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.
Teams that can handle ambiguity and change
When you’re developing new approaches to ministry, you can’t predict the way it’s going to go -- you have to be prepared for some ambiguity and change along the way. You and your team need to be flexible and adaptable because the unexpected does happen. You can’t...
Open and constructive communication
Everyone says they would like open and constructive communication on their ministry teams. What can you do to model such communication? Here are three qualities you can aim for and live out with others on your team: Be receptive to evaluation. Are you willing to have...
Mutual respect and loyalty: the core of an effective team
What is at the core of an effective team? There are a lot of hard knocks in ministry. To help cushion some of those blows and give everyone the energy to keep moving forward, the team you’re a part of needs to provide a supportive and encouraging environment. Three...
Complementary strengths
Great teams absolutely require complementary strengths. They’re not productive if everyone is alike: you’ll get the same great strengths coupled with the same weaknesses. Like a good marriage, you need enough differences to give you the right kind of chemistry and...
Sharing common values with your ministry team
Everyone knows that the core of a congregation must hold to common values to be successful in moving forward toward accomplishing their unique vision. But what about ministry teams? Certainly they should be on board with the general values of the church, but to work...
Resisting the silo effect: shared vision and goals
We’ve all seen examples of what’s commonly known as “the silo effect:” The music ministry thinking only about their productions without reference to how that connects to the overall ministry of the church. The youth pastor deciding that the main goals are more kids...
Chunkify: the latest technical terminology
I’m not sure if I have coined this term or not—likely someone else has thought of it before me—but when I used it recently in a coaching conversation, the woman I was coaching knew exactly what I meant by it. When you have a big, overwhelming project, take it and...
The country church and the town church
A man I know pastors two congregations: one in a rural area and another in a small town. As he was talking with his coach about how to get effective discipleship processes in place in both contexts, he pieced together some principles that could be helpful to many...
Happy 500th Anniversary of the Reformation!
Today marks 500 years since Martin Luther posted the 95 theses on the door of the church in Wittenberg, Germany on October 31st, 1517. It’s worth noting that he never intended to start a different church or denomination; his goal was to reform the existing church....
The math of delegation
Delegation is an essential skill for developing your team members. Not only does it take work off your own to-do list, but it helps develop others. So why don’t more leaders do it? One significant challenge is giving up control. If you don’t do it yourself, how can...
It takes three cuts to get it right
On good communication: About 18 years ago I hired someone to help me with writing projects. One of the questions I asked at the time was, “How do you feel about taking correction and making changes?” Tara, the candidate I was interviewing, responded that she assumed...
Responding to criticism
Responding to criticism: Do you ever get criticized? I’m guessing if you’re a ministry leader, the answer is yes (exercising my profound powers of discernment). The real question is how to handle it when criticism comes. How can you avoid reacting defensively, help...