Developing Leaders – Like Jesus
As a church leader your to-do list seems endless most weeks. With all that you have to accomplish, how do you find time to invest in potential leaders? The answer is you don’t find it; instead, you make it or schedule it into your calendar.
For many years I didn’t realize how much time and energy Jesus invested into developing his disciples. To me Jesus was a preacher, miracle worker and savior of the world. I didn’t see how much of a leader developer he was until I took a closer look at his ministry.
Yes, Jesus taught crowds, and healed sick people, and fed the hungry, but when we examine the gospels, we see he spent the majority of his time investing in a handful of followers, whom he trained to be world changers. He invested in the few to reach the many.
If you’re planting a church, pay attention to Jesus’s ministry. He could have spent most of his time on preparing dynamic sermons, comforting the hurting, and organizing large outreach events. He included all those things, but focused on turning his ragtag group of disciples into competent and confident leaders. Are you following his lead?
Think about the people God has placed under your care. How are you helping them grow not only in their character, but also in their spiritual influence? How are you helping them develop confidence and competence as a spiritual influencer? I’m afraid far too often we are content to feed people solid Biblical teaching, plug them into a ministry team or small group, and think our job is done.
However, what if the person you placed on the welcome team has the potential to reproduce generations of disciples or even start a new church? What if they need our encouragement to realize their full disciple-making potential? Am I being a faithful steward if that person has the potential to lead an entire ministry, but instead remain content for him to play keys in the worship band because our church really needs a keyboard player?
As church leaders, Jesus has entrusted us with people to develop into leaders for his Kingdom. Who are you investing in? Who are you developing to grow in their leadership capacity?
We believe God is surrounding you with future leaders, whom he’s calling you to develop. We encourage you to identify those potential leaders, invest in them, and help them increase in their influence for the Kingdom. That’s why we’ve packed this newsletter full of resources designed to help you develop the people God has placed under your care. Enjoy!
-Patrick Bradley, Director of Operations
April 2024 – Content
- Leadership Development Strategy Template
- Leadership Development Tips, Tools, and Techniques
- Leadership Matrix
- Church Planter Distance Residency
Leadership Development Strategy Template
How does your church develop leaders? Do you have an intentional strategy for helping future leaders mature in their competency, character, and confidence? Don’t feel bad if you don’t. Too many churches never get around to defining a strategy that guides them in this endeavor. That’s why we’ve designed a Leadership Multiplication Strategy Template which will help you set the course for how your church will invest in its future leaders.
Don’t rely on already-developed leaders miraculously showing up at your church to carry out the church’s ministry. Follow Jesus’ example and develop the people God brings you, and help them grow into their full potential for God’s Kingdom. Determine how your church will do that by developing your church’s Leadership Multiplication Strategy. Then go and implement it.
Leadership Development Tips, Tools, and Techniques
As a young man, Mac didn’t see himself as much of a leader. Neither did most people who knew him. But one man chose to see Mac differently. He was one of Mac’s seminary professors. He took Mac under his wing, invested in him and helped him blossom into a leader of leaders. Mac went on to plant a growing church and then created resources to help leaders develop other leaders.
Today Mac continues to create and share leadership training content through his YouTube channel. His videos will offer you practical tips, tools and techniques for developing leaders. If you like what you find on his YouTube channel, explore the other leadership development resources he’s created for ministry leaders at maclakeonline.com.
Leadership Matrix
The word “organized” may not be the first word that comes to mind when you think about a church planter. Yet, their effectiveness as a leader can hinge on their ability to organize and empower teams to pursue God’s vision for the church. Knowing that church planters could use some assistance not only in developing leaders, but also in organizing teams for them to lead, we’ve created a Leadership Matrix Template.
This template aids church planters in structuring ministry teams and staying up to date with where people are serving. It also helps team members see where they fit into the larger organization, and which ministry teams could use help recruiting team members. Download and customize it today!
Church Planter Distance Residency
If your church has a desire to develop leaders whom you will send out to plant new churches, you may be wondering how you’re going to do that. You probably don’t have the time, energy or expertise to create a church planter training program from scratch. Fortunately, that’s why we developed our Church Planter Distance Residency. You raise up a leader and we will train them in the nuts and bolt of church planting while they stay in their local context.
Through this distance residency, your prospective planters learn from national church planting leaders, network and build relationships with other planters, and develop contextualized strategies for planting a healthy, reproducing church. If your church is ready to invest in the development of a church planter from within your congregation, visit our website to learn more about how we can help you do just that. Starting next week, we will start taking applications for the Fall 2024 Cohort, so email us today to reserve your spot!