Ask any pastor to list the “spiritual” gifts, and you’ll usually hear the same set: preaching, teaching, prophecy, healing, maybe mercy if they’ve spent time with people in pain.
But leadership? That one rarely makes the list.
In fact, leadership often feels like an add-on skill—useful, yes, but somehow less sacred.
Preaching fills the seats. Prayer feels holy.
Leadership? That belongs in the corporate world. At least, that’s the unspoken ranking system most of us grew up with.
The problem is, Paul never ranked the gifts. Quite the opposite.
The Pressure of Playing Favorites
In Romans 12, Paul writes: “If it is to lead, do it diligently.” He doesn’t whisper it as an afterthought. He doesn’t apologize for including leadership alongside prophecy, teaching, or encouragement. He names it as a Spirit-given gift and tells those who have it to get after it.
Yet in church culture, leadership often gets downgraded. And here’s what happens:
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For pastors with a leadership gift: They feel guilty. They know the Spirit wired them to see vision, organize teams, and drive mission clarity, but they’ve been told leadership is “less spiritual.” So they suppress it—or worse, they bury it under endless sermon prep.
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For pastors without a leadership gift: They feel pressure. Leadership still has to happen, but instead of empowering others, they try to shoulder it all themselves. They grind harder, hoping effort will cover the gap. It never does.
Suppressing leadership creates visionless churches. Hoarding leadership creates bottlenecked churches. Neither honors the Spirit’s design.
The Solution: Leadership Is a Spirit-Given Gift
The Holy Spirit doesn’t hand out accidental gifts. Leadership is just as Spirit-empowered as preaching, serving, or giving.
When Paul wrote about the body of Christ in 1 Corinthians 12, he emphasized that no part is greater than the other. The eye can’t say to the hand, “I don’t need you.” Likewise, the preacher can’t say to the leader, “Your gift is less spiritual.”
Leadership isn’t about corporate savvy. It’s about Spirit-given capacity to guide God’s people toward God’s mission.
And that means two important realities for pastors:
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If leadership is your gift, stop apologizing for it.
Lean into it. Read leadership books. Listen to podcasts. Attend conferences. Develop it like you would preaching. The most spiritual thing you can do is actually use the gift God gave you. -
If leadership is not your gift, stop pretending it is.
Your job isn’t to fake it—it’s to create space for those who have it. That’s not weakness; it’s wisdom. The body was designed to fill its own gaps.
What This Looks Like in Real Life
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The pastor with a leadership gift: They don’t feel embarrassed about systems, strategy, or team development. They know it’s holy work—because it is. They prepare sermons, yes, but they also prepare their church for growth and health.
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The pastor without a leadership gift: They stop carrying guilt. They identify people in their church with the leadership gift and actually empower them—giving them responsibility, shaping strategy, and moving the mission forward.
The result? Churches thrive because every part of the body is doing its work.
Practical Next Steps
If leadership is your gift…
- Invest in it like preaching. Put leadership development on your calendar. Read one book each quarter. Attend a conference. Find a mentor or coach.
- Model Spirit-led leadership. Show your church that leadership isn’t about ego but about faithfully stewarding the gift God gave you.
If leadership is not your gift…
- Name it and own it. Say out loud what you already know: leadership isn’t your strongest gift.
- Identify and empower leaders in your congregation. Call out their gift. Give them real responsibility. Let them lead.
The Big Picture
When pastors treat leadership as “less spiritual,” the whole church suffers. But when we recognize it as a Spirit-given gift and actually use it, the body flourishes.
If you have the gift, don’t bury it. If you don’t have the gift, don’t block it.
Leadership isn’t a corporate add-on to the church. It’s a Spirit-given gift for the church.
One More Thing…
If you’re a pastor wrestling with how to lead well—or how to empower leaders in your church—you don’t have to figure this out alone. That’s why I created Leadership Labs and Pressure Valve Sessions.
They’re designed to help you grow in your leadership gift or learn how to release the gifts of others in your church. Because the Spirit gave leadership as a gift for the church. The most faithful thing you can do is make sure it gets used.
Quotes to Share
- “Suppressing leadership creates visionless churches. Hoarding leadership creates bottlenecked churches.”
- “The most spiritual thing you can do is actually use the gift God gave you.”
- “Leadership isn’t a corporate add-on to the church—it’s a Spirit-given gift for the church.”
Leading With You,
Dr. Gavin Adams
