Off the Agenda: Conversations for Building Church Leaders

A fellow minister told me recently that a Sunday School class had asked for his help. "I was excited when a group in my congregation wanted to grow!" he said. Unfortunately, he said, they seemed to want him to give them the right answers—some type of magical ministerial formula.

My friend, however, knows that ministry isn't magic. And he had worked with enough groups to know that he couldn't give this group pat answers. So instead of talking about curriculum, furniture arrangement, or the thermostat setting, he went deep. He asked, "What are you willing to do to make this class grow?"

Questions can be more powerful than answers. Quick answers, however, remain a temptation. Aren't we the professionals? What if people discover how lost we can be? So we pop off answers, jump on command, and eventually burn out. But instead of answering others' questions, perhaps we need to ask a few of our own.

I was fortunate to learn this lesson as a young minister when I went to the Young Leaders Development Program sponsored by the Center for Congregational Health. Like many young pastors, I wanted to have all the answers. Fortunately, I stumbled across this program, designed for "ministers who are ready to ask the right questions." Fourteen years later, I continue to ask myself the key questions I learned there: Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing?

Continue reading "The Three W's"...

Where does vision come from?

That's the question that will be answered by Dave Ferguson, a pastor, speaker, writer, and BuildingChurchLeaders.com advisor. Ferguson is leading a webinar for us on Friday, December 4, at 11:00 AM CT, and sign-ups are now open!

Ferguson will be speaking on the basics for casting vision in your church, including the three best ways to communicate vision. If you sit in on the webinar, not only will you get to watch Ferguson deliver his presentation in your browser window—you'll also be able to submit questions, some of which Ferguson will answer.

This is BuildingChurchLeader.com's very first webinar, and we're excited that advisor Dave Ferguson is our debut speaker. We'd encourage anybody who casts vision in their church to set aside an hour in their morning (or afternoon on the East Coast) on December 4 to join us.

For more information about Dave Ferguson, go here.

NOTE: This webinar was originally scheduled for October 28 but has been pushed back. If you couldn't make it to the original time, you can give your schedule another look now.

A delegation of Christianity Today International editors attended the Catalyst conference last week, including BCL editor Drew Dyck. In one of the conference sessions, Nancy Ortberg, founding partner of Teamworx2 and editorial advisor and contributor to Gifted for Leadership and Kyria.com, spoke on powerful themes inspired by her books, Unleashing the Power of Rubber Bands and Looking for God. Here are some notes from CTI executive VP Kevin Miller:

1. The Seduction of Influence
It's tempting to do it for all the wrong reasons. In our lives, there may be a tearing away of the seductions and a refining of the right reasons.

Word 1: Ego. We've brought the celebrity culture into our church and overlook people who are so like Jesus. We attribute more to up-front people than we should, more to attractive people than we should. The solution is to live more deeply into our brokenness.

Word 2: Burden. We place on ourselves a burden in leadership—our numbers, the highs and lows of leadership—it's about power, control, and outcomes, and Jesus didn't talk fondly about any of those things. Free leaders—free of the need for certain outcomes—are the best leaders.

Continue reading "Nancy Ortberg on the Seduction & Myths of Influence"...

Our theme this week is Making Members Stick. One way you can make your members stick is to give them responsibility. And when you help a new leader step up in the church, both that person and your congregation can grow. Below are a few criteria to help you decide when someone is ready to lead.

Readily accepts responsibility. Potential leaders don't lay low when their services are needed. Willingness to volunteer for small projects is an important characteristic. This means that some of the most able leaders might be behind the scenes.

Understands informal social rules. It takes time for a person to understand how a church works—officially (by-laws and constitution) and unofficially. A basic competence in church dynamics is essential. In some churches, for example, raising your voice in a committee meeting is taboo; in others, it's expected. No matter what the qualifications, someone who cares about and seeks involvement in church life is a greater asset than someone who is unconcerned or too busy.

Continue reading "From Visitor to Leader"...

BuildingChurchLeaders.com recently spoke with one of our advisors, Margaret Feinberg (www.margaretfeinberg.com), to talk about her new book,Scouting the Divine: My Search for God in Wine, Wool, & Wild Honey, which explores the rural imagery of the Bible with the help of people who live and work in those contexts today.

How do you think the book will help our readers—many of whom are pastors?

I think it's a great resource for anyone who preaches, teaches, or leads a Bible study. It's hard to go very many pages in the Bible and not run into sheep, harvesting, planting, seasons, honey, or vines. Scouting the Divine takes readers on an adventure to sit in front of a shepherd and find out how they read John 10, to drive a John Deere tractor and discover the parallels between planting straight rows and keeping our eyes on Christ, to ask a beekeeper what it means to enter a land "overflowing with milk and honey," as well as to stand in a vineyard and ask a vintner how they read John 15. Out of those kinds of experiences come rich spiritual insights and fresh sermon illustrations.

Continue reading "Scouting the Divine"...