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 power of the bright spot
I’m learning the power of the bright spot from one of my current favorite reads, Switch by Dan and Chip Heath. I’ve been incorporating this concept into my coaching relationships as well as my life/ministry conversations. Say someone brings up an issue: “I want to...
The structure of life
I recently ran across a really committed 12-step guy, who also really gets discipleship. He’s been very successful in life-on-life multiplication of disciples. As I talked with him, he expressed strong concern against doing anything structured. Here was my basic...
Sympathetic employers
By guest blogger David Davenport The most critical aspect of bivocational ministry is the day job. Is my employer sympathetic to my call to ministry? How might sympathetic employment work? A business man or manager hires a person who is called to ministry, agreeing...
The power of modeling
A man has been leading one of the 10-week groups we’ve been doing in the transition center. The other day he told me that last night he had one of the residents—a woman in recovery—leading it. “I didn’t tell her that’s what she was doing, but she was leading it. She’d...
Recovery from wounds
How do you recover from the wounds received when people hurt you? Too often people—including Christian leaders—let the wounds fester until they become infected. Here’s a different strategy. Although the medicine may taste bitter, it leads to long-term healing....
Unpacking the bag
Here’s an exercise I use sometimes to resort my priorities. It’s like unpacking grocery sacks. Take everything you’re currently doing out of the bag and examine it. Pray and get clarity on your priorities. Then only reload those items into the bag that apply to...
The injured reserve list
Even when people have made a commitment to serve on a team, life keeps happening anyway. Sometimes things come up that prevent them from serving for a while: illness, personal issues that need to be dealt with, the care of an elderly parent. How do you provide care...
The tension between needs and evangelism
Often as churches we can either get sucked into needs and forget evangelism, or just focus on making disciples without meeting needs. How can we do both strategically without one side taking over the other? One easy way is to network with groups that are already...
Incarnational dying
I heard this story friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend style, so I can’t vouch for its strict accuracy. But true or not, it makes a powerful point. A Christian visitor came to Mother Theresa's ministry in Calcutta to find out more about how she did ministry. She asked him,...
Today’s lepers
Galatians 2:910: "James, Cephas and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews. All they asked was that we should...
Fighting discouragement
For those who want to spark change toward missional incarnational ministry, discouragement is a constant battle. For change at this level to occur, we’re actually talking about DNA. That’s the toughest thing to change once it’s already taken root. Recognize that it’s...
St Patrick: missionary
Take along a book to read over your glass of green beer. Thomas Cahill’s book How the Irish Saved Civilization is a fine and entertaining read, especially in its examination of the missionary work of St. Patrick. Happy St. Paddy’s day!