Leadership and Growth

No doubt about it, there is a direct correlation between leadership and a congregation's growth. Think of some of the congregations that you are familiar with. What about the one where you attend. Is the church growing? If it is - why is it growing? Can you pinpoint and narrow down to a few factors, exactly what is causing the growth? I think you probably can. In fact, if you keep narrowing it down and peeling back the layers you'll probably end up at leadership. Specifically, the leadership from the Shepherds. Sure, you may have a great preacher who draws people in. Or you could be in a great location that is real convenient for many people and is geographically in the middle of an area that is experiencing population growth. But those are just surface issues. We both know that growth and decline can, and have, occurred regardless of those factors.

However, you will not find scriptural, healthy and sustained growth from a congregation that does not have scriptural and healthy Shepherds guiding and leading towards that growth. It just won't happen. So, if most churches are not growing - does that mean that most churches have unhealthy and unscriptural Shepherds? Perhaps. It has definitely been that case that men are serving in that capacity when God has not truly qualified or called them. Or (probably just as common) when they have grown out of their qualification.

However naive, I'd like to think that's not the answer for the majority of congregations. Instead, a more likely answer is that there are capable, qualified, Godly men who have been charged with a responsibility, role and task that they don't truly understand and are prepared to carry out. Here's what I mean: over time, the Elderships of many congregations have degeneratively shrunken into positions of glorified deacons. Where they feel a need to step in and be hands-on with too many different ministries and activities of the church. When this happens, they lose sight of the responsibilities that God has for them. So, instead of spending a couple of evenings each week checking on families and visiting peoples homes, they are spending those evenings doing work that a deacon should be addressing.

Or, even worse, groups of Shepherds have evolved into a team of managers running a non-profit business. This is not what God intended; and it's often a symptom of control problems. This often turns into a situation where no money is spent and no decisions are made unless the Elders are first consulted and have given their blessing. If the Shepherd are spending their time in this capacity, then there is little time left to spend on shepherding the flock.

Both of these mistakes are too common and are great vehicles that satan uses to set up shop in the middle of congregations. Shepherds (both individually and collectively) need to do a self-evaluation; and assess whether their time is being spent well. And whether or not they are effectively fullfilling the role that God has called them to. When Shepherds are shepherding - churches are usually growing.