I’m passionate about raising up leaders.
But if I’m honest, sometimes I hate it. With. A. Passion.
It’s easy to romanticize the thought of sending out leaders. It’s easy to agree with this blog post as you read it.
Yes! Raise up the next generation! Send them out!
Easy to agree with. Painful to live.
I suppose that’s the price you pay for doing something worthwhile. If what you’re doing is a constant breeze, simple, and manageable, it’s probably not worth doing.
It’s the tension, the challenge, the adventure that we’re after. Not tension for tension’s sake. That’s called being a jerk. But living with tension because you’re constantly pushing yourself and your team to their highest potential.
The Pain Of Developing Leaders
The truth of the matter is, this is not easy stuff. It’s painful work. If you take on the responsibility of raising up leaders around you, you will get hurt.
Why? Are you ready for this?
They leave!
You raise them up, they increase in skill, you rely heavily upon them every weekend, and then…THEY LEAVE! They leave because God calls them to other places. They are sent out to do what you’ve trained them to do.
Sure, it feels better to hang on to everyone. Your job would be easier. Your life would be less stressful.
Leaving hurts. It creates more work because there are others you need to raise up. You’re constantly filling in gaps and mentoring new leaders.
The Pleasure of Developing Leaders
Deep down, don’t you really desire this?
You don’t want to keep people to yourself. You want to release them all across the world to do what you can’t do on your own. Why keep people in the same place when you can raise them up and multiply your efforts?
Maturity comes when you realize it’s not about how successful you are. It’s about who you’re successful with.
Who is standing besides you?
Who is getting dirty with you in the trenches of life?
Who are you envisioning to change the world?
Feeling Discouraged?
It’s quite possible that you are reading this today and you’re discouraged. Maybe you feel like quitting. Or you feel your volunteers are the enemy.
You’re tired of great people leaving and you’re tired of starting from scratch.
Alter your perspective a bit. They didn’t leave, but were sent. The time they spent with you was powerful and inspired them to launch out.
So as you develop leaders and those same leaders leave you, remember the difference you are making. You want to send.
What you don’t want is to hoard people or push them out by your controlling leadership.
There’s only a problem if you ever stop sending.
Show your team members their potential. Give them opportunity. Empower them to be sent out. Raise them up to go into all the world.
Question: Are you sending out world changers or hoarding volunteers? Join the discussion. You can leave a comment by clicking here.
Nice! This is exactly what I wrote about today! :hint: :hint:
Seriously though…
The ironic twist in all of this is that if you are not sending people out to be the church, then you are not raising up leaders. Plain and simple.
Being completely transparent here, I have had the immense pleasure of watching someone I have mentored for two years be raised up and “sent out.” He physically did not go anywhere. He replaced me as the Student Pastor actually and I moved into a new role.
But we are also faced with question of being sent out ourselves. We have to be willing to model the process of discipleship and be sent out ourselves.
Chris, that’s awesome to raise someone up to take your place. Way to go. How would you say we model the process of being “sent out”?
I think we model the process by being willing to be flexible in our ministries, willing to take on new roles and being to decipher whether or not we are called to ministry or called to church. The latter may result in our willingness to follow God’s desire for us and find ourselves doing ministry in another avenue or location.
That is a great insight – “called to ministry or called to church.”
“YOU have a destiny. But your destiny is fulfilled by investing in the destinies of others” – Stephen Mansfeild
To invest in others is a pleasure and an honor. Constant team rebuilding comes with the territory when leading youth or young adult ministry.
It’s more painful though when you lose seasoned long-term team players, for what ever reason. It’s a good perspective you offer here David, not to take it personally.
Love your blog!
Way to bust out the quote, Rob. Love it! Have you found that when long term players leave it’s because they are called elsewhere or simply dissatisfied with the way things are going?
Great follow up questions!
I think there are seasons for different commitment levels from volunteers. Simply put, the seasons change – new job, relocation, kids, etc. And yes sometimes folks leave cause they’re unhappy about one thing or another.
As I read this all I could think was that this would be a great article in a parenting magazine “The Pleasure and Pain of Raising Children”–especially, the line, “It’s the tension, the challenge, the adventure that we’re after.” As I’ve pulled back from leadership roles and focused on raising my 4 kids–a reminder that 3 of the 4 kids’ time in my home is half over–and wondering if I’ve “put in to them” enough–wanting to make sure they leave empowered, pushing them to their highest potential and wanting to raise Christ followers who will go out into the world. I know your blog this AM wasn’t directed at parents–but, it certainly affirmed my current leadership role and encouraged me.
That’s awesome to see a different application. I’m not a parent yet, but I totally can see the parallels. You’d probably agree, there’s no better place of ministry than at home. Glad to hear you’re investing most of your time there.
The congregation at my church is about 50% university students, and about 20 or so of the 25 people in the worship team I lead are students, so I certainly know the pain of seeing people leave on a regular basis. It’s a hard experience every time. Need to love deeply and hold lightly.
Agreed, Jesse. I lead a young worship team and a young adult ministry. The in and out dynamic is constant. I’m always trying to equip people for their next phase in life.
Hi!
I’m an experienced worship leader and the youth group in church are just starting to grow. It’s not a very large congregation; our youth group consists of 15 people right now, and that’s a lot compared to six months ago.
Our worship team is me, and have been for all since I started functioning as a worship leader. I would love to have a sweet little team to work with, but I’m constantly struggling with one puzzling dilemma; the balance between encouragement and skill. Let me explain with two examples…
I have one girl in my youth group who just loves to sing and does that with all her heart. Problem is, she doesn’t sing very well; it’s nasal and false. I know she would love to participate in the worship team, and other members of the church – even her mum – have asked me to involve her in worship leading.
I don’t want her to lead worship with me, because I believe that people who can’t play their instruments good enough or don’t know how to sing properly do disturb the service, wether you like it or not. “God doesn’t care about how good you sing/play” is a common claim; now, while this is absolutely true, doesn’t mean that we weak humans don’t care. Even if we don’t want to believe that we care, subconsciously it bothers you if a worship leader can’t sing.
But at the same time, I don’t want her to feel discouraged. I want to give room for her to develop her singing, because I think she has potential. Is the church really the perfect spot for that, or shouldn’t I just advice her to take singing classes first?
My second example is a boy who apparently know how to strum the guitar. I’d love to invite him to lead worship with me. Let’s say that I do that and we meet up sometime during the week before a youth service to practise and I realize that he wasn’t as good as I had imagined; let’s say he doesn’t have a feel for rhythm at all. What do I do? Any neglecting comment, no matter how kindly I say it, may make him feel so discouraged that he simply stops playing. I don’t know, but that could happen and our relationship may be weakened. This is what’s keeping me from inviting him.
I know there’s potential worship leaders in my youth group. How do I give them an opportunity to show me what they’ve got so I can sort out who to invite and how do I avoid jealousy and sad faces when I refuse people to be part of the worship team?
Wow, I’m really ranting. I guess what I’m trying to say is that 1. I want to train new worship leaders. 2. I don’t want them to sound like crap. To invite people to participate in the worship leading just because it’s good manners, it’s kind and we want to let everybody forward just because they want to without taking skills into account, isn’t something I’m particularly interested in – and that’s what’s bothering me.
Am I a bad person for thinking like that? Please tell me, David. I really would like to know.
Sincerely,
Johan Borg
Sweden
Johan, thanks for your comment. I don’t think you’re doing anything wrong. If all a person wants is to get on the stage, there’s an issue. If someone isn’t good enough to be on the worship team now, doesn’t mean they can’t be in the future if they work on it. Speak that kindly. Suggest music lessons. Maybe offer to help every now and then. As long as you’re not a jerk in how you speak to them, you should be fine.
Sure, people will get upset. Usually they think they’re way better than they are. Sometimes someone is good enough to get involved with the youth team. Or you could start organizing workshops that teach younger musicians. Hope that helps! Btw, I have some great friends in Sweden! Glad to have you on the blog!
Thanks a lot for your answer. Now, how do I give the kids space to show me what they’ve got? How do you discover potential worship leaders?