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David works with pastors all over the country through auxano on vision clarity. Leadership has to begin on the foundation of discipleship. The church's mission: discipleship. Number 1 principle for discipleship is you have to become the type of disciple you want to make. If you want to grow the church, you have to grow the leader. 5 Areas Every Leader Needs To Grow In Leadership=Power. Leaders who do well need a balance of drive and motive (calling). Leaders confront the brutal facts about themselves. Key Question: What are those growth areas? Visionary Examples of Problems with Vision Carbon Copy Vision-Be unique Microwave Vision-Leaders move fast. Slow down & do hard work of vision. Vision flip/flop-Changing mind constantly about vision Paralysis of the analysis-difficulty of making a decision Upper Room Identity What do you like about our church? People, Programs, Pastor, Place The upper room identity is purpose. This is leaders responsibility. Vision Pathway Vision Frame (P...

DNA of the kingdom of God-Matthew 16-Jesus must get the win! Step 1-Jesus is the Messiah. He must be first. Step 2-DNA of kingdom of God  (Communion with God, Inclusive Community, Mission-"Be, Belong, Bless") Step 3-Structure or Environment 2nd Decision Communities-Sodalic-Apprentice-Reach Others 1st Decision Communities--Modalic-Multitudes-Feed them-Sm. Group Adullam Process Observe (2-3 months-our story, your story, God's story) Preparation (TK Primer, 101) Participate Partnership (Coaching of Apprentices) Whatever you give your leadership to will ultimately grow. Be the best you!

There is one master carpenter in the church and it is Jesus. We as leaders carry more than we should. When Jesus says one thing and we experience something else, it should lead us to ask why. Luke 22:24-27-The Leader as Servant Jesus is making a statement about power as He comes riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. We can learn leadership lessons and principles as long as they don't contradict with Jesus. Jesus' way of Leadership The type of leadership that Jesus focuses on is servanthood.  As leaders, we need to focus on identity-not what we do or our title, but as children of God. Titles only differentiate hierarchy. They tell us who is in charge. Stay in the shadow of Jesus as a leader.

Jana Hildebrandt and Kim Bontrager  "Removing Barriers. . . Connecting Dots" What are barriers that keep people from coming back or keeping them from God? Environment, Communication, Worship Services Public Space-parking, nursery, classroom, worship space, lobby, etc. Connect the dots:  Evaluate each environment. . . what is the purpose of this environment? who will use this environment? what do we want people to experience? what do we want people to leave with? who's responsible for quality control? Our communication should not be louder but smarter.   Who is accessing information?   Don Morris-"Multiplication: A Matter of Factors" Four Multiplying Factors Multiplying requires everyone to have an apprentice. Multiplication is proactive not reactive. Multiplying is not about size; it's about leader readiness. Multiplying isn't about our kingdom, it 's about God's Kingdom. Three "mu...

Ed Boschman-"Leading for Impact" Biblical/Christian Leaders Are: Followers of Jesus first-Mark 8:34 "Good leaders are followers most of the time." Compelled by Christ's love-2 Cor. 5:14 Elder Qualified-1 Timothy 3:1-7; Titus 1:6-9 Decidedly Prayerful-Philippians 4:6-7 Servant Motivated-Matthew 20:25-26 Exemplary-1 Peter 5:1-3 Leaders tend to be either: transactional or transformational (handout) "The only power that can control you without destroying you is God." Jon Wiebe-"Aligning Budget with Mission" Reasons for Aligning Budget with Mission 1. Increased vetting of giving options 2. Portfolio management perspective 3. Reducing debt is popular 4. Transparency about finances 5. Evolution in American church 1950's-1990's-Christ, Community, Cause 1990's-2010's-Community, Christ, Cause 2010's-           -Cause, Community, Christ A Five Step Process S...

Tim Sullivan-"Soul Care" Leadership is all about influence. The church is losing its influence because of a lack of leadership. Philippians 3:12-15-Even if we are not perfect, we can ask others to follow us in the steps of Christ. Todd Franz-"Teamwork:Lessons I Learned in the NFL" FOCUS Big Picture/Small Picture (Fundamentals) Go With the Flow (or not)-"Be who you were made to be." Thick Skin (Accepting criticism w/o being offended) ATMOSPHERE Create (changing)-fear, watch me, Spirit-led CHARACTER Caring for a Response (initiated, know names) Everybody matters! How do you make them feel important and part of the team? Reaction to Adversity-Are we prepared? TRUTH Eye in the sky don't lie (accountability, evaluate ourselves?) Attitude toward criticism (how to be better teachers, leaders, etc.) Big Picture (Discipleship) Check back on Thursday and Friday for more quotes.

Today, our leadership will be gathering for a retreat to begin our year together.  We have several new members on our leadership board so it is a great way to kick off the year.  Our leadership board is called BOAM (Board Of Administrative Ministries).  It is made up of the chairperson of each committee, the pastors, a moderator, secretary, & treasurer. Please pray for BOAM as we meet together.  Here is our agenda: Prayer (multiple times throughout our 3 hours together) Relationship Building Activities Evaluation of Church Ministries Goals & Dreams for the Future I am excited about this retreat and look forward to how God will use it in the future!

This is my final post from the LEAD One event at First MB in Wichita, KS on May 3rd.  It was a great event with tons of great ideas for leaders.  The source for these ideas is Andy Stanley from 2010.  Momentum: Forward motion fueled by a series of wins Tip: You rarely regain momentum by simply doing what you did to create it in the first place Momentum is never triggered by tweaking something old.  It is triggered by introducing something new. Anything new, by definition, generates some kind of momentum The momentum can be positive or negative. The new must be a noticeable improvement over the old. Is this a significant improvement over what we had before? Warning: New does not guarantee sustained momentum. But, new is an essential trigger for momentum Applying "New and Improved" to the World of Ministry New personnel New programming New season New series New look New venues Momentum Killers Disengaged Leader Overactive management in ...

This is the third post from the LEAD ONE event held at First MB in Wichita, KS.  Derk Madden's topic was "Leading Change in the Congregational Church Model.  Derk shared about his experience navigating change within his church.  Process Change Is it really necessary? Would it be easier to just add something new? Is the timing right within the body? Do other key leaders agree? How much impact will the change have? Do you have the resources to allow the initiative to succeed? Ripple Model of Implementing Change First Circle-Strategic Planning Team Gather together the best possible team of three or more people to assess the situation and create a clear new desired goal, why the change is necessary using metrics if possible, and how it would be implemented. Understand how new change will be implemented in old system. Discover and put it into the framework of biblical mandate or perspective. Second Circle-Staff Communicate and get feedback from staff abo...

Here is the second post based on the LEAD ONE event held on May 3rd in Wichita, KS.  Ed Boschman, our Executive Director of USMB, shared about vision.  He started by asking some questions about vision in our homes, families and then moved to our churches.  His introduction was to answer these two questions: Philosophically, is vision really a big deal? and Theologically, is vision a God thing?  Before getting into the specifics, he shared several verses to try and answer these two questions.  They were: Matthew 4:17,19; Matthew 10:5; Matthew 16:19,21; Matthew 28:18-20; and Acts 1:8. Four Things About Vision The First Thing-What It is. . . A unique picture of a preferred future condition, envisioned through the lenses of: Lord's Agenda local context faith factor The Second Thing-Who Sees It Called people Praying people Imagining people Transformational people The Third Thing-What It Does Inspires Empowers Stretches Focuses and directs Inv...

On Thursday, May 3rd, the United States Mennonite Brethren hosted a LEAD ONE event at First MB in Wichita, KS.  LEAD stands for Leadership Education and Development.  The purpose is to provide leadership ideas for pastors and leaders.  I will be posting over the next several days information from that event. We started our day with host pastor, Brent Warkentin sharing with us.  He shared eight characteristics of their leadership DNA.  They were: Character Counts Spiritually Strong (2 Peter 1:3) Start with a Yes Be Nice Balance of Discipleship and Evangelism Have a Positive Attitude (Philippians 2) Passion for Your Ministry; Enthusiasm for All Ministries Commitment to Excellence

If you have been reading my blog the last few days, you have seen my notes from workshops and general sessions.  Today, I wanted to share my takeaways from the Orange Conference in Atlanta from April 25-27.  I hope this is helpful to you.  What does our facility say to visitors within the first 30 seconds they arrive? (i.e. smells, cleanliness, parking, signage, colors).  I hope to process some changes that are needed to help make Hesston MB a more welcoming facility. What game changers in ministry or culture do we need to address? (i.e. busyness on Sundays, social media, intergenerational ministry, focus on Sunday morning, leadership, etc.)  We have already made some changes in some of these areas.  We could have a more organized plan for social media. What gaps are present between our children, youth and adult ministries?   Usually this has focused on curriculum, but one workshop challenged me to think about the areas of service and worship. As...

On Friday morning at Orange, Andy Stanley gave a great talk on staff culture.  Here are some notes from his message: "Healthy and productive staff cultures occur by mutual submission." The Message of Mutual Submission is "I'm here to facilitate your success regardless of where you show up on the organization chart. The Assumption of Mutual Submission is "While our responsibilities differ, we are both essential to the success of the enterprise. The Question of Mutual Submission is "How can I help?" "Only one with a special anointing is Jesus." He shared the following best practices: Do for one what you wish you could do for everyone. Systematize top-down service. Create and maintain a sustainable pace. Celebrate and reward mutual submission when you see it. Confront your ego. Drop the term loyalty from your vocabulary. Starting point for these best practices is the question, "How can I help?"

Steve started his second session by reading the parable of the soils from Luke 8. According to Macchia , this is a parable about the heart and if it is receptive or not. The 3 soils that are unreceptive are the path, rocky, and thorny. He then explained that he believes that the soul of the leader is the most neglected part of a person. He shared how leaders are quick to take care of themselves emotionally, physically, relationally, professionally, but often our souls are forgotten. To receive from God, we must be unhurried. He shared his personal experience of doing many great things for God and being involved in many spiritual disciplines. However, he was doing so many spiritual disciplines all at once that he became overwhelmed. Because of this imbalance, he narrowed his practice of spiritual disciplines to focus on the Word of God, Prayer, and Reflecting through journaling . He said, "Running yourself ragged is damaging to your soul." His solution? As a lea...