Why We Never Vote for Leaders at Saddleback

Leadership is an important part of ministry. In fact, most ministries rise and fall on leadership. You can have a ministry that meets a real need in your community. You can give it all the resources it needs to thrive. You can support it financially and prayerfully.

But if you don’t have effective leaders, your ministry won’t last. 

So how do you find the right leaders for your ministries? 

Some churches get leaders by voting for them. We’ve never done that at Saddleback—and here are six reasons why:

Some people will never get involved if the position needs to be voted on.

Many people who could be leaders in your church won’t put themselves through an election. They can’t handle the rejection

New ministries need to develop slowly, without the bright lights of public scrutiny.

That’s why we start every ministry small. Whenever someone comes up with a ministry idea, they often want to start it with big fanfare. We don’t do that. We want to give the ministry a chance to get planted and develop roots before it gets a lot of attention.

New members can get involved more quickly when you don’t vote on your ministry leaders.

When a new member joins a church, it sometimes takes years before he or she is able to get involved in “the inner circle.” After five or six years, if the person proves faithful, they get nominated to a certain ministry, committee, or board. Then they get to serve.

We want to eliminate all those hoops. We want to move people into ministry quickly. At Saddleback, a person can join the church and take Class 101 one month, Class 201 the next month, Class 301 the third month, and then participate in a SHAPE interview. Within four months, that person can be a lay pastor. Plus, we have roles where people can join one day and start serving the next. These opportunities get members involved in ministry quickly. (Learn more about the CLASS Discipleship Program, HERE).

It avoids attracting people who are looking for a title.

Many people pursue leadership positions in the church to build their prestige. If you turn your ministry positions into a popularity contest, you’ll attract some of these people.

When you don’t vote on ministry positions, the cream will rise to the top. You get people who are genuinely interested in serving, not necessarily wanting a fancy title.

If people fail, it makes removal easier.

If you publicly elect your lay ministers and your workers, then those positions become political hot potatoes. If they have a moral failure or they’re just unqualified, you must publicly “de-elect” them. None of these leaders will leave by their own initiative. These issues have the potential to cause great division in your church. If you don’t elect leaders, then you don’t have to vote to remove them either.

You can respond more quickly to the Holy Spirit’s leading.

If a person doesn’t need to go through a bunch of red tape to start a ministry, it allows your church to be ready for whatever God wants to do in your ministry. We’ve started new ministries on the spot after a service at Saddleback because we didn’t need to vote on a leader.

For example, one week I preached a message on how we needed to care for one another in the family of God. At the end of the sermon, I asked, “Wouldn’t it be great if we had some people who called other members and attendees in the church to see how they’re doing?” Then I asked people who were interested if they would see me up front. About eight or nine people showed up that day, and we started a new ministry. If you don’t need to wait for a vote, you can be very responsive to what God is doing in your church as you begin new ministries.

You may be asking yourself, “How will we know who our leaders are if we don’t vote for them?”

It’s simple. You see who people are following. The people who look over their shoulders and don’t see anyone following are not leaders. It’s like the old quote: “He who thinketh, he leadeth and hath no one following him is only taking a walk.” 

You won’t need to tell the church who the real leaders are. People naturally want to follow people whom God has gifted with leadership.