Trapped by Your Own Leadership

You can prepare saints for service. Or you can prepare services for saints. BTW: One of those is biblical. We all know Ephesians 4:12 by heart. We've preached it, taught it, quoted it to staff. But is it really little more than a theory? If I walked into your church this Sunday and asked your congregation who's responsible for the ministry, what would they say?

Be honest. They'd point to you (or someone who gets a paycheck).

The Jesus Standard That Haunts Us

Jesus walked away from his ministry after three years. Not because he was burned out. Not because he failed. Because he had done the work of training his replacements.

While we're drowning in our seventh or seventeenth year of doing everything ourselves, Jesus modeled something we've forgotten: the goal isn't to be irreplaceable. The goal is to be indispensable and work yourself out of a job.

But here's what keeps us stuck—and it's not what you think.

The Real Reason We Don't Equip Others

It's not because we don't know better. It's because equipping others requires us to face three terrifying truths:

1. We're afraid of being found out. If someone else can do what we do, what makes us necessary? Our identity is so wrapped up in being the hero that training a replacement feels like signing our own death warrant.
2. We're addicted to the dopamine hit of being needed. Every crisis call, every "Pastor, only you can handle this" feeds something in us that feels like love but is actually codependency. We've built our worth on being the solution to everyone's problems.
3. We've never learned how to measure success differently. We measure impact by how much we accomplish, not by how many we develop. So releasing control feels like giving up results.
   

The System That Keeps Us Trapped

Here's the brutal truth: most churches don't want equipped saints. They want hired professionals. They want to write a check and have their spiritual needs met by someone else. And we've built entire ministry systems around this lie.

Our job descriptions say "equipper," but our performance reviews measure how many hospital visits we made, how many counseling sessions we led, how many meetings we attended. We're rewarded for doing, not developing.

Is it any wonder we stay stuck?

Three Shifts That Change Everything

• Stop asking "What needs to get done?" Start asking "Who could grow by doing this?" Every task on your list is a potential training opportunity. Every crisis is a chance to walk alongside someone as they learn to handle it. But this requires you to slow down long enough to see people, not just problems.
• Redefine your success metrics. Instead of counting how many you serve, count how many you're training to serve. Instead of measuring your output, measure your impact on others' growth. This isn't about being lazy—it's about being strategic.
• Embrace the 60% rule like your life depends on it. If someone has 60% of what it takes, invest in developing the other 40%. Yes, it takes longer. Yes, it's messier. But it's also the only way to move from maintenance to multiplication.
  

The Calendar Test

Want to know if you're actually equipping others? Look at your calendar. How much time did you spend this week training someone else to do what you typically do? How many conversations did you have about developing others' gifts instead of using your own?

If the answer is "not much," you're not equipping. You're just surviving.

Your Weekly Equipping Practice

Here's a simple tool to help you start this week:

Each week, commit to this one act of alignment:

• Choose one responsibility you typically carry
• Identify someone who could grow by owning it
• Invite them in, train them up, and walk with them as they learn

This isn't dumping. It's discipling.

Weekly Equipping Tracker:

1. List Three Tasks You're Releasing

2. List Three People You're Developing

3. List Three Coaching Actions to Take Today
   

Quick Discernment Checklist:

• Is it something someone else could do with training?
• Will it stretch them but not crush them?
• Can I walk with them while they grow into it?
• Does it free me to focus more on shepherding and equipping?
  

Get This Tool on Your Desk

I've created a printable version of this equipping tracker that you can keep on your desk or in your planning folder. It's designed to remind you weekly to ask the right question: "Who could I develop while this gets done?" Download your printable equipping tracker here →

Print it out. Put it somewhere you'll see it during your weekly planning. Let it be a physical reminder that your job isn't to be the hero—it's to create other heroes.

What It Takes to Finally Change

Stop waiting for your congregation to give you permission to equip them. Start anyway.

Stop waiting for your denomination to change its SOP. Lead them into something better.

Stop waiting until you feel ready to release control. You'll never feel ready. Do it scared.

The truth is, if Jesus could train fishermen to turn the world upside down in three years, you can train your people to run a small group, lead a ministry, or handle a pastoral crisis. But it requires you to believe something most pastors don't: that your job isn't to be the hero. It's to create other heroes.

The Choice in Front of You

You can keep doing what you're doing—managing everything, controlling everything, burning out from everything.

Or you can do what Jesus did: put in the work of training your replacements so you can focus on what only you can do.

The saints don't need more sermons about being equipped. They need leaders brave enough to actually equip them.

Your move.︎ ◼︎ 

Ready to stop surviving and start thriving?

We work with pastors who are tired of being the bottleneck and ready to become the builder. Through our coaching, cohorts, and consulting, we help you build systems that multiply your impact instead of just adding to your workload. If you're ready to move from maintenance to multiplication, let's talk. Schedule a conversation here →

Tim Eldred has spent over 35 years in pastoral ministry and coaches pastors and churches who are ready to move beyond merely surviving. He founded The Authentic Pastor to help ministry leaders find freedom from the pressures and systems that wear them down.