Adapt to People’s Learning Styles
No two people learn in the same way. I’m a book learner. Most of our interns are hands-on learners—that’s why they chose a Small-Church internship instead of (or in addition to) a college experience.
One of the first tasks of the mentor/teacher is to get to know the preferred learning style of the protégé/student. Then, we need to teach them by adapting to their preferred learning style instead of insisting that they get in line with our preferred teaching style.
In discipleship, it’s the mentor’s responsibility to adapt the teaching style (but not the content) to the student, not vice versa.
Have Regular but Short Meetings
Restaurants have what they call “standups” at the start of each work shift. They’re short meetings that bring everyone up to speed on any issues, the daily specials, etc. They’re required, they’re daily, they’re helpful and they’re quick enough that—as the name suggests—they’re done standing up.
That’s a good model to keep in mind for church leadership meetings. No, I don’t think they should be done standing up, but they should be required, regular, helpful and short.
We have weekly meetings. My staff will often schedule other appointments for one hour after the start of our meetings, because an hour-long meeting is a rarity. If they need to go longer, I let them know that in advance.
I design an agenda and we stick to it. And we only discuss topics that affect more than two people in the room. I won’t waste everyone’s time on an issue that can be discussed in a separate meeting between two people.
Doers don’t want to sit in meetings—and people who love to sit in meetings tend not to be doers. Church teams need doers.
Be Willing to Change With Them
Don’t treat people like cogs in a machine. Too many pastors have been guilty of taking a potential leader, showing them how to do a ministry, but never asking them “how would you do it differently and/or better?”
Leaders want to lead. That means they have ideas that need to be considered and given a chance to see the light of day.
Every leader and future leader I’ve ever worked with has made me better. I’m grateful to every one of them for that.
