How Can I Become a Leader in My Church

Scriptures: 1 Samuel 2:30, Malachi 2:1-9, 1 Timothy 3:1-13, 2 Timothy 4:5, Titus 1:5-7, 1 Peter 5:1-3, James 3:1

Desiring to Lead in a Noble Way 

The Church of God is a place where diverse people from different locations, ethnicities, and ways of life come together to pray and to hear the Word of God. People of such diversity have various ideas as to what their church should be like or what it should do. Often, a Christian thinks, “I would like to be a leader in my church because I can do this well or I can help my church a certain way.” Also, if a believer has been a part of a congregation for a while, such a person might say, “I want to be a pastor,” or “I want to be a deacon,” or “I want to be a Women’s Ministry Director.” This is true in big or small churches. Whatever the size of a church, the question is: how does one become a leader in a local congregation?

First of all, the Bible tells us that when we want spiritual leadership, we want a noble thing. It is good to desire to be a leader in a church. However, before we aspire to such authority, we need to ask ourselves why we want a leadership position. Leadership is a noble task and we must desire it in a noble way. Do we desire leadership to represent a life of spiritual maturity, character, and Christlikeness? This motivation is noble because such are the qualifications of a spiritual leader, a pastor, or a deacon, according to the Scriptures. 

Good character is a prerequisite to spiritual leadership. It is important for me to be a good parent and a good spouse. I need to have my family in order. I need to have spiritual discipline in my life. Do I want to lead to model a character that honors Christ? Do I want my life to count to the greatest degree? Such are the right reasons to be a leader. 

So, we need to examine our hearts first. Do I want to be a leader to have power and influence? Do I want people to think highly of me? These are bad motivations to be a church leader. Leadership in a church is for the honor and glory of God; it is not for our personal promotion or elevation. We must test ourselves and make sure that we not only desire the noble task of leadership but that we desire it in a noble way. 

Scriptures: Matthew 25:23, Luke 16:3, 1 Timothy 3:6-8, Titus 1:6, Hebrews 11:6

Desiring to Lead in a Faithful Way 

So, you are a Christian and you desire to lead. You examined your heart and you know that you want to lead for the right reasons. You want to glorify God with the gift He gave you. You desire a noble task of church oversight with noble motives. You want to serve the Kingdom of God. Now, how does one take the next step into a leadership role? How does one get into the office of a leader or an overseer at a local church? The answer is faithfulness. The qualifications that the Scriptures list for leadership already show that people are recognized as worthy of leadership positions when they are faithful to God. The way to aspire to leadership is to aspire to faithfulness. 

Just be faithful wherever God puts you. Serve the Lord. Serve others. The Scripture promises us that someone who is faithful in little will be set over much. Someone who is faithful over a few things will be made a leader over many things. If you desire to be a worship director, start by faithfully serving on a worship team. Learn how to play an instrument if you have not mastered one yet. Take voice classes. Come to every rehearsal. Become the best member of the worship team. If you do that for several years, your faithfulness will be noticed and rewarded. Your elder or your pastor will ask if you want to lead a worship service. Start small and be faithful. 

You also need to be faithful in your personal spiritual walk with the Lord. Being a church leader is more than being a leader in any other organization. You need to be skilled in the position you desire, such as singing, public speaking, or teaching. However, you also need to be spiritually mature. That means that you need to read the Word of God daily. You need to pray daily. To be a spiritual leader, you must be faithful in your area of giftedness as well as have spiritual maturity. When you practice spiritual discipline and apply yourself diligently to the ministry of the church where you want to serve, you will be promoted. God promised in His Word that He rewards those who diligently seek Him. Be faithful and God will reward you with leadership. 

Scriptures: Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, Luke 14:7-11, Romans 12:3, Galatians 6:9, 1 Timothy 3:6, James 4:6, James 4:10, 1 Peter 5:6

Desiring to Lead in a Humble Way 

When we faithfully serve at a local church, aspiring to leadership, we must to stay humble. We should not toot our own horn or blow our own trumpet for people to notice just how wonderful we are. We should not praise ourselves to others and attempt self-promotion. No. We should serve faithfully and allow others to recognize our gifts. God is the one who exalts us to a position of leadership. If we want to be legitimately exalted, we should wait for God to promote us. 

The Word of God says that the Lord opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble. This means we must trust God with both the timing and the manner of our promotion. The Bible encourages us not to become weary in doing good, because in the proper time we will reap the harvest of what we have sown—as long as we do not give up. We need to serve faithfully and wait for God. We should not get angry and start acting up if the promotion is not happening fast enough in our own eyes. God knows the right time for everything. He knows when it is the right season for certain things in our lives. The Lord determines when we are ready for our promotion to leadership. 

We also need to wait for God to promote us through the right means. Jesus told a story in the Gospel of Luke in which He explained the manner of such promotion. He gave an illustration of how we should behave at an important event. Christ said that when someone invites us to a wedding, we should not sit in the best seat, closest to the front of the party. If a person more important than us arrives, the host will ask us to move to the back, so it is better for us to sit in the back. When the host, who knows our importance, notices where we are, we will be asked to move closer. That is exactly how promotion happens in the Kingdom of God. God already placed leaders in a local church. When you serve faithfully and it is the right time for you to get promoted, those leaders will notice your service and offer you the desired position. Stay humble and God will lift you up. 

Scriptures: 1 Samuel 2:30, Proverbs 18:16, Matthew 23:12, Philippians 2:9-10, 1 Timothy 4:12-16, James 4:10, 1 Peter 5:5-6, 1 John 2:12-14

Desiring to Lead with Affirmation 

Sometimes, we want to serve humbly and faithfully in the church, but we are not sure how. Maybe, we have more than one gift. Perhaps, we are not sure if we are gifted or in what way our gift can be used in God’s Kingdom. This is where humility becomes very helpful. If we are humble and teachable, others can speak into our lives. We just need to be willing to receive their input. At times, our gifts are more recognizable to people around us than they are to us. Church leaders can also direct us to the area of ministry where we are most needed. 

In other words, if I want to be useful in the Lord’s Church, let me humble myself and not demand anything, but be faithful wherever others see me as most useful. Let the church recognize me. When others recognize the gift in us, we can become more influential in the congregation as a result. We can rejoice in that. Recognition of our gift or usefulness by others will give us great joy. 

Church leaders can also encourage us if we feel inadequate for a certain position, or feel unworthy to exercise our gift in a church. Elders can affirm God’s gift in our lives. This happened in the early church too. For example, the Apostle Paul had to encourage young Timothy to boldly serve in the gift that was affirmed in his life by a prophetic prayer of the elders. Timothy started to be fearful about leading with his gift, because of his youth. Paul told him not to fear and not to neglect his gift. He added that Timothy should not allow anyone to despise his youth. Paul encouraged his young disciple to be an example to others in the church. 

In the same way, elders, pastors, or church leaders can affirm the gift of God in your life. They can help you recognize your gift and also encourage you to exercise it with boldness. If you stay humble before the Lord, He will lift, honor and exalt you into a position of leadership according to the gift that He has given you. Be faithful and the Lord will show you in which area you are able to lead. 

Scriptures: Psalms 139:13-14, Proverbs 18:16, Romans 12:3-8, 1 Corinthians 12:4-31, Ephesians 1:4, 1 Peter 4:10

Desiring to Lead Ably 

Often, we want to serve in the church. We want to lead. However, we feel that we do not have the right type of gift. For example, if we do not like public speaking or cannot sing, we feel that there are no leadership positions for us in God’s Kingdom. That is not true. The Bible compares a church to a human body: every member has a gift and every member has a purpose. Each gift has a unique function. Teaching and worship leading are not the only leadership areas in a local church. 

The Scriptures list many gifts a Christian can use in leadership. For example, you can be a gifted administrator and organize all the logistics of your church. You can be gifted in financial management and help the church with their accounting and budget decisions. You can be gifted in giving and lead a church outreach to the poor and the needy of your neighborhood. You can be a gifted evangelist and lead others in your congregation to share the Gospel with their family members, friends, and neighbors. 

There are many gifts God gives the Body of Christ through its members. If you are a member of the Lord’s Kingdom, you definitely have a gift, so you can lead. Leadership means going in front of others and showing them the way to follow. You can lead people in your congregation in whatever area God has given you gifts and abilities. God wants you to lead ably. The Lord desires for you to lead according to the unique gift He gave you before the foundation of the world. 

If you are not sure what your gift or ability is, pray to the Lord and reach out to your pastor. The Lord and your spiritual leader will help you determine your area of giftedness, the sphere of life in which you do well enough to lead well. Your ministry might be as simple as being a good wife or a good husband. You can lead a parenting class. God enabled you to lead. He chose you to be a part of His Kingdom before He created this world. Ask Him to show you which of your abilities He wants to use for His glory.  

Scriptures: Genesis 2:15-17, Joshua 24:14-15, 2 Corinthians 9:5, 2 Corinthians 13:5, 1 Thessalonians 5:21, 1 Peter 5:1-3

Desiring to Lead Willingly 

The Lord has appointed church leaders among us to direct and instruct us and to help us to determine how we can serve Him. This, however, does not mean that they can dictate what we should do. God always wants us to willingly serve Him. God gave us many gifts and the church has many needs. Sometimes, we might be asked to serve in an area of the church we do not really like or care for, but we might feel that we cannot say no. So we start serving, but there is no joy in our hearts. This is not the Lord’s will.

God calls us to serve Him, and in His sovereignty, He works through our wills to accomplish His purposes. While we have a responsibility to choose to follow Him and serve Him, it is ultimately God’s grace that enables us to do so. If you are asked to serve in an area, be humble, pray about it, and seek to serve with joy. When you feel that your joy is lacking, be honest with yourself and with your leaders. God desires joyful service, not grudging or reluctant leadership.

Sometimes, we think that in a Christian church everything is perfect, everyone is happy, the sky is always shining, and the grass is always green. Yes, we are part of God’s Kingdom, but we still live on this earth. We are human and we make mistakes. We can be unhappy while serving the Lord. The Bible acknowledges that. For example, the Apostle Paul tells the church in Corinth to give their gift to the poor willingly. He tells them to give the amount that they decided to give in their hearts—to do so with joy, not under compulsion. Similarly, the Apostle Peter instructs church leaders to serve God’s people willingly. 

Everything we do for the Lord we should do according to our ability and the willingness of our hearts. If we feel reluctance or resentment creeping in, we should ask ourselves why. Maybe, we do not like the area we serve in. Maybe, we have been asked to do too much, and we do not have enough time to serve our family, to rest, or to replenish ourselves. We should always examine our hearts and be honest with God. He wants us to serve with joy. He loves a cheerful giver and a cheerful leader. 

Scriptures: Matthew 20:25-28, Mark 10:41-45, Luke 9:46-48, Luke 17:8-10, John 13:1-17, Romans 12:3-8, Philippians 2:3, Philippians 2:5-11

Desiring to Lead as Servants 

In the secular world, leadership is often marked by self-interest and competition, where people strive to climb over others to reach the top. This stands in stark contrast to the biblical model of leadership, which calls for humility and servanthood. Jesus teaches that in His Kingdom, the greatest leaders are those who serve others selflessly. 

That, however, is not the way of the Kingdom. Christ said that in His Kingdom a leader needs to be a slave to others. He added that if anyone desires to be the greatest, he must be the servant of all. Then, Jesus himself gave the ultimate eternal example of servanthood at the last supper. The Son of God, the One who created the Universe, got down on His knees and washed the dirty feet of His disciples. By doing so, Jesus demonstrated that Kingdom leadership is servant leadership. 

Being a servant is an attitude that we must cultivate from the beginning. We should not wait until we attain a position of leadership to start serving others with kindness and humility. The Bible teaches that all humans are inherently sinful, and positions of power can reveal the sinful attitudes already present in our hearts. True servanthood is demonstrated in humility and a constant reliance on God’s grace. If we consider ourselves better than others, this prideful attitude will manifest in our leadership. Instead, we must think of ourselves with humility, recognizing that any measure of faith or ability we have is a gift from God. By submitting ourselves to Him and relying on His grace, we can lead effectively in His Kingdom. 

At the same time, do not ever think that serving in the Kingdom of God is temporary. Do not think that once you get into the office of a leader, you will become too important to serve others and less important people will serve you. If that is what you think, you might want to stop desiring to leadin Christ’s Church. In the Kingdom, the greatest leaders should serve the most. That is the principle from the Word of God. Learn to be a servant, and when the time is right, God will make you a great leader.