A Word From Abby!

I love to write.I love Jesus so much,I have been baptized.I know GOD IS REAL!

Evaluate and Encourage

I have decided to lump the next two leadership essentials together, because for me, they seem to go hand in hand. The next two essentials come in the areas of evaluation and encouragement. I believe that the single area that most leaders seem to disregard is in effectively evaluating the things under your umbrella of leadership. Many roads seem to be paved with great intentions, yet we struggle in follow through. I must admit, I’m very guilty of this at times. Sitting on my desk, not three feet from me, are two partial manuscripts for books that I have been working on. Now, before you congratulate me, let me tell you that these two manuscripts have been a, shall we say, “work in progress” for at least three years. Great in my intentions, poor in the follow through. For those of you who know me well, this may not surprise you, but also on my desk are nine, yes nine, books. And sticking out of each book is one of my business cards (glad I found a good use for them at least), marking my progress in reading that book. “Leading the Comeback Church” by David F. Nixon, card stuck on page 90, yet the book has 154 pages. Warren W. Wiersbe’s “On Being A Servant of God”, card on page 29 of a 140 page book. Bill Hybel’s “Living in God’s Power”, card on page 64 of a 94 page book. I’d go on, but I think you get the point. Now, let’s put this same mentality into our leadership and what do we get: Dreams half lived, projects half done, and yes, two books half written. Leaders, from time to time, we need to evaluate where we are, where we have been, and where we are heading. What areas have we seen through to completion? How many dreams have become realities? I’m sure there are a number on your list that have been completed, and for that you should sit back, smile and thank those that helped it come about. But for all those other things, you know, the things that have little business cards stuck in them marking their failed progress; it might be time for a little leadership encouragement. A great football coach will tell you that they seem to get the best out of their players when they offer them a little praise and encouragement. A car that has set in the driveway for a year may need a jump start to get the battery going, but once you do, it can take you places again. All it needed was a little encouragement. Same goes for your leadership tasks. Don’t give up on them. Evaluate, encourage and then get back in the race.

Enlisting Others

One of the most vital areas for a leader comes in the enlistment of others. Dr. John Maxwell claims one of the most important aspects for any leader comes in the developing of other leaders around you. As a leader, it is of the utmost importance who you surround yourself with, who you enlist to be part of the ministry. Let me give you some quick advice on the enlistment of others. When enlisting others to become leaders as well, look for one defining trait: PASSION! First, especially in ministry setting, make sure they have a passion for Christ. This can be seen in several areas: their study habits, prayer life, devotion to worship and the church, their involvement in the various ministries of the church, etc. Enlist people that are passionate about their walk with the Lord, and are not afraid to share that passion with others. Second, enlist people who have a passion for excellence. A true leaders can see the vision, can implement a stregetic plan to accomplish the vision, and will not rest until the vision has reached fruition. A true leader is passionate that the outcome be the best that it can be, and willing to sacrifice to see this come about. Third, enlist people who have a passion for teamwork. Far too many leaders strive to stand on the hill alone. I've often said, a leader with noone following is no leader at all, he is simply a wanderer. Enlist people who are good at working together as a team. There is strength in numbers, and have a group of people on the same page can accomplish so much more than one man alone on the hill. Enlist people are team players. And finally, enlist people who have a passion for positive results. Have you ever met someone who was great in the vision but poor in the follow through? A vision without follow through is nothing more than an unrealistic dream. A true leader does not stop half-way, but is willing to stay for the long haul, to see the vision come to completion.
So you see, the best means at which to be an effective leader is to enlist others who are passionate to be part of the vision. Who you enlist can and will have a great affect on the outcome. ENLIST CAREFULLY!!!

Energizing and Encouraging

The next step for leaders is to energize your people. Let me tell you, the very best way to energize your people is with one simple word: ENCOURAGEMENT! Studies in the work place have shown that employees work harder and with much greater motivation when encouraged and praise instead of discouraged and reprimanded. I believe the same is true within the body of Christ. Trust me, I’m a church leader, and it becomes real easy to “shame” the people into a ministry, and even easier to fuss when things are not going as you would have hoped. For many years in ministry, I struggled with the area of handing ministries off to other capable leaders within the church, simply because I wasn’t sure they could perform the task as well as I would want them to do. And someone finally got my attention by reminding me that I was hindering some people from using their gifts and talents and receiving the joy that they could have by their personal involvement.
On the other side of the coin, there are a lot of ministry leaders in the church who are simply not giving 100% to their calling. I know this as well as you do, and yes, it can be frustrating. So what do you do? Fire them from their position and replace them with someone else? Call them into your office and ask them to shape up? Bring someone along side them to hopefully “take over” the task? Sadly enough, this is many of our responses, however, let me offer another suggestion. Try being an encourager. Let me give you some phrases that should dominate a leader’s talk:
Thank You
Good Job
You are doing an AWESOME job
You ministry is so important
What can I do to make your job easier
You are such an asset to our ministry
Thank you for being apart of the team
ETC. ETC. ETC

You will never know how far a little encouragement may go in the lives of others, but I guarantee you, you will see productivity increase as praise increases. Be an encourager, a motivator, an ENERGIZER!

Empowerment

A fourth must for all leaders comes in the area of empowering others. We must provide opportunities for people to use the gifts the Lord has given them. For me, one of the most frustrating periods of minsitry came very early, when I was still a youth pastor. A few miles away from the church was a large, multi-housing complex. On a monthly basis, someone would bring up the need for the church to have a strong presence within the complex. In fact, for probably 6 months straight, we talked about the needs and the number of people that could be impacted for the Kingdom of God if we would begin some ministries to meet the needs of those living there. Finally, we even put together a ministry team to "look into the exact needs" that were at the apartment complex. Another six months later, at yet another business meeting, someone asked again if we had ever made any ministry plans. The chairmain of the ministry committee was out that night, so we decided to "check with them and get a report the next month". The next month, the ministry team that had been put together seven months earlier reported that, "we have not come to any definite decisions yet". To my knowledge, that was the last time anyone mentioned ministry at the apartment complex just two miles away from the church. Now, how does this story relate to leadership? Very simply, no one, not even the pastor, would take the initiative to begin the new ministry. Oh, we saw the need, talked about the need, and even did the good ole Baptist thing of creating a committee to see to the needs, yet no one ever stood up and simply said, "let's do it".
Leader, let me ask you a question. How many great ministry ideas have fallen by the wayside, simply because no one took the initiative to get the ball rolling. We must be about empowering others, and I've learned, empowerment does not come in talk, it comes in action. The only thing worse for a church leader who never sees the need is one who sees the need yet never does anything to see that the need is met. You ever heard the phrase, "talk is cheap"? I do believe that talk is important, but if we do not empower our people to action, then that's all it is, TALK! So take the next step, and put action behind great ideas. Empower your people to not only see the vision, but to also jump in and see the vision through. Leaders, that's your responsibility! Let's EMPOWER those around us to action.

Educating Others

The third must for leaders is in the area of educating others. Let me encourage you to do something some time. Thumb through the Gospels and write down how many times you hear this phrase: "And He (Jesus) set down to teach (instruct)... ". Over and over, people refered to Jesus as "Rabi" which means teacher. How awesome would it be to sit under the direct teaching of Jesus, to have Him as your Sunday School teacher!!!! As I thought and prayed about this more and more, I realized that we, as leaders, are also to be educators. You may be asking what is the difference between educating and equipping. Well, I'll admit they are very similar, but as I see it, they are also different in many ways. In equipping, we provide people with the tools they need to get the job done. In educating, we provide the knowledge. Remember this: "people will not effectively lead in any area that they do not feel they possess the proper knowledge base to do the job and do it well". We must educate our people! Provide classes to teach teachers to be, well better teachers. Send your volunteer youth and children's workers to training and teaching seminars. Oh, and in the process, remember that, though you may be a leader, you must also remain a constant learner. In nearly every career, from Doctors to Lawyers, and pretty much everyone in between, professionals are required to receive so many Continued Education hours each year in their field of work. I was even talking with my lawn mower repair man the other day, and he has to go to different teaching seminars each year to learn the ins and outs of working on lawnmowers. But for many church leaders, we forget to keep up with our "continued education". Take some time, and do it often, to be the learner and not always the teacher. Go to a revival at a local church, where all you have to do is just sit and enjoy the Word of God without all the added pressures of being a church leader. Take advantage of your local Association's training seminars, or search online for some weekend retreats you might could be involved in. Let's make a commitment to be effective educators and proficient learners.

Equipping Others

The second step for effective leaders is to understand our role in equipping others. Many times, as a leader, I have found myself frustrated that those under my leadership are not effectively living up to their potential. The Lord had to teach me a hard lesson on this issue before I finally understood it was partly my fault. I spent about 10 years in student ministry before being called as a senior pastor, and now as a hospital Chaplain. During one of these years, I was in Washintgon D.C. on a mission trip with one of the youth groups. We had numerous projects that we were working on throughout the week, including leading in some backyard Bible clubs, helping clean out an old building that a church would be using for Sunday School space, etc. Well, one of our projects was to hand out Bibles in the mall area in front of the capitol building, a project that I thought would be fairly easy. The night before the project, I was meeting with all the students talking about the assignment. One by one, the students began to ask me questions like: "What do I do if they ask me ...?", and "How do we handle someone that ...?". What I realized was a project that I saw as a fairly easy task was stressing out my students. The reason was very simple: I HAD NOT PROPERLY PREPARED THEM FOR THE TASK.
Many times, as leaders, we do just this: We try to lead a group of people down a road that we have not prepared them to walk. It's not that they aren't capable, and truthfully, not that they aren't willing, it's just that they feel unprepared. As I set in the middle of my youth group that night, I realized that the one who had failed was me. You see, one of the most important jobs of a leader is that of equipping others. How can we expect anyone to tackle a task that we have not prepared them to handle? We throw out new ideas, new ministries, new visions, which are all good and God driven, however we don't equip the people to follow in these areas. We want an effective children's ministry, but we don't give the people the tools needed to accomplish it. We get frustrated that no one shows up for outreach, yet we have not equipped the people to be effective witnesses. They don't meet our expectations because honestly, they don't know what we expect, and worse, they don't know how to achieve it. And the result: A FRUSTRATED LEADER TRYING TO LEAD A GROUP OF FRUSTRATED PEOPLE. And where does that take you? You guessed it, into FRUSATRATION.
As a leader, understand one of your first tasks is to equip those under your leadership to carry out the desired project. In doing so, you will build character, confidence, and ultimately new leaders themselves, fully equipped to handle the tasks that are before them. Maybe we should take some time to help train our new Sunday School teachers, or have a outreach/evangelism training course at the church. Send your student ministry teams to training camps and seminars. Whatever it takes, we must give them the tools needed to be the very best they can be. Remember, an effective leader must be in the equipping business.