The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
We're all about helping create a healthy, positive, and spiritually positive environment for church staff members and leadership teams.
The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
Identifying and Preparing Future Leaders
Have you spotted tomorrow's church leaders within your congregation yet? Let's unlock the secret to building a thriving leadership pipeline on the latest Healthy Church Staff Podcast. I'm Todd Rhoades, and today I'm guiding you through the nuanced process of identifying and nurturing those hidden gems poised to lead. Our journey explores not just the standout volunteers but also the quiet influencers whose presence spells potential. We're talking about leveraging moments of crisis as unexpected proving grounds for leadership and honing in on small groups as the nurturing soil for emerging talent. Plus, I'll share how the simple yet profound act of an ICNU conversation can affirm someone's gifts and set the stage for their development without cornering them into instant commitment.
Switching gears, we're gearing up for a sensitive yet necessary dialogue on how to address underperformance among our co-workers. And what better way to prep than by enriching our own approach to leadership cultivation? Tune in as I recount stories that illustrate the pivotal role of genuine recognition in guiding individuals towards their calling within the church. Whether you're a ministry veteran or newly navigating church staff dynamics, this episode's insights promise to enrich your toolkit for fostering a dynamic, resilient community of leaders. So, grab a seat, hit play, and be ready to contribute your own experiences to this unfolding narrative.
Have questions or comments? Send to podcast@chemistrystaffing.com
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Welcome to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. My name is Todd Rhodes. I am your host for the podcast today and thank you so much for listening. We're here every day, monday through Friday, with usually five to ten minutes. What we hope is encouragement, maybe just a little bit of friendship and coaching, specifically for pastors and church leaders and people that serve on church staff. So I know a lot of you listen to me on your car on the way into the office, maybe take a lunch break and listen. Would encourage you to. If you're enjoying this as well, to share it with your friends and make sure you subscribe. Leave a comment on your favorite podcast place that you listen. That really helps us out as well.
Speaker 1:Okay, today, get all that stuff out of the way. We're going to talk about how to identify and prepare future leaders. This is just absolutely critical. It's absolutely crucial because you need to constantly, because you know ebb and flow. You're going to lose leaders every year and you need to be able to replace those leaders. And finding more and better future leaders and identifying them and preparing them. It really helps you to eliminate burnout and stagnation. It helps you multiply and carry on your vision and it's just honestly, it's a natural part of discipleship, or it should be Right. I'm going to give you some tips today on, maybe, how to identify future leaders. And of course I have to say this you're going to look for passion and for dedication and ability to inspire others, but I've got to see two, four, six, seven ways here, that seven places, maybe in your church, that you can identify maybe one or two or maybe even a pool of really good potential leaders, and some of these might be fairly obvious to you. Others you might think, oh, I hadn't thought about that. That's not a bad idea, todd. I hope so.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about the first one and honestly, this is one of those that's a gimme, right. Any kind of current volunteers that you see that they're already a part of your team but maybe they're volunteering, but they're maybe under their capacity. You notice potential leaders that are currently serving and hitting it out of the park, and those are the ones that maybe they start was a greeter and maybe they're working the coffee bar or mowing the grass. But men, they're just, they're responsible, they have a great heart and they're just absolutely hitting it out of the park. Those are some prime suspect for moving them into a more crucial role and a more leadership role.
Speaker 1:And the second thing is I would urge you to look beyond the usual suspects, so seek out those with kind of untapped gifts, and these are the ones that maybe aren't the out front leaders. They're not the eight type personalities. They're maybe not the extroverts. They may be quiet, they may be behind the scenes workers who have demonstrated commitment and care. And look beyond just the maybe the louder, brash or people that maybe, just like you, that are outgoing and type A personalities. I think a lot of times in the church we've stereotyped what we're looking for in leadership that it has to be this outgoing, on the edge, non introvert and I'm an introvert, the word out there to all my fellow introverts non introverted people. Look for it. Sometimes the quiet behind the scenes people are really. They have so much latent energy and potential that they could really be a great addition to your leadership team. Here's another one Look, look and see who are other people drawn to.
Speaker 1:Who are people in your congregation going to for advice? Who are they going to for spiritual guidance? Sometimes these informal mentors are really displaying leadership abilities that are really worth cultivating, and every church has these. Every church has people Maybe they're older people, maybe they're younger people that just have relationships and people see value in knowing them and getting their advice. So look to those people. Here's another one who steps up during a crisis. When there's a crisis, maybe it's a leadership crisis, maybe it's some kind of a weather storm or some kind of a. Maybe a church got water damage or maybe there's a funeral tragedy in the community. Pay attention to who really steps up during those times of challenge, those times of crisis, those times of change. A lot of times, crisis will reveal character, and another thing is it also shows who can handle pressure and who has real leadership ability. So when you're going through a tough time, notice who kind of steps up to the plate when you really need them. They could be somebody that really should cultivate to be, maybe play a little bit bigger role in the future. Here's another one Use your farm system A lot of times, and by that I mean your small groups.
Speaker 1:Ask your small group leaders who they have in their small group. That's a potential rock star. A lot of your small group leaders are already leading well. Each one of those maybe has 8, 10, 12 people in their group and they all they're going to see the potential there long before you do, because you might not even know some of these people. So ask your small group leaders. Just ask them who's the potential rock star in your group? Who should I be taking out to launch having coffee with? Okay, two more. Here's the next to the last one. Look for the fruit of the spirit Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. They very much show signs of spiritual maturity in individuals and you really want those kind of people on your team and plug them into key places as leaders.
Speaker 1:And then, finally, who is a high capacity marketplace leader? Who is doing just some outstanding work in their career? They may bring unbelievable skills in a specific area of ministry. Who works in areas of synergy? Maybe they lead a team, maybe they're good with systems, maybe they have specific business skills, maybe they're a great communicator. All of those are high capacity marketplace leaders. I'm telling you guys, gals, you have people in your church that are incredible leaders in their businesses and in their community, but they're not being utilized in the church. They're not being asked to step up and to contribute. So now what? Really, if you're going to identify and prepare future leaders, you have to provide opportunities to showcase skills, and that could be all over your organization, it could be from volunteering to you name it. And then you need to come along with a real plan Support, some training, some mentoring, some resources. You want to guide but not clone. You want to identify early and you want to nurture growth and empower people to lead.
Speaker 1:And I'll leave you with this. This comes from my friend, dave Ferguson. He talks a lot about having what he calls ICNU. Icnu, those four letters about having ICNU conversations. And it's really sitting down with somebody and just speaking into them. And, man, this is powerful.
Speaker 1:I can remember when Dave told the story I thought, yes, there's been at least two instances where people have sat down with me and had these ICNU conversations with me. And here's how it goes you sit down with somebody and you say, bob, I've been watching you and I just want to tell you. I see in you. And then you tell them what you're seeing and I see in you, man, just a person with a great heart. And I can tell from what you're doing in your job that just on where you could see them really flourishing in the church.
Speaker 1:And you're not making an ask, you're not saying, hey, I need you to do this.
Speaker 1:Would you come and donate 20 hours of your time a week? What you're saying, what you're doing, is you're planting the seed and saying I see in you this possibility of where God might be working. And this is not manipulation, it's not trying to butter people up. It's really only do this if you're sincere about it. But this is really a way to plant the seed and to watch it grow in individuals that God has uniquely gifted, not only in their lives, but in the life of the church, to be able to lead and prepare for the future. So I hope this was helpful the ways and places where you can go to look for, to identify and start to prepare future leaders. We will be back tomorrow to close out our week and tomorrow we're going to talk about uh-oh, I've got a co-worker that's unperforming performing. What in the world do I do? Make sure you share the podcast. You can reach out to me anytime. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. I would be loved to hear from you.
