My assignment from yesterday’s CECL session was to write up a preliminary plan for leadership development in a church. Considering that I am preparing to start a new church, I thought in terms of developing leaders from the “ground up” so to speak.

It’s a rough draft, but this is what I have so far. I’d love to see your comments on it.

Creating a leadership development strategy:

What do I really want to accomplish when it comes to leadership development?

When it comes to leadership development, I really want to help people become fully committed followers of Jesus who are capable of using their unique giftedness to lead others in identifying and taking next steps unique to them.

Being a fully committed follower means:

1. GOD-CONNECTED: Having a deeply intimate personal relationship with God that incorporates key disciplines of spiritual renewal and works out in a desire to proclaim the greatness of God both to him in worship and to others in personal testimony.
2. COMMUNITY: Having a real sense of love and camaraderie with others in the various levels of interpersonal relationships: a few spiritually intimate relationships, 10-20 spiritually supportive friendships for care, counsel, and fellowship, a sense of unity and love for the 100 or so in my circle of concern, a commitment to the corporate cause of Christ, and a desire for those outside the family of God to join.
3. GROWTH: Having a strong desire to identify areas of spiritual weakness or sin as well as areas of practical possibility and taking strategic steps to grow: education, training, experiences (risk taking), and even teaching others.
4. MINISTRY: Eagerly pursuing God’s goals for my life in a way that makes full use of the person he has made me to be to give full expression to God’s love for others.

Full commitment has the upward, inward, and outward components balanced.

The Development Process

The church will be structured around a cyclical process that carries people through the four characteristics of a fully committed disciple according to their gifting and calling by God.

Level one:

• Taking a class or attending a retreat to introduce the concepts and life transformation associated with each step of character development.
• Getting into a relationship that builds the character traits into my life.
  • Mentor
  • Small Group
  • Class
  • Ministry Team
• Developing a core habit / behavior associated with that character trait.
• Sharing what I’ve learned from this class with someone who hasn’t taken it.

Level two:

• Convert current mentor relationship to a coaching relationship.
• Mentor another person all the way through level one

Level three and on:

• Lead a small group and develop leaders
• Coach small group leaders
• Teach a class and develop teachers.
• Coach teachers
• Lead a ministry team and develop leaders.
• Coach ministry team leaders
• Launch a new work of God
• Coach other launchers

My hangups with this method so far:

• It’s too complicated
• It’s too formalized
• It covers too much ground
• I want to retain the simplicity of “next step” thinking.
  • Yes, there should be some standard steps for anyone to take,
  • But, there will also be unique steps.
  • Serious care needs to be taken to track which steps are the essential ones.
• Should priority be given in the structure to the person’s individual connection with God or to the person’s connection to the Christian community?

My hangups with the purpose driven model:

• It fails to directly address the centrality of God / worship in the developmental structure.
• It splits ministry from mission and discipleship from evangelism.