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.
A lot of small contributions coming together
We all have a contribution to make. It doesn’t have to be huge. But all of our small contributions come together to make something huge. Bishop Desmond Tutu said: “Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the...
Pies in the name of Jesus
One of the biggest blockages to our living like Jesus lived is our sense that we should be doing something huge, something amazing, something on a large scale. And if we think of serving that way, of course, we'll never do anything at all. It's too overwhelming....
We all have something to contribute
We all have something to contribute to the Kingdom of God... no matter what our income, our age, our situation in life, our past failures, our limitations. God designed it this way. He gave each of us spiritual gifts to be used for the benefit of others and for the...
Broadening the workforce
I once asked a seminary dean the question, “When students graduate from your program, what can they do?” He later told me that question kept him up at night for a couple of months. When we look at the ways we’ve traditionally trained people, there isn’t a strong...
Overfishing the leadership pond
The more successful we are at recruiting, the more that has the inadvertent effect of diminishing our emphasis on the long-term development of others. Why invest in long-term leadership development when you can just use ready-made leaders from somewhere else?...
Don’t dump the whole truckload at once
I was field-testing a training process recently. As I reflected on it, I realized we were answering questions that the people at the training event wouldn’t even be asking for at least two more years. Sure, I might know they would be asking it in two more years, so...
Protecting our reputation
Go ask some people on the street what their impression of Christians is. Afraid what you might hear? That’s a reasonable fear. We are known for being “against stuff.” We are known not for our deeds but for our words—and our words are often arrogant, closed-minded, and...
What’s your definition of “friend”?
When my friends Matt and Hugh moved to Denver with an eye toward incarnational missional living, they set a goal of each making 50 new friends who weren’t believers. Meeting that goal required them to think through their definition of “friend.” It certainly means more...
Where’s the love?
We've moved from a cognitive/rational approach to an experiential approach. The people we're trying to reach have changed. It used to be a matter of mastering Evidence that Demands a Verdict. But now we're in a different paradigm. You're not convincing just because...
What’s on your scorecard?
What we count is what we value. And what do we generally count in our churches? The number of people who sit in the services. The offering. Why not try counting something different this month—something more in line with what Jesus told us to do when he said to make...
Cramming for the Kingdom?
Street improvements in Mexico, I am told, happen like clockwork once every five years—the year before elections. Every five years they’ll have some improvements done, but not the rest of the time. Any additional road work will wait until just before the election when...
Congregational Conversations
Here’s a strategy you can use regardless of the kind of issues you are facing. Read the description below and think through how you could use this kind of strategy in your own ministry. One church has been in the process of transition. The church is two years old and...