Leadership and Equipping

Ephesians 4:11-12

"Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ."

Some church leaders act as though they are God’s gift to the church for their own notoriety and glory.  I have heard pastors defensively say, “This is my vision and no one is taking it from me.”  These men are driven by passion and vision, but crippled by insecurity and a failure to understand that their greatest responsibility is to equip an army of people to fulfill the vision God has placed on their heart for reaching and transforming the world.

God has a vision for his church and imparts that vision to pastor/teachers so that they can lead and train (equip) God’s people (the saints) to do His work (seek and save the lost . . . Luke 19:10) and build up the Body of Christ.  No one owns God’s vision, we are only stewards of it.  That means no one can steal it.  Being a steward involves investment in those God sent you to equip.  It involves feeding them, shepherding them (leading) and encouraging them.

Five signs that you might be lopsided in your equipping and leading:

1.  The leadership team is limited to a few individuals who are to act as insulation between the lead pastor, staff and other leaders.

2.  There is no platform or tolerance for strategic ideas from other leaders that challenge the ideas of the lead pastor.

3.  Anger and frustration begin to permeate the messages from the platform.

4.  There is a high turnover of talented staff who become frustrated (lack of utilization) and burned out (lack of investment) in ministry.

5.  Stagnation of growth is blamed on others and their loss of vision, loyalty or lack of engagement (unequipped) rather than a failure of leadership.

God is building His church and has called pastors to shepherd and equip it.  It all rises and falls on leadership and leadership's greatest responsibility is to invest in others (equip).