9 Simple Ways to Develop Leaders in Your Church

God does not call you to do everything for everyone. Instead, God calls you to equip the members of your church to do the work of the ministry (Eph. 4:12). 

Your call includes encouraging and equipping people to volunteer, as well as developing leaders who can help oversee the work of the ministry. To help you get started, here are some practical ways you can develop leaders in your church.

Top 9 Ways to Develop Leaders in Your Church

1. Cultivate a Culture of Ownership

As a pastor, one of your roles is to equip the members of your church to do the work of the ministry (Eph. 4:12). To do this, you have to lead the people you serve to see themselves as the church — individuals who are members of the body of Christ who take responsibility for the work of the ministry.

2. Identify Potential Leaders

Are there people in your church who desire to be a leader (1 Tim. 3:1)? Have you observed anyone who takes on leadership responsibilities without an official title?

Be observant of people in your church who either express a desire to lead or who are taking the initiative to lead. After you identify leaders, it’s essential to prayerfully consider how you can help these leaders fulfill their call.

3. Delegate Responsibility

For someone to develop their leadership abilities, they must have the opportunity to lead people, a project, or a program.

In general, leadership is influence, so providing opportunities for people to influence others will help them develop their leadership potential.

4. Mold Leaders

Leadership is more than someone’s position. Biblically, God requires a leader to meet specific moral and spiritual characteristics (1 Tim. 3:1–7).

To develop leaders who meet these qualifications, you must spend time with them. You can’t help someone fulfill their leadership potential if you aren’t involved in their life.

5. Start a Book Club

Something we’ve done that is very effective and doesn’t require a massive budget is book clubs. We simply choose good leadership books, designate a leader for the book club, and invite our staff to sign up.

Often these groups meet over lunch. It’s simple and effective. Here are a few leadership book ideas:

• Thanks for the Feedback
• Spiritual Leadership
• Deep Work
• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
• Good to Great
• Deep and Wide

Conversations develop out of these meetings that can help leaders learn and grow together.

6. Bring Someone Along with You

I’ve been learning that the best leadership development happens through mentoring conversations. Because of this, one of the most effective ways you can develop an emerging leader is to bring them along with you as you do whatever it is that you do.

If you are recruiting a volunteer, bring them along. If you’re speaking at another church, bring them along. If you’re leading worship at a youth retreat, bring them along.

Then, throughout the experience and on the way home, talk about why you do the things that you do and answer any questions they may have.

This is leadership development at its finest.

7. Share Feedback

Again, leadership development often happens through conversations. Sometimes these conversations look like feedback. It’s amazing how often we give no feedback to staff and volunteers.

We think we are being nice to people by not giving them feedback, when the truth is that everyone craves feedback. We want and need to know how we are doing. This is why we have scoreboards, grades, speedometers, and performance reviews.

I encourage you to build strong relationships with your staff and volunteers so you have the equity to share something they did well and a growth area every time they complete a task or project.

8. Send People to a Workshop or Conference

This idea often costs money, but spending money does communicate value. If you want to see what an organization, family, or church values, look at their spending habits.

If you say you want to develop leaders but don’t spend any money on it, you don’t actually want to develop leaders. One of the best ways to communicate value and also invest in emerging leaders in your church is to send people to a class, workshop, or conference.

Here are a few that I’ve found are phenomenal:

• Church Conference (formerly Orange Conference)
• Catalyst Conference
• Drive Conference

When thinking through options, don’t forget to look into workshops that local Christian colleges and seminaries put on.

9. Give Away Leadership

The last strategy for developing leaders is to actually give away leadership responsibilities. There really is no substitute for giving people opportunities to lead.

People learn through doing more than through hearing. Also, giving away leadership communicates that you care about emerging leaders, especially if they are young.

The book 'Growing Young' calls this concept keychain leadership. So the question is: What can you give away to an emerging leader?

• Are there platform opportunities for a budding communicator?
• Can you open up another spot for a worship team position?
• Is there a project, initiative, or even an entire ministry that you can give away?

Often, leadership development looks like opportunities.

Wrap Up

In my opinion, developing leaders is not complex. It often involves conversations and mentoring. Take time to scope out potential leaders in your church, spend time with them, and be willing to delegate responsibilities to them, providing the resources they need to learn and grow into their positions.

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