Find Godly, Servant-Leaders
As a new church begins, find your leaders among those who serve. Look first for the people who are willing to clean toilets and vacuum the church. Surround yourself with godly servant-leaders who own and understand the vision of the church. I always had a circle of men who served as counselors and a sounding board. There were seasons when I did not give them a title. I just asked them to meet and pray with me. All of these were men I had met serving in the church.
I learned this principle of looking for servant-leaders in the first nine months of The Springs. We had been meeting in an old theater, and it had to be cleaned often. We had Saturday workdays, and one Saturday morning we were scrubbing mildew off of the top of the outside of the building with bleach and rubber gloves. Working beside Bruce Gaultney and James Duff led to lifelong friendships. Bruce was the editor of the newspaper in town, and James was a CEO for a hospital in town, but I did not know what they did for a living at the time. All I knew was that they were willing to scrub mildew off the top of a building for a new church with 120 people in it. The kingdom is comprised of leaders who serve. Ask God to provide people like Bruce and James, and surround yourself with them.
Conversely, beware of people who come to a new church and immediately ask to be in leadership. Tell them to grab a vacuum or clean a toilet. Jesus’ model of leadership was that of a servant-leader. In Matthew 20:28 (NLT) Jesus said, “For even I, the Son of Man, came here not to be served but to serve others, and to give my life as a ransom for many.” Jesus came to build an upside-down kingdom, where the greatest would be the servant. His church is to be led by servants. Find people with servants’ hearts who own and understand the vision of the church.
The very first leadership team I put together, I put together too soon. Some did not own the vision—they loved God— but they miscued on the vision. The truth is, we were still trying to figure it out ourselves. But when the course was set to be a purpose driven church, several could not align with it. Within two months, all of them left. That entire team left the church, and in the years that followed, only one person ever asked me where they went. If you’re experiencing losses in the early stages, check out this post.
Remain Simple, Flexible & Scalable
Avoid the temptation to set up a leadership structure that has many levels and committees. Streamline it, keep it simple and scalable. Scalability is having a structure that adapts as the church grows and changes. A truly scalable structure will still function effectively through change whether it’s an influx of attenders, new staff, new technology or even a new leader. Sometime during the first six months of The Springs, I emailed Rick Warren a question about leadership structure. He referred me to his seminar on tape called “Simple Structure,” and it was precisely what I needed. In it, Rick challenges pastors to keep the structure flexible. Here are some Simple Structure highlights.
What works for 100 people will not work for 500, and what works for 500 people will not work for 1,000. Our skeletal structure must be able to grow or our bodies cannot. In the same way, the leadership structure is the skeleton of the church body. Keep the structure simple and ?exible, because it is going to have to grow with the church. If you lock the structure in, and say, “This is the way we’re doing it,” you will stunt the growth of the church, and your church will be structured for control instead of growth.
We can see this principle by looking at our kids’ toys.
The simple toys like blocks and tinker toys do not break as easily as the complex toys. Simple is usually more durable, and the same is true for church leadership structure.
