Home Leadership, Leadership, Leadership! - Issue #62

Leadership, Leadership, Leadership! - Issue #62

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A theme that is very evident in the individual responses of the Romans 12 congregations, is the importance of leadership. Here are a few of the comments about specific ways in which congregations develop and nurture leaders.

The leadership teams are empowered to enact ministries that promote the mission, vision, and core values of our church; and they do so very effectively.

We have a three year term for our leaders. This is very crucial because it provides more people with a chance to participate and brings forth new ideas.

Our ministry team encourages our members to attend the "Walk to Emmaus" which helps to promote leadership in the local church.

The spiritual development of those in the church is a responsibility that our leadership takes very seriously. They are very proactive in helping us discover how God is calling us to serve rather than just looking for volunteers to serve in ministries or on "committees."

Our leadership team operates on a consensus basis–we don't move until we reach a point of consensus and unity. There is a real permission-giving attitude from the top levels of leadership. This begins with our pastors.

This is not a staff-driven church, although the way we do ministry is certainly progressive. We not only encourage but equip the laity to take on many of the leadership/service/care roles in the church.

The traditional committee structure no longer works because it is task driven and discipleship happens through relationship. We have created a leadership board that functions similarly to a corporate board of directors and does not micro-manage, and replaced committees with teams, each with a called leader and servants who follow that lead. Our structure has a high level of accountability from the top down.


Some Questions for Discussion

  • When people talked about leadership, accountability, consensus, equip, and teams were frequently repeated words. How do these words relate to leadership in your congregation?

  • How does your congregation intentionally identify and nurture leaders?

Deb Smith is Director of Best Practices at the Discipleship Ministries. She can be reached at [email protected].

In 2007 church leaders throughout The United Methodist Church in the U.S. were invited to identify churches that demonstrated the vision of discipleship described in the twelfth chapter of Romans. Over 200 churches were surveyed or visited. Issue #62. © 2010 Discipleship Ministries. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to copy this page for use in United Methodist congregations.


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