Everyone a leader   

I heard it said once that the only limit to your church's ability to grow, is the number of leaders it has. At the time I heard this statement, I was a bit confused. I always thought that the limit was facility or budget in the early years of my ministry. Last year at my previous church we did a congregational drive to enlist as many people as we could in ongoing small groups for spiritual growth.

I preached about it, I talked about it, I called meetings about it... The day finally came when we needed to train our small group leaders. They were a fantastic bunch and were eager to get started.

Once their training was complete, we invited the congregation to enroll in our new small groups. The demand outstripped our capacity by two to one. We could have trained twice as many leaders and still not have enough groups. I finally received the power of that lesson!

Leadership is about everyone. I make that statement because I believe that everyone is a leader in some capacity. The church itself is a leadership enterprise. We lead the world to salvation, wholeness and justice. Our capacity to grow and succeed at that effort is dependent only on our leadership. As we come to the completion of this worship series on leadership, I want to share that it will not be the last time we touch on the issue of leadership. Like you, I am praying that God moves and grows our church. If that is the prayer I am praying, then I also must know that we need more leaders all across the life of the church. Jesus said so himself in the Gospels, "Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest." (Matthew 9:38 NAS95)  How is God calling you to lead where you are?

Pastor Craig Brown