Pastoral Ponderings: 10 ways you can be a leader in a church without being on a Committee
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Rev. Brennan Hurley
Associate Pastor, First United Methodist Church in Taylorville
Pastor, Stonington United Methodist Church
1.) Pray every day for your church’s official leadership – pastor, committees, ect. Believe me, we need it. It only takes a few moments.
2.) Evangelize. Share your faith with others and tell them about what you love about your church.
3.) Show up! A large part of being a follower of Jesus is simply showing up and following. Jesus rarely calls us to do extraordinary things, but he always calls us to do ordinary things. A lifetime of showing up ready for God to move in your heart is a faithful one.
4.) Engage with your own family’s discipleship. Pray with your kids. Read the Bible with them. Ask them the question that the founder of Methodism, John Wesley, asked his friends: ìHow is it with your soul?î
5.) Tend to your church. The church is not a depreciating building with four walls. It is more like a flowering plant. Its desire is to grow. But for it to grow, it needs us to water it, give it the right amount of sunlight and pull the weeds. We might even be able to graft it into another location, too.
6.) Do a self-audit of your living up to your membership/baptismal/confirmation/other vows. In The United Methodist Church, those vows say that we’ll support the church through our “prayers, presence, gifts, services, and witness.” I imagine that your church has vows in the same zip code.
7.) Encourage and include your young families! The children aren’t just the future of the church; they’re the present of the church.
8.) Laugh and smile. The Christian life shouldn’t be a boring slog of grumpiness, but a joyful life of abundance.
9.) Know and use your spiritual gifts. God has given you gifts of working with children, prayer, hospitality, or any number of gifts. Use them!
10.) Love God and love others. Church leadership isn’t a position of a title. You become a Christian leader by living your life in the way that Jesus taught us to live. And by your love, others will come to know Jesus, too.
