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.
What about the other 167 hours?
Take a look at the ministry flow chart below. It puts the role of celebration-- the worship service-- in context. That’s one hour out of the week… the rest of the week is 167 hours. Consider where you are putting your time and energy. How much is being invested into...
Fire and mission
Take some time this Friday morning to meditate on this insight from German theologian Emil Brunner: “The Church exists by mission as fire exists by burning.”
Bridging to discipleship
As ministry leaders, we’re all aware of the importance of disciplemaking. We engage culture, and as people come to Christ we get them connected into faith communities. But as I coach a lot of ministry leaders who are seeking to be incarnational and missional, one of...
Conflict management via email?
One of my pet peeves is when people try to solve problems via email. You’ve been there: someone words an email awkwardly or brusquely, offense is taken, someone else responds in an inflammatory way, often copying several additional people. Blind copying and forwarding...
What is God putting on your to-do list?
It's easy to feel overwhelmed looking at your to-do list, especially if you are faced with the prospect of additional demands. The best starting point is first finding out where you are currently spending your time. Record what you are doing and how much time each...
Next board meeting, ask a good question
I write frequently about the power of listening and asking good questions, especially among ministry leaders. Let’s take a look at one of the more challenging contexts for practicing this skill: the board meeting. Often board meetings consist of each person spouting...
The power of letting the scripture transform people
On Mondays when my house church gathers, we read through scripture together, carefully observing it over time. We only let the passage answer the question. No external interpretations and no cross references. If the answer is not there in the passage, we’ll just have...
How do we actually make disciples?
We all know we're supposed to make disciples. And yet if we're honest, how well is that really happening? Too often the focus seems on having people become active church participants: attending activities, volunteering, giving, etc. One of the challenges in making...
Developing loyalty in your staff
I was coaching a senior organizational leader recently who was working through the challenges of developing quality staff. I asked this question: “To what degree could a more pastoral approach impact your staff development?” Sometimes leaders believe they need to...
Introducing change
Today's entry is from guest blogger Dr. Steven Goodwin. A woman came home from a swap meet with a crocheted wall hanging that read “Prayer changes things.” Proud of her new acquisition, she asked her husband for his opinion. “I don’t like it,” he said without missing...
Using small town strategy in urban areas?
We’ve just completed a series on church planting and incarnational living in small towns and rural areas. The concept is small handfuls of people in each geographic community who meet together regularly, yet are networked with similar groups across the region. Imagine...
Leadership
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...