Church leaders, have you accidentally stopped leading?

When church leaders get busy, or just simply older, it’s very easy for some leadership qualities - and the things leaders are supposed to actually do - to fall by the wayside.

That doesn’t help our leadership, nor does it help those we lead. Here are seven leadership qualities that can so easily drop off the radar:

1. Leaders think ahead
   But when you get over-busy or over-tired, this can get overlooked. So the preaching plan comes out late, together with the agenda for the church meeting - and you completely forgot to fix a date for the "away day". Life becomes a succession of mini crises. How about setting aside 20 minutes to press the pause button, and think a month ahead, and three months ahead?
2. Leaders see what isn’t happening
   But needs to. So for instance, if you don’t have children at church, then start a creche - because young families won’t come or stay with you unless there is one. What’s the first thing a young couple with young children look for when they walk into a new church? And a leader will have noticed what isn’t happening, and take initiative (if they have the time and the headspace to do so…).
3. Leaders communicate
   If you’re anything like me, when you’re busy the first thing to go is your communication. Or, if we start to tread water, marking time, communication seems like an optional extra, which is hard work. So we don’t. May I just gently ask, how is your communication? May it need a little attention?
4. Leaders are readers
   Aren’t we? Or at least we should be, in an ideal world. Hands up if you’ve cancelled a reading day! Or a reading week? Because you had too many demands on your time? Please don’t feel guilty; sometimes these things happen. But reading beyond sermon preparation is hugely important, especially in the long run, if we’re going to avoid getting stale and if we’re going to keep doing what we do, but just a little bit better than last month.
5. Leaders are human
   We laugh with you, and cry with you. But sometimes we’re so hard pressed we can become almost robotic. Time for a pause. Time to re-engage with Jesus, time to re-humanise.
6. Leaders grow leaders, almost by accident
   Yes it should be something we’re aiming to do, so there should be intention, but at the same time, good leaders will inspire others and some of them will want to do what you’re doing. Leadership just rubs off on others. Well, it will do if you’re not super busy, if you’re on top of things, and if you’re not just counting the months to retirement. Time for a gentle reset?
7. Leaders say “thank you”
   It works wonders, you know. Face to face, an email, WhatsApp, a text, a phone call, even a card in the post. It says you noticed, it says "I value you", it says "I think you did a good job". And much more. But of course it can be seen as an optional extra, so it’s one of those things that goes when you’ve got too much on your plate. Or you’re just simply overwhelmed. How about trying to remember to thank three people this coming Sunday? And every Sunday.

It’s so often the little things that matter. And most of those things are just little things. That matter. Won’t take long… is there one thing you could do? Go on. Be a leader.