Dr. Tom Cocklereece
Simple Discipleship Coaching Model
World famous author and Christian leader John Maxwell has well said, “Everything rises or falls on leadership.” This is one reason it is so important for pastors and church leaders to actually lead instead of simply manage. The temptation for pastors is to put the church on “automatic” and focus on preaching and teaching, and this is a mistake that you and your church cannot afford. Believe me…I learned this the hard way. Pastors and leaders in smaller churches under 300 feel great pressure as the church may not be large enough to pay a staff member to focus on administrative issues. On the other hand, leaders of large churches express many of the same concerns of leaders in smaller churches—the difference is the problems are the same but larger. Have you ever cleaned or varnished a floor and found yourself in a corner? This describes the current state of the church in a number of ways but especially in regard to discipleship and leadership development. Developing future church leaders does not just happen automatically. What is your leadership development process?
From a business perspective John McGuire and Gary Rhodes identify what I believe to be part of the problem that church leaders have copied. In their book Transforming Your Leadership Culture they suggest that the leadership model of many organizations today are based on a mid twentieth century military model that is hierarchical and called a “command and control” model. Many church leaders were educated and worked in the secular business culture using this model often before seminary training and a church career. The “command and control” model is still used in churches by pastors, administrators, deacons, elders, and boards. This model of leadership exhibits several big problems such as control instead of empowerment, innovation, and collaboration. Even in denominations that have a congregational polity, churches seemingly receive new programs from the top, i.e. national, state, or local denominational agencies instead of innovating from within the local church.
Some churches have broken away from the “command and control” model and use a more independent ’superstar” model. What I mean by this is that some churches have become dependent upon the leadership of a big name well known effective leader to carry the leadership load. The problem with the “superstar” model comes when the time does come for succession and installation of a new “superstar.”
There is a third model that is more consistent with Scripture and the servant leadership concept that Jesus Christ taught that I will call the “coaching collaboration empowerment” model. The focus here is not on control or independence but instead is on interdependence. This becomes a leadership development process that seeks to produce leaders who possess servant-leadership qualities of character, integrity, servanthood, and humility that is grounded in intrinsic values of the Christian faith. It is a process in which leaders mentor/coach potential leaders in a coactive relationship before the potential leader in ordained or installed. Ken Blanchard suggests such a leadership development process in his excellent book Lead Like Jesus in which he divides the leadership development model into four realms—heart, head, hands, and habits. I have further developed this model into what I call the Simple Discipleship Leadership Coaching Model where in each of the four realms the potential leader is nurtured and observed as related to his or her relationships. The four relational vitality realms are: 1) personal leadership, 2) one-on-one leadership, 3) team leadership, and 4) community leadership.
The purpose of this process is to equip, empower, and encourage new and innovative leadership that is grounded in the faith but without using a command and control model. It also reduces the problems of choosing an untrained and untested leader, and choosing leaders by popularity. The desire is to choose leaders who are “filled with the Holy Spirit and faith.” New qualified leaders like this should not be elected, selected, or voted in to a church leadership role. They are developed, coached, and observed as they served effectively before they are ordained or installed. The drawback to this kind of leadership development process is time and effort. Remember that Jesus Christ spent three years of one-on-one and one-to-few hands on coactive coaching with the apostles. Look at the results!
SD Blessings!
Dr. Tom Cocklereece
BTW: The book Simple Discipleship: How to Make Disciples in the 21st Century is available for order at http:www.simplediscipleship.com on the store page. The book will be released by ChurchSmart Resources soon.
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