I’ve been re-reading Eric Geiger and Kevin Peck’s Designed to Lead, and it’s stirring something in my heart as a pastor.

We live in a time when the world hungers for leaders with integrity, leaders who serve, leaders who understand that true greatness is measured by the growth of those around them. And while there’s much written about what’s gone wrong in leadership across our culture, what strikes me most about Geiger’s work is this: the church has been uniquely positioned to be different. To model something better. To develop leaders who lead for kingdom purposes.

As I’ve reflected on this book alongside my own journey as a pastor, a question keeps surfacing:

How can we become more intentional and more pastoral, more thoughtful—about developing the leaders God has already placed in our church?

Geiger and Peck identify what they call the “Three C’s” of effective leadership development:

1. Conviction — A deep commitment in leadership to develop others, not simply minister to them.

2. Culture — A healthy environment where leadership development is valued, modeled, and celebrated.

3. Constructs — Actual systems and pathways that make discipleship and leadership development intentional and reproducible.

One of the truths that’s been settling into my soul is that discipleship and leadership development are not separate things. They’re woven together. When we disciple someone, we’re helping them become who God has called them to be—which includes their calling to influence others.

Jesus understood this. He spent three years with twelve people, teaching them, involving them in meaningful work, and coaching them toward their own leadership. He wasn’t running a program. He was building a movement powered by developed, deployed, multiplying leaders.

“If the church is to transform culture, it must first have a culture itself that is transformed.”

In every congregation, there are people—maybe quiet people, maybe people you wouldn’t naturally think of as leaders—who are ready to step into greater influence in their families, workplaces, and communities. And the question for us as pastors and church leaders is simple: How can we help them see and step into that calling?

A pastoral reflection:

If you’re leading a church, I want to invite you into reflection:

“Leadership is much like nuclear energy. It is able to warm a whole city or bring it to waste in death and destruction; it’s all in how it is used.”

Some leadership questions I am pondering on:

• Are our structures honoring both the work of maintenance and the work of multiplication?

• Are we noticing and encouraging the emerging leaders in our midst?

• Do our people understand that they have influence and that their growth matters?

• Are we creating space for people to be developed, not just served?

If ministry success is our god, we are likely to take the shortest path to greater and greater ‘victories,’ but preparing and developing people is never on the shortest path.” – Eric Geiger

Many of us downplay our own leadership capacity. We think leadership is something only for pastors or CEOs. But the truth is, the person watching your life—your child, your coworker, your neighbor—they’re learning what it means to follow Christ by watching you.

So I want to gently ask: Is there one person you could intentionally invest in this year? Someone you notice has potential, and you decide to walk alongside them. To share what you’re learning. To invite them into meaningful work. To help them see their own capacity to influence others.

This is life-on-life discipleship. And it’s available to all of us.

At church, the past few years, we’ve been working to be more intentional about leadership development. It’s not a new program. It’s a deepening of who we’ve always wanted to be.

This means nurturing conviction—the belief that leadership development matters and that our people have untapped potential. It means building culture—celebrating when people step into influence, normalizing discipleship and mentorship. And it means creating practical constructs—ways for people to grow, be noticed, and be invited into greater responsibility.

It’s a journey, not a checklist. And we’re learning as we go.

When we help someone discover their capacity to lead—when we invest in their growth, when we believe in them before they believe in themselves—we’re participating in something sacred. We’re saying yes to God’s vision of renewal in our families, our workplaces, our neighborhoods, and our world

We are designed by God to lead – that is my conviction!