Leadership
Holistic Leadership Development
You want to develop leaders who will do what Jesus called us to do, leaders who can take the church forward into the 21st century. You look to the fields and see them, as Jesus does, ready for harvest — and you know that’s where your ministry needs to concentrate.
What’s needed is holistic leadership development — the kind of leadership development that comes from the harvest and leads people back into the harvest, resulting in subsequent generations of new believers and new leaders living as Jesus called us to live.
We can help you develop leaders the kind of leaders you need in a way that is both relational and intentional… and ultimately effective in helping your church accomplish its mission.
The high jump
Where should we set the bar in training people to do ministry? It’s tempting to set the bar too high too fast. An athlete training for the high jump wouldn’t start with the bar seven feet high. He or she would start much lower and then work their way up with...
Coming alongside missional leaders as a coach
Below is a meditation on coaching missional leaders that I originally published in Christian Coaching Magazine. As I think back on it, the material seems even more relevant now. More and more of my coaching lately has involved coming alongside missional leaders. Over...
Roger’s processing
In the recovery community where I volunteer I was recently giving a brief presentation on dealing with our emotions, then we broke off into smaller groups to talk about how to apply the lesson. Roger (not his real name) was in my group. Roger is always quiet and...
Bring your team
I attended a conference recently where some people came as individuals and others came with teams from their churches. One group came with a team of seven people. Although they did some arguing along the way, they will go back with quite a bit of focused interaction...
Righteous desperation
Jesus hung out with those who had tried all the other options. These are people who, like King Solomon, have already tried every other way to fill the void… so they know God is the only answer. They have a righteous desperation. The early disciples often felt the same...
Working in isolation
Many leaders get road-blocked on their way to reaching their goals simply due to lack of connection with others. It sounds simple, but it’s essential—we need other people along the way with us. We need additional perspectives and fresh ideas. We need sounding boards...
Seeing through God’s eyes
Dave Daubert has a woman in his congregation who reads the local paper through God's eyes. What she means by this is that as she reads the newspaper, she looks for good things people have done. When she finds them, she sends a thank you note: "I noticed you did ____....
Going for a swim
Learning new ministry roles is like learning to swim: there are various skills we need to learn and then we need to coordinate them together. First we watch someone swim. Then we start working on individual skills: we learn to blow bubbles, put our head underwater,...
The cost of release
As leaders, we are tempted to take our best people and keep them tied into institutional responsibilities, which more often than not keeps them away from the mission. We take our business people and put them on boards and committees. We enlist our artists to help...
Structures vs. Mission
Fifteen years ago I was speaking in Australia on what it means to live missionally. One person raised his hand and said, “Our church structures don’t allow us to do what you’re talking about.” I responded, “If your church structures keep you from following what Jesus...
Where would Jesus hang out?
Here’s my challenge to you today: Go ask a random person on the street, “If Jesus were here today, what would he be doing?” If you’re brave, you can come back and post the responses you get here on this blog. Here’s my prediction: not one person will say that Jesus...
The soapbox derby
When I was 12 years old, I wanted to build a car to race in a soapbox derby. My dad sat down with me and gave me this choice: “You can do it to have fun or you can do it to win. If you want to do it to win, here’s what it’s going to take….” And he laid out the hours...