Leadership = Discipleship?

At least that is how I look at it from the filter of church work. I’ve been reading all these books on leadership geared towards leaders in the “secular” sector and can’t help but wonder if all the church leaders out there trying to apply the same principles aren’t completely missing the bigger picture.

Great leadership is key and building more great leaders is essential to the health and growth of your organization. But in the church, should not the idea of building leaders be translated into building disciples? That is, after all, the one clear directive Jesus gave us before Nathan Petrelli-ing it into the clouds.

Think about it.

Being a leader requires clear direction, hard work, and strong disciplines. Being a disciple requires THE clear direction, ridiculous hard work, and virtually impossible spiritual disciplines. In fact, for all you church planters out there wanting so bad to emulate the first century church in modern culture, discipleship and the passion to create more true disciples of the Gospel is what drove the magnitude of the movement we now call Christianity.

Ed Stetzer spoke at the churchplanters conference today on the importance of discipleship. And I personally think he hit the nail on the head! Great leadership is not the answer. Great discipleship is. Ultimately, I believe they are one in the same with one eternally different bottom line. Create a strong disciple and you’ve created a strong leader. And one, if the Great Commission is understood, is ready to pay the favor back ten fold.

Put that into practice in your church and see what your church and community looks like in ten years.

Posted by willgoodwin