The Discipline of Decreasing Leadership

From the Desk of David Boyd, National BGMC Director

Everyone understands that the month of January is usually a time of decreasing. Decreasing the size of the portion of the food on the plate. Decreasing the number of sweets at the table. Having just come off a six-week period, beginning the end of November with turkey, dressing, gravy and pumpkin pie and working through those leftovers with just enough time to fit in numerous Christmas parties, office gatherings, and chocolate-covered Santas—January becomes a time of decreasing.

But how does the discipline of decreasing work in leadership? When is decreasing better? It would seem natural that the goal of children’s ministry would be to reach and disciple more and more children. How is this accomplished through decreasing leadership?

Often children’s leaders are chosen due to their charisma, their love for kids, and their talented personalities. As they utilize their God-given talents, these leaders soon find themselves involved in multiplied opportunities of ministry. Eventually they reach a point of maximum impact—a point where they can accomplish no more without passing responsibilities on to others. This involves decreasing what they do by raising up others to fill some areas of ministry. This may seem natural to the children’s leader who has already learned to build a team or to the children’s leader who would love to pass on responsibilities if only there were volunteers around. The principle of decreasing leadership involves the art of bringing others along with you.

As a young teen, I used to ride a bus to church. I remember the bus driver, who was also the bus captain and the senior pastor of the church. He took me with him on bus visitation and trained me to serve as a junior bus captain. Eventually I was able to take over the duties of bus captain. This freed the pastor to hire another driver. I continued to ride the route and serve as bus captain throughout my high school years. This is the principle of decreasing leadership. Little by little, this pastor trained others to carry on his ministry. His passion to reach the lost families of our city was realized in the many people he trained. This training not only benefited the ministry of that church, but it deposited in me the desire to minister my whole life. His ministry continues today through my life.

Children’s leaders who practice this principle have learned to bring others along with them. They’ve learned to involve as many leaders and teens as they can in order to build a team of passionately trained volunteers to do the work of the ministry. Sometimes it’s a struggle for leaders to pass on that which they enjoy the most. Yet, before being able to tackle new responsibilities and take on a new vision given by God, current responsibilities may need to be apprenticed off.

The principle of decreasing leadership centers on training others to do everything you do so that in turn you can concentrate on doing only that which you can do. It also takes humility and dependence on God. Successful leaders often resist turning over positions and decision making to those they’ve trained. They can also fall prey to their own press reports, believing that success is trained skills rather than God-led leadership. Earl Creps in Off-Road Disciplines states: “Terms such as professional, commitment, strategy, and multitasking may seem to define commendable traits, but they may also serve as code words, disguising a heart attitude that says, ‘God is very big, but so am I.’”

The discipline of training others to take over areas of ministry requires a heart that is humble enough to realize your own subservience to God. No one is irreplaceable. All leaders should strive to raise up leaders like themselves so that the kingdom of God can continue to grow. Andy Stanley states: “Learning to effectively hand off leadership to the next generation is vital to the longevity of any organization. Begin decreasing your leadership and go, make a difference.

Works Cited
Earl Creps, Off-Road Disciplines (San Fransico, Ca.: Jossey-Bass, 2006), 77.
Andy Stanley, Reggie Joiner, and Lane Jones, 7 Practices of Effective Ministry (Sisters, Or.: Multnomah Pulishers, 2004) 158.