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.
Conversations with God
Do you ever have conversations with God where he talks back? I do sometimes. I’m not always certain that it’s God, but these conversations are usually highly instructive for me regardless. A number of years ago, I was reciting to God all the reasons why I wasn’t best...
A weak man
We recently had a breakthrough in the anger management class I teach. A rough guy in the back row spoke up and said, “Yeah, when someone disrespects you, you gotta defend yourself and defend your honor. You can’t help it.” He sounded confident and tough, even proud,...
Deciding to change
When I was teaching in my anger management recovery group at the Salvation Army, I had a man interrupt me and say, “When someone makes me mad, I tell them off. That’s just the way I am.” I responded, “So what I’m hearing you say is that when you feel angry, you blow...
Coach or cash?
A man I work with in the transitional living center recently wrote a letter to me and Janet asking for $100. Our policy in environments where we volunteer is that is that we don’t give money directly to individuals, but we do give time and training to them. That’s the...
Where’s the tipping point?
Have you read The Tipping Point: How little things can make a big difference by Malcolm Gladwell? It’s an excellent read and I highly recommend it if you haven’t yet picked up a copy of this book. Gladwell talks about the concept of the tipping point: when enough...
Pyramid principle
One of my principles for doing ministry-- especially with new or small churches-- is this: We only do as much ministry as we have leadership to support. One of the problems new churches face is adding more and more ministries (usually in an attempt to meet needs)...
Jon Warner’s best leadership blogs of 2013
If you like reading blogs on leadership, check out this list compiled by Jon Warner: 50 best leadership blogs of 2013
What do you do with your harvest workers?
Yesterday I wrote about praying for more workers in the harvest field as a direct result of the compassion we feel for the harvest field. We can pray that prayer with a great deal of boldness and confidence, because we know we are praying God’s will. However, consider...
Compassion as a motivation
The passage below is often cited as an injunction toward evangelism, and rightly so. But we miss something important if we don’t quote the first half of this passage. What do you see as a lead-in to reaching the harvest? “Jesus traveled through all the towns and...
The problem of community
We as the church of Jesus are supposed to “do life” together in the context of community. But how can we really do that, especially in the western context most of us find ourselves in? I believe our ministry does need to be very countercultural, since our context is...
Developing people to their fullest potential
If you give people the answers, you truncate their growth. That’s why I prefer asking them questions. If you want to develop people to their fullest potential, ask them questions that they have to wrestle with, think about, and answer. If you take the time to dialogue...
Catch the seashore vision
As a young church planter, knocking on doors in the 70s and struggling to get a new church up and running, I had a vision that has since directed the rest of my life. In my vision I was standing at the seashore in southern California. I was joined by other church...