Leadership Points Toward Potential

A leader owes it to followers to point the direction in which our personal and our group potential lies."— Max De Pree

There are many ways to define leadership. Some describe it as influence. Others speak of vision, management, or decision-making. Max De Pree offered a definition that has stayed with me because it captures something profoundly human: A leader owes it to followers to point the direction in which our personal and our group potential lies.

The leader's first responsibility is not to have all the answers. It is to help people see possibilities they cannot yet see for themselves.

Jesus did this continually.

When Simon was still a fisherman struggling to understand who he was becoming, Jesus said, "You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church" (Matthew 16:18). Jesus looked beyond Peter's impulsiveness, his failures, and even his coming denial. He saw the disciple Peter would become before Peter himself could imagine it.

The same thing happened when Jesus met Nathanael. "Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!" (John 1:47). Before Nathanael had done anything remarkable, Jesus named the character and calling already present within him. Jesus did not merely describe who Nathanael was. He pointed toward who Nathanael could become.

Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than after the Resurrection.

The disciples were hiding behind locked doors, convinced that their movement had failed. Their hopes had died with Jesus on the cross. Yet the risen Christ entered their fear and spoke words they never expected to hear: "Peace be with you." Then he entrusted the future to these frightened followers. "As the Father has sent me, so I send you" (John 20:21).

The Resurrection is God's declaration that death is not the final word. Sin is not the final word. Failure is not the final word. Grace is. Hope is. New creation is.

Jesus pointed his followers toward a future they could not yet imagine because he could already see what God was bringing into being.

That may be the deepest work of Christian leadership.

Too often, congregations spend their energy asking, "How do we survive?" Survival is an understandable question, but it is rarely the question that generates new life. The better question is, "Where is God already creating new possibilities among us?"

Every congregation possesses gifts it has forgotten, relationships it has overlooked, experiences that have prepared it for ministry, and opportunities hidden beneath the surface of ordinary life. Leadership helps people discover those treasures.

How does a pastor learn where that potential lies?

The first step is listening before leading.

Potential is rarely discovered in committee reports. It is found in conversations around kitchen tables, hospital rooms, coffee shops, classrooms, and community events. Leaders who listen deeply begin hearing recurring themes. They notice what people celebrate. They hear stories of when the congregation felt most alive. They discover what burdens people's hearts for their community.

The second step is learning to ask better questions.

Instead of asking, "What's wrong with our church?" ask, "When have we been most faithful?" Instead of asking, "Why don't people come anymore?" ask, "Who in our community is waiting for a church that does not yet know it is called to them?" Good questions open windows that criticism can never open.

Third, leaders pay attention to where energy naturally appears.

Every congregation has conversations that drain life and conversations that generate life. The Spirit often reveals future ministry through holy energy. When people become animated while discussing mentoring children, feeding neighbors, caring for older adults, or supporting families, those moments deserve attention. Energy is often a clue to calling.

Fourth, leaders help people reinterpret their history.

Many churches see only decline where God has been quietly preparing them for a new season. Every congregation has endured hardship, conflict, disappointment, and change. Yet those experiences often become the very resources God uses to shape future ministry. Resurrection always follows crucifixion. Healthy leaders help congregations discover that their story is not simply one of what has been lost, but of what God has been preparing.

Finally, leaders tell better stories.

Facts matter. Statistics matter. Financial reports matter. But stories change imagination.

When a congregation hears the story of a lonely neighbor who found belonging, a grieving family who experienced compassion, or a child who discovered faith, they begin to understand why the church exists. Stories reveal potential because they help people see what is already happening through God's grace.

Leadership, then, is less about predicting the future than about helping people recognize the future God is already creating.

That is what Jesus did.

He saw apostles in fishermen.

He saw missionaries in frightened disciples.

He saw the Church where others saw only failure.

He saw resurrection where everyone else saw a sealed tomb.

Christian leaders are called to do the same.

We point beyond fear to hope.

Beyond scarcity to abundance.

Beyond decline to possibility.

Beyond death to resurrection.

And perhaps that is our greatest privilege—not creating the future ourselves, but helping God's people see the future that God has already begun.