May 2007
Leadership Development Ideas
Strive for a Well-Balanced Leadership Team
How do you build a successful leadership team of men to oversee the church’s ministry to men? Our experience has shown that when the success of your men’s ministry rests on the shoulders of just one guy, it’s headed for failure.
Our first piece of advice: consider using a co-leadership model, where the leadership of your men’s ministry – and the men’s council – is shared between two men. Ideally, the two men’s gifts and skills should complement one another. It is a model that works well, especially if these men are lay leaders, because the responsibilities don’t rest with just one person. When one is in a busy season of life, the other can pick up the slack, and the ministry can continue to move forward. And it’s biblical. Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, 12 says:
“Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work; if one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!...Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken."
As you seek to round out the rest of your leadership team – the men’s council – consider having men that possess the following different skills and gifts:
- A visionary – one who can guide discussion and think long-term
- A strategist – one who can help the team figure out the “how” of moving plans forward
- An administrator – one who will keep the team on-task with agendas and documentation
- A communicator – one who is comfortable with email, newsletter creation, or overseeing phone calling efforts
- A person high on mercy & serving – one who can balance the team’s task-oriented perspective by helping to highlight the relational implications of decisions and plans and remind about the “whys” of ministry
- A mature believer/spiritual mentor – one with the gift of discernment and who has walked the road with Christ for awhile, bringing Scripture immediately to bear and offering God’s wisdom
- A leader/organizer – one who knows a lot of guys and is able to motivate them to get involved and rally a team to accomplish a goal
Remember: you may find that these skills or gifts will be combined in a single person; so it doesn’t mean you need one person to play each separate role, especially if your church is smaller. Just seek balance as you build your leadership team - your men’s ministry will be healthier if you do.
Read the other articles in this issue:
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