This past week I
was made aware of a college pastor job that was recently posted by a very well
known and influential church that I greatly admire. Apparently this quite large,
emerging-type church is looking to hire someone from outside of their
community, which quite honestly, surprises me. In fact, I have to admit that I am surprised every
time a church of three, four, or even five thousand people still feels the need
to look outside of their community to find leadership. A big part of this has
to do with my paradigm of leadership promotion -a topic that I think deserves
some attention. There are essentially two different paradigms when it comes to
finding and promoting leaders. 

The old way: Hiring
from the outside.

A lot of churches
still operate with this paradigm. The goal is typically to hire a pastor from
another church who they feel can take their church or a particular ministry to
the next level. In the good scenarios, the pastor sticks around as long as the
average pastor sticks around (less than 5 yrs according to most sources), and
does his job well until he is “called” to a better opportunity (i.e. bigger
church, higher pay). Those are the good
scenarios.

In most cases,
however, things don’t really work out. This can happen for a number of
different reasons: as an outsider coming in, the pastor is never fully embraced
by the congregation, early mistakes cause people to question his ability to
lead, he just isn’t a good fit for the community and/or the church, or the
aforementioned “calling” comes a whole lot sooner than anyone expected.

Sometimes an
imported leader and those who hired him or her are faced with the harsh truth
that effective leadership is not always transferable. Leaders that are
effective in one environment will not necessarily be effective in other
environments. This is a basic truth of leadership. A great example of this can
be seen in Willow Creek’s hiring of Randy Frazee. Randy was a proven leader
that seemed to be a sure bet as he was hired to serve in the same type of
capacity he had thrived in elsewhere. But as often happens, what worked
elsewhere didn’t work in South Barrington and Randy’s stay was short and his
departure (along with Gene Appel’s) painful. Unfortunately, theirs are a common
story. Rarely does a leader hired from the outside stick.

The new way: Empowering
from the inside.

Many churches are
moving away from models that look to hire leadership from the outside and are
choosing instead to raise up and promote leaders from within. This is what one
might call “home grown leadership.”  

Mosaic is one of
many churches that have chosen to adopt this paradigm. Mars Hill (Seattle) has
also gone this route. I mention these two churches because they are both highly
influential and very different from one another. Both have opted to empower
from within and both are reaping the rewards, a few of which include:

• Vision: homegrown
  leaders are more likely to get it, own it and live it
• Tested: homegrown
  leaders are known by those they lead and by those they answer to long before
  they are ever given authority
• Fit: homegrown leaders are already acclimated to and serving in your local context, meaning whether or not they "fit" is never a question
  
• Loyalty: homegrown
  leaders are more likely to be committed to you and the vision of your church for the long haul

Of course,
occasionally situations arise that require looking for leadership outside of an
organization. Some churches have simply done such a poor job of developing
leaders (or such a good job of running them off) that there are few, if any,
leaders ready or willing to take the reins. And as I have mentioned, sometimes
promoting leaders from the outside works. But I would recommend this only as a
last resort. Leaders grown and empowered from within are simply more committed,
more dependable, and more likely to champion and embody the vision. So, the
question then is…

Who are your home grown leaders/influencers? These are people that have come to know and
follow Christ as a part of your church and/or have been a part of your faith
community for some time, where they served faithfully with integrity. Are there
any? If not, what does this say about your faith community? What needs to
change? How can you begin investing in and raising up leaders in your church?

Secondly, who are your potentials? Who has the potential to be a homegrown
leader two years from now? Three years from now? Now, what can you do to help these
men and women develop into power players in God’s Kingdom work? What are their strengths, their gifts, their passions, their talents, their dreams? Where do they need encouragement and where do they need some guidance? How can you help them discover and grow into their God-given potential?!