You don’t mean for it to happen. It certainly isn’t intentional. But it happens to nearly every leader. One day we realize that we’ve lost touch with the people we lead. We find that…
- We’ve stopped thinking about how we can help them reach their goals, because we’ve become so focused on achieving our own goals.
- We’ve stopped looking at initiatives through the lens of ‘what’s best for our people’, switching it out for the lens of ‘what do I really want to work on’.
- We’ve stopped considering the needs of our people, instead doing what’s popular.
Nearly every leader finds themselves in this position — including lots of our own leaders here at Church Community Builder. No one does it intentionally or maliciously, but it creeps in around the edges of trying to lead day to day and get things done. But once we realize it is happening, the only real solution is to admit that our ideas, goals, and expectations aren’t lining up with our people’s or our church’s.
If you suspect your leadership is beginning to get in the way of creating true community in your church, see if any of these things is appearing in your day-to-day leadership:
- You say ‘they’ more than ‘we’
- You’re no longer asking your key leaders, volunteers, and givers for their insights and recommendations
- You change direction too quickly to articulate a new vision to your teams
- Your vision, when you do explain it, tends to center more on you than on your church community
- When participation starts to dwindle, you blame it on the commitment problems ‘the church’ has rather than taking a deeper dive into what’s behind the decline
If the level of connection and community isn’t what you want it to be in your church, you’ve got to face the fact that it might, in fact, be all about you. The tone for community in your church really does start with you.
Gut check: Are you standing in the way of community and connection in your church? If so, what will you do about it?