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.
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.
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