Note: part of a series started April 22nd.
The next question my coach asked me—after I had wrestled for a while with “What’s next?”—was “What’s missing?” After reflecting on the state of the church in the U.S. I decided my answer was that true leadership development from the harvest was what was missing. We were providing seminary education at a rate unmatched anywhere else in the world, but where were the new leaders that came out of the harvest? Who were we reaching from there? And how were we developing them? We weren’t.
These reflections led me toward a simple church model for my new church plant: no staff. No one would be paid and no one would be full-time. When you don’t have any staff, you have to rely on developing leaders yourself. This approach, I thought, should help us keep our focus on developing leaders from the harvest.
In your context, which is different from mine, what’s missing? Take time to pray and think on that question. What conclusions can you draw from your answer?