Loyalty in leadership …

We talk a lot about congregations being loyal (or supportive) to their leaders, but rarely do we flip that and look at the need for leaders in the church to be loyal to their congregations. If there was ever a time in the church where we need to do so, it’s probably now. Divided loyalty among church leaders is becoming an increasing issue in the church.

Let me give you one example.

A few years ago I was asked by a novice youth minister if I could help “open some doors” for him — not in church ministry, but in his new efforts to be a church consultant.

A “church consultant”?

This fellow had not been a youth minister for a full year yet. He didn’t have the experience, education, or training to be a church consultant! Yet, “spin-offs” from ministry are increasingly the cool thing for ministers to pursue. Set up a website, develop a personal brand, and cash in is the formula more and more ministers are taking an interest in.

Which means, of course, they’re taking less interest in their congregations but are using them for their own purposes. The youth-minister-wanna-be-consultant needed the title of “minister” to have any credibility, and he needed the salary from a church to sustain him. There are others out there using the salaries and benefits from churches to underwrite their personal pursuits in other interests, all while their congregations (and their communities) do NOT get their best work or their full attention.

An unknown source printed a story about a young man in the army who confided to his padre that he never went about with another girl if he was within fifty miles of home, his loyalty went fifty miles.

Church leader, how far does your loyalty go to your congregation and community? Are they getting your best effort, your full attention, your complete loyalty?

Scotty