{"id":2214,"date":"2012-06-01T03:00:09","date_gmt":"2012-06-01T10:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/?p=2214"},"modified":"2012-07-18T16:04:42","modified_gmt":"2012-07-18T23:04:42","slug":"are-you-building-leaders-by-recruiting-or-by-cultivating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/2012\/06\/01\/are-you-building-leaders-by-recruiting-or-by-cultivating\/","title":{"rendered":"Are You Recruiting Church Leaders with Free Steak Knives?"},"content":{"rendered":"

When it comes to building your church\u2019s leadership teams, do you recruit or do you cultivate?<\/p>\n

Every church faces the reality that it might soon need two new elders, three deacons, a new head of the finance committee, and so on. But while some churches scramble to \u201cfill these slots\u201d, others simply continue to cultivate and develop leaders in the congregation, guiding them toward next steps in their leadership journey.<\/p>\n

The difference is intentionality.<\/p>\n

Admittedly, my own church used to be far more stuck in the \u201crecruiter\u201d mode. At times we were so desperate to fill slots it we joked that we might need to offer a free set of steak knives to sweeten the offer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Image via iStockPhoto.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But today we are getting much better at replacing recruitment with cultivation.<\/p>\n

These have been our key learnings along the way:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0 Key leadership roles should never be filled with a \u201ccold call\u201d<\/strong>
\nIf you\u2019ve ever uttered the words in a phone call, \u201cHey Mary\u2026ever thought about being an elder?\u201d you are doing the church equivalent of selling vacuums door to door.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0 Identifying leaders should be happening constantly<\/strong>
\nAnother elder and I had coffee this week with a young woman in our church about to graduate from university. My prediction is that she could be on the church board in 5-7 years. Starting this week we put her on an intentional development plan.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0 Start talking about a specific role by not talking about a specific role<\/strong>
\nWhen you\u2019re ready to begin a dialogue which might lead to a specific leadership role, it should start at a much higher level. It should be a continued conversation about the church, that person\u2019s vision, and so on. Discussing a specific role too soon can lead to awkward back-peddling later on.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0\u00a0 Allow time for God to do His work<\/strong>
\nFollowing an early discussion with a potential candidate, have a follow-up meeting to discuss a specific role. There must be plenty of margin in the process for prayer and consideration.<\/p>\n

If you find yourself scrambling to \u201cfill slots\u201d, take the time to introduce greater intentionality to build a culture of leadership cultivation.<\/p>\n

It could save you a fortune in steak knives.<\/p>\n

How have you developed a culture of cultivation in your church?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When it comes to building your church\u2019s leadership teams, do you recruit or do you cultivate? Every church faces the reality that it might soon need two new elders, three deacons, a new head of the finance committee, and so on. But while some churches scramble to \u201cfill these slots\u201d, others simply continue to cultivate…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,478,583],"tags":[892,850,889,890,893,891,888],"class_list":["post-2214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","category-featured","category-staffing","tag-cold-call","tag-conversations","tag-cultivating","tag-developing-leaders","tag-intentionality","tag-leadership-roles","tag-recruiting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2214"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2222,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2214\/revisions\/2222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}