What is the vision God has given you for your church? What are the dreams you have for impacting your city? What would you love to see happen in the next 12 months in your setting?
I’m sure you could easily answer these questions. But I also think there’s something that could be standing in the way of your dreams becoming reality. You might think it’s better preaching from you, and perhaps that would help. You might even think you need a better location or facility, and those things are important. You might even think that you should be praying more, and of course, that’s always a wise thing.
But, what if one of the most important things between your present reality and your ultimate goals is whether or not you become great at delegation? We tend to think that delegation doesn’t sound all that spiritual. And yet, it was a key component for the leadership of Moses, Jesus and the first-century church.
In Exodus 18, Moses is doing so much of the leading all by himself. His father-in-law, Jethro, says to him, “What you are doing is not good.” He goes on to tell Moses that he needs to select capable people who can do much of the work.
In Acts 6, the twelve disciples realize that if they are going to serve everyone in the community, delegation is a necessity. Even Jesus knew that if His mission would be carried out after He left earth, He had to delegate responsibility to His disciples.
If this is true for Moses, Jesus, and the early church, then there’s a good chance it is critical for us as well. Here is what delegation can do for you and others:
- It will keep you from being exhausted all of the time.
- It will remove the limitations that exist when you’re the only one doing the work
- It will allow you to operate more in your area of giftedness.
- It will allow others to operate more in their areas of giftedness.
- It multiplies the amount of ministry impact your church can make.
When it comes to any task, there are four ways to categorize each task:
1. To do
In every season of your church plant, you need to gain clarity on what you must do personally. What falls into this category for you right now? Here are the things that are on my “do” list in this season of our church: give overall vision to the church, primary Sunday communicator, lead our staff team, oversee our Frontline leadership team and be closely engaged with our board.
What are the things that you must do in this season?
2. To delay
There are some things that we will have to do, but they don’t need to be done today, this week or maybe even this month. I believe so much comes down to how we spend our time each day. And we need to be crystal clear about the things that need to be done today and the things that don’t need to be done today. I keep a list of things that need to happen at some point, but it’s not time to do them yet. There are other things that are more urgent and important.
What are the things that I need to do at some point, but they aren’t my main things right now?
3. To delegate
There are things that need to be done in our church, but they don’t need to be done by me. They aren’t things that should be on my personal “do” list. When it comes to delegation, it can involve a staff member or a volunteer. As you consider what the task is, think clearly about who would be the ideal person to do the task.
What are three things you’re currently doing but should be delegated to someone else?
4. To dump
Sometimes we simply realize that there are things on our task list that shouldn’t be done by us or anyone else. We should simply erase these things and forget about them.
What are the things on your list that probably don’t need to be done by anyone?
Published August 17, 2017
