Leadership Development: Part 2, Train

Leadership Development is a four-part process which includes: Recruit, Train, Delegate, & Supervise.

It is critical for churches to practice leadership development because the future of their church depends upon the capacity to add quality, spirit-filled leaders to positions of influence throughout the church.

This week we are talking about the Train portion of the leadership development process.

Many people will automatically equate this with a lot of intellectual content. While that is a necessary part of leadership training, it is not the most important part. Adults, however, learn best by doing. So the focus for adult leadership training, rather than having a classroom, teaching sort of feel to it, needs to be more focused around "Apprentice Systems".

So what are the elements of successful Apprentice Systems:

1. Coaching -- this involves not 'telling' but 'asking'; Where do they feel the need to grow? What do they want to do to learn the leadership skills necessary?, etc. Coaching involves asking powerful questions to help others grow and develop. You can check out other blogs on coaching on this site by entering "coaching" in the search dialogue box in the upper left. I've written quite a few blogs on coaching.

2. ShowHow Training -- this involves the training method explained in 2 Timothy 2:2: "And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others." That is, Paul who was writing this verse to Timothy said, "I taught you; now you teach others, who can teach others." This is called ShowHow training. It goes like this:
Step 1 -- I do it & you watch;
Step 2 -- You do it & I watch;
Step 3 -- You do it & someone else watches

3. Ministry Descriptions for everything
Pastors tend to underestimate the amount of uncertainty and nervousness which the average layperson feels when encountering a new ministry job. For most people, who have not served much in the ministry before (and if you are training leaders, you will be having an increasing number of just those sort of people), they need some specific guidance on what is expected for certain key ministry jobs. That is why you need Ministry Descriptions for everything. HighPowerResources.com has a great template for writing Ministry Descriptions. It's in the Coaching Resources section here.

4. Internal Farm Systems
A ministry culture needs to be developed which has the expectation of "each one teach one"; that each ministry is training leaders for their own ministry. A number of ministries do it this way: they form a leadership team of three people: Chair, Vice-chair, and Past-chair. After the Chair of the ministry has served for a year, they move to the Past-Chair role, so that they are still available to help the Vice-Chair, who has now moved up to the Chair role. Then a new person is added to the Vice-Chair role, and they have a year to watch before they are expected to lead (Show-How Training). And even when they become Chair, they know that the former Chair is always there in case they need help. It's a good systems and results in real strength and longevity for ministry leaders.

5. Ministry Placement Interviews
We use a system at Crossroads with a team we call the "Ministry Way Team". (It ties in to our metaphor for discipleship: Main Street, Community Circle, Ministry Way.) The team serves up spiritual gift inventories, both individually and in our SHAPE class to help people discover their calling. Then a spiritual gifts interviewer meets with them and helps them to discover the best place to use their gifts in ministry. They are armed with Ministry Descriptions, listing the spiritual gifts needed (See sample here), and open positions and contact information. It works.

Training is the second part of the four-part Leadership Development process of Recruit, Train, Delegate, and Supervise.

Next week we will cover Delegate.

Yours for the Kingdom of Heaven,

Dr. Bill

Leadership Development: Part 1, Recruit

HI All,

Leadership Development is a four-part process which includes: Recruit, Train, Delegate, & Supervise.

It is critical for churches to practice leadership development because the future of their church depends upon the capacity to add quality, spirit-filled leaders to positions of influence throughout the church.

The first part of this process is to Recruit.
I do not use the word "recruit" in the typical fashion envisioned of begging people to "fill empty slots" until they give in. Rather, I think of it in terms of Calling. This is all about calling; discovering God's calling in people's lives. The best indication of someone's calling from God is their spiritual gifts.

The Recruit portion of leadership development must be tied in to helping people to discover, understand, and use their spiritual gifts. When you find someone with spiritual gifts that can be used for leadership, you can begin the process of helping them to unwrap those gifts for the glory of God and the growth of the church. Spiritual gifts which would help in this regard are: Leadership (obviously), but also Teaching, Administration (which means 'organizing people for ministry'), and also some aspects of Exhortation & Encouragement. If someone has gifts related to Service or Helps, they may be great servants in the church, and willing to work very hard, but are probably not suited for leadership roles, which require more initiative than perhaps someone with Helps may have.

So Recruiting involves helping people to discover their gifts, and then to understand them. Some people don't know where or how or if they should use their gifts. I had one potential leader in a church, who was very, very good with up front ministry roles, tell me that he felt guilty because he liked to be in charge and be in front and talking to people. I told him there is no reason for him to feel guilty because he is simply relishing in his God-given capacity to lead people. So people have to understand the gifts which God has placed in them.

And then after discovering and understanding, they have to actually use them. This is where your role as pastoral leader comes in. You need to help the people with leadership gifts to be placed into roles where they can be used. If you don't use their gifts in the church, they will naturally gravitate to situations where they can express and use their gifts, whether in the church or not. So help them to use their God-given gifts to make a difference for eternity by leading key ministries in the church.

Recruit is the first part of the four-part process of leadership development. Recruiting is all about Calling. Your job is to help people to Discover, Understand, and Use their spiritual gifts for the glory of God and the growth of the church.

Next week we will discuss the second part of leadership development, which is Train.

Until then, for the Kingdom of God,

Dr. Bill

THE PREMISE OF CHRISTIAN COACHING

Fellow Christian Coaches,

The Premise of Christian Coaching is this: Not, ‘what do YOU want’, but what does GOD want?

If you are a Christian and if you are a coach, then there are two truths which must intersect your coaching aspirations and guide your coaching with clients: What do they want to achieve? & What is God indicating in their life?

The first question, "What do they want to achieve?" is common for any coach, Christian or secular. Obviously, this is the goal of coaching, to help someone achieve their goals in life and succeed.

But the second question is what separates the Christian Coach from other secular-oriented coaches. You see, there is a third party in the coaching relationship, and that third person is God Himself. God created this person and designated a plan for them from before they were born (Jer. 1:4). And God's indication of what that plan may be is hinted at in their spiritual gifts. How God has gifted someone is the best clue as to where they will excel in life. And so how do you, as a coach, help them to get to that point of seeking God's plan for their life?

And so in my coaching with individuals, one of the early questions asked when they are trying to determine their life mission, is "What are your spiritual gifts?" After all, if you are a Christian then you want to have a life with eternal significance. That means to make an impact on other people's lives for eternity you need the power of God at work through you as you minister to them. Therefore, a person needs to know how God has gifted them to make a difference for eternity. So we are back to the issue of spiritual gifts.

When I help people to discover their spiritual gifts, a couple of resources I use to help them with this process are found here. (This is a link to our church, Crossroads', website which links to two resources: an on-line spiritual gift inventory or a printed copy of a spiritual gift inventory.) After completing either inventory, there is a scoring tool to help you discover your top gifts.

Once your coaches have completed their spiritual gift inventory, the next step is to take them through a ministry inventory. Rick Warren has popularized this with his SHAPE inventory. Or you can download this interview form from HighPowerResources.com here.

This will get you started on helping you to help your coachees discover this key part of Christian coaching, which is "What is God's will for me?"

In His Service,

Dr. Bill