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.
Leadership: recognized, not appointed
During my time in Honduras, I found the way that handle leadership fascinating. Leaders are not appointed-- they are recognized through results. One of their titles of leadership is “extension chain teacher.” That title indicates someone who has raised up 10 churches....
How do others perceive Christians?
How are we perceived from the outside? How would we like others to perceive us? How do those perspectives affect our testimony? What can we do about it? Food for thought from New York Times columnist Nikolas Kristoff.
A prayer for mission
The Rev. Jonathan Hunnicutt, of The Table Church, sent me this prayer recently and I thought I would share it with you. It is a prayer for mission from Morning Prayer Rite II. 1979 Book of Common Prayer, page 101: Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love...
Recalibrate
When you have a compass, you need to recalibrate it depending on your current location. With the electronic compass on my iPhone I move the phone in a figure 8 several times to allow it to calibrate to my current location. I can’t just pull it out and use it. If the...
If you don’t learn, you don’t teach
When I was in Honduras, I discovered that they define “learning” as something you actually put into practice, not as knowledge. That’s how they structure their training: 75% is practice, while only 25% is input. They figure-- rightly, I think-- that it’s meaningless...
Putting it all together
After getting involved in a difficult church leadership situation at a relatively young age, I would have had some serious answers to the questions we asked in the last post. At the age of 28, I went through eight months of clinical depression and did not feel I had...
The hardest verse in the Bible
In Matthew 5:48, Jesus told people, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Simple enough. If Jesus said it, it must be something we're supposed to do. Perfect. It sounded so...born-again. Such an apt summary of everything else I was trying to be....
Holistic formation counters consumer Christianity
For several years, I worked with a ministry that put on retreats for Christian leaders to learn practices that would nurture their spiritual formation - most for the very first time. I watched many of these leaders experience the transformation that comes from these...
Beyond spiritual formation
Have you ever experienced a challenge that compelled you to reach deep into your soul in search of the resources you needed to meet it? You feel equipped to deal with the challenge, but when you reach into that space - hunting for wisdom and answers - there's nothing...
What every neighborhood ought to have
Today’s blog entry is from Janet Logan, who blogs regularly on children and spirituality at childcenteredspirituality.com. “My name is Drew and I am 15 years old. I was in Confident Kids from 4th-6th grade and I loved it. I was able to get my problems out and talk...
On-ramps for bringing people on-board
I live in Pasadena near the oldest freeway in the country-- the 110. In the oldest section of that freeway, they have stop signs just before you enter the freeway. There’s a stop sign, then you have literally 50 feet to get onto the freeway. You have to sit there at a...
Investing where you see growth
Michael Gatlin, pastor of Duluth Vineyard and director of Multiply Vineyard, follows the practice of “investing where you see things growing.” When you see a particular harvest field yielding good crops, how can you send in more workers to tend and harvest that...