Let’s examine this verse for a moment. Here, Paul himself is listing off different groups of church leaders: apostles, prophets, and teachers. What’s his point, and what’s my point in drawing your attention to this verse? Very simply this; God gives different gifts to people within his church to fulfill certain tasks. Notice how Paul has organized different leadership styles under vastly different categories. Beyond this, he even goes as far as to put them in a specific leadership order. In this quick verse, he lists his church leadership groups from the top rung of influence on down. Paul understood that different kinds of leaders existed within the church and not all were called to be the top leader. In fact, he goes on to say that this leadership configuration is by God’s design. Simply put, the church will naturally foster many leaders, but most will not be called to be those in the driver’s seat.

This leads me to the point; when a leader tries to climb into a higher sphere of leadership influence, into an area they might not be designed for, they will hit a lid. In his book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, John Maxwell opens with the Law of the Lid. This law, as Maxwell calls it, refers to an individual’s maximum ability to lead effectively. You might be a natural leader, but everyone who leads has a ceiling or a limit to their leadership ability. In other words, you might be able to lead a horse to water, but you might not be able to lead two or three horses to water. Using two scales of one to ten, each measuring leadership and leadership effectiveness, John Maxwell explains it this way:

“If your leadership rates at an 8, then your effectiveness can never be greater than a 7. If your leadership is only a 4 then your effectiveness will be no higher than a 3. Your leadership ability – for better or for worse – always determines your effectiveness and the potential impact of your organization.”

This law applies very well in the realm of church planting. Not everyone who wants to be or claims to be a church planter is a church planter. Neither is every church planter able to lead a new church at the same level. Church planters are a very specially wired group of individuals. They are also a specifically called group. If God has not called you to be a church planter, if you like to lead for the sake of being a leader, you will not find a great deal of success in your attempts. You may be good at business or a wonderful manager. You may even be a leader in your industry. But if God has not called you and empowered you to plant a church, don’t even think about it. Like Evil Kenival missing his ramp, you will hit the lid.

Within the arena of church planting, there are some who are better designed to lead than others. Not everyone is called or wired to be a Bill Hybels, Rick Warren, Ed Young Jr. or Troy Gramling. Although many try to aspire to those heights, most will hit the lid.