Varied church leadership models examined at G-5 conference

HOUSTON—Diverse leadership styles exist in Texas Baptist churches—and each offers its strengths and its challenges, pastors and other church leaders learned from panelists at the G-5 leadership conference, held in conjunction with the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting.

The panel featured George Mason, pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas; David Dykes, pastor of Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler; and Chris Seay, pastor of Ecclesia in Houston.

Mason sees leadership as a partnership between a pastor’s strengths and those who have strengths to complement them. A leader must be willing to let other people help—paricularly in areas where the leader is weak, he said.

“The fact of the matter is, who you are determines how you will best lead the church,” Mason said. “You will lead best out of your strengths. If you find people who complement you, then let those people do that job, and it will go well.”

Dykes noted his leadership style is based on helping his congregation see they all are ministers—whether volunteer, vocational or bivocational. Dykes strives to lead in a way that his congregation understands this and serves accordingly.

“I am committed to enlisting and developing leaders in our congregation,” Dykes said. “I see that as more of my role than being a leader—developing the greatest staff team and then others.”

Because of that, he doesn’t allow the term “layman” to be used in his church.

“We have removed this clergy/layman distinction, and we talk about servants and ministers,” Dykes said. “We have some who are vocational ministers, and others are bivocational or volunteer ministers. That is the philosophy that guides our church.”

Seay agreed with Dykes, saying pastors have been lifted to a level of leadership that is unhealthy at times.

“We have been professionalized and elevated to a point where it doesn’t serve us or our people well,” Seay said.

To help people step into places of using their gifts and talents to serve God and the body of Christ, Seay said pastors must be willing to call people into tension—to address cultural aspects that may be uncomfortable but help the people of God see it is possible to change, becoming more kingdom-minded people.

“I think part of what a pastor is called to do is much like the prophets,” Seay said. “What the prophets do is paint a picture of what life is, but also to paint a picture of what life could be. … It is a unique pastoral role to call people into that tension, and it is that tension that calls people to change.”

Alhough they are guiding others, pastors and leaders don’t have to know all the answers before they lead, Mason said. Any leader who keeps all duties to himself or herself is robbing the body of Christ of opportunities to serve and use their gifts and talents for the Lord, he said.

“If someone joins our church, then there must be a need here that God wants that person to fill,” Mason said.

Some people do not understand the difference between management and leadership, Dykes noted. Leadership involves casting a vision and helping others take part in that.

“When you are leading, you can’t really manage. And when you manage, you can’t really lead,” he said.

All three pastors stressed the importance of developing the next generation of leaders. Mason, whose church has created a pastoral mentoring and internship program, said the church must decide its purpose before it can develop new leaders.

“I really do think that churches have to decide whether they are merely going to be like a hospital that is just a service provider or be like a teaching hospital, constantly working to be training the next generation of leaders to do that work,” he said.

Leadership training is not just about fostering growth in people to carry out God’s plan now, but also to carry it out in the future, he said.

“We need to adopt an understanding that the church is multigenerational, because we have to think about what happens to the church when we are gone,” Mason said. “This is our special work and the question is who will come after us. “

Mason suggested that pastors notice young people with potential, name and make known what is seen in them and nurture those characteristics, talents and gifts.

Listening to the next generation is the key to building them into strong leaders as well as fostering personal growth in the leader in the process, Seay said.

“If we are going to build into young people, we must listen to them,” he said. “They understand the difference between the gospel and personal preference. They are going to have some radical ideas, but I think we can learn from them in ways that we will be astonished.”