The top 10 tasks of Christian leadership
Posted on 21. Aug, 2008 by Henrik Korslind in Church, Featured Articles, Kingdom of God, Leadership, Theology
I’ve already written a post on my impressions from my visit to the New Wine summer conference “Kingdom come” (can be found here). As I went through my notes I found some from a seminary called “The top 10 tasks of Christian leadership”. Sometimes I get a bit suspicious about top-lists (even though I like to use them occasionally), however I found this seminar both helpful and interesting.
I belong to the group of people who strongly believe that there truly is a difference between Christian and other types of leadership. This is something that becomes visible in the first (and most important) point in this list, presented by Will Donaldson, director of Christian leadership at Wycliffe Hall in Oxford, who shared from his extensive experience.
- The number one task for a Christian leader is to find ways to grow in love for God (Luke 10:27
). It’s about pursuing God and loving Him. We do this in many different ways; quiet times, devotionals, conferences, books, retreats and support groups. This is really the only and primary point, upon which the following ones are depending. - The second task is about developing and implementing vision. Just as Proverbs 29:18 teaches us, we need a vision that gives a sense of purpose and that provides a sound basis for unity and direction.
- The third task is to appoint and support staff (Acts 13:1-3). Diversity within the team is important. It’s also important to invest in these by talking, praying together, sharing life, nurturing and guiding.
- Point four on Will’s list is to mobilize the church into ministry (Eph 4:11-12). This reminds me about the illustration of how the church sometimes can be like a soccer team where 22 are playing, while the multitudes are watching. Will said that most of the ministry will come from the core group, who are the ones who wants to serve and go out. The problem is just that most people aren’t part of the core. This can be managed through providing people with a discipleship track, helping people move to the next step. Rick Warren’s model SHAPE (Spiritual gifts – Heart – Abilities - Personality – Experience) is one way of doing this.
- The fifth point is about both identifying and mentoring future leaders (2 Tim 1:13-14). In order to do this Will emphasized the importance of providing with both personal time and good opportunities to test and try. Encouragement, biblestudy and sharing life are some other important tasks to make this happen.
- The next point is about preaching and teaching the Bible (2 Tim 3:16-17). To quote Will; “Without the Bible we don’t have the good news to the world.” Therefor it is of utmost importance to plan the sermon series very carefully using themes, books, current subjects, bible overviews and so on. It is also important to supplement the preaching and teaching with the small group study.
- Organizing and leading worship (Rev 5:13-14) is the seventh point. We need to use time in prayer to prepare worship, as we are bringing the people into the presence of God to know Him and to grow deeper in our relationship to Him.
- Enabling prayer (Acts 4:31) is the next point. Prayer meetings are the powerhouse and the rest is supplemental. The kingdom of God comes through prayer and the Christian leader is called to motivate people to pray. Get people praying!
- The ninth point is about providing pastoral care (1 Pet 5:2-4). Small groups can function as places of pastoral care, however the small group will not be able to cope with everything. That is why a pastoral team is important. These pastoral teams can have different focuses such as bereavement, marriage, baptism and so on.
- The last but still just as important as the rest is to lead missions and evangelism (Matt 28:18-20). This is a big, critical and important task in Christian leadership. Some different tools are Alpha, serving the community, teaching about how to be a Christian at work.
Paul Rajkumar. Prathipati
Feb 24th, 2009
Its an excellent and elaborate article. And it is the need of the hour to practice without any further delay.