Stop Developing Leaders????

For the last 15 years, North American Christianity has been fixated on developing leadership. Don't get me wrong... this has been a fantastic thing! The resources and training available is brilliant! 
But, think for a second. As great and as important as leadership development is, I have problems with this crazy level of emphasis we are putting on it.

(pic is from google images)

I want my people to be followers. 

What has happened that we put more emphasis on training leaders than we do on training people to be great followers of Christ? This is called discipleship. Did Jesus train his 12 to be leaders? Yes, but I think primarily, He was training them to be followers. Am I wrong? We sure use that discipleship word a lot, but I see a heck of a lot more intentionality in leadership development than I do in followership development. I want my people first and foremost to become examples of Christ in character, attitude, purity, thoughtfulness, depth, boldness, prayer, listening to God, service, humility, etc, etc.  

I want my people to understand and step into who they are in Christ. 

We constantly look for up and coming leaders, we call for leaders, and we encourage people into leadership. Leadership, as I see it, is ONE of the many gifts of the Spirit. Isn't it true that as people become good followers, as they understand themselves and the way God has wired them, gifted them, and placed them, then we will begin see who the real leaders are? What if we gave 'giftedness' that the crazy level emphasis that we give to 'leadership' development?  As people live out their own followership; the God-gifted leaders will be discovered because they will naturally rise. THEN, once we determine who the Holy Spirit has gifted that way, let's focus on training them to be great leaders AS WE train the hospitality people to be great hosts, the shepherds to be great shepherds, the evangelists to be great evangelists....  Should we treat leadership as equal to the other gifts? In the church tradition I grew up in, we criticized others for putting too much emphasis on some specific gifts; now, I think we are doing the same.

Spend the same intentional time and energy in training all people in their giftedness.

So, I actually don't want all my people to become leaders. I want them all to be great followers of Christ.

Will this era go down in history as the one that spent so much time and energy on leaders that we left the rest in the dust? Will people leave our churches in droves because they feel that there is no place for them if they are not leaders? If there is no place for thier gits to be used? Jesus took rabbi school rejects (young men not culturally designated for leadership) and made them into great followers. These followers became.

I know that this is overstated. I simply want to make us think. 


In youth ministry, I have only seen a few situations where students are really trained in the areas of their gifts (in a real breadth of gifts). I do see lots of places where kids are challenged towards leadership - and in most of those places, leadership means "be my slave, finish these tasks, run this game..."    

Let's not be known for developing great leaders. Let's be know for calling out God's uniqueness in each kid, recognizing the gifts of the Spirit, and pouring into them in "the way they should go"... they won't depart from it. 

Stop training leaders??? No. But let's put it back into its proper balance.


Dave Brotherton was a youth pastor from 1984-2006 and now teaches youth ministry at Ambrose University College in Calgary. Dave is also the National Youth Guy for the Alliance churches in Canada, the director of Legacy Youth Conference, and a junior high volunteer in his church. Dave is married to Lisa and they share 2 of the greatest kids in the world. Fishing, camping, and cheering on the Leafs are some of his favorite things. 
This summer, Dave is transitioning to lead the ministry of Sauble Christian Fellowship, Sauble Beach, ON. 
twitter: @oldbrotherdave