Church-based Leadership

This page focuses on the nature and practices of leadership in the church, which is a subset of faithful pastoral ministry. In other words, a pastor/elder/overseer (which is one office in the New Testament) carries diverse responsibilities—only one of which is leadership as defined below. Whether you have the spiritual gift of leadership or not (Rom. 12:8), the information below will stimulate healthy dialogue within your team and help you to lead more effectively—both individually and together.

The Nature of Church-based Leadership

Leadership is the process by which someone influences one or more people to achieve common goals (Leadership by Hughes et al.).

Church-based leadership is the process by which God moves in and through a Christian to influence others to accomplish God’s purposes (including service, evangelism, discipleship, developing leaders, and loving God above all) in and through a local church, using God’s Word as the guide.

Practices of Church Leadership

1. Love and Obey God

Nothing is more important for a leader, both in the short-term and the long-term, than striving to love and obey God. Our ultimate motivation should be to worship God, because he is worth it. But on a practical level, we must consistently remind ourselves that nothing can damage our families and ministries faster than a refusal to turn from our sins and trust in Jesus.

Answering questions like these will help you to turn away from idols and turn toward God and his people:

2. Be a Lifelong Learner

Growing in your ability to lead those in your church does not happen quickly. Instead, your leadership ability develops over a lifetime. Your personal learning will not only help your teaching of God’s Word and decision making, but it will also be the very thing that attracts other leaders to you and makes them want to follow you. Learners attract learners.

Books and resources like these are worth reading and re-reading to stretch your leadership categories and capacities:

3. Preserve the Truths of Christianity AND Adapt to Different Cultures (including our own subcultures)

Jim Collins and Jerry Porras popularized a concept called “Preserve the Core / Stimulate Progress” in their book Built to Last. They describe great organizations: “On the one hand, they have a set of timeless core values and purpose that remain constant over time. On the other hand, they have a relentless drive for progress—change, improvement, innovation, and renewal. Great organizations keep clear the difference between their core values (which never change), and operating strategies and cultural practices (which endlessly adapt to a changing world).”

But those ideas hardly began with them. The apostle Paul wrote:

“19 Although I am free from all and not anyone’s slave, I have made myself a slave to everyone, in order to win more people. 20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win Jews; to those under the law, like one under the law—though I myself am not under the law—to win those under the law. 21 To those who are without the law, like one without the law—though I am not without God’s law but under the law of Christ—to win those without the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, in order to win the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that I may by every possible means save some. 23 Now I do all this because of the gospel, so that I may share in the blessings” (1 Cor. 9:19–23).

The parts of the passage above in bold reflect Paul’s “preservation of the truths of Christianity,” which included his efforts to “win people” to Christ, living under “the law of Christ,” and his commitment to “the gospel” of Jesus Christ. The rest of the passage outlines his willingness to adapt to his surroundings: becoming like a Jew, becoming like one under the Mosaic Law, becoming like one outside the Mosaic Law, and becoming “weak” (those who are not socially elite and/or have a weak conscience)—to win as many to Christ as he could.

Those are two of the most important lessons for the church—preserve the truths of Christianity AND stimulate progress by adapting to our culture.

Preserve the Truths of Christianity

  • What truths in Scripture must we affirm and preserve regardless of our cultural surroundings (e.g., the deity of Christ and justification by faith alone)?

  • How can we keep help others to learn the nature and importance of those truths?

Adapt to Different Cultures

  • Where might we have preferences regarding how we do things but they are not central to the Christian faith (e.g., like having a choir or meeting at a certain time of the day)?Where are we willing to adapt as we serve those within our church’s culture (e.g., length of meetings, times of meetings, location of meetings, & music style)?

  • Where are we willing to adapt as we serve those outside our church?

4. Repeatedly Ask and Answer Your Church’s Most Important Questions (MIQ’s)

Whether we are consciously aware of it or not, we are always asking and answering questions throughout the day, such as “What is the best way to introduce my lesson?” or “How will I approach tonight’s counseling appointment?” or “What will we serve our kids for dinner?” We ask and answer dozens or hundreds of important questions each day. However, without minimizing the questions we ask and answer, the best Christian leaders are able to seek answers to their churches’ most important questions (MIQ’s).

There is no such thing as an authoritative list of questions for church leaders to ask and answer. However, categories and questions like the ones below are always important precisely because they are tied to explicit or implicit commands in Scripture. We believe church leaders must wrestle through the following categories and questions to effectively pursue Jesus’s purposes for his church. The questions below are useful for guiding discussion within elder boards and with other leaders in your church. As the months and years go by, strive to ensure that ALL your leaders know how to answer these questions in accordance with your church’s unified vision.

Life in Community

  • What is the primary context where we want our congregants to live out the vision of passages such as Acts 2:42–47; 4:32–37; 20:7; 1 Cor. 11:17–34; Heb. 10:19–25? Yes, the people of God participate in those activities in both public and private settings, and certainly other passages come to mind. But that question and those passages generate excellent discussion within leadership teams to discern what they want to do and where they want to accomplish it. Within our network, the primary (though not exclusive) context where we live out those passages is neighborhood house churches, including the relationships (with both Christians and our non-Christian neighbors) that express themselves throughout the week (Heb. 3:13).

  • How do we want to structure those meetings?

  • What are the mechanisms that support our vision for “life in community”? See the questions below.

Evangelism Training

  • What are our church’s strategies for serving our neighbors?

  • What are our strategies for sharing the gospel with our neighbors?

  • What is the relationship between house churches and helping our neighbors to know God? More specifically, what role does a weekly meal have in our outreach strategy? What role does the Lord’s Supper have in our evangelistic strategy (1 Cor. 11:26)?

  • How did the apostles talk to non-Christians about God the Father prior to explaining how to know him personally (Acts 14:15–17; 17:22–31)? What is sin and what are its consequences (Jer. 2:1–13; Rom. 1:18–32; 3:9–20)? What is the gospel (1 Cor. 15:1–11)? How does someone become a Christian (Acts 20:21; Eph. 2:8–9)?

  • How will we equip our elders, other leaders, and the rest of the congregation to answer those questions clearly and concisely?

Discipleship Training

  • Is there an identifiable body of teaching (particularly, though not exclusively from Jesus and his apostles) that God expects us to pass on to others? If so, how do we summarize this “sound doctrine” or “the apostles’ teaching” as an accessible body of truth for the purposes of teaching God’s people?

  • How and where will we train our people to know, embrace, and share “the apostles’ teaching” (see here for our curriculum)—passing it on from one generation to the next?

Leadership Training

  • What is our approach to leadership development in the church (see here for ideas)—including equipping (a) current and aspiring elders and (b) other leaders in the church?

  • With those answers in mind, how and where will we equip leaders for new and existing initiatives (see here for our curriculum)?

Biblical and Theological Commitments

  • What truths do we consistently need to proclaim, explain, and apply so that our congregants will never merely assume those truths (e.g., the mission of the church and the gospel)?

  • For each truth we identified, what is our plan for strengthening our congregants’ understanding of and submission to that truth so they can pass it along to the next generation?

The Ages, Stages, and Roles of the Christian Life

  • How can we encourage those who do not fit into a typical family structure (single but never married, divorced, or widowed)?

  • What role does the family play in our discipleship strategies?

  • How can we equip men to lead their families, treat their family members with dignity and respect, AND serve them sacrificially?

  • How can we equip women to make disciples of Jesus in and through their own families and networks?

  • How can we equip parents to raise their children to know and love God?

  • How can we equip children to love God and obey their parents?

Habits for Christian Growth within Our Congregation

  • How are we educating and encouraging our congregants in the private habits for Christian growth (such as Bible intake, prayer, and fasting)?

  • How are we educating and encouraging our congregants in the public habits for Christian growth (such gathering together in larger and smaller groups, taking the Lord’s Supper, studying and applying God’s Word together, praying together, and confessing their sins to one another)?

Other Categories and Questions that are Important to You and Your Leadership Team (?)

5. Model the Way

Leadership experts James Kouzes and Barry Posner outline the importance of “modeling the way” for our followers (The Leadership Challenge). From their perspective, this requires that we both clarify our values AND set the example. As it relates to clarifying our values, we need to determine what activities are most important to us and therefore how we will spend our time. Therefore, one of the most important things a church leader can do is to write out his or her values, such as:

  • “I values identifying and developing leaders to lead new and existing initiatives.”

  • “I value the importance of prayer and fasting, both privately and publicly.”

  • “I value experiencing community in the context of homes.”

  • “I value serving my neighbors and sharing the gospel with them.”

For each of those values (or commitments) we identify, we consider if our actions align with our professed value system. We also highlight those areas where our values align with those of our followers, precisely to retain and attract individuals who share a similar approach to advancing the gospel in the world.

As it relates to setting the example, we must live out the shared values, not only with our words but also with our actions. So if we say that we value men and women sharing meals together in the context of homes, then that is precisely what we need to do in a home. Or if we say we value developing men to start house churches, then we need to carve out enough time to meet with them regularly.

We also teach others to model the values we collectively affirm. For example, in light of Hebrews 3:13, if we value connecting with the members of our house church during the week, that is what we should encourage other house church leaders to do as well.

6. Lead Your Leaders, at Least in Part, as a “Privileged Learner”

Researchers identify different ways that leaders exert influence on their followers—by a leader’s position or formal authority in the organization, through giving positive and negative consequences, through relational care and concern, and through their expertise.

While each of those approaches has its legitimate place, one of the most powerful ways to position ourselves as leaders is as a “privileged learner” with our followers. We are “learners” because there is always more to learn, and communicating to others that we have little left to learn is one of the fastest ways to undermine our ability to influence them. But we are also “privileged” as learners since we should not pretend that we have nothing to teach our followers. We are lifelong learners AND we are further down the leadership path with much to offer those we lead.

So, yes, we do have legitimate, God-given authority. But as we lead teams of leaders (such as elders) and individuals (such as those who have recently started a house church), we can frame the relationship as one in which we are learning together. One of the most practical things we can do is to consistently read books and articles with the teams and the individuals we lead.

7. Establish Organizational Goals within Specific Time Frames

There are many different time frames within which a leader can envision and discuss the future. The key is to balance praying and thinking about the future along a continuum—FROM longer-term desires or instincts about the future TO shorter-term objectives:

  • Ten Years (with a focus on broad pictures of how your church will serve its current and future constituencies in light of cultural trends)

  • Three Years

  • One Year

  • Ninety Days

Elder boards should help the senior leader to think about the longer time frames, while still holding the leader accountable to achieve shorter-term goals. Every ninety days, each of these four time frames roll forward: the fourfold framework resets, and you can rethink your organizational outcomes in each of those categories, however briefly or intensively it seems warranted.

8. Implement Your Plans for Each of the Time Frames

For each of the time frames listed above, what are one to four organizational goals we can pursue:

  • Ten Years (one or two broad goals)

  • Three Years (three or four broad goals)

  • One Year (one or two main goals)

  • 90 Days (three or four main goals)

For more information about crafting and pursuing organizational goals, see books like God Dreams (chapters 11 through 17), The Four Disciplines of Execution, and Execution.

9. Assess and Evaluate Your Key Initiatives

Though pastors have much to teach individuals across the full spectrum of vocations (whether factory workers, doctors, or teachers), educational experts have much to offer pastors. Some of the most important questions that educators ask are these:

  • What educational objectives are we trying to accomplish in a given context (whether those objectives relate to students’ desires, values, thoughts, words, or behaviors)?

  • How can we assess what our students know both before and after we educate them?

  • In light of our educational objectives and our assessment of learning, what adjustments do we need to make to the strategies and content of our teaching?

Questions like those may sound theoretical until we apply that way of thinking to our ministries. For example:

  • What educational objectives are we trying to accomplish when we are training our leaders? When our congregants gather in house churches? When our congregants meet one-on-one?

  • To illustrate, how effective was a particular Bible lesson at facilitating life change in our congregants (on that day, during that week, or months from now)? How would we know?

  • Without micromanaging the learning process, what changes can we make to ensure enhanced learning? For example, how can we encourage our congregants to apply what they learn after they meet in their respective house churches?

10. Encourage and Express Appreciation for Your Followers

First, we affirm those who are engaged in the process of serving others on a consistent basis. There are many people who faithfully serve others every week, often behind the scenes, often with little recognition. For example, it may be tempting to lose sight of those who educate our children so faithfully on a weekly basis, but it is not sufficient to merely honor them at the end of the year. When leaders express appreciation for their followers and include gentle encouragement “to keep going” for the glory of God and the good of others, followers feel valued and are better able to understand the part they plan in making disciples of Jesus.

Second, we affirm those who have made noticeable progress—particularly when they have achieved significant accomplishments. Leaders should celebrate when their followers hit certain milestones that are, well, worth celebrating. Examples include rejoicing when someone gets baptized, encouraging a group that starts a new neighborhood house church, or publicly welcoming and praying for a a man who just joined your elder team.

In all these instances, the best leaders are quite generous in dishing out both private and public encouragement. Followers notice, and they want to keep going all the more.

Questions for Reflection and Discussion

  1. The Nature of Church Leadership

    How would you define each of the following in your own words: leadership and church-based leadership? After you share your answers, give one another feedback—anything you would add to, subtract from, or modify in your definitions?

  2. The Practices of Church Leadership

    For each of the ten areas below, consider and discuss the following questions:

    • What concepts can you usefully apply to your life as an individual?

    • What concepts can you use to lead others more effectively?

    1. Love and Obey God

    2. Be a Lifelong Learner

    3. Preserve the Truths of Christianity AND Adapt to Different Cultures

    4. Repeatedly Ask and Answer Your Church’s Most Important Questions (MIQ’s)

    5. Model the Way

    6. Lead Your Leaders, at Least in Part, as a “Privileged Learner”

    7. Establish Organizational Goals within Specific Time Frames

    8. Implement Your Plans for Each of the Time Frames

    9. Assess and Evaluate Your Key Initiatives

    10. Encourage and Expression Appreciation for Your Followers