PhilDrysdale.com

One of the things that often concerns me about the church is how much emphasis is put on gifting when putting people in places of leadership.
 
Now obviously it’s very important that someone who is given a role of leadership can carry that role out, that’s not what I’m saying. Rather, what I am saying, is that when someone is selected for a role solely based on their gifting then they live with a weight on their shoulders, a weight that will usually crush them.
 
I say this because God has never selected people based upon their gifting, in fact typically He calls people who seem totally unqualified. He chose a stuttering shepherd, Moses, to argue with the most powerful man in the world and lead 2 million people to freedom. He chose the illegitimate child who wasn’t even considered a son of Jesse, David, to be the King of a nation. He chose the most religious zealot He could find, Paul, to preach the end of religion and the ushering in of an effortless relationship with God.
 
You see God is really big on calling, He loves to call someone out and then provide the gifting, rally people around them and see the calling fulfilled.
 

How to create paranoid leaders

 
However, what we as a church tend to do is try to find the most gifted individual in our church and put him in a position. Say for example you were the most gifted teacher, you would be given the pulpit week in and week out and become the teaching pastor of the church. The problem is, if you got your job because you were the most gifted teacher how would you feel when a teacher came along who was more gifted than you? You would become someone who lives under a constant fear, a worry that someone, somewhere, was going to be better than you and you would inevitably lose your position to them.
 
This model of promotion to leadership creates insecure leaders, these leaders are not secure in God’s call on their life and instead need to secure it themselves. There are unfortunately two really damaging bi-products of this life. We suppress (or sabotage) any talented leaders that are rising up in the church. These promising leaders, that we are called to equip and position to surpass us in gifting and impact, will instead be squashed under our thumbs as we try to ensure they can’t look better than us. The other result is that we end up having to create a super-persona where we appear to be so much greater than we are, because we fear that the real us isn’t going to be enough to maintain the position we earned.
 

So what should we do?

 
We really as a church need to be rallying behind leaders and encouraging them that they are where they are because they are called to be there, not because they are the best at the job. Coincidentally, when we do this they truly will be the best for the job! This creates leaders who are secure in who they are and feel empowered to raise up leaders that are powerful and gifted.
 
I think this is especially important as we are called to show the world a model of family that isn’t performance orientated but rather relationship oriented. So let me ask you, how well are you doing in this area? As a leader are you secure in your calling or are you working to keep what God has given you? And as people who rally around leaders, do you put requirements upon them or do you encourage them in their calling and position them to be a better, more secure, leader for you and your family.