The question you need to ask yourself over and over is, What can I, and only I, do?  This isn’t an ego trip; it is a question more about delegation.  If something in ministry requires more than one--which is about everything--then you need to decide what part of it you must do and what part you can share. 

Are you the pastor? Choose the roles related to leading and deciding.  It is not that they are more important, every role is important. It’s that they are strategic to getting you where you want to go.  Are you the church planter? You may have to learn how to do fifty different things that all have to happen to make Sundays work. So recruit, train, and deploy others so you build a team of people who serve.  You will want to model servant hood and teach teamwork by example. 

Often there are things you find you like to do which someone else could do.  You may be tempted to hold on to that only to find that you aren’t at your best for what only you can do.  I’ve seen church planters get on a ministry treadmill where they are so busy doing other things that effectively they quit leading.  Help your team learn to take on more and more.  Work your way out of every job except your role as leader. 

You are the one who is going to answer to your leadership or Elder team, your CMA coach, and eventually to God for being the leader.  Leaders cast vision, they set goals, build and equip teams, they raise funds, they clear the path for their team members to succeed, and they lead evaluations to make sure they stay on track. 

Check yourself regularly to be sure you haven’t neglected the above, these are things you are uniquely called to do. Go do what you can do—lead!

Gary Kendall
Co-Founder, CMA

Check out Gary’s blog at:www.belight.typepad.com.