Great Article on Five Macro Stages of Leadership

Here is the link: http://tinyurl.com/cj5ekm

or the article: Five Macro Ministry Stages Every Minister Should Experience By Joseph Mattera Through more than 28 years of full-time church ministry, I have observed five macro stages in which every minister is assigned to function. Each stage is a life test that prepares a minister to segue into the next stage. Unfortunately, most ministers never get past the third stage.

The Five Macro Stages of Ministry

I. The Ministry of Helps

• This is a volunteer stage for the purpose of testing the loyalty and servanthood of an emerging leader that can take place within the first year of a person’s conversion.
• The ministry of helps is assigned by church leadership and not necessarily something an emerging leader has to hear about directly from the Lord. For example, the Twelve Apostles functioned first in the deaconate before they were trusted in the apostolic.
• In this stage, the options are broad and very general.

II. The Mentoring Stage

• After proving yourself in the ministry of helps, your true gifting begin to emerge and you are either chosen by the senior leader to be mentored and/or you intentionally place yourself under the mentoring of your local church or ministry for further development.

III. Fivefold Ministry Function Emerges

• This is the place where a leader begins to establish him or herself and becomes recognized in the local church and/or the body of Christ as functioning in one of the ministry gifts mentioned in Ephesians 4:11.

IV. Prime of Life Stage

• This is the time (generally between the ages of 45-65) in which life experience, character, integrity, energy, and gifting all converge and release the greatest manifestation of the ministry gift of God in and through a leader.
• What a leader builds as a model and accomplishes during this stage will determine the level of leadership they will be able to attract and mentor in the next and last stage of their life.

V. Parenting Stage

• Although being a spiritual father or mother is a vital aspect of the third and fourth stages, it is in this stage a leader is called to totally focus on pouring into the next generation of leaders.
• This should be the greatest and most satisfying stage in the life of a leader and could last for decades, depending on one’s physical health.
• Many older leaders attempt to stay in the fourth stage the rest of their lives, thus spending their time in competition against younger leaders in the fourth stage instead of aiding younger leaders as they help develop the next generation of emerging and established leaders.
• The level of leadership one can attract in this stage is totally dependant on the model built in the previous stage.
• This is perhaps the primary reason why many frustrated older ministers are still attempting to establish themselves as if they were in the prime of their lives--because they never built a strong model when they had the health and energy. They carry the fourth level into their twilight years because they still feel dissatisfied with what they previously accomplished for God. (This is perhaps the saddest thing to witness in older ministers! Unfortunately, many older ministers don’t know when to transition into the parenting stage of their life and die without experiencing the full joy of developing sons and daughters who are world changers! In my opinion, 70+ year-old ministers shouldn’t be attempting to organize national rallies around issues; they should get behind the younger ministers with the health and energy who can lead the charge with their help.)
• The life passage for those in the parenting stage should be what John the Apostle said in his twilight years: “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth” (3 John 4).