Recruiting Leaders/Teachers for Small Churches

By George Keralis

If you have ever worked in a small church, then you know and understand the challenge of finding and recruiting leaders and teachers. Resources are often severely limited. When a potential volunteer comes along, we tend to circle like vultures looking for an opportunity to pick his/her bones and enlist him/her as a deacon, ministry leader or teacher of some sort. Instead of asking how we might help this person grow in Christ, we ask how this person can help us grow as a church.

Having worked in small churches for many years, I have done my share of bone picking in the name of advancing the Kingdom. In doing so, I have made many mistakes. Below are three mistakes often made by desperate people hoping to find volunteers to help advance the Kingdom of God located in their “neck of the woods.”

You hastily appoint a member to a position of leadership. We should take Paul’s admonition to Timothy to heart as we look for new leaders and teachers. “Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, nor take part in the sins of others; keep yourself pure” (1 Timothy 5:22; Cf. 3:10).

Certainly, the process of choosing leaders involves risk no matter the maturity level of those appointed. Take time to get to know the person you want to appoint to a leadership/teaching task. What are her strengths and weaknesses? Will her weaknesses hinder her from performing her ministry of service so that God receives the glory? Is she teachable? If not, then do not ask her to teach.

What happens when we hastily set someone aside for a leadership/teaching position? If their character is flawed, if some secret sin lurks beneath the surface like a great white shark waiting to emerge, then this appointment becomes a reflection upon us as leaders, leaders that make poor choices. Even though we do not participate with an appointee in their sin, people perceive us as condoning their sin by placing them in a position of leadership. “You should have known better.”

Spend time with people. Go to coffee with him. Eat meals together. Pray together. Visit him in his home. Listen to his speech. Note how he interacts with and treats others. Listen to what others say about him. Ask him to help with tasks around the church. Does he shy away from getting his hands dirty? Does he complain? Does he join in and encourage others? Let him serve before he leads.

Spend time talking to God about this appointment before you approach this person about a leadership position (Luke 10:2). If you find that the potential leader is not up to the task, then do not invite him to become a leader. Learn to be patient trusting God to provide His choice for leaders/teachers in your congregation.

You place new Christians in leadership/teaching positions. Paul’s teaching about the qualifications of elders comes to bear on this subject. Concerning the placement of a potential elder, Paul says, “He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil” (1 Timothy 3:6).

There are two biblical reasons to not appoint a new convert to a leader/teacher position. First, he may become conceited. “The pride in a prominent position produces a blindness that blunts spiritual alertness.”^[1] Conceit causes this person to not see where they are weak, to not see where Satan has laid his snares. The word “conceit” literally means “to wrap in smoke” (Cff. Proverbs 21:4; 1 Corinthians 9:27; 1 Timothy 6:3-4). As a result of his blindness, the neophyte tends to brush off the admonitions of those older in the faith.

Second, if this new convert becomes prideful, he will fall under the judgment of the devil. What this means exactly is uncertain. What we do know is that the person has now become associated with any judgment that comes upon Satan.

At this point, we are not questioning leadership potential. The question has to do with spiritual maturity. In the case of a neophyte ascending to a leadership position prematurely, he by-passes the basis of biblical leadership, that of servanthood (Cff. Matthew 20:28; John 12:26; Acts 20:18-21; Romans 12:11; Galatians 5:13; 1 Peter 4:10). The neophyte sees his elevation to leadership as a pat on the back. He will suffer self-aggrandizement. Instead, we ought to live out in the presence of the new convert Paul’s admonition in Romans 12:3. “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”

You forget that those placed in teaching positions face a stricter judgment (James 3:1). Why do teachers receive a stricter judgment? The teacher’s responsibility is to show her disciples the way of life. If she presents an ill-prepared lesson, inaccuracies about the Word of God or a lifestyle that defames God, then Satan may tempt the student to stray from or reject the truth (Cf. Matthew 18:1-5).

As teachers, we are to “rightly divide the Word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15; Cff. Acts 13:1; 20:27; Romans 12:7; Ephesians 4:11). The ministry of teaching in the church is a recognized position of authority and prominence (1 Corinthians 12:28). Christian teachers will be scrutinized more than others because they are to study, live out and communicate well the truth.

We must be careful to place trustworthy people in this position because we may unwittingly place them in harms way if they are not qualified to teach (1 Corinthians 4:2). We become accomplices in their faulty teaching. We must make sure that our teachers reflect in their lives what they teach in their classes. Faulty or incorrect teaching causes damage to the body of Christ (Ezekiel 34:1-10; Acts 15:24; 1 Timothy 1:6-7).

How do we as leaders in small churches avoid hastily placing people in leadership/teaching positions?

Listen to Paul’s final words, words of encouragement to Timothy as he serves the churches of Asia. “You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also” (2 Timothy 2:1-2).

As we recruit and train leaders/teachers, we should draw our strength from Christ Jesus. Too often, we rely on our wisdom, on other’s recommendations and on the charisma of potential volunteers. We are like Samuel who saw Eliab, the oldest son of Jesse, and believed him to be God’s choice to be king. But God warned Samuel not to look on the outside of man, but to look at his heart. Saying “no” to a potential volunteer is difficult. Yet, the task of leading/teaching requires us to wait on God’s direction, just as Samuel did when he waited for David to appear.

As we recruit and train leaders/teachers, we must lay a foundation that concentrates on the core values of the Gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-8; Philippians 4:9; 2 Timothy 1:13-14; Titus 1:9; 2:1). As teachers, one of our primary responsibilities is to impart truth to others that may become teachers (1 Thessalonians 1:6-8). Those to whom we pass God’s word to, along with the responsibility of teaching, they must be found faithful (1 Corinthians 4:1-2). If we have not laid a proper foundation for truth in their lives, then we cannot expect them to lay a proper foundation in the lives of others. We are relying on them to accomplish their part in making disciples. Let’s do our part effectively.

The teachers’ hearts must be so set on Christ that no threat of danger will lure them from the path of loyalty and no seduction of false teaching cause them to stray from the straight path of the truth. They must be steadfast both in life and in thought.^[2]

We are not merely recruiting and training leaders/teachers. We are recruiting and training men and women who will become skilled leaders/teachers (1 Timothy 3:2; 2 Timothy 2:24). God calls him not only to teach the truth to his disciples, God calls him to correct error. In either case, he is to do so with kindness, with gentleness. Not only is he to be skilled in his understanding and presentation of the Scriptures; he must exhibit people skills as he teaches. As you see these skills develop in your leader/teachers, make sure to honor them for their work.

Once we appoint and place leaders/teachers in positions of responsibility, then we must continue to encourage, equip and pray for their fruitfulness.

What other mistakes do we make in appointing leaders in small churches? What solutions might you suggest to prevent appointing the wrong leaders or making adjustments for the leaders that we have appointed? Do you have ideas or concerns that you would like this blog to address? We would love to hear from you.

^[1] Lea, T. D., & Griffin, H. P. (1992). 1, 2 Timothy, Titus (Vol. 34, p. 113). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

^[2] Barclay, W. (2003). The Letters to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon (3rd ed. fully rev. and updated, p. 178). Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press.