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.
Worship strategy: Separating the creating planning from the implementation
One strategy I've found to be quite helpful-- particularly in the worship area-- is to separate the creative planning of the worship service from the actual implementation. You can get your creative thinkers to come up with ideas and the plan the services. They're...
The importance of planning as a process
So often in planning, people try to focus on the plan itself-- the end result. What's actually much more important is the engagement of people in the discernment process, seeking God, and walking together through the discovery of what God wants them to do. Below are...
Planning and evaluation: ministry flow charts
You can use your ministry planning and evaluation process to cooperate with what God is doing. Charts like the ones below (taken from my book Releasing Your Church's Potential) can help you develop a framework that guides your ministry priorities and decisions for the...
Planning for retirement: what will be your ongoing contribution?
Yesterday I wrote about planning for retirement financially. There's a second way we need to plan for our retirement, and that's thinking about our Kingdom contribution. What are we going to DO during retirement? In my opinion, we never fully retire. If we're here on...
Not planning for retirement: free financial advice
I am increasingly surprised by the number of people who haven't been planning for retirement. As I have conversations with people that are approaching retirement age, many are not prepared financially. They are stuck; they don't have sufficient income to live after...
How to have that tough conversation with a client
Yesterday I wrote about working with clients that aren't motivated. There's no reason to keep working with a person who doesn't want to change or is for some reason not able to change. Sometimes the person is overwhelmed or distracted for legitimate reasons: a spouse...
When it’s okay to fire the client
Almost always my time coaching people is a wonderful experience where they gain insight, address challenges, experience breakthroughs, and take positive steps toward their vision. But there are times when we just don't seem to get traction. When those kinds of...
Reframing your perspective
A friend of mine, Dennis Easter, is recovering from cancer with an excellent prognosis. He shared with me one of the learnings he has gained through this process: "To leverage my healing journey, God showed me how my treatment center could be a house of healing....
Visual processors
I've been writing a series on my blog about how different people process their thoughts differently. So far I've covered audio processors-- who process through talking and listening-- and what I call artistic/experiential processers-- who process via diagrams,...
Artistic and experiential processers
Yesterday on my blog I wrote about how some people are audio processers. They need to be able to talk-- and hear themselves talk-- to process their thinking. Others tend to be experiential or artistic processers. Some find that drawing pictures or diagrams provides a...
From ideas to action – different ways people process
Every person you coach is different. One important difference is how they process ideas. Some are audio processors. They think best out loud, and talking is the way they process their ideas. As they talk, they gain greater clarity and insight, which then results in...
Where mission and formation intersect
A while back I posted a blog entry from Mark Fields with Vineyard Missions about how much better his board meeting went when he scheduled spiritual formation retreats just before them. Mark makes some interesting points about how mission and formation intersect. He...