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5 Leadership Signs Your Movement Is Dying

3. Need to micromanage or hold others back from leadership opportunities or other responsibilities.

Was it Luther who said, “All of us are ministers; some of us just happen to be clergy”? I don’t know, but I like it. Good leaders don’t hand off just responsibility but also authority. A leader who micromanages trusts only in himself. Therefore, a leader who won’t trust other gifted and authorized leaders doesn’t trust God. And leaders who don’t trust God cannot lead life-giving movements.

Pastor, you can’t and shouldn’t do it all yourself. It’s not healthy for you, and it’s not good leadership of your church to attempt shepherding it as a one-man show. Nobody wins in that situation, no matter the glory it may earn you and the comfort it may afford others. That’s all temporary, and therefore, so will be your movement.

4. Impulse to horde credit and shift blame.

Leaders who claim all the credit and clout for successes and deny any responsibility for failures aren’t leaders but self-righteous glory-hogs. Self-righteous glory-hogs will eventually find themselves denying responsibility for the failure of the movement they spent a lot of time taking the credit for. Healthy leaders on mission understand that double honor comes with double responsibility.

5. Progression has become reaction.

Ever heard pro-Calvinism preaching that sounded more like anti-Arminianism? Or vice versa? Good leaders know that emphasizing what they’re for more than what they’re against is vital for fostering forward momentum. It’s okay to criticize or debate in appropriate measures, but so many pastors and leaders make the common mistake, fed by their emotions and the easy provocation of soapboxing, to rail and rant.

Such stirring can draw a crowd and stir that crowd’s emotions, which can create a false impression of a coalescing movement. But a collection of naysayers and bitter critics can’t sustain movement over time. The content of our message can absolutely include what the message is not, but if the shape of our message is what it is not (or what we hate or who we’re against, etc.), we triumphantly and enthusiastically shoot ourselves in the foot over and over again.

It will be a frustrating — and ultimately failing — endeavor of Sisyphean proportions attempting to sustain a movement if it is known more for its denials than its affirmations.