Daniel Im

Pastor + Author

leadership pipeline

Whose Responsibility is it to Recruit?

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A few weekends ago I met one of our volunteers who was operating the stage camera.

As I got to know him, I was surprised that it was his first time serving at Beulah—after attending for 23 years!

Oftentimes because of the pace of ministry, and a lack of contributors, leaders, coaches, and ministry catalysts, we end up doing ministry, rather than equipping our church to do the work of ministry. We do this because it’s easy. We know how to get things done. We have the responsibility for the ministry and it’s sometimes just faster to get it done ourselves.

However, here’s the catch-22. The more we do the ministry, the less time we’re going to have to equip our church to do the work of ministry, which then unintentionally creates a culture of professionalism where our church doesn’t think there’s a place for them to serve!

The more we do the work of ministry, the less time we have to equip.
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The responsibility of recruiting volunteers is NOT all on you.

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Why You Shouldn’t Be Worried About “Job Security”

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“It’s all about job security, right?”

Over the course of my adult life, I’ve heard this phrase multiple times. And it’s always irked me the wrong way.

Now I understand where someone might be coming from—they want to be irreplaceable so that they’re never faced with a pink slip and are without a job. As a result, they never write down their process or train others to do what they can do. They hold onto “industry secrets” and proudly declare that they were certified or educated to do these certain tasks. If they get hit by a bus, then the organization will suffer, since no one else can do their job.

I guess that’s job security…but it sounds pretty selfish to me.

In today’s open-share economy, do “industry secrets” even exist anymore? Sure, education and certification are proof that you’ve gone through the steps, but they don’t prove whether or not you’re competent in an area. After all, there are plenty of courses that I’ve received an “A” in, but I’ll be the first one to tell you that I’m incompetent in Calculus and Organic Chemistry.

No one wants to lose their job. I get it. I’m in the same boat.

But what if I were to tell you that there was another way to guarantee your job security?

It’s about having a posture of generosity, rather than scarcity

  • Scarcity is a closed fist approach to work and life.
  • Generosity is an open palm approach to work and life.
  • Scarcity says, “Cutbacks are inevitable, so I need to make myself irreplaceable.”
  • Generosity says, “Those who develop others will never be without a job.”
  • Scarcity says, “I need to add more tasks onto my list of responsibilities so that I become more valuable to the organization.”
  • Generosity says, “When I develop others to do what I can do, I’ll be entrusted with greater responsibility.”

One of the most selfish things a leader can do is to refuse to reproduce themselves.

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Dealing with Conflict and Criticism

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When collaborating with others, conflict is to be expected.

Conflict is inevitable when you’re actually doing the hard work of collaborating. After all, if there’s anything that’s a guarantee in leadership, it’s conflict and criticism. So how do you respond? Do you embrace it? Or avoid it?

If there’s anything that’s a guarantee in leadership, it’s conflict and criticism.

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Conflict is not the problem, avoiding conflict resolution is.

So have conflict, and then wrestle to resolution. But whatever you do, don’t avoid conflict; it’s necessary for a healthy team. If you never have conflict on your team, then this might be symptomatic of a deeper issue.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself about your team:

  • Do people feel the freedom to say what they really think?
  • Are you, as a leader or manager giving enough ownership to those that you lead that mistakes are inevitable?
  • Or is the rope so short because you have control issues and you want everything to be “just right”? And by “just right,” I mean it’s your way or the highway?
Whatever you do, don’t avoid conflict; it’s necessary for a healthy team.

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Allow people to disagree with you, but create environments for this.

In other words, when it’s planning and strategizing time, have a cone of safety where anyone can say anything. This is where differing points of view can come up and be wrestled with. But once you agree on a way forward, make sure everyone is on board. 

Now what if people on your team have conflict with one another?

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Collaboration is a Leadership Competency

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There’s a children’s book called Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. It starts off like this,

I went to sleep with gum in my mouth and now there’s gum in my hair and when I got out of bed this morning I tripped on the skateboard and by mistake I dropped my sweater in the sink while the water was running and I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

Have you ever had one of those days? In 2004, the US Basketball team sure did.

1992 was the first year that professional basketball players were allowed to compete in the Summer Olympic games. This was the birth of the “Dream Team.” I remember watching Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, David Robinson, Magic Johnson, and Charles Barkley dominate. I had their basketball cards. I played them in video games. Man, this was the year for basketball.

From that year on, just like Canadians were always expected to dominate hockey, the Americans were expected to do the same with Basketball. After all, who could ever challenge them? Who could beat them? The Americans had not only won gold every time since the Dream Team had competed, but they had also never lost a game—they were undefeated.

But in 2004 it happened in Athens, Greece, the birthplace of the Olympics.

And although the US team had superstars like LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, and Dwayne Wade, they lost their opening game in the tournament against Puerto Rico—a team that they should’ve crushed. Instead, they got crushed and were beat 92-73. This was the biggest loss in Olympic history for the US; in fact, it was their first loss ever. Their performance was a far cry from the original Dream Team who typically beat their opponents by 44 points.

Was this the end of the Dream Team?

Well, as much as they scrapped their way to the semifinals, they were eventually defeated by Argentina. Since NBA players were allowed to compete in the Olympics, 2004 was the only year that the USA men’s team did not win gold. In fact, 2004 was the only year they ever lost a game too. In 1992, 1996, 2000, 2008, 2012, and 2016, not only did the US men’s basketball team win gold, but they went undefeated.

So what went wrong?

I only have one thing to say—just one thing. You know that phrase, “Teamwork makes the dream work?” Yeah…I know, pretty amazing, right? Well, apparently they didn’t know that…

Collaboration is the ability to work with others

In this previous article, I outlined the two-year process that I was a part of to identify the universal core competencies of church leaders. Collaboration was one of them. This was a competency that just kept on coming up.

In order to collaborate well, you need to start by working with others

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While collaboration is simply defined as the ability to work with others, it goes far beyond that. To collaborate well, yes, you do need to display proficiency in your ability to work with others.

But as you grow in this competency, as a leader, you need to learn how to:

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The 6 Qualities of a Developed Leader in the Church

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Growing up, my parents had some high academic standards for me. I remember the one time I got an A on my Calculus exam. It was a feeling of joy mixed with surprise because if you’ve ever done calculus, you know that it’s sometimes hard to tell if you got the question right or wrong—especially with the tricky questions.

Well, I was over the moon and I couldn’t wait to share my joy with my parents. While walking home, I was envisioning the celebration that was going to happen when I entered those doors and announced my triumph. I was victorious and the fattened calf was going to be slaughtered. We were going to party!

“Your favorite son is home! And guess what I got on my calculus exam? A big FAT A!!”

Unfortunately, the fireworks did not go off. My mom came over, took a look at the exam, and with a melancholic voice, said something to the effect of, “Oh son, good job. You should call your dad and tell him the results.”

Well, this wasn’t exactly the response I was hoping for, but maybe the celebration was going to happen when my dad heard about it. So I called him up at work and shared the good news with him. Instead of whipping out the party horn, he responded with, “So, you got 100%?”

I responded, “Well, not quite, I got 91%, but that’s still an A!”

He replied, “So…how many did you get wrong then?”

Okay. Clearly, this wasn’t going the way that I wanted it to. An A is an A. Isn’t it?

Success is an interesting thing. Unless we clearly outline metrics and define what success actually looks like, it’s up to the eye of the beholder.

This is why, for many churches, success is more about programs, than it is about people. Eric Geiger and Kevin Peck wrestle through this tension in their book, Designed to Lead: The Church and Leadership Development,

So the programmatic rat race in most churches continues. Most churches merely exist to keep running their programs and services. They are not developing leaders intentionally and consistently. When leaders emerge from some churches, it is often by accident. “Wow, a leader emerged…How did that happen?” should not be heard among God’s people. Something is missing. Something is off. (13)

As church leaders, we need to make our metrics for success the same as Jesus’. And for Jesus, “the Great Commission is Plan A,” there is no Plan B.

Geiger and Peck argue that “The Church is uniquely set apart to develop and deploy leaders for the glory of God and the advancement of the gospel.” They believe this because “leadership, apart from the work of God, cannot produce true flourishing or eternal results.”

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