Discipleship: The Core of Church Staffing and Leadership Development Challenges

Welcome back to our discussion on leadership development and church staffing. In this analysis, we focus on the hard truth - the staffing problem isn't about hiring; it's about discipleship.

Church Staffing – A Discipleship Dilemma

A perplexing questions haunts many churches today. Despite efforts to fill ministry positions, are we truly raising leaders within our congregation? Unfortunately, many churches nowadays have a leadership development vacuum rather than a staff shortage. More often than not, churches have outsourced their pipeline, forgetting that disciple-making is essentially a form of leadership development.

The Shift from Discipleship to Importing Candidates

Traditionally, churches nurtured pastors and worship leaders from within. Individuals embraced faith, matured spiritually, sensed a calling, received mentorship, were equipped, and later released for ministry. But now, most churches have become importers. This shift towards passively waiting for the authentic applications to roll in has disadvantaged us. Churches don't merely have a hiring problem – more critically, they have a discipleship problem.

Recalibrate Your Vision: Develop Leaders, Don't Just Hire Staff

If your church finds it hard to find staff, perhaps you need to enlarge your vision. The true cost of passivity in leadership development includes; professionalization of ministry roles, transactional staff roles, invisible future leaders, and churches growing older while becoming more desperate for immediate solutions.

Bridging the Leadership Development Gap: Practical Ways

Acknowledging the problem is the first step. Here are some steps to integrate leadership development and discipleship in your church:

• Identify individuals (preferably under 30 years old) with spiritual leadership potential within your congregation

• Invite them into deeper spiritual responsibilities

• Create visible opportunities for leadership, teaching, shepherding, creating, and disciple-making

• Normalize the concept of full-time ministry

• Become willing to let go and send, don't hoard leaders

Is your church suffering from a leadership development vacuum? Don't sit around waiting for the day when a ready-made leader will come to your rescue. Instead, foster future leaders from within your congregation.

Join me in analyzing this issue more in my book ‘Silent Alarm – The Quiet Collapse of the Church Staff Pipeline and How to Rebuild it Before it's Too Late'. Get more insights into why nurturing future leaders from within your church matters by tuning in to today's episode of the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Let's build sustainable leadership pipelines in our churches.