Hey, who put you in charge around here?

You Can Ask Anything – Question #2
By Pastor Kenny Burchard email me

Question: How does the Oasis Church choose those who serve as leaders?

Honestly, the answer to this question has changed, grown, been refined, redefined, and continues to be developed over time as we have experienced both success and failure in how we look at appointing people to leadership.  We have had some great successes, and some terrible failures in our attempt to develop a God-honoring leadership team.  The information below represents our current (and growing) sense of how we ought to think about leadership at The Oasis Church.

Four Types of Leaders…

The Paid Staff are a specialized team of leaders who are responsible for overseeing entire areas of ministry within the church (youth, children, worship, administration, etc) under the oversight of the Senior Pastor. 

The Elders are a small team of men and their wives who are responsible for managing the church’s vision, care and counseling of members, teaching the scriptures, church discipline, and the overall direction of the church along with the Senior Pastor.

The Deacons & Directors are literally “servants” who oversee specific types of minitry in the church (ushers, greeters, men, women, benevolence, prayer, newcomers, hospitality, etc).  They provide specific and tangible ministry to the church family, and oversee and train the volunteers who work directly with them.

The Church Council is a team of men and women who work directly with the Senior Pastor to ensure the financial integrity and stability of the church.  They are responsible for legal, denominational, and internal compliance with laws and bylaws related to church fiances.  They are also responsible for the child safety program, as well as assisting the Senior Pastor with human resource issues relaed to the paid staff.

A Four-Fold Consideration Process…

(1) Christian Character  – Any person who is considered for leadership at The Oasis must be a confessing and obvious believer in Jesus Christ who is growing in spiritual maturity, and who is currently modeling a life of dedication and consecration to Christ.  All of us have a  “past,” and all of us have areas of growth that we are still learning to yeild to Jesus. (For a biblical list of character qualifications, see for example 1 Tim. 3:1-13, and Titus 1:5-9). 

Questions we might ask: Is this person walking with God?  Are they modeling godly character?  Are they growing in their witness and their example?  Is it obvious they they are a dedicated and consecrated servant of Jesus Christ?

(2) Competence - Any person who is considered for a leadership role at The Oasis Church must have demonstrated the capacity to carry out related ministry responsibilities in a competent and excellent way.  There is always room for improvement, but the key is – “can we actually do the thing we’re being asked to do?”  This is often discovered before a person is considered for leadership.  In that sense, a prospective leader is usually already doing the thing for which they are being considered before they are asked to do it officially. 

Questions we might ask: Can this person actually do  what we’re asking them to do?  Do they have a track record of success in this area?  Do they have the skills needed to do what is being asked of them?  Is there fruituflness in their ministry when they have done this in the past?  Do they need to be propped up, or can they stand on their own two feet?  What is the effect and outcome when they do what they do?

(3) Calling  – The prospective leader at The Oasis Church is not just asked to carry out a task from which they are emotionally and spiritually disconnected.  There must be a passionate sense that God has called them to do this thing.  This does not mean that they understand every dimension of how to do it – but they should sense that God wants them to do it, and to grow and excel as they continue to serve Him and His people.

Questions we might ask:  Does this person believe that they are functionig in the area of their spiritual gifts?  Do they believe that God has called them to do this?  What have they done to nurture their calling?  Do the seem passionate and dedicated to this type of ministry?  Are we asking them to do something that connects with their passion and desire to serve God?  Do they see this a merely a stepping-stone to other things – or is this what they believe they’ve been called to do?

(4) Congregational Confirmation – There will always be a few people in every church who feel that “so-and-so” should not be a leader, on staff, or whatever.  The key at The Oasis Church is that – as a rule – the entire congregation receives, affirms, benefits from, and is receptive to the ministry of a particular leader, and that leader seems to fit the congregation.  If a person is being considered for any level of leadadership, we take time to determine how the congregation is responding to, and receiving that person’s ministry.

Questions we might ask:  How is the church generally responding to this person?  Is there significant sense that this is the right or the wrong person?  Does this peron help us along, or do we have to constantly pick up the pieces when they’re done “ministering?”  Does the church seem to have grace for this person even though they still have room to grow?  Is it perceived that this person is more of an asset to the congregation at large, or a liability?

CAUTION!  Men at work…

If you are looking at our church’s current leaders, our leadership protocol, or our model for choosing leaders in an effort to find ways in which we have not measured up to the standars above, it will be VERY easy to do.  We have made a lot of mistakes.  This is, in part, why we have the current values that we have.  We have tried to learn from our failures.  We will fail again.  Be sure of that.  Our humanity makes that an inevitable reality.  But we are committed to raising up a qualified, anointed, cohesive, collaborative, passionate, and loving team of servant-leaders at The Oasis Church.  We are essentially “men and women at work” – and we are under construction ourselves.  This is not an excuse for overt habitual sin, but it IS the reason why you will find imperfection in our TEAM and in our PROCESS.

By God’s grace, we will become the leaders and the congregation that he wants us to be.  In the words of Paul in 1 Timothy 1:12-14 -

¹² And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, ¹³ although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. ¹⁴ And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

We don’t put ourselves in ministry.  Jesus “finds us (declares us) faithful” and he puts us in.  He grows us, he molds us, he shapes us, he confirms us, he empowers us, he corrects and disciplines us, and he helps us.  Pray for those who currently lead and labor among us, and pray for God’s wisdom as He continues to bring us more men and women to serve and lead among God’s people at The Oasis Church.

For the CHIEF Shepherd, Jesus -
Pastor Kenny