In yesterday’s blog I wrote about churches that are being very intentional in strengthening their approach to leadership development and seeing greater fruit from it. The participating churches were quite frank about what they’re not yet doing well enough. Here are some examples:
- “We need a better language to talk about leadership development, and especially the multiplication of leaders, where they develop other leaders.”
- “Our senior pastor says he wants leadership development to be one of our top three priorities for 2010. Doing so has forced us to think about things we assumed were happening – but aren’t.”
- “We’re a long-term established church. We need to shift from people thinking that leadership is holding an office, moving to more of a view of leadership as influence.”
That last quote comes from University United Methodist Church, San Antonio, TX.They emphasize the idea of leaders as trained disciplers. Here’s a clip of the directing pastor Charles Anderson explaining the three branches by which they develop leaders. Their three options are directed coaching (like a directed study at school), Walk to Emmaus (an immersion weekend experience), and the pastor’s cabinet and academy (peer mentoring in a group).
http://www.youtube.com/user/leadershipnetwork#p/a/u/2/Y2Tagvc-ErA
Next blog: Another video example of how churches are doing leadership development.
Warren Bird, Ph.D., is Research Director for Leadership Network, and blogs regularly here and at Leadership Network Books.
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