How The Church Can Lose Young Leaders
You might remember the article the New York Times ran on “The Facebook Generation.” It was basically an article that looked at the implications of the how emerging generations view leadership, power, and influence.
Rhett Smith recently dove into one of the points the article brought out: All ideas compete on equal footing. I really love what Rhett had to say about this subject and I think it is a common situation at many churches.
Now, if you have spent anytime in the Church…on staff, volunteering, or just attending, this becomes pretty obvious, pretty quickly. Not all ideas compete on equal footing, and often many ideas aren’t even allowed to enter the conversation. Where I have often seen this played out is in the ideas between staff/church members of different “ranking”, i.e. ordained vs. non-ordained, associate vs. executive, senior pastor vs. youth pastor, volunteer vs. staff, etc. Though this is not to become a versus situation, it often breaks down into that when ideas are not allowed to be shared and considered equally among all staff members, volunteers and attending members.
I think many in previous generations are comfortable and accept the fact of hierarchical leadership. It submits to that leadership and accepts almost every decision reached without much second thought. I do think there is a decent amount of Biblical support for this mindset. But, my generation does not think this way. So when people say it is a reality of how churches work, I say that is why you have the “emerging church.” Young people left their traditional churches to go to a place where their ideas would be received and used.
Essentially I think this problem comes down to how comfortable we are with change. Certainly CEO leadership is a normal thing with the American culture, but it is a dying breed. Pastors today can either choose to invite young leaders into the decision making process or they can disenfranchise them and force them to go elsewhere. Rhett also speaks to this:
For the younger generations, the Church can often just be seen as “red tape.” Nothing is more discouraging than a person bringing a great idea to senior leadership, and having that idea shut down (if it’s even heard) as it navigates it’s way through the CEO/Business Management models that most churches operate from. Pretty soon, these people just take their ideas online where there is no “red tape”, and start changing the world…without the Church.
Do you see this happening in churches today?
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Tyler Braun.
I’m not a young leader but I’ve felt it a bit myself. I’ve had tons of ideas that have been sort of blown off and so I have to decide – if I really feel they are from God – how to use them. That’s something I’m processing.
I’ll tell you where I’ve seen it the most is in young female leaders. I see more and more of them starting non-profits – and even online ministries – instead of working within the local church because of a lack of opportunity and vision perhaps. In some places it’s harder for females to be heard than males, no matter what your age.
In my opinion, this is why you see more female missionaries than male missionaries. There are simply more opportunities to do what they feel called to do without restriction.
On the other hand, it might be that people just think more globally now. In starting the GiveWorship Project I hope to unite worship leaders from around the world for a common cause, so I’ll go outside the walls of my local church to do that and one huge vehicle I’ll use is the internet, of course!
Unfortunately, I have seen this hierarchical mindset played out in church leadership. Ideas get shot down because “we’ve tried that before” or “it will never work.” Good leaders listen to ideas no matter where they come from. At the end of the day, of course, you do need someone to set the rudder on the boat and advance the throttle, but if people don’t feel listened to, the boat will be empty.
Paul uses the body analogy when it comes to understanding how our design creates a fit within the church – a body which is “all brain” would be useless without hands and legs to do its work. But a brain which ignores the messages from the legs will get into trouble – just like my hamstring is currently telling my brain not to run. And my brain better listen to my hamstring or I will get hurt even worse!
I think you have accurately identified an ongoing challenge in the church today, Tyler. Churches that operate this way are losing young leaders and had better wake-up before it’s too late.
I’m grateful to be on staff in a church that does not function in the way you described. There really is an equal footing for shared ideas and we are constantly looking for those next-generation leaders to provide leadership now. We are not afraid to release young leaders. One area that is lacking, however, is representation on the elder board. All are 40+ with half 60+. Some of that is a reflection of time availability and life-stage. But it might also reflect the perceived value of serving in that capacity as opposed to directly leading a specific ministry.
I’m also grateful to be a part of a movement of churches (Converge Worldwide) that places great value in next generation leaders to lead our movement of church planting and global outreach. If anything, we are seeing pushback from traditional leaders of all ages against some of the more recent innovative changes (like changing the movement name from Baptist General Conference to Converge and moving the ministry center from Chicago to Orlando.)
Tyler what would you do if you one day found yourself in a church with a CEO style leader?
I’d work for change in a proactive way.
Models should be accepted and rejected based on whether or not they are biblical, not on whether or not they are popular or uniformly implemented. I remember being the young ‘wiz kid’ at churches (I am 40+ now). I was a new believer, I had all the answers, and wasn’t shy about telling people – pointedly – about how wrong they were on point ‘x’. When people wouldn’t listen to my ‘brilliance’ I quickly moved through churches. In some places I ‘dusted my feet off’ and left in a huff, and in other places I was ‘encouraged’ to leave.
I can look back now and say I was wrong. I can also say that I was handled poorly. Older church leaders need to bring along young Timothys and the young Timothys need to learn humilty and submission to authority. If things are being done poorly AND there is no hope for reform, one may need to move on – but only after due diligence.
[...] How The Church Can Lose Young Leaders – my response 9 07 2009 Pastors today can either choose to invite young leaders into the decision making process or they can disenfranchise them and force them to go elsewhere. via manofdepravity.com [...]
Great post, Tyler!
Do you think this tension will always be here?
I can corroborate your story, bjowcik, as I too was a 20-something who had fantastic ideas, but zero respect for authority, tradition, longevity and faithfulness.
Now that I’ve walked a few more miles in hard-fought service to Christ and His Church, I can say that my attitude and pride made all my brilliance worthless, as I wasn’t willing to walk in humility and love in order to see my ideas implemented in God’s timing. I can also say that perseverance to the mission of Christ — something found in those “old leaders” who have continued to serve the Church after it has trampled them over and over — will be honored more than all the ideas the world has to offer.
The truth is that all ideas don’t deserve equal footing. There are good ideas and bad ideas. There are new ideas that are destined to fail and old ideas that deserve to be resurrected. I’ve seen all kinds come from both ends of the leadership spectrum.
We love young leaders at our church. We hate red tape. Our community and conversation is strong, and fifty percent of our staff is in their 20s. But they are effective — and employed — because they are humble servants of Christ and the Church first, and their ideas second.
Dang.
You nailed it.
I think that sometimes, when I was serving in a church, I had some good ideas. But only to have them not “turned down,” but not heard by the different leaders because,
A) I’m young.
B) Inexperienced.
C) I don’t have a degree.
So it’s unfortunate that ideas often get shot down or discouraged, but that’s the reality of working in a church.
I am the Worship Leader in a church where this hierarchical/CEO leadership style is in full swing. And I can testify that most members between the ages of 18 and 45 have left, due to the fact that their voices are not heard. It’s a very sad, and troubling thing. Time, and time again I have had to listen to young people leaving our church who have sat down with the leadership to express their ideas and concerns for our beloved church, only to realize that they had no voice in the matter, and then decided to leave in utter frustration. How can you blame them? I certainly don’t.
If you feel led to do so, please pray for our church about this specific matter. And thank you, Tyler. This was spot on the pulse of a real problem in a lot of our churches.
I understand what you are saying. Though I’m not sure that my mind works this way, haha. I love having a senior pastor who knows what he is doing and is committed to doing it. I agree that the pastor needs to be open to ideas, but lets admit it, some of our ideas are just bad. I think of a lot of stuff and if all of it got looked at, then the pastor would not have time to do his job. I think that we should have people who ideas should go to ( kind of like deacons or elders who would buffer between the ideas and the pastor). Sometimes if I were in the decision making, I would make bad decisions and it would not be beneficial for the church. You get what I’m saying?
Yes I understand what you are saying. But think of it this way. Can’t a senior pastor have just as many bad ideas? What if decisions were made in more of a group or collaborative way? Wouldn’t that be a place to weed out the bad ideas?
I agree. This is a tough issue, and to be quite honest, it’s easy to jump on the wagon because, I too, have experienced rejection. On the flip side, having worked in a church for 15 years I’m sure I’ve handed out my share of rejections–some fair and some unfair. I do agree that we as leaders can do a better job of listening to those we lead. We need to hear the input of those who do often give their time, efforts, and energies to the church. Likewise, our job as “leaders” is to equip and develop people to be effective disciples. To do this, we have to be willing to allow them to step in and take ownership of things. I, from experience, can tell you that this is not easy for anybody, especially leaders.
On the other hand, we have to look deep within ourselves and ask if we’re not being sensitive or unreasonable. I have worked with people who would fly off the handle or shut down if their ideas were rejected. In fact, I myself used (and in a way still am) to be one of these types of people. I was very sensitive (and still can be) and I took it personally when my ideas weren’t heard or accepted. Through time I have discovered that much of my struggle wasn’t with others, it was with myself. I have also learned that, though my ideas were great in my own mind, they were not always realistic with what was happening in the church.
I would firmly agree that there are too many power-hungry pastors out there, with a “my way or the highway” mentality. But, there are also a lot of church members out there with the same mentality, who, if given the chance to be pastor, would probably also be power hungry. We hate it when it’s in other people, but fail to realize the root of our complaint comes from the same seed.
Perhaps ideas deserve equal footing, but you have to earn your ability to be heard, no matter what your role in the organization.
Unfortunately, many of us younger leaders grew up in homes where we ruled the house. We got what we wanted and were catered to with whenever we asked. So many of us have developed an unrealistic expectation of being heard wherever we go, whether in college classes, business, or the church.
The best thing that young leaders can do is offer their strengths to the church as they “grow in grace and in favor with God and man.”
Once you’ve proven yourself, then your opinion will be asked of you and valued.
So long as you maintain a mindset of “if you don’t listen to my idea then I’ll just go somewhere else” I suspect that you’ll live a very transient life.
Can’t disagree with that. But what about this….what if your opinion is never asked of or never valued?
I think that this is reflection of poor leadership. In fact, it is one of those subtle things that let’s you see beneath the gregarious exterior of some strong “motivational” leaders.
But, more to my point above, I think that most of the time the problem comes from people who simply expect to be heard before having earned that right.
Then there is also that balance between having your idea heard and having it implemented. For a lot of folks, if their idea is not implemented, then they take that as their idea not being valued. I know it. I’ve been there.
[...] Keep Young Leaders 2009 July 21 tags: church, emerging church by Tyler After posting about the church losing young leaders, I started thinking about how negative my outlook was, mostly because I didn’t talk about [...]