“We’re tired of trying to microwave church leaders because we don’t like how they ‘taste’ when they come out. The process may be quick, but it’s not always desirable – we don’t want to keep spitting out the kind of leaders we’ve been developing,” says Chris Alston, Pastor of Leadership Development at Clear Creek Community Church, League City, Texas.
This was one of the more colorful comments voiced last week at the opening session of Leadership Network’s latest leadership community named Leadership Development. This is a gathering of teams from 10 different churches. They’re all intentional about improving the way they do leadership development, both of staff and congregation. They’ll meet 4 times over 2 years, helping each other with their process of developing leaders.
As I observed the event, I was struck by the diversity of ways that churches are strengthening their emphasis on leadership development. Some glean training resources from elsewhere (gift inventories, biblical instruction on the role of leaders, etc.), while others write their own. Some use their website heavily for training, while others don’t. Some use an internship process, while others don’t. However, all have set goals to raise the bar on their church’s efforts at becoming better leader-makers.
One participant in the leadership community was a team from Valley Family Church in Kalamazoo, MI, where 80% of the congregation is involved in ministry. Pastors Jeff and Beth Jones introduce their church’s model of leadership development in this short clip:
http://www.youtube.com/user/leadershipnetwork#p/a/u/0/s5VRxzVU-Vg
Next blog: More quotes and examples from the Leadership Development Leadership Community.
Warren Bird, Ph.D., is Research Director for Leadership Network and a frequent contributor to this blog, a books blog and a multisite church blog.
Comments