Leadership causes insecurities to rise to the surface. And if we’re not careful we’ll make decisions based on what’s best for our ego vs what’s best for the glory of God and the good of His kingdom. Here’s the third way we can overcome insecurity…
AUTHORIZE YOUR TEAM AND THE PEOPLE IN YOUR CHURCH TO DO MINISTRY
An insecure leader has trouble raising up a team and giving ministry away because insecure leaders fear losing control. An insecure leader wants to be in the center and at the head of everything because that’s what strokes his/her ego best. Yes, insecure leaders are control freaks and they don’t want to share their authority – they want to consolidate it. But a secure leader raises up other leaders, trains them properly, gives them authority and allows them to do ministry.
At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry he’s the only one who has authority do to anything, but that was only because he was in the process of raising up his team. Go study it for yourself – Matthew’s gospel in particular. At first, Jesus is the only one driving out demons, the only one healing every sickness and disease and the only one preaching that the kingdom of heaven was near. But the only reason he’s the only one doing it yet was because his team hadn’t yet been properly trained. But once they were Jesus said to them: The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Here’s how we’re going to reach the world – we gotta get more workers in the harvest fields. In other words Jesus was telling them: It can’t just be me. So right after talking with them in Matthew 9 about the importance of raising up more workers, in Matthew 10 Jesus sends out his disciples, who are now properly trained, and he GIVES THEM AUTHORITY to do all the things he had been doing – authority to drive out demons, authority to heal every sickness and disease, authority to proclaim the kingdom of heaven is near. You see, Jesus understood something that most of us don’t – before the church can multiply, we must first multiply ourselves. That’s what Jesus did. He multiplied himself. It started with just him, but in the end there were 12 others who could do what he could do.
At New Day I don’t do all the weddings, I don’t do all the funerals, I don’t do all the counseling, I don’t do all the preaching, I don’t do all the water baptizing (this past Sunday we had 17 people get water baptized and I didn’t baptize even one of them), and I don’t respond to all the emergencies. Of necessity I had to do all that myself in the beginning but as soon as I could I raised up a team and taught them to do all the things I could do (just like Jesus did with his disciples). I’ve multiplied myself like Jesus did and as a result, God has multiplied my ministry. And this year we’re growing more than ever because whereas I have multiplied myself through my team, my team is now multiplying themselves through their volunteers. And God just keeps multiplying our ministry as we raise people up, train them to do ministry, then authorize them to do ministry.
Now – what’s best for my ego is to be in control of everything. What’s best for my ego is for me to be in the center of everything. What’s best for me is to consolidate all the power. But that’s not what’s best for the glory of God and the good of His kingdom. Rick Warren has rightly stated “You can structure your church for growth or for control… but not both.” What’s best for YOU is control, but what’s best for the kingdom is growth.
For your church to reach maturity you must overcome insecurity by authorizing others to do ministry at your church.