The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
We're all about helping create a healthy, positive, and spiritually positive environment for church staff members and leadership teams.
The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
True North (Part 4)
We explore Chapter 3 of the True North series, focusing on leadership that prioritizes reproduction over becoming indispensable. This modern epistle for church staff distills wisdom from our first 360 podcast episodes into practical leadership principles centered on legacy-building through developing others.
• The goal of leadership is reproducibility, not indispensability
• True vision outlasts its originator; dependency dies when you leave
• Legacy is defined by who you raise up, not what you leave behind
• Invest in available, teachable, and faithful people rather than waiting for perfect candidates
• Release control as you mature in leadership instead of tightening your grip
• Give away your best knowledge, methods, and insights freely
• View yourself as a launch pad rather than a lid for those you develop
• Create safe environments where emerging leaders can question, stretch, and occasionally fail
• Model what you hope to multiply – including how you handle doubts and mistakes
• Celebrate when those you've mentored go further than you did
Download the complete True North epistle for free at chemistrystafffing.com/truenorth. Reach out with questions or comments at podcast@chemistrystafffing.com.
Have questions or comments? Send to podcast@chemistrystaffing.com
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Hi there, welcome to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. My name is Todd Rhodes, one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom, and I'm your co-host, not co-host. I'm your regular host right here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. I am really glad you've joined us. We are in the middle this week of a series called True North and it is a for lack of a better way to put it it's a modern epistle for church staff people. If you would go back and listen to we kind of set all of this up on Monday, but just really short. What this is, it's a compilation of everything that we've learned together, you and I here on the podcast, in the first 360 episodes, taking all of the different topics and the different things that we've talked about and gleaning as much wisdom out of all of that and as much direction as we can. You can read a little bit more or hear a little bit more on Monday's podcast of this week as to how that happened and how this project came about, and if you stay until the end of the podcast today, I will give you a link to where you can go and download the full text of this True North Modern Day Epistle. Okay, so it's going to be a little different. If you're a normal listener to the podcast and you haven't heard any this week, I'm actually reading a chapter of this epistle today. It's not scripture, okay. It's a modern-day epistle. It's a modern-day writing written for church staff and church leaders, okay. So here we go with chapter three.
Speaker 1:The goal of leadership is not to be indispensable, but to be reproducible. Many leaders build influence, Fewer build others, but the ones who do last If the vision dies when you leave, it was never vision, it was dependency. Multiply what matters, Not your name, not your preferences, but your values, your health and your trust in the next generation. Legacy is not what you leave behind, it's who you raise up. Do not wait for the perfect candidate. Invest in the available, the teachable, the faithful. God does not always use the most polished, but he does use the prepared and sometimes the most anointed. Future leaders are still unnoticed in the background, waiting for somebody to see them. Be that someone, Call it out, Speak it aloud. You will never regret the time spent pouring into another leader, even if they one day outgrow your platform. That's not a threat to your legacy. It is your legacy.
Speaker 1:Maturity in leadership means releasing control, not tightening your grip. The torch cannot be passed from a clenched fist. Teach freely. Give away your best stuff. Share your process and your pain and your wisdom. Do not guard your methods as secrets. Steward them as seeds. You are not the lid, you are the launch pad. Raise up those who will go further than you. Stand taller than you and speak to rooms that you may never enter. Let that be your joy, not your insecurity.
Speaker 1:A wise leader does not fear succession. A wise leader prepares for it early, openly and with open hands. Pride says they need me, Wisdom says they'll need someone after me. Ask yourself often if I stepped away today, would what remains point to my effort or to God's faithfulness? For only what is built in dependence on him will stand when we're gone. Everything else is scaffolding, not structure.
Speaker 1:Leadership is not a solo sport. You are not called to finish alone. Gather young voices at your table. Let them speak, Let them stretch, Let them fall in and fail in the safety of your presence. Create rooms where questions are not only allowed but expected.
Speaker 1:The leaders of tomorrow are shaped by the spaces that you create today. Model what you hope to multiply. You cannot disciple courage while modeling control. You cannot produce honesty while leading through fear. Invite others into the process, not just the wins but the mess. Invite others into the process, not just the wins but the mess. Let them see how you pray, how you wrestle with doubt, how you repent. Show them the cost, not just the stage. Celebrate their growth, Celebrate their risk. Let your ceiling become someone else's floor. Guard the flame, pass the torch and smile when they run faster than you did. That is not failure. That is faithfulness fulfilled.
Speaker 1:Okay, there's a lot to unpack there in Chapter 3, and I hope you'll take the time right now to go over to chemistrystaffingcom slash truenorth and you can download a free copy of this, what I'm calling True North, a modern day epistle for church staff and church leaders. It's absolutely free, chemistrystaffingcom slash truenorth, and if you have any comments or suggestions or thoughts or criticisms or just questions for me and how I might be able to help you or your church, reach out to me anytime. My email is podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. All right, we have one more chapter four of True North and we're going to be reading that tomorrow, so I hope you'll join us right back here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Set it right there.
