As the House Church season comes to end at Ethos I thought it would be fitting to share some leadership lessons that we learned along the way. Some of the lessons were learned from trial and error while others were learned because God has a way of using the people around us to teach us important lessons. This House Church season has been one of the most rewarding experiences we have had in ministry. I hope you enjoy reading these as much as we enjoyed discovering them.
1. Leadership is Unique to the individual (or couple)-Helping leaders find their style is crucial.
Many people who have the ability to lead never try because of the perception that they will not fit the "mold" of a leader. Too often we have created prescribed leadership styles that people must fit into before they are allowed to lead. Not only does this limit who can lead, it also vastly limits what God can and will do through people who are given the chance to lead.
This means that as we search for potential leaders, we must first break down the stereotypes surrounding Kingdom leadership. Lack of knowledge is one reason people give for not leading. This implies that a stereotype has been created that says people must have a certain education level if they want to lead. Stripping leadership of these types of stereotypes is important in allowing people to search within themselves to discern the ways in which God has gifted them to lead.
God has infused all of us with gifts and passions that are meant to be used in all aspects of our lives. Helping people understand their giftedness and passions is crucial to opening up the vast possibilities of their leadership potential. When people realize that there is not a universal leadership style but rather leadership is birthed out of personality, giftedness, passions, hopes, dreams, and more, then they are freed to lead how God created them to do so.
We have a couple in our Regional House Church (group of 13 House Church leaders) who have the gift of creating community, hospitality, and relationships. These gifts lined up with their passion for their neighbors who do not know Jesus has created a House Church fully committed to living life in a community of faith. Their House Church looks very different from others because they are leading out of who God created them to be.
2. As a leader of leaders I must be able to cast a vision that we as a team can move toward.
I remember the initial feeling of intimidation when asked to lead a group of leaders. The intimidation only increased when I realized just how talented our leaders were. I knew I had to create a big vision for our Regional House Church if I was going to have anything to offer. I began praying asking God to give me a vision of what he wanted our House Churches to accomplish this year. Laura and I began discussing all that we thought God could accomplish through us as a body of 13 House Churches. Our imaginations ran wild as we began to see God creating a vision for us.
But I knew that if I tried to lead a group of highly motivated individuals without a vision I would rapidly lose people's attention and commitment. So in our first Regional House Church meeting we began to cast a vision of a region of House Churches that were intimately connected to serving our city in big ways. We began sharing a vision of thousands of homeless being served and cared for through our Regional House Church. We shared a big vision and then moved into a time of helping them cast vision for their groups.
Learning how to cast vision has been an amazing experience. It has enabled us to lead on another level than we had previously led.
3. Leading leaders is a lot about helping them cast vision and holding them accountable to their vision.
Once we shared our vision we knew it was important to help them cast vision for their individual House Churches. We asked them to share their passions, the things that got them excited about life, the areas they felt gifted in, and from that to begin to see the vision God had instilled in them for their House Church.
It was a fun evening for Laura and I as we shared our passions with our leaders and they shared their passions with us. It helped us focus in our vision for the entire group. We took the visions they cast for their House Churches and began to focus our big vision based on theirs. And once they had established the vision for their individual House Churches it was our job to help them keep working toward it with intentionality and purpose.
4. Give them space, freedom and constant encouragement through prayer and personal connection.
One of the most important things we have learned is the importance of offering people the space for innovation and showering them in constant encouragement, prayer and personal connection.
I think my favorite part of leading leaders is watching what happens after a vision has been cast and the space to innovate and create is given. It is amazing to see how people use their giftedness, passions, and personality to create amazing ways to build community, reach the lost, and serve the city. The ceiling on people's leadership is only limited when we squeeze them into a cookie cutter formula for leading. But when we remove the preconceived formula the ceiling seems to be limitless. When we allow people the space to innovate and create in their leadership sometimes they fail. But a lot of the time they do things we never thought possible. And all along the way we shower them in prayer, encouragement, and personal connection.
These last nine months have been some of the most enjoyable months in ministry for us. What a blessing it is to live out the community that scripture talks of. We have learned so much from our House Church leaders this year that it is hard to capture everything in one blog post. The list above are just four areas where we learned a great deal. Each has a massive web of smaller lessons we learned about leadership which are too extensive to put in a list. But these capture the big nuggets we are taking away from this experience. What a joy and blessing it has been to be a part of God's work in Nashville with these gifted and talented leaders.
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