Recruiting and Developing Effective Leadership Teams
by Royal Speidel, Distinguished Evangelist in Residence, The General Board of Discipleship

Leadership is vital. It does not matter if the group is a family, a baseball team, or a government organization. Leaders set the tone. The effectiveness of a church is determined by the quality of its leaders, both paid and volunteer.

Leadership in the local church begins with the pastor. He or she provides both spiritual and administrative leadership in the local church. It takes a skilled and committed pastor to recruit and equip effective lay leaders for the hard self-giving work of touching their community with the gospel of Jesus Christ. A pastor's effectiveness depends upon his or her ability to develop a strong paid staff and to recruit good volunteer leaders. Together, pastors and lay leadership are charged with the task of bringing people to church and to Christ. Many churches are able, for a time, to care for their congregations using the services of a committed clergy leader and committed volunteers. After a time, however, if they are effective, they can expect their numbers to grow beyond their ability to provide for the ministry needs of their congregation. These churches should consider hiring additional paid staff people.

What kind of staff should a small church add?

• A music staff person would be an important first choice because the worship service is usually the center of local church life. Without exciting and strong worship services, many churches do not grow. Good music is a wonderful evangelistic tool.

  Small churches are often traditional in their worship styles. If the organ is the principal instrument, consider hiring an excellent keyboard player to accompany the organist. Or, if the church is open to change, hire a contemporary keyboard player who can recruit a volunteer band. The addition of spirited music, done well, is a welcome addition to any worship service, traditional or contemporary.

• Second, the church should consider hiring a secretary. The pastor would then be freed from clerical work and would have more time for preparing glorious services of worship and challenging sermons. The pastor would also be free to take a more active part in the Christian education program by teaching or recruiting teachers for small groups in the church. The pastor's time is better spent in ministry, visitation, or study. To put it simply: the pastor's time is too valuable to be used producing bulletins for worship or taking care of clerical work for the church.
• The third addition that a congregation should consider is a Christian education staff person. God could use this person to help a congregation move from small to middle-sized. As churches grow, their Sunday schools and small-group ministries require more professional help and oversight. Yearly programs, such as vacation Bible school, require many hours of preparation, coordination, and volunteer recruitment. (This is especially true of congregations that choose to offer two sessions of vacation Bible school in the summer to attract new visitors.) A Christian education staff person would also get the nursery organized and staffed with volunteers.

It is possible for a committed pastor and committed volunteers to do effective ministry in the small church. However, once a church begins to grow, it will need additional paid staff — lest it shrink back to the size that the pastor and volunteers are able to handle!

Photo courtesy of Emily United Methodist Church, Emily, MN.

Posted 8-18-04.