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Hello friends,
We walked through what a healthy Christian organization looks like last time:
Centered on Union with Christ
Every Member Functioning
Growing in God
Serving Each Other
Building Others
Working with Purpose
So now we have our goal. But knowing the destination is the beginning of getting there. We have a lot of road to travel to get there — and some of us may be feeling the distance between pretty heavily. If you’ve used our evaluation tool, you might have found a number of areas that your church or organization needs to work on. If you want help identifying those areas, here it is:
So we’re armed now with two key pieces of knowledge — where we need to go (healthy organizational culture), and where we are now (our current organizational culture).
Before we move on, take some time to celebrate the healthy areas in your current culture. Rarely is one organization’s culture wholly bad or wholly good. Every church and ministry has areas of weakness and growth areas, just like every Christian leader. We’re not looking for perfection, but growth.
So let’s dig into how we get from where we are to where we want to go — the process of building healthy culture.
“Everyone can and should participate in building leaders!”
Who Are You Building?
Aside from the Four Dynamic model we use at LeaderSource (and have talked about many, many times), there are two key points here to keep in mind as you approach your organizational culture:
Personally build a few leaders, who will then build leaders.
Nurture a culture of people-building across the life of your organization.
Applying the Four Dynamics within these two roles is how you get to be an expert at using them.
When he encountered this paradigm shift from leading an organization to building leaders within it, one of the pastors we worked with in India had some profound insights.
“The training compelled me to see myself very clearly as I assessed the growth of my church. It helped me realize that the growth of a church depends heavily on the faithfulness, diligence, sincerity, and scriptural depth of its leaders. I recognized my shortcomings in many areas, and it motivated me to deepen my ministry.
… As a pastor, I often find myself focusing too much on programs, events, and outreach missions, neglecting the essential task of building up church members. We tend to be program-oriented, driven by annual events. While these activities are for the benefit of church members, we often miss the most crucial aspect. … Church ministry needs balance, and in everything we do, we must evaluate how effectively we are building and molding the saints in the Lord and equipping them.The training also helped me realize that very few members are actively functioning within the church. It is not the members’ fault, but rather my own failure as a leader to recognize and develop their potential. This training opened my eyes to the fact that many members possess diverse gifts. My task in ministry is to identify these gifts, build up the members, and enable them to function as God intended.”
It’s notable that this pastor realized his responsibility — and failure as a leader — to build the culture of his church. The tendency in us as leaders is to fix things outside of us instead of our own selves. Often, we have the power to do so and can go on avoiding the real problem in us. But even just a slight willingness to listen and humble ourselves can lead to deep change.
We must step outside the events and programs long enough to see ourselves and our organization as we really are. Then we must step back into the fray, with an eye not to maintaining our own control over things, but to building the next generation of leaders. This will release the latent giftings and innovations and willpower we long to see from our young leaders.
What About You?
We’re getting at building emerging leaders here, so of course the question comes up: who are you building?
Name two or three leaders you are personally building right now. If you don’t have any names, whose name can you add within a month?
Look at how you allocate your time this week. How much time are you spending with people vs. on ministry work?
Who does your organization build, and how? Keep in mind that this doesn’t just involve knowledge flow, but relational depth, challenging assignments, and fellowship with God.
Let us know what you plan to do next in the comments, or any ways you’ve been building people in your organization that have been especially effective.
Recommended Resources
Story: A Conversation with Three Generations about Succession
Video Training: Succession Means Passing on the Treasure
Video Course: Shaping a Culture of Generational Succession
Model Brief: LeaderStream
Article: God’s Vision for the Generations
For more resources, visit our website.
We’re so grateful to our friends at Fifty-Four Collective for helping us create these videos and for providing top-notch leader development online training. Check out what they’re doing!