To be fruitful, churches need to be good at investing in good people, and so generating leaders!
At our church weekend one year we had an unexpectedly large response to a seminar on `Developing towards where God wants you to be in 20 years time`. As a result we planned a leadership training programme similar to what’s below. We hoped this could be of use both to young leaders, and also as a refresher to people who have been active as leaders for many years; since many of these issues are ones we all need to revisit periodically, throughout our leadership career.
One way to do this is to meet once a month, after Sunday lunchtime, or perhaps on a Saturday morning; and to do three 20-25 minute sessions, plus 5-10 minutes questions on each, with breaks in between. Some of the teaching could be done by the pastor and other leaders from within the church; but we have gained from asking pastors and leaders of other local Bible churches to help us, which of course strengthens links with them. It was fascinating to hear people say how useful some of these topics had been in their secular jobs, because they had never been taught these things adequately there!
The leadership course curriculum wouldn’t duplicate the more focused training and support churches will give for homegroup leaders (see the `Homegroup Leader Resources` section of this site for ideas about that), children’s workers, etc. But here are the kind of things we’ve done. Just six once-a-month sessions could cover 18 of these, or even more if the sessions were every three weeks, or if there were one or two days away:
What does the Bible teach about the character I need for the coming ten years’ ministry?:
What does God’s Word say to us about keeping a fresh life with Him, growing as people hungry to know, love and enjoy him; and what does that mean in practice (growing in Bible reading, worship and prayer)?
What is biblical servant-leadership?
How do leaders function as caring shepherds?
as enablers of others, and models?
as vision-spreaders and motivators?
how do we live by God’s loving grace, not our own drive to achievement; and confident in his Spirit’s power, not our own?
The leader’s big picture – our vision and values:
Our church’s vision for evangelism (including globally)
Our church’s vision for personal maturity and growth
Our church’s vision for worship and prayer
Our church’s vision for fellowship and caring (including for the fringe)
Doctrines we must be clear about & foster – the Bible
Doctrines we must be clear about & foster – the Gospel
Doctrines we must be clear about & foster – the Cross
Surviving and thriving as a leader:
The leader and time management
The leader and criticism, discouragement, failure
The leader and our family
The leader and health
The leader as continual learner (personal development, reading etc)
Being fed by the whole Bible – old testament survey
The leader’s skills:
The leader as team-builder and team-developer
Good delegation
Identifying and developing gift
Negotiation, confronting, and conflict resolution
Encouragement and supervision, especially of volunteers
Leading meetings, including leading prayer
Leading small groups and Bible discussions
1 to 1 discipling
Leading someone to Christ (with roleplay)
Preparing and giving a talk
Caring for those struggling with suffering (or perhaps, with sin; with depression; with doubt)
The leader and confidence [some material for these sessions can be found in the `Other Useful Stuff` section of this site]:
Reasons for faith – Jesus: mad, bad, or God?
Reasons for faith – the resurrection evidence
Answering common objections – science & faith
Answering common objections – suffering
Answering common objections – homosexuality
Answering common objections – world religions
There are of course other issues we can take up, according to the needs of the people who come. (Others we might perhaps include could be: the leader and self-discipline; and humility; and courage/paying the price; and doubt; and patience; integrity and holiness; forgiveness; etc.) And there can be intervening exercises (including, passing these things on to someone who wasn’t there); and, obviously, times in the meetings of mutual prayer.
Just some possibilities! A fruitful church invests in its members, so that together we can grow!
