If you are a leader in ministry, the chances are slim that people are going to ask you questions to help you grow.
Most people ask questions of leaders in order to help themselves grow. That’s why it is important for you as a leader to ask yourself four essential questions that will keep you growing. Here is the first of 4 essential questions that every leader needs to ask:
The First question you should ask yourself is, “What are my primary responsibilities?”
This isn’t a question that helps you pass the buck. It is a question that helps you focus. A great way to be ineffective as a leader is to take on more responsibility than is required for your particular leadership position. The more you add to your responsibilities, the more diluted you become as a leader. If you are like me, one reason we are prone to overcommitting is that it feels good to be asked to lead. When we are needed, we feel indispensable to the ministry, and we may even feel indispensable to God. This is a powerful temptation that we need to fight against because good leaders are laser focused on fulfilling their responsibility. They aren’t “jack of all trades” leaders, and they don’t say, “yes,” to everything people ask them to do.
The more you add to your responsibilities, the more diluted you become as a leader. – Scott Vermillion Share on X
For instance, David was a great leader. God used him to provide peace for the nation of Israel militarily. Yet when he wanted to add to his responsibility as a leader by making a home for God to live in, God said, “No.” That wasn’t his responsibility. He was to stay focused on bringing peace to the people.
Paul said in Eph. 2:10 “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” God isn’t asking us to do every good work. He is calling us to do the good work he has prepared us to accomplish. If you are going to do the works that God has called only you to do, then ask yourself every week, “What are my primary responsibilities?” Then build your week around the tasks essential to fulfilling those responsibilities. Asking this question will give you a laser like focus on what it is that God has called you to do to follow him in his work in your church or ministry.
Here are 3 ways you can gain clarity on your primary responsibilities:
1. Update Your Job Description
Your job description shouldn’t be a dead document stuffed in an obscure folder in your filing cabinet somewhere that was only useful for your hiring. A job description should be a living document that gives your work focus. It should be on your desk for you to review every week. It should serve as a constant reminder of what areas you are to tend in your ministry.
The problem with job descriptions in the church is that they are notorious for including everything and the kitchen sink. If your job description lacks focus, then you will too. I encourage you to work with your supervisor or elder board to update your job description so that it accurately reflects the responsibilities you are to cover in your work.
2. Connect Your Goals For The Year To Your Primary Responsibilities
Another way you can gain clarity on your primary responsibilities is to have your goals connected to your responsibilities. Your goals should help you further the areas of ministry under your leadership. If your goals are disconnected from your primary responsibilities, you will be spread too thin. You won’t have much impact as a result. Instead, connect one goal to each of your primary responsibilities, and you will see your leadership impact deepen in that area of ministry because you are focused on the right things.
3. Engage In Conversations With Other Leaders
Finally, most of us don’t work alone. Even if we are the only paid staff in our organization, we work with volunteers who provide critical leadership. If you lack clarity on your primary responsibilities, then the chances are good that the rest of your volunteers or other paid staff lack clarity as well. Make it your goal over the next month to have a conversation with each leader to define each person’s primary responsibilities in the organization. This means having a conversation with the leaders in your ministry. Don’t hand out job descriptions. Have a conversation with your volunteers and paid staff to develop each person’s job description. If a person has a say in their job description, then that person will have a stake in fulfilling it. Help motivate others by creating a conversation that will give everyone in your organization a focus and a purpose that matters.
Great leaders don’t do everything well. If you want to grow as a leader, take the time to ask yourself, “What are my primary responsibilities?” To gain clarity on your primary responsibilities update your job description, connect your goals to your responsibilities, and engage in conversations with your leaders to make your primary responsibilities your weekly agenda.
