People of Passion vs. People of Position

Download: Top Ten People of Passion

Some years ago, when consulting with various sizes and shapes of congregations, I realized we were pulling together the wrong group of people to help congregations anticipate their future based upon an emerging understanding of God’s empowering vision. We were pulling together the people who held certain positions of responsibility and authority in the congregation. Bad move. Many of these people focus on management rather than leadership, maintenance rather than innovation, programmatic success rather than disciplemaking significance.

People with positive spiritual passion about the future toward which God is pulling your congregation are the people you need to pull together. Many of these people also have various positions in the life and ministry of the congregation. But, their key characteristic is their positive spiritual passion. They will be leaders of the future rather than managers of the past.

A good exercise for a pastor, staff person, or lay leader is to answer this question: Who are the top ten people in our congregation who have the greatest positive spiritual passion about the future toward which God is leading us? Then go ask those ten people to answer the same question. Eventually, you will have a consensus list of the top ten people. Start with these people and begin a spiritual and strategic journey into God’s future. Obviously, this exercise is best if initiated and led by the pastor. Download a survey form Top Ten People of Passion.

About the author 

Kyndra Bremer