We all want and need more leaders at our Churches.
But how do we teach and encourage more people to lead?

As we look at the different areas in Church through the lens of “are we empowering leaders” and “are we making it easy for people to lead” we can see areas of improvement.

There are 4 areas we tend towards when leading, let’s have a look at them.

1. Difficult and Un-empowering (Religious)

This is the zone we definitely don’t want to be in.
It’s called religion.
Religion says to people that God’s word is too hard and complicated for you to understand and live out yourself, that you need me to have a relationship with Jesus.

2. Easy but Un-Empowering (Frustration)

This is not a bad zone but it’s not the best either.
If you are a great teacher you will make complicated truths simple, and people are excited because they understand, they get it!
But if we aren’t giving them direct steps on how to live it out or how to teach others, then there is no empowerment.

This can lead to frustration and even burn out for pastors as they are still the ones carrying all the weight of ministry rather than empowering others to lead and teach with them.
It can also lead to frustration of good people who are ready to lead and teach but are not empowered too.

3. Empowering but Difficult (Tough)

This zone is also not bad but is still not the best leadership style.
This is when the teaching is difficult and there are opportunities to lead and teach but the bar is very high.
This zone will see a high turnover of potential leaders who decide to throw in the towel and give up because its too tough.

If our expectation for entry level leaders is too high and unresonable we will struggle to recruit leaders.
Of course we never lower the bar on character issues but sometimes the bar can be too high in other areas such as time commitments, skills needed and experience.

4. Easy and Empowering (Healthy)

This is the zone I want to live in!
It’s the goal for myself and all of our Lifehouse pastors.

We want to make complicated truths simple and easy to understand, teaching people how to apply them to their lives so they can go on and teach others.
This is the zone where people are taught how to have an ongoing relationship with Jesus and hear directly from God for themselves everyday.

This creates an amazing healthy culture where hungry people are not only being fed but also being trained to go on and feed others.
Good people who are following Jesus also have a chance to rise into leadership and begin to teach others the wonderful truths of Gods word.

I have two questions for you today.
Which zone does your teaching and leadership fall into?
And more importantly, is that the zone that you want to be in?

Rod.
Tokyo Lifehouse