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.
The debate: both/and or either/or
“The debate gets tiring, especially for those of us who live in the trenches of ministry. On one side are those feverently committed to the task of world evangelism and wanting to see heaven populated with redeemed individuals. On the other side are those whose hearts...
Leadership farm systems—it’s what’s missing
Over my years in ministry, I’ve recommended many different structures be put into place to help us grow and multiply healthy churches: coaching systems, church planter training and assessment, networks/cohorts of people in similar ministry roles. Those have yielded...
The big five
If you’re putting together a training system, a coaching structure, a discipleship approach, a leadership development plan—almost anything—there are five core elements you’ll need to put into place to make a truly great system: Keep it focused. Have a clear...
Leaders who are not disciples
Too many people in church leadership are not disciples or making disciples. No wonder we have the problems we have in our churches. When disciples are fully trained they become like their teacher. Is that really what we want? Are we modeling what we want people to do?...
The end result of living like Jesus did
This is the end result of living like Jesus did: the spread of the gospel message-- the gospel shared in both word and deed. This is what Jesus told his disciples to do: John 13:34-35 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love...
What is your “little bit of good”?
In yesterday’s blog entry, I mentioned one of my favorite quotes from Bishop Desmond Tutu: “Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” What is your “little bit of good”? Do you have neighbors? Bring...
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...