Leadership Network Blog

No Man (or Staff) is an Island

Tim Nations — 2012-02-17T13:57+00:00

I am an introvert. I enjoy my alone time. Its an opportunity for me to recharge and gain perspective on the people and things around me. But there are times when I don’t need to be alone. There are moments when the connection, accountability, and encouragement of my peers is necessary to my health as a Christian, a husband, a leader, and a dad. Unfortunately, our culture can convince us this is a sign of weakness. And that can present challenges for leaders of fast growing churches.

The rugged individualism of our western culture would have us believe that we can do it all on our own. When faced with challenges, all I need to do is bear down, grit my teeth, and ‘do it my way’. The results, however, usually don’t line up with what we originally envisioned.

Leaders of rapidly growing churches can fall into the same trap. The organizational success, personal strokes and professional accolades threaten to create an unhealthy degree of self-reliance. And the ongoing responsibilities of trying to stay on top of increasingly complex lives and ministries can isolate leaders from one of their most valuable resources—their peers. The impact of being alone in ministry can hit you out of the blue.

Tim Harlow of Parkview Church in Orland Park, IL:

“I had no idea anything was going bad until one day when I was backstage getting ready to come out for a Saturday night service, and I literally thought, ‘I can’t go out there and do this.’ Its been really key for me to figure out how to get other people around me. It has helped me figure out how to retool and re-staff and do the things that I need to do.”

Being at the helm of a rapidly growing church doesn’t (and shouldn’t) mean going it alone. There are others who have experienced the unique pressures and pains of growing churches and are willing to join others on their leadership journey.

Leader isolation is one of the many core issues being addressed in Leadership Network’s Rapid Growth Leadership Community. For more information on our Rapid Growth Leadership Community, visit the Rapid Growth website where you can learn about past groups through videos and free downloadable concept papers.

The first gathering of Rapid Growth Group 4 is May 16-18. If you’re interested, please contact Tim Nations at tim.nations@leadnet.org or complete an application here .

Author: Tim Nations

Topics: Learnings

Can anyone become a leader? - Matt Steen

Leadership Network — 2012-02-17T10:52+00:00

More videos at Leadership Network

Can anyone become a leader? - Tom Mauriello

Leadership Network — 2012-02-16T10:50+00:00

More videos at Leadership Network

Can anyone become a leader? - Jeremy Brown

Leadership Network — 2012-02-15T10:48+00:00

More videos at Leadership Network

Success to Significance Becomes a Global Phenomenon

Bob Buford — 2012-02-14T15:16+00:00

For the past twenty years, I have focused on a mission statement given me one morning in the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles by my guide and mentor, Peter Drucker. He said, after eight years of working together, "It is your mission to work on transforming the latent energy of American Christianity into active energy." That mission statement has served me well but it is becoming increasingly obsolete as the United States is no longer the center of the world.

Let me give you two examples from just this past two weeks. This past Wednesday I received an email titled "Greetings from Korea." The writer described himself as a senior researcher of a Christian Research and Education organization in Seoul, Korea. He said, "For the last several years, (a colleague and I) have been studying theological topics closely related to Halftime. We have read all of your books from Halftime to Finishing Well and ever since then been constantly teaching and preaching their main ideas in different colleges and churches.

"We think our ministry's mission and goals correspond with yours and this vocational similarity encourages us to contact you to see if there is any possibility of our ministry to be connected with yours in one form or another. Mr. Buford, we don't just appreciate your past achievements and works but we also look forward to what your unceasing commitment would bring in the future."

The writer did his PhD at Princeton Theological Seminary in Christian Ethics with particular focus on economic life and culture. He was joined in his request by the pastor of a Presbyterian church in Seoul that has 30,000 members.

The writer continued, "(Both of us) share a common view that the Korean Christian community as well as Korean society in general are in much need of Halftime ministry. As you may understand, Korea has accomplished a very compressed form of economic growth over the last forty years. But rapid economic growth has been accompanied by a highly competitive and success-driven culture."

Just a week earlier I had received a similar email from a man from Ghana. The writer had followed an eighteen year career in the corporate world by starting what he called a small Christian Retreat Centre as his success to significance transition. He said, "I have for some seven years now had this strong desire to help people move from the small mindset of 'me, myself and I' disease that plagues most successful Africans largely because of where we are coming from. As a result, Africa has a stunted growth in the face of a huge unimaginable potential and fortune." He, too, desires a working relationship with our Halftime group.

What's going on here? Success is spreading around the world rapidly. It is obvious that the United States is not going to be the only big dog on the block anymore. We may be the biggest military power, but most indications are that places like Singapore, Brazil, and other previously "third world" powers are breeding a class of highly successful entrepreneurs. A large and growing number of people across the world are going to be much better off in terms of financial capacity than anybody in history has ever seen. But, of course, they face the same challenges of money vs. meaning that we are so familiar with in the work of Halftime.

Wealth and recognition bring with it a host of other issues, hubris being somewhere near the top of the list. Charles Dickens wrote in the eighteenth century, "It was the best of times; it was the worst of times." That is probably a pretty good description of our situation as well. The best of times because so many more people have the advantages of money and social mobility; the worst of times for prosperous people (the top 20%) because many of them begin to live for themselves lives of pleasure, idleness, and running up the score as fast and as long as the law will permit. I confess to being a recovering member of that class though I, thank God, balanced my intense competitive desire with other goals (marriage and family, serving God by serving others).

Others, wiser than I, saw the danger for the US culture as we entered the 1980's. Listen to what Alexander Solzhenitsyn said in his now-famous Commencement speech to Harvard University graduates in the spring of 1978, "I hope that no one present will suspect me of offering my personal criticism of the Western system - to present socialism as an alternative. Having experienced socialism, I certainly will not speak for it...But should someone ask me whether I could indicate the West such as it is today as a model...frankly I would have to answer negatively." He goes on to say that in the West he sees spiritual exhaustion, materialism, manipulation of the law, and misuses of freedom. "All the glorified technological achievements of progress, including the conquest of outer space, do not redeem the 20th century's moral poverty which no one could imagine even as late as the 19th century. Only voluntary inspired self-restraint can raise man above the world stream of materialism."

Solzhenitsyn's Address stirred up all manner of controversy, but in retrospect both Dickens and Solzhenitsyn seem to be a good prediction of the both/and time we are living in right now.

Hear this from my friend, Patrick Morley, now a prominent author, who talks about his former life, "My unspoken credo was 'money will solve my problems and success will make me happy.' I would set a goal, work hard, meet the goal, and then experience euphoria. But two weeks later, the good feeling was gone, and I would have to set a new goal. The new goal, of course, always had to be bigger, brighter, faster, or more expensive than the one before.

"But all those met goals became a string of hollow victories increasingly unable to deliver the fulfillment I craved. I had a disease they might call success sickness. It is the disease of always wanting more but never being happy when we got it. I was miserable. And angry."

As you can tell from the emails at the beginning of this museletter, this success sickness is a disease people are beginning to be concerned about around the world. It is a pursuit that squeezes God out of the equation in many cases. Life begins to go on autopilot. Solzenitzen sums up, "Is it true that man is above everything? Is there no spirit above him? Is it right that man's life and society's activities should be ruled by material expansion above all? Is it permissible to promote such expansion to the detriment of our integral spiritual life?"

That seems to be a question increasingly being faced in Korea, Ghana and the now developing Third World. I guess I need to expand my now obsolete mission statement. What do you think?

Recommended Reading:

Solzenitzen's Harvard Address (www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles/SolzhenitsynHarvard.php)

"The Great Divorce" by David Brooks, NYT, January 31, 2012. Brooks says, "I'll be shocked if there is another book this year as important as Charles Murray's Coming Apart. I'll be shocked if there's another book that so compellingly describes the most important trends in American society. Murray's basic argument is not new, that America is dividing into a two-caste society.

Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010, by Charles Murray (Jan 31, 2012). A great read.

Man Alive: Transforming Your Seven Primal Needs into a Powerful Spiritual Life, by Patrick Morley (Jan 17, 2012).

How The Mighty Fall, by Jim Collins (May 19, 2009). The five stages of decline. Stage 1: Hubris Born of Success.

And last, my all time favorite Super Bowl commercial, "Halftime in America" by Clint Eastwood.

Author: Bob Buford

Topics: Learnings

Recovery and Compassion Outreach

Greg Ligon — 2012-02-14T14:45+00:00

It is always a joy to share the success of great Christian leaders! As is the case with Jorge Acevedo, Lead Pastor of Grace Church, a multisite in Cape Coral/Ft. Myers, FL area, and Alumni of Leadership Network’s Recovery Church Leadership Community. The story of Grace Church was most recently highlighted in Bridges to Grace, part of the Leadership Network Innovation Series.

As one of the largest recovery ministries in American, Jorge and the staff of Grace Church wanted to reach out to other ministries who sought to empower the poor and marginalized. “Grace In Action Weekends” were developed “for pastors, staff and leaders who desire to see and learn about developing a transformational ministry culture in the local church.” A three-day event, “Grace In Action Weekends” enables teams to experience and learn about the vision and strategy of Grace Church. There is much focus on recovery (Celebrate Recovery) and compassion outreach (Third Saturday Outreach), with attendees witnessing and participating in each of the recovery programs. How better to understand the gravity of the impact of a recovery and compassion ministry then to worship and walk side-by-side with the people it reaches weekly. The next “Grace In Action Weekend” is scheduled for April 20-22, 2012.

For additional information, visit their website.

Author: Greg Ligon

Topics: Leadership Development Multi-Site Churches Recovery Ministries Churches Learnings Multi-Site

Can anyone become a leader? - Hal Haller

Leadership Network — 2012-02-14T10:46+00:00

More videos at Leadership Network

Getting Unstuck: Financial Innovations for Moving Ministries Forward

Leadership Network — 2012-02-14T09:31+00:00

One Chapter to Read: In Pursuit of Great AND Godly Leadership

Leadership Network — 2012-02-13T17:49+00:00

In this short video, author Mike Bonem responds to the question, "If leaders only had time to read one chapter of your book, which would you recommend?"

To order your copy of In Pursuit of Great AND Godly Leadership visit 100x.christianbook.com

Author: Leadership Network

Topics: Books

Can anyone become a leader? - Bruce Miller

Leadership Network — 2012-02-13T10:43+00:00

More videos at Leadership Network

How to Strengthen Your Church’s Senior Leadership Team

Warren Bird — 2012-02-10T14:59+00:00

LAUNCHING ON OR BEFORE 3/15/12

A Research Project from

Dr. Warren Bird at the Leadership Network and Dr. Ryan T. Hartwig at Azusa Pacific University

An Invitation to Protestant Churches Worldwide

Most churches today have moved to a senior leadership team model but few know how to help their team work better, healthier, or more effectively. How do you set team goals or measure its performance? What best increases trust, tears down silos, and motivates team members to work more collaboratively? What’s the optimal size for a maximum-impact team? Why are some teams more innovative than others?

Today’s era is full of personal coaches and personal development plans. Why couldn’t similar coaching resources be applied not only to the individuals on the team, but to the team in how it functions as a group?

What You Receive

Thanks to a grant, generous funding, and special arrangements from a Harvard-based project, your church’s senior leadership team can receive a FREE, limited-time assessment that will provide you with the following three reports at NO COST:

1. Team Assessment Report. You’ll receive a report rating your team on the 3 essential and 3 enabling conditions of leadership team effectiveness, as explained in the book, Senior Leadership Teams: What It Takes to Make them Great. This assessment is based on the Team Diagnostic Survey developed by Harvard Researchers and Hay Group consultants, normally only offered to corporate senior leadership teams through a consulting arrangement with the Hay Group. Click here to see a sample report.

2. Customized Action Steps Report. Practical, actionable tips you can implement with your team right away to enhance your team’s effectiveness, based on the team assessment and comparison to other senior leadership teams at similar sized and typed churches.

3. National Profile Report. A descriptive comparison report of church leadership team membership, communication practices, and effectiveness ratings, which will allow you to compare your team to others in similar sized and typed churches.

How Do I Sign Up?

We’re finalizing the research design and procedures, and will have the study available by mid March 2012.

To receive notification the moment the study becomes available, send an email to leadteamstudy@apu.edu.

Tell your colleagues and friends about the study (links to share on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.)

If this sounds too good to be true, please check out our FAQs below.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. When will the team assessments be available?

By March 15, 2012.

2. What does participation in the study entail? What will my team need to do?

After registration, each of your senior leadership team members will receive an email with instructions. Each person will need to invest about 30 minutes.

After each team member has completed the assessment, you’ll receive the Team Assessment Report, and about two weeks later, you’ll receive the Customized Action Steps Report. Then after a sufficient number of churches have taken the study, you will receive the National Profile Report.

3. How can this assessment be offered totally for free?

The research team has received special arrangement from Dr. Ruth Wageman of the Hay Group and Dr. J. Richard Hackman of Harvard University to offer their proprietary team diagnostic tool to the participants of this study. This offer is for a limited time only. Act now!

4. Who is the research team?

Dr. Ryan T. Hartwig is a collaborative, practical academic who helps leaders to Think Deeply, Act Wisely, and Work Better Together. He teaches Group, Organizational, and Leadership Communication courses as Assistant Professor of Communication at Azusa Pacific University in California, researches and writes about teamwork, collaboration, and leadership in nonprofit organizations, and coaches and consults with churches and ministries regarding leadership and ministry teams, discipleship processes, organizational dynamics, and small groups.

He earned graduate degrees in Communication (Ph.D.) from the University of Colorado at Boulder and Higher Education Administration from Purdue University (M.S.Ed.) after earning 2 Bachelor’s degrees from Colorado Christian University. His scholarship has been published in Group Facilitation: A Research and Applications Journal, and presented at the annual meetings of the National Communication Association and the Rocky Mountain Communication Association. Learn more about Dr. Hartwig.

Dr. Warren Bird is the Research Director at Leadership Network (http://www.leadnet.org), a public charity founded by Bob Buford in 1984 that helps high-influence churches connect with each other in ways that help them move from ideas to implementation to impact. He is co-author of 24 books for church leaders, several of them best sellers and award winners. He has also published over 200 magazine articles and major online reports. He served for 11 years as a lead pastor and associate pastor, and has been an adjunct professor at Alliance Theological Seminary for 17 years. He was trained at Wheaton College (B.A., M.A.), Alliance Theological Seminary (M.Div.) and Fordham University (Ph.D.). Learn more about Dr. Bird at www.leadnet.org/warrenbird.

Advisors include statistical consultants Marc Glassman (Ph.D. Columbia University), Scott Thumma (Ph.D., Emory University) and Alexandre Probst (Ph.D. Candidate, Colorado School of Mines).

5. Our church's team certainly is not great, but we’re doing OK. Why should I invest in making my team better?

Great senior leadership teams have the potential to bolster a church’s health and growth while taking pressure off the senior pastor and spreading leadership functions among several staff members. When these teams work great, they facilitate:

Vision alignment
Quality decision-making
Increased innovation
Leadership development
Team members who feel involved, valued, committed, and joyful
Enhanced opportunity and productivity
Tearing down silos among ministry departments, units, and campuses
Personal and numerical growth

However, when they don’t, these teams often experience great frustration because decision making takes longer, unresolved conflicts degenerate into long-lasting feuds, meetings are inefficient, etc.

Have more questions? Please contact leadteamstudy@apu.edu.

Author: Warren Bird

Topics: Learnings

Hijacked - When Our Politics Trump Our Theology

Warren Bird — 2012-02-10T13:33+00:00

As another pivotal election approaches, there is no shortage of articles on the question of whether pastors are legally allowed to speak out about politics, such as this insightful overview by Jim Garlow. It seems we can.

Likewise many have argued that personal faith must inform the values we bring into public policy, such as this excerpt from Personal Faith, Public Policy by Pastor Harry Jackson and lobbyist Tony Perkins. Others argue strongly that Christians must speak up, such as Tom Minnery’s challenging book, Why You Can’t Stay Silent

Now my friend Mike Slaughter has just co-authored a book that explores the partisan church divide: what happens when Christians are strongly identified with a particular political party -- ANY party. The title is Hijacked because, the book argues, “there has been a growing tendency to conflate one's theological commitments with one's political ideology.” As a consequence, partisan politics has infiltrated our churches and political commitments are creating unnecessary divisions and a political discourse that is growing more rancorous and increasingly uncivil. Of most concern, these trends generally tend to obscure the properly holistic nature of the Gospel of Christ and turn people off to Christianity altogether.

The more biblical approach, according to Hijacked, is that “Jesus is neither a Republican nor a Democrat, conservative nor liberal. Jesus refused to sell out to the religious and political systems of his day. He stood in prophetic tension with both, and we as his followers must learn to do the same” (xviii). Throughout the book, the emphasis is on each of us being known as Christian first, and someone identified with a particular political party second, and even as we put our identity in Christ first, to live in unity with our brothers and sisters in Christ with whom we may disagree politically.

The three authors are Mike Slaughter, lead pastor of Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church ; Charles Gutenson, faculty at Asbury Seminary and former staffer at Sojourners; and Robert P. Jones, on staff with the Public Religion Research Institute.

Author: Warren Bird

Topics: Books

How do you approach goals? - Dave Saathoff

Leadership Network — 2012-02-10T10:42+00:00

More videos at Leadership Network

Sifted: Lessons from the Threshing Room Floor

Stephanie Plagens — 2012-02-09T18:30+00:00

More Leadership Network Books

It’s Personal: Surviving and Thriving on the Journey of Church Planting

Stephanie Plagens — 2012-02-09T18:21+00:00

More Leadership Network Books

How do you approach goals? - Noel Heikkinen

Leadership Network — 2012-02-09T10:41+00:00

More videos at Leadership Network

Recent Tweets I Don’t Want You To Miss!

Warren Bird — 2012-02-08T17:16+00:00

Please take a quick skim of these recent tweets (@warrenbird), just in case you missed any that you’d find helpful.

1. Tipping point calculated: when just 10% of population holds UNSHAKABLE belief, majority of society will adopt it http://news.rpi.edu/update.do

2. “We estimate that there are about 38 million inactive adult church members in the U.S.” Thumma & Bird, THE OTHER 80%

3. Where is the global church headed? Six-year project by Patrick Johnstone gives much to think about http://leadnet.org/blog/post/where_is_the_global_church_headed

4. Elephant Room. If you followed the "controversy" this year, here is @pastormark Driscoll's helpful take http://pastormark.tv/2012/01/31/10-reflections-on-the-elephant-room

5. Excellent PBS segment "World's Largest Church" named Yoido in Korea http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/episodes/january-27-2012/yoido-full-gospel-church/10162/ See also global megachurch list http://www.leadnet.org/world

6. YouTube popularity parallels Facebook with 4 billion page views/day, 60 hrs new video added every MINUTE http://www.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,2104815,00.html

7. Experts predict increase in churches sponsoring "culturally Hispanic" worship services http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2012/january/immigration-bilingual-bust.html #leadnet

8. 69% Evangelical churches that say they want to be racially and culturally diverse and 8% of evangelical churches that have non-English or bilingual worship services http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2012/january/gofigure-jan12.html

Author: Warren Bird

Topics: Learnings

How do you approach goals? - Will Mancini

Leadership Network — 2012-02-08T10:39+00:00

More videos at Leadership Network

Upcoming Innovation Adventure - Missional Communities

Reggie McNeal — 2012-02-07T16:58+00:00

INNOVATION ADVENTURE

Missional Communities Experience
Austin Stone Community Church
Austin TX
April 12-13, 2012

I have said, especially in recent years, that missional communities are the green edge of the Christian movement in the Western world. Maybe you are considering what this would look like as part of your own missional strategy.

I have a special invitation for you. Join me in Austin, Texas, on the Thursday/Friday after Easter, April 12-13, for an excursion into missional communities. Hosting us will be Stew Stewart of Austin Stone Community Church, the director of their missional community expression. From noon on Thursday to noon on Friday you will have the chance to hear about their missional community strategy, engage in the neighborhood where they are developing an incarnational presence, and have some time to work on your own approach to missional communities.

Event Description:
Leadership Network, partnering with Austin Stone Community Church,
will convene twelve teams of three persons each for a 24-hour high intensity leadership experience focusing on missional communities as a new church expression that is highly intentional and incarnational.

Event Objectives:
• Acquaint participants with missional community concepts and practices
• Expose leaders to a working model of missional communities expression
• Provide teams an opportunity to develop their own missional communities strategy

Schedule:
      Thursday, April 12
         Noon—Convening lunch
         Afternoon—Orientation and St. John community excursion
         Dinner—Debrief
         Evening—Meet with missional community practitioners

       Friday, April 13
         Morning—Teams develop/share strategies
         Noon—Adjourn

Cost:
        $2000/team of three includes registration, program, and meals (lunch and
           dinner on Thursday)
        $125 each additional person

Event Facilitators:
        Reggie McNeal, Leadership Network Missional Leadership Specialist
        Michael “Stew” Stewart, Director of Missional Communities, Austin Stone

Registration:
        This event is limited to the first twelve teams that sign up. Please let us know of your interest by Friday, February 24th by contacting julia.burk@leadnet.org or 214-754-9718.

Author: Reggie McNeal

Topics: Learnings

How do you approach goals? - Dave Hancock

Leadership Network — 2012-02-07T10:35+00:00

More videos at Leadership Network

Mosaic Church Starts Food Truck Court

Linda Stanley — 2012-02-06T15:34+00:00

I love the creativity of the Church. It seems like every day, one of the staff here at Leadership Network hears about a new idea or a new nonprofit or for profit initiative being started by innovative churches. Kingdom 501c3 organizations, as they are sometimes called, are springing up all over the country. Churches are also starting for profit initiatives as a way to generate ministry revenue, serve their communities and to reach out to people that may never choose to attend a church or become involved in a faith community.

I had a phone conversation recently with Mark DeYmaz, senior pastor at Mosaic Central Arkansas Church in Little Rock, Arkansas about Mosaic's partnership with several food truck owners and the grand opening of Mosaic's food truck court.

The response from the neighborhoods surrounding the area was overwhelming as was the media coverage. Mosaic wants to provide reasonably priced, good food options to their neighbors and to serve as "pastors to the community" not just their church body.

Check out this article from Little Rock's local station, Fox16. Or, follow along on their Facebook page. Your church may want to hop onboard the food truck idea and start your own food truck court.

Author: Linda Stanley

Topics: Externally Focused Churches Marketplace Success Kingdom Significance Learnings

Beware of Fake Fruit!

Tim Nations — 2012-02-03T14:39+00:00

Being a leader of a rapidly growing church requires a keen sense of discernment to ensure its health and continued vitality. Increasing numbers can serve as a false sense of stability, while systems, structures, and staff suffer under the strain of fast-paced change. The outcome can be much like the shock of biting into a perfect looking apple only to come away with a mouth full of wax.

If you grew up in the 70’s or early 80’s, you likely had a bowl of wax fruit displayed somewhere in your home. Even if you didn’t, you know what I’m talking about: fresh, crisp, and polished-looking on the outside, but a hard, flavorless, synthetic mass on the inside. The fruit looks good (perhaps even convincing enough to fool and unsuspecting relative or guest), but on the inside its just wrong—fake.

Some leaders can relate their church’s growth situation to a bowl of fake fruit. Like the fruit, the external look of the ministry could easily fool someone into thinking all is well on the inside.

Ben Cachiaras, Mountain Christian Church

“We could see the life change and the growth and it all looked great, but internally the leaders were going, ‘Wow, is this really it?’” We had to acknowledge as a team that we were doing the work of God in a way that was killing the work of God in us. There was a spiritual malaise in some of our key leaders, which started with physical fatigue and led to a kind of flatness. [Eventually] there became a low-grade resentment about keeping the machine going…”

When the growth of a church outpaces its structure, it becomes a threat to the health and vitality of the staff and, ultimately, the church.

Organizational structure is one of the many core issues being addressed in Leadership Network’s Rapid Growth Leadership Community. For more information on our Rapid Growth Leadership Community, visit the Rapid Growth website where you can learn about past groups through videos and free downloadable concept papers.

The first gathering of Rapid Growth Group 4 is May 16-18. If you’re interested, please contact Tim Nations at tim.nations@leadnet.org or complete an application here .

Author: Tim Nations

Topics: Learnings

Who Understands the Life of a Senior Pastor? Other Senior Pastors!

Wayne Smith — 2012-02-02T21:50+00:00

For over twenty five years, Leadership Network has been committed to serving Senior Pastors who are entreprenuerial Kingdom leaders, helping them multiply their efforts. We love Senior Pastors, they are some of our favorite people! And we have created some unique opportunities for them, designed to be helpful as they navigate the ministry/leadership journey. It can be an incredibly lonely road and for many there is need, whether well-recognized or not, for a place to connect with fellow peer pastors.

Over the past several months, we have hosted three (3) different groups of Veteran Senior Pastors in our Life Stage Leadership Communities. Each group has a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 12 participants. All of these pastors have a proven track record of excellence in ministry, are in their 40's or their 50's and lead churches that have a minimum of 2500 in Weekend Worship Attendance, from all over the USA and Canada.

These pastors are simultaneously building and strengthening their senior level leadership teams, their churches, and their local and global communities. And they are trying to live satisfying and rich family and personal lives at the same time! Lots of layers of expectations!

When we gather these cohorts, it does not take long, usually about 15 minutes, for the Pastors to realize that they are in a room full of peers who understand their world and their work like no one else. Because LN is committed to a safe environment and because the participants set the topics for the agenda, the conversation begins to flow and the questions begin to surface. And a well-crafted question is better than a simplistic answer.

Here is a sample of some of the questions that emerged in the three (3) groups:

What does it take to develop a culture of generosity in my church, especially now?
I would like to develop a healthy rhythm for my ministry, as well as for my family and my own personal life. How are you all doing that?
What does a Sabbatical look like? How do I communicate my need for one to the Board without sounding like a whiner?
How do we do multisite with excellence and a missional focus, specifically, how do I staff well for these sites?
How do I develop the leadership of this emerging generation? How do I even begin to understand how to motivate them to work?
I am beginning to think about Succession, what issues should I be addressing that I am probably unaware of?

Peers, safe place, good food, the right questions. And when you have talented, competent peers, the answers are often in the room. Of course, there are times for us to bring in topical experts, and we do.

But these gatherings are not just about making great connections and having stimulating conversations; progress in life and ministry is expected and in fact, examined. Each Pastor determines how they want to grow personally, what they want to address in their church and ministry and they report back every meeting (that's every six months!) about their progress on these goals to their peers. Powerful motivation to make progress and the attendant feedback is always good!

Need some perspective from someone who has gone through the process? Here is a short video from Greg Oraham, Senior Pastor of Foothills Community Church in Seneca, SC about his experience in our Senior Pastor 2 Group 1 Leadership Community:

Greg Oraham
http://youtu.be/QO8_fBNC4_U

What about you? Does what Greg expresses about the group peak your interest? Are you looking to be stretched by ongoing engagement with peers? If so, we would welcome the opportunity to speak with you.

Check out LN's Life Stage Leadership Community opportunities here:

http://leadnet.org/lifestages

or contact me at wayne.smith@leadnet.org

Author: Wayne Smith

Topics: Learnings

Where Is the Global Church Headed?

Warren Bird — 2012-02-02T17:06+00:00

No one is better at stimulating discussion about this question than Patrick Johnstone, editor of six editions of Operation World, and now compiler of The Future of the Global Church: History, Trends and Possibilities. It’s a massive 240-page project, six years in preparation, and richly illustrated on every page. It has almost as many graphics as text. You can spend hours studying it, and then come back another day and spend more time, learning even more. I know because I did, benefitting immensely.

What’s unique about this book is that it not only presents the religious dynamics of each country and region of the world, but it also examines the presence of Christians there, identifying each branch of Christianity country by country, and especially bringing out the role of evangelicals. He also has a major region-by-region section on the unevangelized.

Johnstone is hopeful and optimistic in his conclusions, but equally sobering about all that must happen before “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9 and Habakkuk 2:14). For example, in many countries where the gospel seems to be making good progress, it’s actually disproportionately represented by migrant workers, expatriates, or one particular people group.

Here are a few “did you know?” items that I learned:

- There are 22 mission agencies that each have over 1,000 missionaries in service. Who’s the largest? Answer: For the year 2010, Campus Crusade for Christ International with 9,913 workers in 128 fields.

- In 1900 Britain was the largest sender of missionaries, eclipsed soon by the United States. In 2010, 3 of the top 4 missionary-sending countries were Asian. If USA sends the most in 2010 (95,000), who comes next? Answer: India (82,950), South Korea (21,500), China (20,000), Nigeria (6,644), and then the United Kingdom (6,405).

- What are the top three countries where missionaries were sent in 2000? Answer: to India (42,023), to the USA (20,219) and to Brazil (6,966).

- In how many countries is less than 1% of the population affiliated with any branch of Christianity? Answer: 24. If you exclude Christian “foreigners” living in various countries, the answer is 35. As with all other stats, the book depicts them in a helpful graphic.

- Where are the people groups with the least exposure to the gospel? Answer: North Africa and the Middle East, followed by Asia. This area has been described as the 10/40 Window, and several graphics analyze it.

- Where are the most evangelicals? Answer: USA, followed by China, then Nigeria, India, Brazil, Ethiopia, Philippines, Kenya, Uganda, Congo and Indonesia. On that list, the ranking of China and Indonesia surprised me the most. In a few years China's evangelical population will most likely surpass that of the USA!

The book is well worth the price, and along with the purchase comes free or discounted access to various additional data and visuals available online.

Author: Warren Bird

Topics: Books

What is the biggest mistake you see leaders making today?—Matt Steen

Leadership Network — 2012-02-02T10:24+00:00

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How do we use Internships to raise up the Next Generation of Leaders?

Wayne Smith — 2012-02-01T17:49+00:00

Leadership Network is always asking the question, "What's trying to happen?", or what is God birthing that is popping up in various forms around the landscape of the church?

As every generation of leadership matures and begins to see the possible end of its season of influence, one question always seems to surface:

"How do we raise up the next generation of Church/Kingdom leadership?"

Are you asking this question? No doubt there are many ways of intentionally raising up the next generation of leadership, but one which continues to have some traction as a subset of Leadership Development is Internship Programs.

Many churches have some kind of Internship Program and there are multiple models of how to develop interns. Here are just a few that we have identified:

Two year ministry internships focused on developing leaders by offering training curriculum, ministry responsibility, access to real leaders, ongoing coaching and even some help landing a ministry role after completion of the program.
Educational Partnerships between a church and Bible Colleges or Seminary for both formal theological training as well as hands-on real world ministry training in the context of a healthy local church.
One year fellowships focused on how to live out one's faith and lead spiritually in six different domains, Medicine, Law, Corporate Leadership, Education, Entreprenuership, Arts and Entertainment, under the leadership of a local church and seasoned practioners in each domain.

Each of these models and the churches that practice them have something wonderful to teach about raising up the next generation of Church/Kingdom leadership, as well as areas of potential growth. As we say, "No model is perfect, some are useful!" And there are more varieties on these models and more unique models of Internship programs that are being practiced in so many different churches.

Wouldn't it be great if some of those practitioners were gathered together to learn from one another, encourage one another, challenge one another, and even help shape the future of Internship programs all across the church landscape? We think so too.

So, LN is launching an InnovationLab for churches with established Internship Programs for those very purposes!

LN's InnovationLab goes way beyond typical brainstorming, in fact, a participating team will be stretched to think beyond the boundaries of current reality to answer the question, 'what's around the corner?' This Lab is specifically for churches that have an established Intern Program and are looking for collaboration and networking with other programs to increase effectiveness and stay on the cutting edge.

What about you and your team? Does your collective heart beat faster about raising up the next generation of leadership? Do you have an established Internship Program? What are the questions that you would like to wrestle with about your program? Are you asking "what model is best for us?" Or "How could we tweak our existing model to become more effective?" If so, then perhaps this InnovationLab is for you and your team.

Here is some of the pertinent information

Dates are:

Launch Date - May 16-17, 2012
Online Meeting - November 12, 2012
Final Meeting - May 8-9, 2013

For additional information on this InnovationLab, contact wayne.smith@leadnet.org or julia.burk@leadnet.org.

To complete application for consideration, click here.

Author: Wayne Smith

Topics: Learnings

What is the biggest mistake you see leaders making? - Chuck Van Hook

Leadership Network — 2012-02-01T10:19+00:00

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Innovative Leadership Pipelines Developed in Churches

Brent Dolfo — 2012-01-31T22:45+00:00

For the past two years, the churches in Group 1 of Leadership Network's Leadership Development community have been working hard at redesigning, innovating and implementing their processes to increase the number and quality of leaders produced by their churches.

Working from the concept of a churchwide "Leadership Pipeline", participants have been looking at their processes for developing leaders from the initial "leader of others" to "leaders of leaders" and eventually "leaders of campuses" and "
leaders of churches". By developing clear steps, and necessary outcomes in theology, spiritual formation, practice and character at each level, churches have been able to finetune a better pathway for leadership development. Some still use a class model, others use a "anytime, anywhere, anyplace model with a mentor and online system.

The community has also looked at developing great internships, creating cultures of leadership development, evaulating various staffing structures to accelerate leadership development.

The community met 4 times over a two year period to learn from another, evaulate their process and adapt their models and strategies to fine tune their church wide leadership development experiences.

Our Group 3 is going to start meeting this August. If you're interested in finding out more, let me know. brent.dolfo@leadnet.org

Author: Brent Dolfo

Topics: Learnings

Come, Learn from an Outstanding Church

Warren Bird — 2012-01-31T15:43+00:00

One of the most amazing churches I’ve visited and follow is New Direction Christian Church, a predominantly African American congregation in an economically challenged section of Memphis, launched in 2001 and today with weekly attendance of over 3,500. Again and again it has demonstrated exemplary leadership in addressing problems faced by the underserved poor, formerly incarcerated and homeless. The church’s membership is predominantly single parents, with a median age of 32, and a median household income of $32,000 to $35,000. New Direction is the real deal in both voicing and demonstrating Jesus’s gospel to its community.

The lead pastor, Dr. Stacy L. Spencer, and the leaders he has assembled do not think small! Most recently New Direction and its Community Development Corporation has partnered with the City of Memphis to build a $50 million community development emphasis to house charter schools, a performing arts center, retail space, green space, and affordable housing. They also have developed an international network of churches in Dutwya, Eastern Cape, South Africa.

How to help others learn from these pioneers? Leadership Network is delighted to partner with New Direction in co-sponsoring a conference titled, “Doing More with Less,” focused on solutions for churches in an urban landscape. Besides getting the insider story and particulars on New Direction’s model, session topics include poverty and social injustice, serving the poor, ministering financially to the “least of these,” and transforming the “hood for good.” Besides hearing from the New Direction team, invited guests include Freddie Haynes of Friendship West Baptist Church, E. Dewey Smith of Greater Travelers Rest Baptist Church, Deforest “Buster” Soaries of First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens, Matthew Barnett of the Dream Center Church, Jamal Bryant of Empowerment Temple, and Floyd Flake of Greater Allen AME Cathedral.

To register for the conference click here.

To learn more about the two-day (4/30-5/1) conference directly from Pastor Stacy Spencer himself, see this just-released video:

Author: Warren Bird

Topics: Learnings

What is the biggest mistake you see leaders making? - Chris Lagerloff

Leadership Network — 2012-01-31T10:15+00:00

More videos at Leadership Network