Stupid Leader Tricks

One of the most challenging aspects of working with leaders is seeing an otherwise brilliant leader making a stupid mistake. The most common stupid mistake I see is when a leader tries to do most of the work of the ministry themselves. The reason often comes down to one of several basic issues:

Lonely Martyr Syndrome
Have you ever thought, "No one will do it as well as I will"? If you are like most leaders you think no one cares more about the outcome of ministry than you. You have given away tasks to others in the past and they either did a poor job or dropped the ball altogether. You know that you need to give away ministry to other leaders, but if you do the quality of the ministry will suffer, needs will not be cared for and people will leave the ministry. Rather than giving away ministry you wind up taking on more and more tasks, stretching yourself beyond the breaking point.

If we were really honest we would admit that deep inside we believe that the success of the ministry depends on us. And deeper down we would admit that we like it that way. We crave the validation we get from praise. This attitude also feeds our bitterness and resentment toward people who we feel are using us. We relish the role of the lonely martyr.

Hired Gun Disease
The thinking goes like this, "I am being paid to be the leader, how can I ask volunteers to do my work for me? We're taxing our people's time already by asking them to teach classes and attend small groups, we can't ask them to do even more. And what will the people think of me if I am not working hard? They will find out that other people are doing all the work and I am laying down on the job." One of the key factors of moving to a team based ministry is to get past the guilt of giving away work and realizing that what is a burden is for you is a blessing for someone else.

Corner Cutting Disorder
Sharing ministry is a lot of work; often it is easier to just do it myself. To share the load I have to first identify what part of the ministry I will give away. I then have to find a leader who could take over the task, recruit the new leader and train the new leader. After I have trained the leader I need to coach them in their new task. When they make mistakes I have to help them improve rather than stepping in and taking over. In the end recruiting, training and coaching usually takes a lot more time and effort than doing the task myself. Many leaders work too hard and do too much because doing it themselves is simply easier.

Rejection Aversion
When I first saw Sherry Sparks I knew I was in love. She was the foxiest looking 15 year old chick I'd ever seen. (That is how we talked in 1978) The problem was that the thought of actually talking to her terrified me. What if something fell out of my nose while I was talking to her? Worse, what if I finally got the courage to ask her out and she rejected me? Fortunately I was able to ask a friend to see if a girl he knew would ask her best friend to call Sherry and find out if she would be willing to allow me to call her. Finally I called the lovely Miss Sparks and invited her to our church's next youth group party; two children and 32 years later she still has that effect on me.

Sometimes we don't ask people to share the load of ministry because inside we are still that fifteen year old terrified of being rejected. Whether it's asking for a first date or asking a member to lead a ministry the fear of rejection is never easy to deal with. (By the way it would be a bad idea for a pastor to ask someone to lead a ministry WHILE on a first date.)

Ministry Garage Sale
Every couple of years we go through a painful exercise at our house; we clean out the garage. The challenge is that cleaning out always entails getting rid of stuff. If we aren't ruthless each spring we will eventually drown in a pile of priceless treasures.

Is it time for a garage sale in your ministry? You have been accumulating tasks and responsibilities for years and it might be time to give some stuff away or to simply throw some things away. What are you willing to pass on to someone else? What are you ready to see end all together? Be ruthless, your ministry will grow when you do.

Excerpted from Ten Stupid Things that Keeps Churches from Growing available May 1, 2009 from Zondervan.

 

Header photo by jin.thai use under the creative commons license.

 

15 Comments »

1. Great stuff, Geoff. Beein in ministry for 18 years. Early on in my ministry, I often fell victim to Corner Cutting and Lonely Martyring. But these days I think the thing that hit me the most was the Garage Sale. There’s lots of stuff I do that I could release to someone else.

   Thanks for the post,
   Jerm

   Comment by jermtech - Mar 16, 2009 @ 04:57 PM

2. Thank you bro. I still have such a hard time letting go of things I can do. The few things I have let go recently are being handled great. It just took trust in God and my volunteers. Thanks for writing this and encouraging me to not be a stupid leader.

   Comment by Chris Moncus - Mar 16, 2009 @ 04:58 PM

3. A once a month “garage sale” seems like a good idea.

   Comment by Kent Shaffer - Mar 16, 2009 @ 05:05 PM

4. This must be the book I asked you to write about my life. Ouch! I think I struggle with most of these areas. Thanks for the precision with which you address them.

   Comment by Jehu Hernandez - Mar 16, 2009 @ 05:07 PM

5. When we take time to listen to people, they will tell us what they would like to do for Jesus.  But you have to really listen…

   Comment by mark - Mar 16, 2009 @ 05:19 PM

6. I have nothing pithy to say and certainly nothing as insightful as Jeff’s treatise. However, I would LOVE to be considered as a random recipient of the book :)

   Cheers and thanks for the book!

   Joe

   Comment by joe - Mar 16, 2009 @ 06:00 PM

7. What a timely article.  Beginning my 7th year of running a ministry the LORD put in my heart and find myself struggling with doing it all and your comment about ‘it’s just easier if I do it myself” is a big one for me.  But also, how to motivate the team to do more, to be willing to take on some of the tasks in an ownership mentality instead of a one-time effort.

   Comment by Karol Hansen - Mar 17, 2009 @ 11:18 AM

8. for everyone who has commented, send your physical address to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and i will send you a FREE advanced reader copy of Geoff’s forthcoming book, Ten Stupid Things that keep Churches from Growing.
   No strings attached, but just encourage you to blog about it and review it on Amazon.
   Thanks!

   Comment by cubfann - Mar 18, 2009 @ 10:32 AM

9. My husband is the Senior Pastor of a small church 150 members or so with only volunteers as staff.  I hesitate to indicate he is stupid in any way, but there is so much I see him trying to do that is causing him to feel burn out and inadequate. It seems he wrestles with everyone of the issues mentioned.  As his wife, I sure would like to see him develope teams rather than tackle so many of the jobs alone.  Even though the church has grown from 9 to 150, I think until he has a garage sale, or releases others into ministry, we have reached our limit as far as future growth and even maintaining has become a challenge.  I am praying this article will open his eyes to our Father’s better plan.

   Comment by Deborah Roach - Mar 18, 2009 @ 12:45 PM

10. Hey guys, I had a question about what he said about the delegating/coaching process taking longer than just doing something. It seems that the premise of the article was to free up some time to maybe focus more, yet one of the ways he prescribes actually takes up *more* time!

    So i was wondering what you thought. Is it best to invest some serious time delegating/coaching even when we could just do it ourselves faster, or is this just another example of stretching ourselves too thin?? Does it pay off and save time in the long run, or is it just always a time suck for us (even though it may equip others for ministry more)?

    Comment by Mike Filicicchia - Mar 23, 2009 @ 10:23 AM

11. Mike-
    Great question.  I have always been one that prefers to just do it myself for the reasons you say: it’s done quicker, and i know the quality of the work put into it.  However, i must say that that philosophy has more times than not served me very poorly.  People want to be involved and they many of them have talents in areas that i do not.

    When i was in youth ministry, i didn’t want to burden people with work i thought was busy work.  but what was busy work for me was something they really thrived at.  sure it took time to show them the ropes and then give them the ropes, but in the long run, the time is well worth it.  not only do you empower someone else for ministry, you free up time for you to do things that you really thrive at.

    Comment by chris - Mar 23, 2009 @ 10:38 AM

12. I believe it only takes longer if you don’t know how to delegate, or communicate tasks well. I think the more you delegate and learn to delegate it will have many benefits:
    1) save you time
    2) allow others to play too - which is super necessary, and commanded
    3) train others (be experience) to do the work of the ministry - again, necessary and commanded.

    Comment by Jesse Phillips - Mar 23, 2009 @ 12:47 PM

13. Mike,
    I agree with Chris, great question. I think the passing off ministry is always harder and takes more time in the early stages. That is why a lot of us don’t do it or do it poorly. When we are slammed with things to do, it is hard to carve out time to teach, watch and coach someone who initially will do the task poorly. The payoff comes over time as a leader steps away from that task entirely and begins to work with others to take over other parts of the ministry. It is definitely a short term pain but long term payoff.

    Comment by Geoff Surratt - Mar 25, 2009 @ 08:35 AM

14. Micro-management will lead to burn-out and dysfunctional relationships.  Although people will make mistakes, the important thing is that they learn from their mistakes and not just keep repeating the same mistakes.

    Comment by Charles Miller - Mar 25, 2009 @ 09:13 AM

15. Maybe it’s not as much a practical decision as it is a theological one.  One of the key jobs of the pastor is to “equip” the saints for the work of the ministry.  It’s not a time question.  It’s a calling question.

    Comment by Eric Ferris - Apr 15, 2009 @ 12:24 PM

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