It will take practice for pastors and church leaders to become adept at empowering and equipping lay leaders for ministry. It requires an ongoing transformation for leaders and members as each discover the life-giving partnership of working together for God’s kingdom. This has been a journey of discovery for me and I have learned, through mistakes, some lessons along the way. In the next two NOT DEAD YET newsletters I will share key principles centered around the practice of empowerment and delegation.

Facilitate Process, Not Results

I have come to understand a leader cannot control both process and product. A pastor cannot design or implement a process and work toward a pre-determined outcome without alienating and disempowering congregational leaders. I know this because I have tried! There have been a few times in my ministry when I really wanted the congregation I served to make a particular stand or decision. I have learned that facilitating good process is far important than arriving at particular outcomes. Good process allows all to have input on a decision and provides options. For example, a decision on whether to support “black lives matter” should not involve a process which simply frames the decision as one where we either support people of color or are racist. This would not be a helpful process. On the other hand, my congregation engaged on whether to become a sanctuary church for immigrants fearing deportation. Our leadership board discussed the issue, called a congregational forum, and allowed all people to speak. While there was no consensus on the issue and we did not become a sanctuary church, we did allow all people to speak and were able to reflect on our values. This led to an immigration task force being formed, where interested members could learn about the issue and they took many subsequent actions. Even though I wanted the congregation to do more for the immigrant community, the process helped the congregation move forward at the pace it was ready for. I have to continually remind myself of my pastoral commitment to who my people are, not whom I wish them to be. Facilitating good process and allowing the people to decide is good, empowering leadership.

Make Room for New Leaders

The church kitchen is where the knives comes out. I have observed, from afar, that those whose domain is the church kitchen can be quite territorial. It is true in other places in the church as well. Established leaders have established ways of doing things. They work hard at their often-thankless tasks. They will often mention how they need more help to accomplish the work. As a pastor always on the lookout for new people and new gifts, I have sent a few unprepared souls to the church kitchen. It doesn’t always go very well. The conundrum is people want control more than they want help. They would rather complain about needing help, than make the changes that allow new people to integrate into the system. This can be particularly troublesome with long-standing established committees. Sometimes it is better to start something new for the new people rather than connect them to a closed group. Ideally, leaders would be continually providing on and off ramps for committees or task forces. Term limits tend to make committees overly bureaucratic which stifles creativity and agility. There are also times when over committed volunteers need to take time out from serving to allow new people to emerge.