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
Why You Should Fire the Phrase “High Capacity Leader”
The phrase "high-capacity leader" might be one of the most spiritually misleading labels in modern church culture, masking burnout, ego, and imbalance while sounding like a compliment. Kingdom leadership was never meant to be about capacity but character—Jesus invited ordinary fishermen and tax collectors, not the high-capacity elite.
• Corporate culture birthed the phrase "high-capacity leader" which the church adopted without questioning
• The term often excuses spiritual immaturity or poor collaboration if someone produces results
• High-capacity language creates unsustainable cultures where staff must prove their worth through output
• This mindset excludes gifted, godly people who don't fit the "high-capacity" mold
• Without careful attention, churches risk becoming factories instead of families
• Better alternatives include: faithful presence, healthy influencer, spirit-formed leader, someone who multiplies others
• The key questions should be: Do they live like Jesus? Do they lead from overflow? Do they draw others closer to Christ?
• Christ-likeness matters more than capacity
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What if I told you that the phrase high-capacity leader is quite possibly one of the most spiritually misleading labels in modern church culture today. It sounds like a compliment when we say somebody's a high-capacity leader and I've said this many times as well it sounds like a compliment, but it might be masking burnout or ego or imbalance. Stick around, because we're going to be talking about that today, because we're firing that phrase today and we're replacing it with something far more biblical. Hi there, welcome to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. My name is Todd Rhodes. I'm one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom, also your host right here, obviously, on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. So glad you're listening today.
Speaker 1:So this is the phrase that we all use, but we never really question, right. We say he's a high-capacity guy, she's a high-capacity gal, we're looking for a high-capacity worship leader. It sounds good, right. But here's the problem. We rarely define exactly what we mean and more often than not it translates to something like this this person's going to work long hours, they're never going to say no, they don't ever burn out until they do, because corporate culture kind of birthed this phrase. This isn't a churchy phrase. This is something that ministry adopted, but kingdom leadership was never really supposed to be about capacity. It was always supposed to be about character, okay. So the term sometimes even becomes like a little bit of a mask, a way of overlooking spiritual immaturity. If somebody produces results, you'll hear things like he's not really all that great with people but he's high capacity. Or she's not really collaborative but she gets stuff done. And in the church world that's how we excuse ego or poor collaboration or unhealthy rhythms. But Jesus never said find the person that can juggle 12 things at once. Jesus said follow me. And then he invited fishermen and tax collectors, not the high capacity elite.
Speaker 1:So in many ways I think capacity, the high capacity, it's a trap because high capacity sometimes even unintentionally creates this unsustainable culture. Staff begin to feel that they have to prove their worth through output and it excludes gifted godly people who might not necessarily look the part. A mom of four with wisdom and insight she's probably got to be ignored. The introvert with depth and prayerful discernment, probably overlooked, because they're not seen as high capacity. And if we're not careful, you may think, todd, this is an overcriticism. But if we're not careful, I've seen it happen. You may think, todd, this is an overcriticism, but if we're not careful I've seen it happen the church can become a factory, not a family.
Speaker 1:So I just think there's a better way to talk about leadership. So I'm going to try I'm going to try my best to fire this phrase the high capacity leader and replace it with some of these definitions leader and replace it with some of these definitions A faithful presence, a healthy influencer, a spirit-formed leader, someone who multiplies others, not just output. Here's a question that really should be asking, when it gets right down to it, brass tacks, right Bottom line. What should you be asking? Do they live like Jesus? Do they lead from the overflow? Do they draw others closer to Christ? Because that is the type of leader that you're going to want on your team, because that's the kind of capacity that never burns out. All right, so here's the bottom line for today, my opinion Push back.
Speaker 1:Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. I'd love to hear. It's time to retire the phrase high-capacity leader, not just because excellence doesn't matter, but because Christ-likeness matters even more. All right, I hope that's been challenging to you today. Maybe you're still going to use the phrase. That's fine, I don't care. But maybe this podcast today has just helped you think about this through a little bit different lens. That was my goal, so hopefully I achieved that somewhat today. If there's any way that I can help you or your church, I would love to hear from you. You can reach out to me, podcast atchemistrystaffingcom. Always love to hear from listeners to the podcast. I try to reply back to everyone that I get, as every response I get, as soon as I can. I'd love to hear from you, podcastchemistrystaffingcom. Any way I can help your church, be a service me or my team here at Chemistry. I'd love to hear from you. All right, thanks so much. We will be back here tomorrow and we'll round out our week right here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Hope you have an absolutely big day.
