Bringing New Leaders up to Speed

In 1975 I served as the pioneer pastor of a new church. From our mother church, a large congregation with a long heritage, we inherited about fifty people and some experienced leaders. Although this was my first pastorate, those leaders and I worked fairly well together. Frankly, I couldn’t understand other pastors’ complaints about troublesome board members. Working with leaders wasn’t so tough!

Four years later, however, all board members, who were now fully experienced, rotated off the board because of constitutional requirements. We started year five with an entirely new set of leaders. Most were fairly new Christians and inexperienced at church leadership.

I felt the difference immediately. The new leaders thought they needed to straighten out what the earlier leaders had done. Leading our council meetings was like driving with the brakes on. There was always an edge to things.

One November day I decided to visit a member’s home. I knocked on the door, and when it opened I found not only the person I came to visit but two of our deacons and another lay person from the church. Spread out on the table, I saw to my astonishment, were some of the church books, minutes, and other confidential papers.

I asked what they were doing. After a bit of stuttering and stammering, I was told they had some concerns about the way certain things were going in the church. They told me they had planned to call and ask me to come over to settle a few things.

At that point, it was obvious that settling their concerns was not only a good idea but essential. I called a man in the church to come serve as a witness to our conversation.

That night we talked for several hours, fairly calmly considering the circumstances, but little was resolved. By February, when the church again elected leaders, three of the four board members had resigned. The previous leaders had been off a year, and constitutionally they could again be elected. A serious crisis was averted, but all of us learned from the experience.

I’d learned that new leaders can change everything. I decided then to develop a plan to bring them up to speed.

FIRST GEAR: BRIEFING

People with no experience in church leadership generally have low expectations about their church responsibilities. So to get new leaders up to speed, I must help them understand from the start–not when a problem arises–what I expect from them and what they can expect from me. Here’s how I do that.

Interview before nomination. I interview potential nominees to our leadership council before we allow the nomination committee to put up their names for election. And I’ve learned I need to ask questions I might assume are unnecessary.

In one interview the man under consideration had cleared every hurdle with ease. He had sterling character and ability. For some reason, toward the end of the interview, I asked, almost as an aside, if he had any controlling habits.

To my surprise he admitted that he had been smoking (though had just quit). He had suffered a reversal in his business and reverted to his cigarette habit.

I suggested that this indicated he was experiencing significant stress.

“It might not be a good idea for you to become a deacon this year,” I said, “but let’s make it a goal for you to stabilize your life and be off cigarettes in a year, and we’ll reconsider you then.”

In one year he did become a deacon and served effectively for four years and now as an elder for another four.

Interview candidate and spouse. In our pre-nomination interviews, a senior church leader and I meet with the husband and wife together (if the person is married). By that time we feel they are qualified, and they know the purpose of the interview. The interview lasts from thirty minutes to an hour. We’re friendly but serious, because we want to communicate how important church leadership is. We sit around a table at church, not in a restaurant where there will be interruptions.

I slowly read to them the relevant passage from 1 Timothy and ask if this describes them. I then ask the spouse if this describes his or her partner. I’ll ask how stable their marriage is, whether they have prayer and devotions as a family, and how their children are doing. I quiz them about church membership issues, doctrinal matters, personal finances, personal Bible study, and their giving to our church and missions.

“Suppose something doesn’t go the way you’d like during a leadership meeting,” I’ll ask. “What would be your response? Would you be willing to support the decision of the group?”

Then we discuss time commitments. I ask if they are prepared to continue to attend worship regularly, to participate in prayer meetings and other special meetings. One key question: “How much time do you think it will take each week to be a good deacon?”

No one is perfect. But if people are going through a difficult time with their marriage or having more than the usual challenges raising their kids, we do them no service to nominate them as leaders.

This whole process may sound intimidating, but people tell me later that it was at this interview they realized the seriousness of church leadership. Leadership is about servanthood and responsibility, not prestige.

Agree to key principles. Church leaders need to agree on how they will work together. At the first meeting of the new leaders, I present our “leadership covenant,” the principles we have followed as leaders in the past. We discuss it point by point, pausing after each to see if everyone can agree to it. I let them know that, just as at a marriage ceremony, I want them to speak now or forever hold their peace.

I say things like “We need to be acquainted with those in the church, especially with the needs of the widows, the legitimately poor, and those who are out of work. Could we all agree to keep our eyes and ears open for that?

“If I’m going to be out of town, I will always notify you. You won’t come to church and find I delegated the service to an assistant pastor. I will always let you know well ahead so that you will not only appear informed but also be informed. I’m asking you to do the same. If you’re going to miss a service, I would like you to call me and let me know. Can we agree to that?”

This covenant is not a surprise. Most of this has been covered in our pre-nomination interview, so they have had plenty of time to consider whether they can agree. If anything, I want to overstate my expectations.

Occasionally someone says he can’t fulfill one of the points. Two of our men, for example, commute a long distance to our church, and getting to our 8:00 A.m. Saturday prayer meeting is hard. Given those circumstances I encourage them to come as often as they can.

SECOND GEAR: PERFORMANCE

It’s not enough to agree to the covenant. Once the agreement is made, I have to monitor performance.

Take note of broken promises. One summer, about every fourth Sunday, a deacon called one of the other elders and said, “Tell the pastor I can’t come tonight.” Supper had burned or he was taking a motorbike trip or he got caught meeting his daughter’s boyfriend’s parents or …

At first I let it go. I have a saying: Once is a mistake, twice is a coincidence, and three times is a pattern.

Finally I picked up the phone. “I missed you Sunday night,” I said. “I need you here. You’re my right-hand man. You’ve got to quit taking off whenever you want.”

We had a good talk. He was honest; I was honest. I wasn’t a heavy, and he seemed to understand. (By the way, this man is now one of our most committed leaders.)

If our leaders’ covenant is going to have any meaning, I have to confront people in love and with understanding when they fail to follow through. If I don’t, that pattern probably will never be broken.

Pace the performance. We assign an elder or deacon of the week. Like doctors on call, leaders work hard and invest extra time for a week, but then they are off, so they don’t get burned out.

We have five deacons, so they’re on one week and off five. The week they’re on, I brief them on what they will be doing on Sunday and any other tasks I’m aware of for the week ahead.

On Sunday they have responsibilities in each service, such as leading in prayer or giving the announcements. They arrive thirty minutes before church on Sunday morning, work with me and the staff until the end of the second service, and help close the building. Then they help in the evening service. Having leaders up front enhances their office in the eyes of the congregation.

During the week, if I make hospital visits or see a shut-in, I’ll often take them with me. They may handle other emergencies that arise. Not only are the deacons helping minister, we get to know each other better, and they can see what ministry is about.

THIRD GEAR: TEAM SPIRIT

The greatest danger facing new leaders is to fall into disunity. I tell new leaders that unity is job one; if we don’t have it, we won’t get any other job done. Here are some of the ways we help new leaders pick up on our team spirit.

Give weight to a leader’s vote. In general, new leaders will learn to seek unity when the decision making system rewards unity. At the outset I say our aim is for full agreement in all decisions. If even one leader feels strongly against something, we wait for a month. If the leader still has objections, we wait another month, or however long it takes until we have a unanimous spirit.

Does that give new leaders too much power? Can one person be an obstructionist? Yes, but I tell them, “If you feel strongly about an issue, God may be speaking through you; but if God is not speaking through you, you could be holding up what God wants to do today. So you better pray hard about it.”

I’ve never seen anybody use the vote merely to hold up the rest of the group.

Warn of initiation rites. Every church has dissenters.

One older man in our church doesn’t believe in tithing. He buttonholes every new leader when they start and drills into them his opinion on tithing.

His aggressiveness upsets some of the new leaders. “I always thought this guy was such a wonderful man,” some have said.

We tell them the confrontation is standard. In fact we’ve kidded about it: “Have you gotten initiated yet? If he hasn’t gotten to you yet, you aren’t really in.”

Other behind-the-scenes happenings can disconcert a new leader. I warn them ahead of time that people will disappoint them, that they will not be able to come to church with the bliss of not knowing so-and-so has a marital problem or another person is vigorously critical of some church policy. Conflict can knock new leaders for a loop.

It’s like a tourist at Disney World who then gets a job there and goes behind the scenes. Enjoying the show at the Magic Kingdom is totally different from seeing workers putting on their makeup and memorizing lines.

So I discuss Matthew 18 with leaders. “Here’s my promise to you,” I say. “If I have a problem with you, you won’t hear about it through somebody else; you’ll hear it straight from me. I want you to do the same for me. And I will give you the benefit of the doubt because I’m probably the one who didn’t understand or who miscommunicated.”

Sometimes people will come to me with a complaint about a leader. I will always stand up for the leader. I may later talk to the leader in private about something, but I will support the person before others. If I expect leaders to support me, I’ve got to support them.

I coach new leaders that when people come to them to criticize the pastor, they should not accept it. They should interrupt a detractor and say, “Excuse me, but you’re talking to the wrong person. You need to go talk to the pastor. I guarantee you he will give you a good hearing. If he doesn’t, I’ll go with you next time.”

Be sure to minister to leaders’ spouses. During a leader’s first year, I try to keep abreast of how things are going at home. I can’t compete with the last voice an elder or deacon hears every night. If the spouse isn’t on our side, we’re in trouble. A leader’s spouse makes significant sacrifices, so I’m careful to tell the spouse things like “I want you to know how much we appreciate your loaning your spouse to us.”

In a recent leaders’ meeting at my home, we invited all the spouses, and I gave a gift to each one: a gift certificate to the local shopping mall. “I’m giving you this gift,” I said, “to show you we appreciate the sacrifice you make for your spouse to serve as a leader. If his serving in the church ever causes a family problem, come and see me, because we don’t want to do anything that will hurt your family.”

FOURTH GEAR: EXPERIENCE

The chairman of a bank was retiring, and a young man he had mentored asked him, “In a nutshell, how did you become a success in the business world?”

“That’s easy,” the retiring chairman said. “I made good decisions.”

The young man nodded. “But how did you learn to make good decisions?”

“Experience,” replied the old man.

“Where did you get the experience?”

The old man paused a moment, pursed his lips, and said, “I made bad decisions.”

New leaders in church will never get past second gear if they aren’t given the opportunity to make mistakes and learn from them.

One way, then, that we speed the growth of new leaders is to be patient as they try new responsibilities and keep giving them jobs even after they have failed.

One of our new leaders gave announcements during worship. He did great in the first service. But in the second service, he could hardly remember his own name. Afterward he told me, “I was easygoing in the first service, but I got nervous as all get-out in the second. Will I get over that?”

“No,” I said. “I’ve been doing this for twenty-five years, and I still get butterflies. But you learn how to think straight even though you have butterflies. It’ll come to you, Don’t sweat it; you did okay.”

I once took a young leader with me to the hospital to visit a woman who had cancer. She was a real character who had been taking chemo and had lost all her hair. She had five wigs sitting on foam heads in her room. Another wig was askew on top of her head.

As we walked in, she said in her best show-and-tell voice, “Oh, Pastor, have you seen my colostomy bag?”

I said, “No, but I’m sure Bob would like to.” Before I could say another word, she ripped back the sheets and showed him her bag.

Bob grabbed his mouth and ran into the hall.

He never came back.

The lady kept asking, “Where’s Bob?”

“He’s new at this,” I said.

When I finished my visit, I found Bob in the lobby. “Is it always like this?” he moaned.

“Every day, Bob, every day. Let’s go, buddy, we’ve got another visit to make.”

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R. Steven Warner is pastor of Maranatha Chapel in Evergreen Park, Illinois.