3. Personality Can Grow a Church, But Only An Infrastructure Can Sustain It
You’d be tempted to think that personality-based leadership is only a mega-church issue.
Hardly.
Personalities grow more than mega-churches. They also grow local churches, sometimes to their detriment.
I know many churches of 50, 100 and 500 who have grow because of the personality and charisma of a gifted leader. Small church leaders are not immune to placing themselves at the centre of all the life of their church.
The challenge of course, is when that leader leaves the church often collapses. Even small churches revert back to much smaller numbers and stumble along, waiting for the next leader to come along and rescue things.
The lesson here is one for all of us….as your ministry grows, leaders need to grow the infrastructure to sustain it.
So what can you do?
Make sure you’re not the sole communicator…build into others. Even use video teaching to supplement.
Recruit other leaders who are better than you. If you have really solid leadership beside you and around you, your absence is less dramatic.
Replace yourself.
There was a day as a young leader where I was happy to be the centre of almost every decision and up teaching almost every weekend. No more.
Something very selfish in me might still enjoy that, but that’s irrelevant. So I’ve had to learn to get over my insecurity, step back and let others lead, teach and employ their giftedness. It’s the only way to set up a mission to succeed long term.
