Do Not Stress Yourself Doing Ministry Alone; Delegate Responsibilities

It is said that leadership is everything and everything is leadership. This may mean that Christian leaders are partly responsible for successes or failures of churches they oversee. 

A church of Jesus Christ has a pastor or pastors as servant leader(s), who oversee it by the Spirit of God. They perform a lot of duties, including fasting and praying, studying, teaching, preaching, providing emotional and spiritual counsel, guiding church administration, mentoring individuals, visiting the sick, mediating family or marital conflicts and leading community outreach initiatives.

Pastors, especially general overseers, work for hours on Saturdays or Sundays during and after main church services. Many have decided to lead every segment of the services from the opening prayer to the benediction. 

They pray, teach, prophesy, give announcement, sing, play drums, minister prayer of healing, work as a sound engineer, clean, counsel, attend to guests or new comers, and bank church money. 

This invariably reduces other believers to mere passive spectators who appear to have no gifts, talents or abilities to contribute to the progress of the church. The pastor himself eventually wears out. 

There is no doubt that Christian ministry or leading a church is not a work for the weakling. It is for the stalwarts full of the Word and the Spirit of God. It is for those who by faith triumphantly battle both physical and spiritual entities through Christ Jesus. 

However, church leaders ought to understand that leadership is not only concerned with self; it is greatly about raising others, reproducing others or mentoring others to become better than them.

Moreover, a pastor must not regard himself as a “jack of all trades”; he must know the implications of becoming a “master of none” eventually. A good pastor must be a good team player, serving side by side with other ministers to achieve success. 

This requires that pastors see the need to identify, recruit and equip, train, prepare or develop other believers who have proven to possess gifts or talents with godly character to take up other responsibilities in the church. They can serve when the leaders delegate some of their responsibilities to them.

Leaders who delegate responsibilities free themselves to tackle new or undone tasks. It frees them from unnecessary over-working which leads to fatigue, stress, depression and other health complications, including premature death. Failure to delegate also leads to stunted growth or barrenness of ministry. 

Aware of these consequences, even Pharaoh delegated his authority and some responsibilities to Joseph (Genesis 41:37-45). Again, when Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, saw that he was doing the ministry of judging the congregation of Israel alone, he advised him to allow other people to help him. 

“Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good. You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone. Now obey my voice; I will give you advice, and God be with you…” (Exodus 18:17-19).

“…look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. And let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you” (Exodus 18:21-22). 

Gladly, Moses obeyed the voice of his father-in-law and achieved success. Delegation of duties does not mean the leader is doing less work; it is giving qualified subordinates authority and responsibility in exchange for service and accountability.

It is, therefore, important for church leaders, especially general overseers to learn from Pharaoh and Moses and share ministry tasks with other qualified believers in the church. 

In a church where competent, gifted and talented people are lacking, lead pastors must devote time to identify, recruit and train those who appear to exhibit some leadership abilities for them to serve.

By James Quansah