The Tension is Good, but You Could Get Fired.

Mark and I were sharing First Priority this past week with a group of church leaders.  We ran into a student pastor who loved the First Priority idea but was sad to say that he was getting fired from his church.  The reason was because he was spending too much time reaching out to students in the neighborhood where the church was located.  Now our first reaction was to say that this was horrible.  Our second reaction was to ask if he had taken any of the congregation along with him on this journey. You see,

• Ministry is about seeing a need and meeting it.
• Leadership is the action of leading a group of people towards a communal vision.
• Ministry Leadership is creating an opportunity for others to join you in meeting a need.

As you lead in ministry, it is important to remember that it is not about you meeting the need, but it’s about you creating an opportunity for others to join you in meeting a need.  How do I do that?  Well, I am glad that you asked.  There are four roles that you need to not just identify, but spend (unequal) time playing each role.

1. The first is a Spokesperson.  A spokesperson is focused on others today.  If you are a student pastor, you are often a spokesperson speaking to the adults in church on behalf of students and meeting their needs today.
2. Direction Setter is the second role and is focused on others tomorrow.  The direction setter sees a need and helps people see how we can work together to meet that need in the future.  First Priority does a lot of this before starting a club at school.  People need to see the need and what can be done down the road if some churches come together for this vision.
3. Coach is the third role who is focused us today. Again, if you are a student pastor, you spend a lot of time in this role helping students (your inner circle) walk with Christ each day.
4. Last but not least, there is the Change Agent.  A change agent is about us tomorrow.  They know where we are and the direction that we need to go.  The change agent walks the group through getting to the new location.

Whether you are desiring to start First Priority in your community or not, as a ministry leader, you will need to spend time in each of these roles.  Each week you will spend a different amount of time in each role, depending on the need.

The Roles are written by Mark McCloskey in conjunction with the 4-R Model of Transformational Leadership.  Many articles and more information can be found online.