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.
Holistic delivery for deep and lasting change
We all have our favorite styles for learning: lecture, small group discussion, reading, hands-on experience. When we’re the ones doing the training, we need to take a balanced approach for different learners. Try orientation, clusters, individual coaching, networks,...
The secret to planning good meetings
When you are planning a meeting, the first question to address is, “What are you trying to accomplish?” At the end of the time, what do you want people to do? What do you want them to feel? What do you want them to walk away with? Once you have a good answer for that,...
The cyclical vs. front-loading approaches
Have you ever looked carefully at the structure of 1 John? The first time I read it I thought the author was just repeating himself. Yet on more careful examination, he is working through the same three themes more and more deeply with each round so that it becomes a...
Affirmation as the foundation of change
For me, seminary preaching classes were a painful experience. The worst part was when I had to go to the preaching lab to be videotaped as I struggled to deliver a message. Having to listen to myself on tape seemed bad enough, but having to see myself too was just too...
Experiencing the change
How’s this for kicking off the new year? A book on making change lasting and effective. When you train people, most of the time you need to explain and describe. Some of that is necessary, and it results in intellectual knowledge. But if you want the result of...
Bring your leaders together
As you start missional communities, you’ll see leaders arising. Get them together! You’ll need to provide support of some kind; they won’t be able to run on autopilot. When you do get them together, here are 5 good questions you can ask: What’s working What’s not...
Form missional communities
When you have a few people who are committed to missional living and ministry, it’s time to form missional communities. You might call those missional communities small groups, life groups, service teams, or any number of terms, but they are essentially a group of...
Coach the people who get it
Among people who indicate receptivity to missional living, some will be willing to go the extra mile in living it out. Look for those who “get” missional living and are willing to take risks, even if they’re not great at it. These are the people you need to be...
Start with those who are receptive
As you process and begin to live missionally, do it alongside some other people. You don’t have to get everybody on board, but if you look around there’s almost certainly someone who would like to do it with you. I’m serving alongside Art (pictured here) at a...
Who do you start with? You
In missional living, the essential starting point is to lead by example. The beginning of any journey of leading your church in a more missional direction is you personally living missionally. Without that foundational piece in place, any broader organizational change...
We talk
I recently read Exponential by Dave and Jon Ferguson. They talk about the 5-step model of Jesus, which I’ve used for years, but they did make one very helpful addition to it. They insert “we talk” between each of the original steps: I do, you watch, we talk. I...
Affirmed behaviors tend to be repeated
Recently I watched a baby of about one year old who was trying to learn to speak. As conversations were carried on around him, he mimicked the sounds and actions he was observing. When people were talking, he would make word-like sounds in their direction as if we...