Beeson Update: Leading Away From the Microphone
by Dr. Ken Nash, Teaching Pastor and Multi-Site Director of Cornerstone Church, Grand Rapids, MI. (He received his M.Div. and D.Min. from Asbury Theological Seminary. He hosts a workshop “On Training Laypersons to Plant Successfully” at Ministry Conference 2015.)
One of my great heartbreaks in ministry came the year after I left my first pastoral appointment. I had served that church for six years following my graduation from Asbury Seminary. The church was nestled in the center of a small town of 1200 people and had been a faithful congregation with an average of 80 attendees for nearly a century. During my years with them, the church experienced unprecedented growth as we averaged over 400 by the end of my tenure. Within a year after my departure, much of the momentum shifted and the attendance waned weekly.
Watching that decline occur cut me to the core. While there are many leadership theories regarding the rise and fall of these kinds of “flash in the pan” ministry moments, I have found one key rationale in this particular case—I failed to lead away from the microphone. Anyone with a mix of passion and creativity can gather some kind of crowd as they proclaim the Gospel boldly through a microphone, but I have become convinced that lasting change happens best when strong leaders have the courage to offer others the megaphone while sacrificially stepping into the background role of mentor and coach.
This Ephesians 4 “equipping the saints for the ministry” idea is not a new concept in our history; in fact, training up the laity is in our Wesleyan DNA. Penn State sociologists Roger Finke and Rodney Stark confirm this in their research. They noted that from 1776 to 1850 there was a growth from 65 to 13,302 congregations in the United States. Their final evaluation revealed, “The dramatic metric rise of the Methodists was short-lived. It is instructive to note that the Methodists began to slump at precisely the same time that their amateur [lay] clergy were replaced by professionals who claimed episcopal authority over their congregations.”
Nearly a decade has passed since moving from that small town ministry, and major shifts in my leadership have occurred as a result of these reflections. I now serve at Cornerstone Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Over the past few years, this large United Methodist church has grown into a multi-site ministry that is not a video venue. We used my D.Min research through Asbury to develop a launch team for our first site. Over a nine-month period, we taught the laity through a training academy that equipped them in the essentials of church planting.
It has been an incredible joy watching those men and women discover their gifts and callings in this type of ministry as we planted an extension site that has grown from 85 to 250 in average attendance in downtown Grand Rapids over the past year. And this fall, our next launch team is being formed to start a ministry on the west side of town as another United Methodist Church has asked us to adopt their ministry. We have identified another lay person to lead that venture as I put my coaching cap back on. Once again, it has been confirmed for me that we serve the God of the Resurrection as he took my leadership wounds from years gone by and used them to create a new form of ministry by challenging me to lead away from the microphone.
i Finke, Roger, and Rodney Stark. “How the Upstart Sects Won America: 1776-1850.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 28.1 (1989): 27.
Mentoring young leaders is vital for the growth and continuity of any organization and I think that is the way forward for any growing organization. So, I am glad that you have discovered that aspect of ministry!