The different levels of leadership in a Church
I wanted to share with you something that I developed on the different levels in a church. I guess the only bad one would be the first one.
1. The First Level – Those who do-nothing
Churches are full of these types of people. They are good people. They have been saved. They just haven’t engaged themselves in the work. Or maybe I should say they haven’t been lead to follow. They haven’t been challenged. Pastors and missionaries get frustrated because our churches are full of people who do basically nothing. I know and understand the frustration all to well. But I have realized that the problem isn’t really them, it is a reflection of leadership. Yes, it is a reflection of my leadership. I will say that 60% or higher of church members are in this category.
2. The second level – Followers
These people will make up about 25-30% of the church. Every church needs followers. They are workers. They do exactly what they are instructed to do. They don’t mind working. They just can’t see the need. They need to be told exactly what to do.
3. The third level – A solitary visionary
Most of the time churches have very few visionaries. These are people who can see a need and get the job done. These people are a great blessing to a pastor or missionary. They take a load off of the leader. Their struggle is that they normally work alone. They aren’t able to lead others to action.
4. The fourth level – A leader – A visionary that leads followers
Most of the time, unfortunately the pastor/missionary is the only one in this category. A pastor can be a success if he is a success at this level. His goal should be to train and go to the next level but many stay here. If a missionary wants to be a success he has to be a good leader but he must move on. He will not leave an indigenous church if he is only a leader with followers.
5. The fifth level – A leader of leaders – A visionary that leads other leaders
For a missionary to be a success, he must one day arrive at this level. There are a few pastors that have arrived at this level but most truly haven’t. Most missionaries, unfortunately, haven’t arrived here either. I am not saying that I have arrived here. Actually, I am striving to train true leaders and I am not sure if we have gotten there yet. I have some good followers and I have a few third level people but not many.
