I recently was speaking with a man about taking on a leadership position in our Sunday school structure and he posed the question: So what you are telling me, Bro. Joseph is that I am over this and this and this? I could see the fear in his eyes as much as he was probably seeing the fear in my eyes as I realized the mistake I was making: I was not specific enough. It was from that point on that I realized that I needed to look at how specific the roles were in the leadership structure of Sunday school at our church.
The question can come about: why are we not specific enough? Sometimes I believe that we are more focused on having the person in the role instead of focusing on the role. I will admit that I was more enthusiastic in having a chance to speak with this gentleman about him serving in Sunday school in some capacity instead of considering the role and what it really needed to function and become. It wasn't his fault, it was my fault completely, but thankfully I was able to see my error before sending us into the land of unspecific needs.
What can be the pitfalls of not being specific?
1. Unnecessary work is performed: You could have one person in a role that isn't specific, and then someone could come along and start to perform the same job without knowing who is specifically in charge of an area. Thus there is extra work that is performed that could have been easily dealt with.
2. Bad communication occurs: People want to know exactly what their expectations are and how you want to see them be accomplished. When there isn't communication of what is expected, everyone is left to do what is right in their own eyes. As long as they are doing something, they feel, is better than doing nothing. Yet you have then an organization where no one understands expectations and will leave because of bad communication.
3. Followers will drift away: Christ was pretty specific when it came to his expectations for his followers. Leave these nets here, sell all you have, come down out of that tree...He knew that if he wasn't specific then there could be some left to wander what exactly it meant to follow Him. The same can be true when we don't lead in being specific. What happens too often is we get a leadership role in mind and the first comment we want to tell to someone we are recruiting is, "don't worry, you really don't have to do anything..." Really, so we just recruited someone to nothing. If there is no direction in which for them to be led or to be guided along, you will see them drift away from following you as leader. Be specific, intentional, and challenging in the assignments of leadership.
I encourage you to look at your leadership roles and see if we are putting people into specific roles or are we sometimes surrounding ourselves with just people with no specific need for them. In the corporate world we have job descriptions and they give the specific responsibilities, the Bible as well gave specific roles for people, why can't we in the 21st century church make sure people are doing exactly what God has called them to do.
Happy Thanksgiving! God bless
The question can come about: why are we not specific enough? Sometimes I believe that we are more focused on having the person in the role instead of focusing on the role. I will admit that I was more enthusiastic in having a chance to speak with this gentleman about him serving in Sunday school in some capacity instead of considering the role and what it really needed to function and become. It wasn't his fault, it was my fault completely, but thankfully I was able to see my error before sending us into the land of unspecific needs.
What can be the pitfalls of not being specific?
1. Unnecessary work is performed: You could have one person in a role that isn't specific, and then someone could come along and start to perform the same job without knowing who is specifically in charge of an area. Thus there is extra work that is performed that could have been easily dealt with.
2. Bad communication occurs: People want to know exactly what their expectations are and how you want to see them be accomplished. When there isn't communication of what is expected, everyone is left to do what is right in their own eyes. As long as they are doing something, they feel, is better than doing nothing. Yet you have then an organization where no one understands expectations and will leave because of bad communication.
3. Followers will drift away: Christ was pretty specific when it came to his expectations for his followers. Leave these nets here, sell all you have, come down out of that tree...He knew that if he wasn't specific then there could be some left to wander what exactly it meant to follow Him. The same can be true when we don't lead in being specific. What happens too often is we get a leadership role in mind and the first comment we want to tell to someone we are recruiting is, "don't worry, you really don't have to do anything..." Really, so we just recruited someone to nothing. If there is no direction in which for them to be led or to be guided along, you will see them drift away from following you as leader. Be specific, intentional, and challenging in the assignments of leadership.
I encourage you to look at your leadership roles and see if we are putting people into specific roles or are we sometimes surrounding ourselves with just people with no specific need for them. In the corporate world we have job descriptions and they give the specific responsibilities, the Bible as well gave specific roles for people, why can't we in the 21st century church make sure people are doing exactly what God has called them to do.
Happy Thanksgiving! God bless
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