Church Leader’s Top 5 Weaknesses
Posted on Sunday, December 30th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
Church Leader’s Top 5 Weaknesses
Being a preacher at Coral Ridge and following Dr. Kennedy is a difficult position. I feel that I am never good enough, prepared enough, organized enough, or even spiritual enough. I stumbled across a recent list of the top five problems that most pastor’s feel in their work. One thing that helps me is the realization that I am not a senior pastor, but simply a cricket chirping while the Swanlike voice of Dr. D. James Kennedy remains silent. I am a fill in, and like most fill ins just do the best that I can under difficult circumstances. Every Sunday I walk out of the service thinking that no-one could have understood what I was trying to say. To my surprise, God in his graciousness uses even the voice of Baalam’s donkey,so perhaps I still have a chance.
The top five pastoral problems were these. I hate to say it but I find some of myself in each one of these problem areas. I appreciate your prayers and kind notes more than you all could ever know. I envy the new pastor because of the wonderful love that he will feel from such a wonderful congregation. I would appreciate any comments that you might have about these problems and any suggestions that might help me be more effective. Info Somewhat to their surprise, Thom Rainer and his research team found effective church leaders not only recognize and admit their mistakes, but they were happy to share those weaknesses. The top five weaknesses revealed are:
1. Pastoral Ministry - 3 out of 4 admit their number one leadership weakness is providing personal pastoral ministry. Pastoral ministry is defined as counseling, doing hospital visitation and performing weddings and funerals, to name a few of the responsibilities.
2. Lack of Patience - Another top weakness among effective church leaders is that they are task driven. More than 7 out of 10 indicate they are impatient to see objectives accomplished. Contributing to this dilemma is the fact that most American churches are notoriously resistant to change.
3. Dealing with Staff - 7 out of 10 considered their staff leadership skills to be weak.
4. Dealing with Criticism - Nearly 7 out of 10 effective church leaders struggle with handling or avoiding criticism.
5. Always Task-Driven - The dominant leadership style noted was “task-oriented.” Task-driven or oriented is defined as “high interest in production and getting things “done.” When a leader is always task-driven, sometimes to the exclusion of relational issues, there is a tendency to fail to take people’s feelings into consideration. It’s good to be task-driven, but it’s not good to be so driven that you forget about people.
Adapted from Lessons on Integrity:A Tribute to James Draper by Tom Rainer, Christian Post 8/13/07
Thanks for the suggestions to follow. I appreciate them greatly.
Onward . . .
DrSamLam 12/30/07
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Comments
1Glennard:Tuesday, January 1st, 2006 at 9:47 pm
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Sam,
Thanks for those thoughts. Reading what the “pastors feel” were their problems, though, makes me very curious regarding the congregants’ perceptions of those same pastors. I’d be willing to bet (figuratively, of course) that often the pastor’s perception was different than the congregation’s (or staff’s).
I still remember years ago in an InterVarsity leadership meeting when we each took the time to write down what we thought the other five leaders had as significant strengths and weaknesses. I seem to recall that my perception of myself matched maybe 50% of what the others perceived about me (good and bad).
Wouldn’t you like to know what God thinks are your strengths and
weaknesses?!
Sub specie aeternitatis,
Glenn
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2JJD:Thursday, January 3rd, 2006 at 12:43 pm
Dr. Sam,
I don’t consider you just a fill in and have no reservations even if you became our pastor.
I have found that no pastor can be good enough to please everyone. Consider Jesus, In His ministry He never please everyone—it wasn’t His goal. However, He did reach those who the Father wanted Him to reach. I believe that you too are good enough to reach those the Father wants you to reach. I believe that on occasions God has had pastors preach entire sermons in order to reach just one in a congregation of hundreds.
As far as “weaknesses in the pastoral ministry” is concerned I believe that proper staffing should relieve a pastor from being over burdened. I am sure it is easier said than done but it is not unachievable. I also believe that through good training a staff can become great.
When it comes to dealing with tasks, changes and criticism I think we can take them one at a time and after prayer make the best decision we can and move on, forgetting the past and looking toward the future. I think we can get caught up in the “maybe I should have done this” mode too much.
Keep on preaching and we will keep listening to what God is telling us.
In the only wise God we trust!!!
3Stephen Renae:Thursday, January 3rd, 2006 at 9:33 pm
Dear Sam,
In my opinion, you are delivering the best preaching CRPC has had in awhile. Your grace and humility silently teach great lessons.
As far as pastoral ministry is concerned, my pastor friend Jim says one minister can effectively pastor approximately 100 people. His ministry becomes diluted if he has many more than this under his direct care. Larger churches such as ours either need to delegate pastoral duties to lay people or hire more pastors.
I have recently purchased two books (which I could let you borrow) on leadership; one Christian and the other recommeded by a Christian. 1) The Leaders Journey - Accepting the Call to Personal and Congregational Transformation, and 2) Primal Leadership—Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence.
Hope this helps. Blessings brother.
Steve Renae
4Ryan Brasington:Thursday, January 10th, 2006 at 12:04 pm
Hi, Dr. Lamerson. Thank you for this post. It’s been a trying but refining season of ministry for me these past three or so months, so I’ve very recently experienced each of these areas of weakness you listed. And the thing I continually discover is the common denominator of my weaknesses as a pastor is my general distaste for surrendering control to the Lord. I’m uncomfortable visiting the sick to offer them hope because their illness is beyond my ability to “fix”; patience/waiting on the Lord is agonizing and sometimes humiliating because I can’t promise people a deadline; to properly deal with staff and with criticism forces me to consider that the course I have set may need to be adjusted- unless I impose my “control” and mow people over and fall into the fifth weakness of being task and result-driven instead of discipleship-driven. And all of it seems to come down to my willingness to surrender the drivers’ seat and go where He leads me.