Defer Judgement

When it comes to making decisions, are you impulsive or are you cautious?   As a person?   As a leader?   Recently I texted a church leader and followed up with a phone call.  I was asking him to make a leadership decision.  This is what leaders are often called to do.  People expect leaders to make decisions, often on the spot.  But this church leader, after hearing my request, deferred judgement.  He told me he wanted to discuss my request with a number of other people before he and his church would make a decision.   This church leader demonstrated good leadership tact.  Why?  Because people who always make hair-trigger judgments do not make effective church leaders.  Effective church leaders tend to stifle their first reactions and make decisions based on solid argument and evidence.

We having been looking at eight often-overlooked characteristics that effective church leaders share.¹ In this article we will consider a final characteristic of effective church leaders.   Effective church leaders know the benefit of deferring judgement.

We see the idea of deferred judgement in our court system.  In a deferred judgment, the court gives a defendant an opportunity to complete a probationary period before sentencing and prior to any entry of conviction.  This gives the defendant a period of grace where he or she could prove to the courts that a lighter sentence or even a dismissal of a conviction might be in order.

In leadership, deferred judgement happens when a leader does not make impulsive or rash decisions but rather defers making a decision until they receive further advice and consult with others.  I have observed this happening many times among church leaders.  Elders and pastor(s) would meet and discuss important issues knowing that a decision had to be made.  But rather than making a decision they would decide to defer judgement until the next meeting or at a later time.  More people needed to be consulted.  More time needed to be spent in prayerful discernment.   Additional ideas needed to be explored.  I dare say, that some of our best decisions as church leaders were those when we decided to defer judgement until a later time.

Craig Hamilton writes, "Whenever possible, as long as problem isn't a crisis that requires an immediate decision, involve your team in solving the problem and making the decisions.   Get their input on the problem, identifying and clarifying exactly what the problem is.  Get their input on options for how to solve it.  Use the brains, experiences, and expertise of the people around you." (Wisdom in Leadership, p. 436)   Craig goes on to list three benefits to doing this.   First, your team will provide insight on the issue at hand.  Church leaders might know a lot of information about issues or problems that need to be dealt with.  But they don't know everything.  This is the benefit of being part of a church leadership team, and also the benefit of being part of a congregation.  There are people who have more experience, more wisdom, more understanding, and more ideas of possible solutions that just the one person or the one leader.  I know in my church leadership role, I keep on learning things from others.  This is what leaders do.   In fact, effective church leaders are learners.  In the Bible the main Greek word for a follower of Jesus is mathetes.  This is translated 269 times as "disciple" but it can equally be translated as "learner."   In the words of Leonard Sweet, "the love of Jesus and love of learning were strands of a single cloth."   When as a church leader you choose to defer judgement you are choosing to do some more learning.   And followers of Jesus are learners.

A second benefit of deferring judgement on a problem or an issue is to get buy-in from those on your church leadership team and/or wider church members.  As Craig Hamilton writes:  "if your team is involved in the process of creating the solution to the problem then they will be onboard and much more inclined to help implement the solution than they would have been had you simple dropped the solution on them from on high." (ibid.)

A third benefit of deferring judgement is that this will show others that you truly appreciate them.   Again, as Craig Hamilton writes, "simply being involved in the discussion may provide that kick of enthusiasm they need as they see that their time and contributions to the team are valued and useful." (ibid.) 

I would add a fourth benefit.  Deferring judgement will increase creativity.  This for me is reason enough as a church leader to not rush decisions but be willing to defer judgement on problems that need to be solved or issues that need to be settled.  When you defer judgement as a leader, you are encouraging others to do some creative and innovative thinking.  Rather than making a quick decision, you allow some time for new ideas, to explore new options, and consider alternative solutions.   Recently when I was leading a church leadership team to help them decide the formulation of their mission and vision statements.  We could have made an impulsive decision.  But instead, we deferred judgement for several weeks.  These church leaders were asked to consider what we had talked about, and come up with some creative and alternative solutions.  And they did.  The end result was so much better than if we had simply made a quick decision.

As a leader can you stifle your first reactions and make decisions based on solid argument and evidence?  If so, you are growing in your effectiveness as a leader.   Effective leaders know the benefit of deferring judgement.

¹ The other characteristics we looked at are: effective church leaders listen to and obey the voice of God, are forward looking, have a can-do attitude, they own up to mistakes, exercise patience, lovingly confront, and maintain confidentiality.