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Newsletter — December 2017

Leadership Matters

Dale Spaulding, Director, Passion for PlantingAt Passion for Planting we’re focused on equipping leaders to start multiplying churches. This focus has led us to develop systems, tools, and training to help churches reproduce. Knowing that multiplying churches stem from multiplying leaders, we’ve dedicated this month’s newsletter to the topic of leadership development. We trust that you’ll find the content helpful as you set off to multiply your influence by investing into others.

We at Passion for Planting are thrilled to be offering a FREE Launch Healthy Equipping Lab at the upcoming Exponential Conference. This pre-conference features church planting experts presenting a series of 6 fast-paced, TED-style talks. Ralph Moore, author of New to Five, kicks off this pre-conference, setting the stage for church multiplication thinking from launch. Hope to see you there in sunny Orlando!

As 2017 comes to a close, we pray that God blesses your multiplication efforts whether that be leaders, ministries, services, or churches. From the Passion for Planting to yours…Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!

–Dale Spaulding, Director

December 2017 – Contents

  • Leadership Development Excuses
  • Leadership Matrix Template
  • Leadership Development Strategy
  • Book Review: Building Leaders
  • Passion for Planting’s Year In Review

 

Leadership Development Excuses

The holiday season is oftentimes a busy time of year for churches. Between outreach initiatives, Christmas productions, and Christmas Eve gatherings, many pastors feel like they’re sprinting the entire month of December. However, if you’ve found yourself thinking there’s not enough time in the day to do everything expected of you as a church leader, it’s probably because you’ve not developed enough leaders to shoulder the ministry of the church with you.

You’ll always have an excuse as to why your church doesn’t have enough leaders. Don’t fall prey to the 3 Common Excuses church leaders offer for why they don’t have more leaders serving in their churches. You’re too busy not to develop leaders!

Leadership Matrix Template

While “organized” may not be the first word that comes to mind when you think about a church planter, typically their effectiveness as a leader hinges on their ability to organize teams. Knowing that church planters could use some assistance developing leaders and structuring teams underneath them, we’ve created a Leadership Matrix Template to help them with this process.

Utilizing this template will help church leaders organize teams and stay up-to-date with where people are serving. It also helps team members see where they fit into the larger organization and where other service opportunities exist to recruit teammates.

Leadership Development Strategy

In the 15 years that Passion for Planting’s been starting churches never have we heard a church planter complain, “I just have too many leaders.” However, on a regular basis we do hear planters lament about lacking leaders.

They know they need people to lead ministry teams, small groups, and outreach opportunities, but since they don’t have a strategic way to develop leaders, they end up leading by themselves and the church only grows to the size that one person can manage (speed of the leader, speed of the team).

Sometimes church planters lack leaders because they don’t realize how important they are to the health of a church, and other times they’re leadership anemic because they lack a leadership development strategy. If you could you use help designing a leadership development strategy, don’t start from scratch. Download Lifeway’s free e-booklet Pipeline: Succession At Every Level and start developing your church’s leadership development process today.

Book Review: Building Leaders

Building Leaders by Aubrey Malphurs and Will Mancini offers practical advice on how to develop leaders. Along with emphasizing the need for more leaders within a church, this book highlights the biblical foundation for developing leaders and offers a step-by-step process for equipping people to carry out Christian ministry.

The book defines leadership development as “the intentional process of helping established and emerging leaders at every level of ministry to assess and develop their Christian character and to acquire, reinforce, and refine their ministry knowledge and skills.”

Does that describe your church’s leadership development process? Is yours “intentional” or is it more “organic” meaning you see who rises to the top and then give them something to lead? If you’re looking to be more intentional about how your church develop leaders read this book, follow its advice, and start developing leaders with intentionality.

Passion for Planting’s Year In Review

As we reflect upon 2017, we’re amazed by the ministry opportunities Passion for Planting has been a part of in our region, our nation, and beyond. This year we helped plant five new churches, trained hundreds of church planters, and offered free church planting resources to thousands of church planting leaders around the world.

While 2017 offered us plenty to celebrate, we’re even more excited about the impact our ministry will have in years to come through the churches and leaders we’ve trained and equipped.

Read more about those churches and Passion for Planting’s 2017 year in review HERE.