Where Do Leaders Come From?

Where Do Leaders Come From?

Last week I had the privilege of sitting in on a “Leadership Think Tank” where a group of our district’s leaders were gathering to talk about and think about developing quality leaders for the future of the church.

As I sat in on the discussions, I found myself thinking about how we in the church recruit leaders.

When I was growing up, we had yearly revival meetings in our church.  For at least two weeks, everyone would gather each evening to hear a guest speaker.  (This was obviously before we had 68 TV channels and our kids were signed up for 8 different teams and life was so crazy that no one had time to attend an evening meeting!  But I digress…)  One of the key things that happened in those meetings each year, or so it seemed to me, was that at some point the speaker would ask a question to the effect of “Is God calling you to be a leader in His Kingdom?”

Why I remember that is that it was in one of those meetings that I said “Yes” to that question and that response has been a deciding factor in my life ever since.

Another thing I remember was Sunday School. (I know, I am REALLY dating myself here!!)   

Regularly, or maybe it would be more accurate to say yearly, the question of God’s call on the life of the student for leadership would come up as part of the lesson.

Thirdly, I remember youth rallies and youth retreats where it seemed that on a fairly regular basis the call of God and the challenge of being open to God’s call to be a leader in the church came up – often with a specific altar call to dedicate oneself to being open to God’s call to be a leader in His work.

These events shaped my life.

Today we don’t have revival meetings, Sunday School is old school and has all but disappeared from the life of the church, and I admit to not having been at a youth rally for a while to know if the call to be open to hearing God’s call to His service is even mentioned.

So, where do we expect leaders to come from? 

I sometimes hear people decry the religious educational institutions of our time for producing less Church Leaders.  But that is a false charge, because they only can graduate the people we send to them.  And if we don’t send young people who are to identified by local churches and pastors as called to ministry, who can they graduate and how can they graduate church leaders?  It is a very hypocritical charge on our part I believe.

I challenge Youth Pastors often to look for the kids in their youth groups that they feel God’s hand might be on for leadership.  But I am often amazed at many times how few they can name that they feel God might be calling.  I have not in many years heard a Pastor on a Sunday make the call for people who might be hearing God’s voice calling them to leadership to take that step of faith.  And as we met in the Leadership Think Tank, it became clear that while there is a place for us at a district level to have a strategy for walking with and developing our future leaders, the real leadership recruitment issues must be owned by the leaders of spiritual communities, pastors, youth leaders and teachers.  Ultimately they are the front line recruiters that will have he most impact of the development of future leaders.

What would change about the way we as today’s Church leaders talk to and deal with people day by day if a part of our prayers included the ask that God would open our eyes to future leaders that He already has His hand on?  And what if our prayers included a commitment to be open to helping give that needed nudge, an encouraging word, or even our commitment to mentor and help them grow in the faith?

I believe with all my heart that God desperately wants to answer that prayer in and through each of us.

That’s where our very best future leaders would come from, is my guess.