We Need More Leaders!

But... What does a leader look like?
We count on our MC leaders for a lot, including identifying leaders or potential leaders.  Month after month we ask, "Who do you see in your MC that will be our next leaders?"  Month after month after month we have gotten the same answers, "We don't really have anyone in our MC for leadership."

After months and months and months of thinking that we were Leader deprived, one day it hit me that the real problem wasn't a lack of leaders or leaders to-be, it was that our existing leaders had no idea what they were looking for.  They had no grid for evaluating a person as to leadership potential and the idea of leadership is somewhat abstract.  Some thought that a leader must be male.  Others thought that a leader must already be in a leadership position.  Some considered an elder as the leadership model, while others thought of themselves as a leadership model.  We needed a grid to think in.  We needed to define some of the qualities that we wanted to see in a New City Leader.  So I worked on it.

At the conclusion of Monday's meeting with our Leadership team I presented briefly the Head, Heart, Hands, Feet grid for identifying potential leaders.  The areas are based on our four core values, Worship, Community, Mission, and Theology.  After walking through the grid, I asked all of our leaders to take a couple of minutes and think about their MC or Team and using the grid identify any potential leaders in their group.
I was amazed!  Every leader identified AT LEAST one potential leader and one of our MC leaders and his wife identified SEVEN.

The grid is not perfect.  It has holes.  But it is a start.  And it will help our MC leaders and team leaders point out potential leaders to elders and other team leaders.  And it will allow us to help begin developing a stronger, larger core of leaders at New City.
How will we double our leadership teams in a year?  We just took our first step.