— An Incomplete Parable or Analogy —

Jesus used all kinds of parables and analogies in His teaching to his disciples. They lived in a primarily agrarian society, so agriculture was very familiar to all the people of Jesus day. Sheep and Shepherds were common place. Growers of fruit and other crops were also common. Jesus used these very familiar images in his stories, explaining the kingdom of God, because he knew that they would be very familiar to the people around him.

They are not as familiar to us. In this post-industrial age, how many of you have ever met a shepherd, or have raised any kind of livestock or grown crops. These word pictures don’t necessarily resonate with us, the way they did with the people Jesus came into contact with. Yet we persist in using His parables, and analogies to explain spiritual things to our peers. Even in this blog, Fruit Producing Ministry, I use agrarian metaphor to reflect the mission of The Church, as an output of agriculture.

This is a parable of leadership. Churches grow from a seed. We already call the most common way of establishing a new church a “plant”. In fact it is more like a cutting. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The lesson in this parable is that a growing plant needs different kind of leadership at different phases of growth.

In order to successfully plant a seedling, or a cutting – you need a few things. You need good soil, that has been prepared; broken up and fertilized so that the roots will develop quickly. You need frequent water, so that the shock of the planting does not cause the plant to dry out and wither, until the roots grow deep enough to get water efficiently. You need weeding – removing indigeneous species that will take away the water and nutrients from the soil; effectivel;y starving the plant.

Once the plant “takes root”, the frequent watering can abate, and the natural watering schedule can be instituted. It is said, that too frequent watering will cause the root system to develop in shallow, weak ways, rather than deep and strong. Once the plant has grown bigger and stronger than the weeds, it is less necessary to weed. One does not weed at the base of a giant tree, the roots of the tree go much deeper and broader than the roots of the weed. If the plant is in rich soil, the routine fertilization is not needed, but in poorer soil, regular augmentation of the nutrients is essential.

In the context of a church plant, the root system is your membership. The soil is your community. The weeds are distractions from the mission of “The Church”.
But this post is less about the analogy, and more about the leader. The leader of a church plant needs to be sensitive to the growth of the church, and while in the beginning, he is the engine of growth, if he does not delegate, or allow others to particiapte, he will eventually limit the growth of the church. His leadership style as the church grows is what prevents him from becoming the bottleneck.

While many pastors focus on spiritual leadership, and shepherding, this leader must focus as much on organizational leadership. In order to develop an effective root system, he needs to provide opportunities for new members to participate in ministry, and a path for them to move into volunteer leadership. He has to make sure that the volunteer leaders that are in place are “people friendly”, and highly relational. He must set expectations for volunteer leaders to organize their staff and programs to provide on-ramps for new members.

The leader must make sure that the new organization is known in the community. Public relations, and community involvement are key, to getting the church recognized in positive ways. The goal is to reach the community, and a positive view of the organization in local communities is key. Some plants have an established brand, they are new campuses from a multi-campus organization, and may start with a large contingent from the mother-ship. Stand-alone plants, often start with a very small contingent of members and no established reputation in the community. These must work hard to establish a positive rapport with other churches and community leaders.

As the plant grows, it must avoid distractions. Some programs seem important, but require human and financial resources that can be better spent. Other things like websites, marketing strategies, can be huge time-sinks for the leader if they are not in his area of strengths. The leader needs to be able to delegate these things, or borrow expertise from the sponsoring organization to prevent him from being distracted from endeavors in which he has little or no expertise.

Working against your giftedness, or the giftedness of your membership will become like a distraction. It takes energy and produces little or no fruit. This situation presents opportunity to partner with other local churches to pool your giftedness, around certain programs. Co-sponsoring programs, or negotiating to collaborate on community projects with other churches – this can allow you to balance your churches giftedness against others in the area. Using resources from the mothership, sponsoring organization, or denomination are other ways you can use and develop your leaders without burning out.

— I know this is incomplete – I would love you to offer your suggestions for changing or completing it…  Truth is, I got stuck…