Raising Up Leaders In Your Church These 4 Ways

Although not exhaustive here is a quick list to dive into that will give some direction on raising up leaders in your church and business
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1. Adopt a Posture of Looking
If you want to raise up leaders, you need to be on permanent lookout for them. This should be your posture, especially if you’re an pastor/leader. 
Pastors should be profoundly opportunistic about raising up more pastors. And the whole church should have a deep confidence that the Lord wants new leaders raised up.


Promote and equip men who look like they can help advance the Kingdom of God into the place I’ll never go: the future beyond my passing.

K0eep your eyes open in a number of ways. Hang around the congregation and interact with them. Stand at the door after Sunday services and notice who says what, or who is interacting with whom. Work to provide lots of teaching opportunities in the weekly life of church where gifted teachers can emerge. Praying daily through the church’s membership directory also brings people to mind.


2. Spend Personal Time
Spending time with people is a crucial part of raising up leaders, just as Jesus called the disciples to join him on the mountain so they might “be with him.”
Sadly, I see many pastors build walls around themselves. Those aren’t men who will be raising up more leaders, at least directly. I’m not saying you need to be an extrovert, but a pastor does need to find some way to spend time with other potential leaders in his church. Hebrews 13 exhorts the church to follow their elders’ example. How can they do that if they don’t know their leaders up close? Paul’s call to imitation requires the same—time spent.

So a pastor needs to figure out ways to spend time with younger men. Lunches can be crucial. On those occasions when my wife asks me to go the grocery store, I typically break into a cold sweat for fear of getting the wrong thing (my issue, not hers!), and so I can make a call to someone and be intentional in that relationship. Build people into your sermon preparation schedule, too, including a lunch devoted to brainstorming over application etc.. Not only do these encounters improve the sermon, but you should also be able to get a sense of different folks, and encourage them.

 Figure out what schedule works for you, and draw disciples into it.


3. Advance Trust
If you wish to see leaders raised up, your general posture should be characterized by a willingness to advance trust. Having lived in different places and traveled, I know such a disposition varies from place to place. But I do think it’s a property of love: love believes all things and hopes all things (1 Cor. 13:7). You probably have members of your church whom the Lord has entrusted with great talent. But for that to be discovered, someone must advance trust to them, like credit. And good leaders do this. They don’t wait for people to prove themselves, and then give them teaching opportunities. No, they see the hint of something that, with a little encouragement, could grow and flourish. So they advance credit and let the young disciple spend it.

If you want to see leaders raised up, your general posture should be characterized by a willingness to advance trust.

Many leaders, with the best of motives, can be too conservative here. More than once I’ve seen senior pastors unable to affirm anyone else’s leadership. Or I’ve witnessed men become lay leaders and then pull the treehouse rope ladder up after them, so that no one else can get in, asking more of prospective ministers/leader than anyone ever asked of them! Now, you will make mistakes. You won’t bat a thousand, But do definitely take risks in leadership. It’s worth it. God is sovereign. Christ will build his church. So let’s lean in and take some risks.

Congregations, for their part, need to be patient with young men in leadership as they make young-man mistakes. Churches should not to be afraid of nominating a young lion cub. He may scratch the floors or damage some furniture, but if you’re patient with him, you’ll have a lion who loves you for life. 


 4. Delegate Responsibility
This point is tied to the last one. How do you advance trust? By delegating responsibility and opportunity There are several components to this:

Give people the opportunity to lead.

Quietly keep a list of men/women in your congregation you think might be good teachers, or public prayers, or service leaders, or Sunday school teachers. Test them by delegating. Again, I recognize some pastors feel very protective about their flocks: “But Mark, the Holy Spirit has made me the overseer.” That’s where I say: When you die, friend, the church is going to be fine. And you want to help make it more fine by loosening your grip now and preparing other leaders by delegating. Your goal is not to build your kingdom. Your goal is to empower others by giving them opportunities to lead and teach by building His Kingdom.

Lose votes and arguments.

Delegating authority means ceding a measure of control. And if you’re willing to do that, you need to be willing to lose votes or not always have the last word. Not everything must go your way. If you never let people lead in a way contrary to your own opinion, you’re not really letting them lead! So, yes, you might be disappointed to lose on this or that issue, but the gain of encouraging other leaders to lead is a better long-term investment (not to mention it blesses the church with the gifts of their wisdom).

Cultivate respect for other leaders.

Our Prayer at ATKOG is that you will be proactive in this area.