Some Advantages and Challenges of Building Your Own Small Church Leadership Team

This is the third and final post of a three-part series. Click here for the first post, Great Small Church Leadership Teams Aren’t Hired, They’re Built, or the second post, How to Find, Train and Build a Great Small Church Leadership Team.

I am an unapologetic fan of pastors and churches finding, training and building leadership teams from within our churches, instead of hiring them from the outside.

Yes, there are exceptions to that, especially in larger churches, when there may be a need for ministers with some very specific skillsets. But in a Small Church, building your own team is usually the best way to go. Often, it’s our only option.

I’m also a huge supporter of pastors getting a solid theological training, so this is in no way offered as a substitute for that. In our church, many of the younger people who become leaders either head off to seminary after being called into ministry at our church, or supplement the discipleship they receive with us by going to a local bible school or getting an online degree.

When it comes to hands-on discipleship and academic book learning, the best method is never either/or, but both/and.

There are also many people in our churches who will never be called into full-time ministry, who can be discipled very well and prepared for church leadership within their own church body.

But I’m not naïve. Raising up our own teams has great challenges and risks, too.

Here are some of the advantages and challenges our church has dealt with in almost two decades of building our church leadership team this way. Read more