Leadership Network recently surveyed their readers about areas in which pastors wished they were better equipped. The question invited respondents to choose three areas of ministry.
The top answer overall was leadership development. Since congregations of varying sizes have different challenges, the report also showed the top several responses within each church size with average worship attendance of 0-499, 500-999, 1000-1999, 2000-2999, 3000-4999, and 5000-9999. Interestingly, leadership developed ranked first in all size categories except for the largest (5000-9999).
So What?
Most of the congregations I’ve served in recent years fell into the average weekly worship attendance of 500-999 category. I also have served some congregations in the 0-499 grouping. Across these experiences I found that congregations were much better at leadership identification or recognizing those with leadership knowledge, skills and experience and asking them to serve than they were in developing leadership capacity in those without prior experience.
- Would leadership development rank at or near the top of a list of areas your congregation’s pastors wished they were better equipped (other options would include discipleship, employee management/human resources, strategic planning, fundraising, vision casting, personal development, church culture, church technology, conflict resolution and financial management)?
- Share information about any resources, programs, classes or other helpful tools for developing pastoral competency in leadership development.