentoring, so they take them “under their wing” and teach them their methods.
The outcome is a greater interest in being mentored than in being discipled, thus greater influence is given to the opinions and methods of men rather than a fully developed foundation of Scripture.
Many great church leaders have stated, when asked what they would do if they had everything to do over again, that they would have studied more.
They didn’t say they would have sought out more mentors or better mentors. They said they would have studied more…they would have deepened their own discipleship!
Reliable leaders who bring the most to the church are those who first become students and learners of Jesus Christ before they pursue the opinions and methods of human models.
Fortunately, the fix for this is not so hard. Those in leadership today should place a premium on emphasizing to newly developing leaders a primary need to be committed to, and thoroughly focused on, their own discipleship development before they expand to taking on mentors. The greatest influence that developing leader needs to have in his life is that of Jesus Christ!
