Tim King Leadership

The Myth of Title and Position in Church. Just because you have the title pastor, doesn't necessarily make you a good leader or even a leader for that matter. Leadership is about performance not position. Like all other organisations the church is prone to hierarchies, sometimes the larger the church gets the more structure is put in place to support it, with the senior pastor at the top. I was invited to sit at a friend’s table during a ministerial lunch and not knowing anybody I gladly accepted. During lunch a rather large gentleman at the head of the table was propounding some point of 'pastoral theology' and then looked around the table for a response. The lady sitting to his right answered, “I think Pastor Fred is right on this point.” She then went on to say why she agreed. The Big guy, Pastor Fred beamed and said, “Thank you pastor Wilma.” He then went on to his next point. For most of the meal the talking was done by Pastor Fred and Pastor Wilma. Whenev...

The myth that all leaders are leaders. Not everyone who leads in church is a leader. I think it is wrong, for Church leaders to believe that those they train up to take various ministry leadership positions, are in fact leaders in their own right. They are not. At best I would categorise these people- that many churches call 'ministry leaders' as ministry managers.                 "At one level there is nothing wrong with title inflation; it is a cheap way of recognising people who work hard and make serious contributions" Jo Owen. I am of the opinion that this title inflation undervalues both the leader and the ' ministry manager' and can often bring about confusion and mismatched expectations. Many churches have ministry training evenings for their volunteers. Many use the reason for this training is "to make a person a better leader," when in fact the only thing actually happening is that th...