"Follow the Leader" is a children’s game that has spanned decades and generations. In all probability your great grandparents and you played this simple game during your respective childhoods. One person agrees to be the leader. Whatever the leader does or wherever the leader goes, all the others in the game follow imitating the leader’s motions, words, and actions.

But who is the leader? Usually in the children’s game, the oldest or the strongest, or the most popular claims or is named the leader. But what if no one chooses to lead? Then there is no game. Somebody has to lead!

The same truths that grow from a children’s game apply directly to the church. Usually the leader is the senior pastor. Some senior pastors have the spiritual gift of leadership. Some have acquired some leadership abilities through the school of trial and error. Still others have abdicated the role of leadership because they proclaim that they are just not a leader. Well – somebody has to lead!

The senior pastor is the logical choice for a leader because of his position within the church. He has the vantage point of being

in touch with the full congregation, having awareness of all the programs, and sensing the needs of the congregation and the community. Don’t misunderstand – I do not believe that a pastor leads as a beneficent dictator or as a sole authority. In fact, great senior pastors surround themselves with other strong leaders.

A team of leaders (whether official or unofficial – deacons, staff, elders, leadership team) provides several areas of added value for the pastor’s leadership role:

• They bring additional strengths that cover the pastor’s weaknesses.
• They bring varying viewpoints for better insight.
  They enable synergy to take place.
• They have knowledge that no one else has.
• They offer a historic perspective.
• They bring accountability to the leadership process.

Certainly many other benefits could be added to this list. Regardless of the length of the list, the truth remains – the ability of the one isexceeded geometrically by the abilities of the team.

For a church to move forward according to God’s plan, the pastor needs to prepare himself to lead. Preparation comes in the form of prayer, spiritual gift development, skill enhancement, and communication. All preparation takes time and even comes with some risk as a person tries new things. But one final truth remains to be stated: in a children’s game and in a church, somebody has to lead; failure to have a leader means “no game” or “no church!” Somebody has to lead.