Breaking 7 Leadership Barriers - Part 1
Desiring to grow is a noble pursuit, but it often comes with unexpected challenges. These challenges can become barriers for us mentally and paralyze our ability to grow. So to overcome growth barriers, we must begin with understanding them and therefore preventing them. We see they often fall into one of two categories: people and systems.
In Part 1, we will cover three of the seven COMMON LEADERSHIP BARRIERS as they relate to people that can hold churches back and how to overcome them.
BARRIER 1 | We Focus More on the Externals Than the Internal
We can get so focused on the weekend experience that we neglect the health of the people, culture, and systems behind it.
Strengthen your stakes to widen your tents | Healthy growth starts beneath the surface. Your ministry systems and your team’s spiritual and emotional health form the foundation that sustains momentum. The weekend is a showcase of that health, but not the source.
WAYS TO SOLVE IT:
1. Build rhythms of rest, reflection, and relational check-ins for your team.
2. Evaluate your systems regularly. Are they helping people grow or just keeping things running?
3. Create space in staff meetings for spiritual and emotional development, not just tactical updates.
BARRIER 2 | We Starve Our Teams
Leaders often unintentionally neglect development in the busyness of doing ministry. We are focused on reacting to needs rather than planning strategically for growth.
Give your team consistent access | Stewarding your people is your greatest responsibility. Healthy teams don’t just work together; they grow together. Regular, intentional one-on-ones build trust, clarity, and alignment.
WAYS TO SOLVE IT:
1. Schedule recurring 1-on-1s with your direct reports before the month ends. In your 1-on-1s, ask intentional questions:
How are you? (Relational)
What are you working on? (Results)
How can I support you? (Resources)
BARRIER 3 | We Wait Until We Need Leaders to Develop Leaders
Leadership pipelines don’t work when built reactively. You can’t solve today’s leadership shortage overnight. Developing leaders is like farming, plant, water, and cultivate before you need the harvest. Just having a “Serve Team” doesn’t mean you have a leadership system.
Build tomorrow’s leaders today | Make an intentional effort to focus on developing leaders. We want our ministry to be a thriving pipeline of leaders who help our ministry grow. This is constant. We should always be investing in new leaders, despite the landscape or season of our ministry.
WAYS TO SOLVE IT:
Leadership development must be intentional and ongoing. The best leadership pipelines complement your current leadership layers and include an intentional environment designed to identify and develop future leaders.
1. Identify high-potential leaders early and invest in them.
2. Create stretch assignments that grow responsibility over time.
3. Make leadership development a consistent rhythm, not an occasional initiative.
PUT IT INTO PRACTICE
Breaking growth barriers isn’t always about working harder. It’s about taking strategic risks and making changes that have a lasting impact. It always comes at a cost, but what we have been entrusted with is worth the investment.
Start by:
Diagnosing which barrier your team faces most often when it comes to development.
Refocusing on developing people, not just programs.
Building systems that sustain growth rather than stall it.
When you raise your leadership lid, your church becomes equipped, aligned, and built up just as Christ intended.
Let us know how we can support you as you continue to create a space for growth and development in your church. You can email us here.
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