If you’re trying to raise up church planters, pastors, missionaries, or almost any other type of Christian leader, 80% of what you need them to be able to do can be developed in the context of starting and multiplying missional communities. Certain additional skills,...
Jesus only trained people up to the point where they were already living out what they know. He gave his disciples a little bit to go on and expected them to act on it. (See Mark 9:14-29 or Luke 10:1-24 if you’d like an example.) Training people beyond their obedience...
What are the core things a leader needs to be able to do? In most cases, they simply need to be able to do the things any growing disciple can do: engaging with God, serving, evangelizing, and making disciples. At the core of what’s needed are people who are able to...
What’s the goal of education? Of training? It’s transformation. The traditional approach is to give a lot of information and hope they apply it. Sometimes a more avant-garde approach is that part of passing the course is implementing the information. But what we’re...
An effective children’s ministry– whatever form that may take– is really important for most church plants. The one exception I can think of is New Song Church because they were primarily reaching college students and singles. They didn’t have any form of...
I’ve taught a lot of different types of classes in my day– classes at all levels and in all different types of contexts. Reflecting on those experiences, I’ve found that the classes I’ve enjoyed the most don’t depend on the age or educational level of the...
I was involved in a leadership network meeting with Peter Drucker back in the 80s. There were various practitioners there making presentations, and Peter added his commentary. After I gave my presentations, he got up and started talking about the rise of...
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,...
A significant dimension of my continuing education is reflecting on my conversations and experiences. What did I learn? What principles did I discover, affirm or deepen? What common threads do I see? How does this connect with other situations? What patterns can I...
