Producing Reproducing Leaders
“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field”. Matthew 9:37‑38
In a recent meeting with a number of leaders who were reflecting on the effectiveness of their ministry, most admitted that a lack of leaders was a real and ongoing problem. Most of the leaders also admitted that they were more likely to try to recruit existing leaders or pray and hope that leaders would join their ministry rather than spending the time and resources to develop new leaders.
This is like having your fruit and vegetables delivered to your home. Someone else did all the hard work of preparing the soil, planting the seed, growing and harvesting the fruit so that you can have it delivered for your consumption. In the long run, if everybody was only consuming the fruit, and no one was growing it, we would quickly have a real problem. This describes what we are experiencing now in Christian Ministries. There are far too many consumers and not enough producers. We all want fruit, but Jesus wants us to bear fruit, not just buy it.
If we share His concern, then we must view intentional leadership development as more of a way of being than a programme to be implemented. We cannot simply add one more programme to our existing structure; we must begin to rethink our way of being and doing. Healthy leaders invest themselves in the things that will cause the greatest influence for the longest time. The development of other leaders is perhaps the most lasting investment a leader can make. Such a focus can leave an influence well beyond one’s own life span.
Even if we are convinced we need more and better leaders, most intentional leadership development strategies begin with already committed Christians. But this becomes frustrating when the existing pool of potential leaders is depleted. Current means are not sufficient to even man existing ministries let alone grow a ministry or start new ministries. If your leadership development strategy doesn’t begin with new believers (or even lost people) then you are starting in the wrong place. We must expand our strategies to begin at the beginning. To effectively fulfil the Great Commission, we must intentionally produce reproducing leaders who have come from the harvest and go on to raise up more leaders from the harvest.
Everybody talks about developing leaders… it’s time to start doing it!
Further Reading
A Leadership Pipeline in the Local Church
Resources
Leadership Effectiveness Profile. Although there are different views about what constitutes leadership, it is possible to distil the key themes from which most good leaders will draw to a greater or lesser extent. The Leadership Effectiveness Profile (LEP) assesses eight key leadership themes. These categories are the main factors that constitute the relative effectiveness of your efforts to lead others in different situations. Full interpretive notes are then provided to allow people to write personal action plans.
Leadership Skill Builder Booklet. This short, practical, 12-page booklet on the topic of Leadership is our most popular Skill Builder Booklet and it is used for personal or team development or for use in conjunction with the Leadership Storyboard.
Effective Leadership Storyboard. This full colour Storyboard provides a visual “line of sight” through the development topic of Leadership and gives an individual a simple step by step process to work through.
The Effective Leadership Coaching Guide. This guide follows the four stages and 11 frames on the storyboard. Apart from the specific introductory notes for coaches, most critically, the CG provides suggested questions that can be asked of the coachee to help open up the conversation.
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