Prepare. It is important to first define the problem or opportunity in front of you, what you want the outcome to be, and what minimum requirements you have for a solution. This is the difference between “ready-aim-fire” and “ready-fire-aim” or just “fire, fire, fire…”. Too often when we consider lay leadership, we tend to either jump straight into action or “fixing” mode, which can cause a number of “short-circuits” or issues (including continuously engaging the same lay leaders regardless of their fit, interest, availability, or passion, or creating a misfit in skills between the lay leader and what is really required). It is critical to take the time up front to define “what is the opportunity or issue?”, “what does success look like?”, and “what type of leadership am I looking for?” Based on your reflection on these questions, you can then reflect on the strengths and gifts individuals within your congregation might have, and then identify those lay people who might be the best fit for the situation. You can also reflect on what you might anticipate their needs or concerns to be, so you can be fully prepared for the next step – recruit.

Recruit. In Empowering Leadership, Michael Fletcher identifies four critical components of what he calls “shoulder-tapping”: selection, vision, connection, and the “ask”.5 A simple but disciplined management process for selecting lay leaders includes reviewing reflections from the preparation stage, gaining insights from others and seeking God’s direction. Given that one of the most important things leaders can do is to get “the right people in the right roles”, it is important to take the time and commit to a thorough selection process. Once a lead candidate has been identified, it is important to establish a connection where you can share with them a “compelling vision”, recognizing that “leaders don’t respond to need, leaders respond to vision.”6 Personally engaging in this visioning process and inviting others into leadership is a vital step in building connection and commitment. People work for people, not for organizations, companies or causes – and it is important for people to understand what you see in them (“why them?”), what you expect from them, and what your personal interest is in them and in their success. It is also critical to provide an opportunity for potential leaders to voice their concerns or fears, as well as their goals and desires. The final step of the recruiting process is making the personal “ask”, including supporting the person through their discernment process through space, prayer and perspective.

Equip. It is critical to ensure that your leaders have the information, the skills and the support they need to be successful with the initiative or task assigned. An important element of equipping is to ensure you both are aligned relative to a number of key elements, including: vision, goals and expectations, standards and values, approach, priorities, tradeoffs and any support needs that are anticipated. Each of these elements are critical in terms of alignment. People are more motivated to achieve goals that they helped define and that they agree with (vision, goals, expectations, standards). If there are important requirements regarding “how” something needs to be accomplished (including who needs to be involved or engaged), it is crucial to identify this up front. If there is support that needs to be provided for the leader to be successful or for them to be confident and comfortable, this is also an essential alignment conversation. Importantly, we often forget that alignment is not possible without discussion – and we often “assume” that we are aligned on important things like vision or expectations or approach, only to find later that we were on fundamentally different pages. In addition, we may need to run interference with other stakeholders in order for our developing leaders to be successful. This is an important part of the equipping process.

Deploy/Send. The deployment step initially seems like the simplest step in the process – after all, don’t we need to just set them loose at this point? In reality, this is where many leaders fall short in their efforts to train and develop others. First, we need to make sure that the leader we are developing is truly empowered to accomplish the challenge set before them. Interestingly, the Greek root for empower (endunamoo) implies a strength that is given or shared. True empowerment requires us to clearly transfer “power” to someone else, with clear and appropriate decision-making authority. Further, we need to feel comfortable delegating responsibility to others so they can effectively lead. This can be particularly difficult for pastors, as you are often delegating to non-paid, part-time volunteers who may not have the same level of “ownership” in the issue or the path forward as you do. Nevertheless, delegating means giving something up (control) in order to get something in return (commitment and empowerment).  Delegating requires us to think of ourselves as “coaches” not as “players” and to recognize the importance of letting the “players play the game” and not interfering or micro-managing.6

Assess/Adjust. Finally, we need to recognize that even a half-of-fame coach will make critical adjustments during the game. They do this by providing feedback and by taking an honest assessment of how things are going. What is working? What is not? Are we meeting our objectives or expectations? Why or why not? What have we learned? This is a step that we often ignore in ministry. Virtually every ministry or program has a natural life span. Absent an honest assessment process, these ministries tend to continue to operate year-after-year regardless of whether they continue to be relevant or impactful. When we really internalize that a choice to continue doing something is a choice to NOT open a door to do something else, the cost of running on “autopilot” becomes even more significant.

The Bible has a terrific example of the importance of developing lay leadership. In Exodus 18, when Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, visits Moses he is shocked at the workload Moses is experiencing as he leads the Israelites and settles disputes between them. Jethro counseled his son-in-law, “what you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you, you cannot handle it alone” (Exodus 18:17b-18). Jethro’s solution was to develop others to lead and Moses went through these same leadership development steps (reflecting on what was needed, identifying or recruiting the right leaders, equipping them, deploying them and then adjusting as necessary). The “Jethro Principle” or the commitment to developing lay leaders, made an enormous impact on the effectiveness of Moses’ leadership as well as on the sustainability of his personal self-care. I’m confident it can make a similar difference for each of us.