Five Tests to Measure Leadership ReadinessWhen is a broken person ready to lead?Daniel Brown| Topics: | Calling, Development, Discipleship, Empowerment, Leadership, Mentoring, Spiritual gifts, Spiritual leadership, Volunteer care, Volunteer recruitment, Volunteers |
| Filters: | Church staff, Counseling, Discipleship, Elder, Family ministry, Pastor, Pastoral care, Shepherd |
| Purpose: | Discipleship |
| References: | Romans 12:8 , 1 Timothy 3:1-13, 1 Timothy 4:14, 1 Timothy 5:17-20, Titus 1:5-11 |
| Date Added: | July 11, 2007 |
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A man who recently joined our fellowship came out of the Jehovah's Witnesses. Three months after his conversion, his daughter died. Then the woman he had been dating broke off their relationship.
As if that weren't enough, his business collapsed; it's now half of what it used to be.
Today, this man comes to three services on Sunday. He can't seem to get enough of God. He's obviously not ready for significant leadership right now. But he's on the way toward the healing that could one day make him a powerful servant leader.
When will that be?
I don't know for sure. The goal is not to get him well enough so he can get on with the real business of the church. He is the real business of the church. But as his brokenness heals, his potential for leadership rises.
Knowing when a broken person is ready to lead can be difficult to determine. So is knowing how to ease them back into responsibility. Here's what I've learned.
Five Tests to Measure Leadership Readiness
I use five tests to measure whether someone is ready for responsibility.
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Are they honest with themselves?
Recently, a former Navy pilot stood in a meeting and said that his charter-flying business had gone bust. He'd lost everything—his planes, his income, his dream.
He told us how he had struggled with bitterness and disillusionment until someone at church made an offhand comment: "The reason God can't do anything miraculous in your life is because you want to control everything."
That bracing remark started him on a genuine soul-search. He admitted to the Lord that "This whole thing has been about me and my goals for my life." He asked for God's forgiveness.
This story shows the pilot's true spirit. I can work with broken people who recognize they're broken. People who can't admit their sin, though, make me nervous. This pilot is now on a trajectory toward becoming a cell group leader.
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Are they in community?
Several years ago a man applied for a staff position at our church. He possessed a number of spiritual gifts, including an uncanny insight into what God was doing in a person's life (what some call "a word of knowledge").
Before hiring him, I told him, "If you're going to help people, you've got to be in relationship with them. Otherwise, you'll never convince them you're only an ordinary guy working for an extraordinary God."
I sensed he was balking. I recommended he offer training in discerning God's will from the Scriptures to a cell group. Then I said, "Why don't you go out to dinner with the leader of the cell group. You two need to establish a friendship."
His face reddened. "Look, I'm fifty-one years old," he said. "What I want to do is ministry. I don't have time to waste on anything as frivolous as building relationships."
"Then you won't minister at this church," I replied.
He had failed an essential test of leadership. Community is essential to biblical leadership. If a person can't build deep friendships that include accountability, that person is not ready to lead in the church.
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