And now critical issue #2–the need for leaders to assist in the work. Of the 190 participants surveyed, leadership development came in as the second most critical issue in North American church planting circles.
Church planters are finding out that it is very difficult to locate solid leaders who are willing to assist them in the church planting task. They are also discovering that many challenges come with raising up leaders as well. They recognize the need for healthy leadership, but struggle in obtaining or developing those leaders.
Few of us have been taught the value of multiplying leaders. And even less have been taught how to do it. This limitation may come from the contemporary leadership training model that most of us know: develop leaders in a classroom. Unfortunately, this paradigm is woefully inadequate for raising up leaders for both churches and church planting teams.
We reproduce what we know. And we know what is modeled before us. And church planters will tell you that leaders cannot be developed in a classroom. Of course, there is a component of knowledge that is necessary for leadership development. But, we must not forget that along with knowledge leaders must develop passion and skills.
Whenever we search for resources to assist church planers in developing leaders, we find that few exist. Sure there are a multitude of resources available addressing leadership development. Yet, most of these are written to either the corporate world of business leadership or established church leadership. Therefore, if you are starting a business or if you are pastoring a church, there are some outstanding resources to assist you. But resources are very limited for missionaries needing assistance in leadership development.
Here are the best resources that I have found to date, written with the church planter in mind. A few years ago, Bob Logan and Neil Cole produced a very valuable resource, Raising Leaders for the Harvest. Dick Scoggins, wrote the books Building Effective Church Planting Teams: A Handbook for Team Leaders and Mentors and Leadership Development Guide. Both of Scoggins’ books are available for free (click on the links).
It was out of my concern for healthy church planting teams that I wrote The Barnabas Factors: Eight Essential Practices for Church Planting Team Members. Drawing from the life of Barnabas, I show that team members must manifest the following practices:
- Walks with the Lord
- Maintains an Outstanding Character
- Serves the Local Church
- Remains Faithful to the Call
- Shares the Gospel Regularly
- Raises up Leaders
- Encourages with Speech and Action
- Responds Appropriately to Conflict
I also provide a guide for evaluating potential team members in light of these eight practices.
While the main purpose of this post is to reveal to you critical issue #2, I also wanted to extend a challenge to other church planters. Resources are desperately needed to assist church planters in developing leaders. You need to write such resources and tell us how to be more effective in this area.
Now let’s review: Critical Issue #5, Critical Issue #4, and Critical Issue #3
We now come to critical issue #1. . . and I bet you can guess what it is. . . . Stay tuned!