I was reading a management blog this week, and thought that ministry leaders are not that different from corporate managers. Stay with me on this, the job of a manager is to recruit, develop, and retain human resources, building and managing system or programs to ensure that important work gets done. Managers do these things by making decisions. One of the most important decisions that any manager (or ministry leader) makes is how they will spend their time.

So I ask you – ministry leader – how will you spend your time? The two blog posts below clearly articulate the power of delegation.

http://managementblog.org/2011/03/10/tasks-only-you-can-do/

This first post is about leverage – how much leverage do you get from delegating work to others? How much help do you need to get work done?

http://managementblog.org/2011/03/08/two-purposes-for-delegation-one-more-powerful/

This second post is about what delegation means to the person you are delegating to. How much does it help them to participate in your work? How does it help them grow?

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I know that ministry work is not like a "regular" job. You have less "control" over volunteers, and your staff "compensation" comes from a different source. But leadership is always more about influence than control, trust is the conductor for all forms of influence, and delegation is about trust. Answer these questions, and see if your answers change the way you think about what you need to do this week?
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How much time do you spend on the mechanics of running ministry programs?
How much time do you spend developing ministry teams?

Which one will give you the most fruit?