Why do some leaders succeed and others fail? Why is it that two church planters arrive in the same city, at the same time and one sees large crowds and life change, while the other struggles and experiences a painful failure? Okay, I know sometimes there are spiritual factors at play, othertimes it’s community context, I get that. But I really believe most failures are due to leadership issues?
It seems that too many inspired young men execute their calling in a clumsy manner and end up experiencing failure and disappointment. So I’m curious and I want to ask a question. Think about a church planter God has used to reach the lost and grow a church – what did he do right? I know God causes the growth, but in what you’ve observed, what did the leader do that enabled him to be used by God to see that type of movement?
Two years ago we began to ask that question to numerous church planters over a period of months. And from that we developed 12 Leadership Competencies that will help a church platner not only launch strong but lead strong and last for the long haul. These are the 12 Competencies we identified and now teach church planters through the LAUNCH training.
- Identify and confirm a passionate sense of calling
- Master the discipline of self-leadership
- Cast a clear and compelling vision
- Lead from a bold faith that takes prayerful risk
- Identify the needs of your community and develop an intentional strategy to meet those needs
- Effectively raise and manage money
- Develop measurable systems and structures that fulfill your vision
- Empower key leaders to execute the vision
- Think strategically and execute for results
- Be intentional about discipleship and leadership development
- Evaluate your values and integrate them into the DNA of your church
- Persevere through difficulty to get to the next level
What can you learn by reverse engineering success of those in your industry? When we learn from those who lead well it reduces our mistakes and increases our wisdom.
