I led the worship department at Parkview Christian Church for 20 years, where I started on staff with me, myself and I. But as the years progressed and the church grew, the worship staff did also, and in my final years, I was leading a staff of 11 paid staff plus interns, and over 300 volunteers. I’ll be honest, I had no management training in college. Unfortunately, most people who are educated for ministry are not taught these things, and they should be.
Some of you lead a department at a ministry or church, some of you lead volunteers, whether a serving team or a small group, and some of you lead other moms or even just your own family for now. But you ARE a leader. And how you lead truly influences others and their perspective of Jesus. And, Ephesians 6:7 says, “Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people” (NIV), so our attitude when leading others should be about doing our very best.
So, as a leader, I wanted to share some tips I have learned along the way to help you (as well as my own daughters). Because I learned some of these lessons the hard way, I want to save you some pain and share with you some great wisdom that I know God taught me.
- Pray for wisdom. Yes, that is simple—but it’s a powerful tool to have when leading. James 1:5 tells us, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”
- Share the essential answer to “why.” Have you ever been around a toddler who asks “why?” all the time? The people you lead need the same question answered (and sometimes act like toddlers). Sometimes you just have to say “BECAUSE” to a toddler. But the grown ups you lead need a better answer. There may be several answers, but there is usually an essential answer. The bottom line of “why.” These answers actually become the core of your ministry and should be something these leaders could repeat to others.
Here is an example:
Our team “practices” our Easter service straight through a couple of days before Easter services. The bottom ladder “why?” is so that visitors won’t be distracted by mistakes and experience the grace of Jesus that we ourselves have experienced. Here’s the process:
Question: Why do we practice our worship services?
>So we can eliminate mistakes. Mistakes are very distracting.
>So a visitor can focus on taking in the message; Satan is fighting hard for their minds and hearts.
>So a visitor can experience Jesus.
>So a visitor might be open to making Jesus their Savior, and come back.
>Because someone shared Christ’s amazing grace with us, and our lives were changed.
- Extend Empathy From Experience. FYI, that was a total accident that those three were all “E” words! I’m going to copyright that!
