Mike Bonem
If ministry in this new season calls for a different kind of leadership, what are the skills that leaders need to master? You might think of specific needs, such as building meaningful online connections or responding to the wave of mental health issues. These are certainly important and acute areas to address, but three broader skills will help every leader both now and when we are truly beyond the pandemic:
- Listening and learning – we didn’t have all the answers before the pandemic, and we certainly don’t have them now. If you conclude that the lack of answers means you need to work even harder, putting in more hours to discern the best path, you’re setting yourself up for frustration and exhaustion. The more valuable skill is the ability to create and learn from an increasingly diverse circle of people as they offer insights about your context and envision new ways of doing ministry.
- Experimenting and failing – many businesses have been successful by making quicker decisions with less-than-perfect information. Their rationale is that a cycle of design-experiment-evaluate-learn will produce better results than a never-ending quest to find an ideal solution. Many ministries are averse to failure, which is more likely with experiments. But before you dismiss the skill of experimenting (and failing), ask yourself if your current approach is really that failure-proof.
- Recruiting and empowering – every church and ministry says they need more leaders, but they often mean they need more workers. There’s a big difference. Workers are plugged in to fill spots in established programs. Leaders revamp existing programs and create new ones. If the way forward is uncertain and finding the best path requires experimentation, the burden cannot rest solely on your shoulders. Your church or ministry will need a cadre of leaders who are committed to the mission and who are empowered to try new ideas.
What’s the next step? Gather your leadership team to develop your own list of essential skills. Your list may be completely different than mine. Then begin to develop one or two of these. If listening and learning is at the top of your list, convene groups that can offer meaningful perspectives. Make sure they are not the usual suspects who are always at the leadership table. If experimenting is essential, have a brainstorming session to identify 20 new ministry ideas, then narrow down to the top 5 for experimentation.
It is never easy to go back to the “un-mastery” end of the learning curve, but the subsequent growth can be invigorating. And more importantly, it can be the catalyst that your church or ministry needs in 2022.
