Photo by Ryan Riggins on Unsplash

Every leader and pastor knows that to reach the goals you have in your heart for your church and to fulfill the mission that God has called you to, you must find the right team. Nothing is more important than the people you put around you. Whether they are elders, volunteers, or church staff. This has never been more important, but with COVID, this has never been more difficult.

All leaders know that nagging feeling. It keeps them up at night and gives them indigestion. It creates anxiety, stress, and even anger. What is it from? Having the wrong person in a leadership role. Sometimes, it might be a mismatch of skill; it may be that the person isn’t capable of leading a ministry or team at the size it is. This happens when someone struggles to lead at the new size of a church, as leading in a church of 100 is different than leading in a church of 500. The mismatch can also be a character issue you didn’t see before or recently developed.

But how do you know? What do you do with the feeling that someone shouldn’t be in their leadership role?

Jim Collins in Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t said, “Two key questions can help. First, if it were a hiring decision (rather than a “should this person get off the bus?” decision), would you hire the person again? Second, if the person came to tell you that he or she is leaving to pursue an exciting new opportunity, would you feel terribly disappointed or secretly relieved?”

Over the years, these questions have helped me evaluate the leaders that I have and where we are as an organization. 

This doesn’t mean that if you answer, no you wouldn’t hire this person again, that doesn’t mean you let them go. Especailly if the issue is around competence as opposed to culture fit or character. Compentence is the area that you need to spend time on to level people up if they can be.

What do I mean by that? Not everyone wants to grow as a leader. People are often content to stay where they are and not grow or develop. That isn’t a character flaw or even wrong, but it might mean they can’t continue growing with your church or culture. 

But how do you know ahead of time? All of us have led people who shouldn’t be leading, weren’t bought in, or weren’t capable of leading in the role they are in.

In his helpful book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, Greg McKeown said, “If the answer isn’t a definite yes, then it should be a no.”

While McKeown was applying that to opportunities, I think it is incredibly applicable to hiring someone, raising a volunteer leader, or putting someone into a new leadership role.

If you have a gut feeling they shouldn’t be there, wait. If a trusted leader tells you to wait, listen up.

If someone seems over-anxious to lead something, wait. If someone seems to be hiding something or something doesn’t add up about them, wait.

There is no harm in waiting.

I know. I hear you, church planter and pastor. You need someone. Who is doing it if you don’t put someone into place?

Possibly you. Possibly no one. You may need to wait on a ministry or miss a vision opportunity because you don’t have the people you need.

There have been times in churches I have been a part of where we have missed opportunities or we’ve not grown or we haven’t done a ministry because we didn’t have a leader. This is hard and sometimes people leave because of it, and you lose momentum or people.

Those are never easy, but they are all easier than removing the wrong person.