The Senior Pastor / Youth Pastor Relationship: Lead Up

Here's the third point of our Senior Pastor / Youth Pastor series of discussions.

You need to lead up.

The idea is from a talk Bill Hybels used to give at Willow Creek, and it transformed my understanding of my leadership role.  I had a top down approach to leadership.  My pastor was boss, he lead me.  Each staff member had a ranking of who was over who, and each lead the next, either officially or unofficially.  Then each ministry had it's volunteers, and the staff member lead them.  So I was always trying to figure out where I was on the totem pole with each staff change, and would honestly jockey for better spots depending on the season of ministry I was in.

Then Bill helped me see that servant leadership is 360 degrees, not top down.  It's my job to be a servant leader for my volunteers.  Provide direction, encourage, educate about our roles, pray for them, and help them succeed.  I wasn't always good at it, but I understood the concept.

Then he pushed me to see that I had to play the same roles with my peers on staff.  I wasn't the worship pastor's boss, I wasn't the small groups pastor's supervisor, but I had a responsibility to provide servant leadership for them.  I needed to provide direction, encourage, educate about our roles, pray for them, and help them succeed.  I needed to share where we were going as a ministry, and work with them to join with where God had them going.  We weren't parallel silo's a the church.  We were a family, pushing together in one direction.

The big challenge for me though, was not just to lead "down" to my volunteers, not just to lead "sideways" to the other pastor's on our staff, but to lead "up" to my senior pastor.  With him as well I need to provide direction, encourage, educate about our roles, pray for him, and help him succeed.  The direction I provide comes in the way of communication about what God is doing in our ministry, how the church is winning the battle for the hearts and minds of families, where my leaders are growing in their faith, and tie it all back into the bigger picture of the church at large.  He has SO much on his desk in a given day, he doesn't always have time to look for what God is doing around the church.  As I communicate that to him (email, casual conversations, etc.) it helps him do his job better.  I'm not leading him in the sense of telling him what to do, or trying to steer him in a direction favorable to me.  Those are NOT my roles.  But I am providing a easy window for him to see where God is at work beyond his daily responsibilities.  It's servant leadership.  And when I make changes to my ministry direction, I try to communicate it AHEAD of time with him in a clear, positive way so that he knows what is going on BEFORE everyone else knows.  That way he isn't caught off guard and left wondering what is going on.

So, whatever your age or position, lead 360 degrees from a servant's heart.  It communicates family, trust, love, encouragement, and support.  And what senior pastor couldn't use a little more of those?