Leading Successfully without the Gift of Leadership
Leading Successfully without the Gift of Leadership
By Bruce Bugbee and Don Cousins
Experiencing Leadershift Application Guide, p23-25
There’s a significant emphasis and expectation in the church that pastors and ministry leaders must have the spiritual gift of leadership if they’re to be effective and successful. Yet a Barna Research survey indicates that only 8% of today’s pastors identify leadership as a primary spiritual gift. (The Year’s Most Intriguing Findings, From Barna Research Studies, The Barna Group. December 17, 2001. http://barna.org)
How can someone lead without the gift of leadership?
As a pastor or ministry leader, you may have asked that question and personally felt some tension or struggle.
The truth is, God has given us more than one spiritual gift to provide leadership for the church. There is a spiritual gift of leadership, as mentioned in Romans 12:
Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness. (Rom. 12:6–8)
Then there are the equipping gifts that have a leadership effect, as taught in Ephesians 4:
And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ. (Eph. 4:11–12)
There are more gifts involved in providing leadership than just the gift of leadership. The gifts of apostleship, prophecy, evangelism, teaching, and shepherding are also part of leading and equipping His followers to do the work of service. Each of these has a leadership effect. At the heart of biblical leadership is the work… equipping.
Equipping leaders are based on the biblical truth that leadership in the church is provided by more people than just those with the specific gift of leadership. Leadership also comes through those who possess any of the five gifts listed in Ephesians 4:11, as they work to equip others for the work of service (4:12).
How do you know if you are being a successful equipping leader?
Perhaps if you had a better understanding of what biblical success looks like, then we could reflect on how well our disciples, ministry teams, and leaders are really doing and enable us to be a more effective and successful leader ourselves.
How you define success in your ministry will influence the way you lead
Based on biblical instruction, a few key components comprise the essence of success in God’s eyes—and someone who is successful in ministry will manifest all of them.
Faithful:
This means doing what God has called you to do, utilizing all that He has given you to do it. God wants to say to us, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matt. 25:21).
Fruitful:
God wants us to “bear much fruit,” as Jesus tells us,” and so prove to be My disciples” (John 15:8).
The evidences of fruitfulness include:
Christlike character, as seen in “the fruit of the Spirit,” which is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self- control” (Gal. 5:22–23).
Christlike influence, as exemplified in the life of Jesus: “You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him” (Acts 10:38). “And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men” (Luke 2:52).
Fulfilled:
God desires to fill us with a sense of esteem, value, and significance. He wants us to experience joy. Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full” (John 15:11). This joy flows from faithful and fruitful ministry—like those whom Jesus sent out into ministry and who then “returned with joy.”
Making God Famous:
True success brings God glory. When people see our good deeds, they will glorify God (Matt. 5:16). That’s why we’re to fully exercise our spiritual gifts: “so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen” (1 Peter 4:10–11).
Further resources available at RIGHT4 Ministries – www.BruceBugbee.com