Training vs. Expectations

Your expectation of your volunteers and the training you give them should be equal. with no training there should be no expectation, etc. and that is the harsh reality of ministry. your staff is only going to be as good as you allow them to be. i remember early in my career as a pastor i would get frustrated with the peeps on my staff often. what i failed to realize was that most of them were young and inexperienced college kids, and forget having parents on staff because i had no credibility as a leader. but that was the problem... me.

the hard fact of my ministry was that i did not know what i was doing. and since i was straight out of high school i fell into the category that i make fun of all the time, and that is that of high school students who think they know it all - but don’t. yes, this was MO in the early years. and i was not just young in age but also young in ministry experience. i was good at the leadership stuff that i learned but anything above that was out of my league. and i was not good enuff to know it. i was living in my own world thinking that i was the best leader on the face of the planet.

John C. Maxwell speaks a lot of the “leadership lid.” and that leader cannot lead anyone effectively, for any long period of time anyway, who has a higher or equal lid to them. it is just impossible. peeps gravitate towards leaders that can stretch them and take them where they cannot go themselves. are you this kind of leader? when you get upset with the peeps in your ministry on the team it is really a reflection of your abilities to lead. you have to put more time in training your staff if you want them to be better. but here is the catch.

you have to put time into your own training before you ever do stuff with your staff. don’t be a buster and lie to them, letting them think you are trying to grow as a leader if you are not. you need to continue to educate, first yourself and then your staff. it’s like when a plane is having cabin pressure problems and the masks drop from the ceiling. what does the flight attendant say... for you to put on your own first and then help. same principle here. if you are trying to help others before yourself, you will ultimately run out of air and you will not only get yourself in trouble, but the very peeps you are trying to help. be a good leader. raise your leadership lid and never stop learning. the training will come and then you will not have expectations, your staff will set them for you.