Have you ever watched your church approach a problem or project, knowing of a better way, but others weren’t convinced? Frustrating, isn’t it?  Especially when you finally achieve a resolution , later than necessary, having expended more resources than required and everyone feeling more flustered after the inevitable conflicts, overruns and delays.

How the Organization Suffers

This scenario illustrates the need and challenges of helping others to move with you in a new direction. Church growth requires taking new direction, developing new approaches and exploring more options. Who hasn’t felt the frustration of knowing improved practices and procedures but was unsuccessful in implementing them because either your colleagues don’t embrace change or church leadership is unaware of the existence of new methods to improve it’s effectiveness and efficiency. 

What happens in this case is the same thing that occurs when one or a few leaders in the Church are being developed and their team members aren’t.  The leader undergoing development knows something the organization can benefit from; however, the organization as a whole needs to get there together if it is to be effective. His understanding has expanded through his leader development. Unfortunately, the other members haven’t experienced leadership development and are stuck in their old mold and patterns of behavior they believe are still the best. The need is for leader development and leadership development.

Developing Leaders and Leadership

Often when we hear the terms leader development or leadership development we tend to view them as synonymous.  In reality, they are distinctly different and can be thought of as two sides of the same coin.

On one side of the coin, leader development can be described as a process of expanding a person’s capacity to be effective in their leadership roles and processes.  Leader development focuses on developing individual leaders. It involves developing the individual and it typically ignores the social context in which leadership occurs.   

On the other side of the coin, leadership development is the process of expanding the capabilities of individuals, groups, and organizations to contribute more effectively in leadership roles and processes.  In leadership development the focus is on enabling everyone to learn and grow in ways that would help elevate the overall effectiveness of the organization.  The aim is to develop the human resources within the organization. 

In both instances the goal is to enhance leaders to enhance leadership and enable the Church’s growth.  To achieve these objectives it is not an either/or, it is a both/and.  The leader must be developed as well as its leadership. If you aspire to take your organization to the peak, you need both leader and leadership development.  

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