Four Hard Questions Pastors Should Continually Ask Themselves
When the apostle Paul challenged the believers in Philippi in their obedience to the Lord, he told them: “Do what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me” (Philippians 4:9). When he wrote the believers in Corinth, he said, “Imitate me, as I also imitate Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). Though not perfect, […]
Six Places Leaders Are Developed
Where does leadership development happen? What environments are beneficial to leaders in their development? From a Christian perspective, leadership development is not constrained to one environment. Because the whole world is His, leadership development can happen in a plethora of places. Because He continually matures His people, God will use anything to conform us more […]
Leaving a Legacy of Leadership: How Moses Developed Leaders
Leadership is always a temporary assignment—always. It is a temporary assignment because leaders do not ultimately own the teams, ministries, or organizations that they lead. They simply steward what the Lord has entrusted to their care for a season. Wise leaders embrace the temporal reality of leading, and they prepare the ministry for the future. […]
Leadership Development Is Part of Discipleship
Often ministry leaders will ask, “What do you do for discipleship?” and then a few moments later ask, “What do you do for leadership development?”—as if the two are mutually exclusive. This is a grave mistake. While it may be helpful to view leadership development as advanced discipleship or as a subset of discipleship, it […]
3 Reasons Pastors Should Read Leadership Books
Earlier this week, I wrote about some reasons pastors should reject leadership books. There are seasons in a church leader’s life when reading leadership books is a bad idea. If one’s devotional life is weak, Christian worldview is not firm, or compassion for people is waning, then church leaders should flee from leadership books. However, […]
The 10 Commandments of Christian Leadership Development
When it comes to developing as a leader…specifically as a Christian leader, here are ten imperatives for development. Though not an exhaustive or infallible list, these challenges will help develop you as a leader. Follow first. Follow Jesus above all. Jesus is the One who transforms our character. If your love for Him grows cold, […]
The Missing Conviction of Developing Leaders
Often our churches don’t make leaders because we lack conviction. Granted, it’s probably much more than that, but it is certainly not less. Based on the lack of leadership development in many churches it is clear that many church leaders lack a real conviction for developing leaders. If we look at Moses and Joshua, his […]
Why the Church Should Excel in Developing Leaders
In a local community, no other gathering of people or institution should outpace the church at forming and developing leaders because no other collection or gathering of people has a greater mission, a greater promise, and a greater reward. No greater mission Today, even as you read this, leaders are being recruited. There are meetings […]
4 Reasons to Believe in Young Leaders
For a long time, I was the young leader. I took my first role on a church staff just before I turned 19. When I moved to Cincinnati to serve as student pastor, I flew into the airport and was too young to rent a car. I moved to Miami to serve as executive pastor […]
2 Ways Leaders Should Learn from Their Experiences
Leaders who care about their own personal development are like sponges to an array of resources in order to acquire new knowledge and skills. They will read books, consider continuing education, attend conferences, and scour articles that have been sent to them by their leaders. While these are important and can be very helpful, nothing […]