Category: Leadership (page 30 of 30)

Are you accountable to anyone?

March 3, 2009 / / 0 Comments

I just had lunch with a guy in our small groups ministry, and we talked about the importance of accountability.  We talked about the fact that we all need to have those people in our lives who know everything about us, and are not afraid to ask us difficult, awkward, yet ultimately Christ-honoring, sin-defeating questions.  We need those people who know all of our junk, yet love us still the same.  They don’t love our junk, but they love the chance to help point out the sinful habits and blind spots that we have, and those things (whether good or bad) that ensnare us.  They’re not satisfied with letting us continue in our sin because they “know that he (Jesus) appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.” (1 John 3:5-6).  We are sinful creatures, and our sin loses its power when it’s confessed, and brought into the light.

How do you make sure you’re held accountable?  Are you accountable to anyone other than God?  Are you accountable to anyone other than your spouse?

How can you, as a group leader, help those in your group be accountable to each other?

1. Foster an environment of authenticity and vulnerability.  Be real with your struggles, failings, and sinful tendencies.  You’re not perfect, and your group members know that.  When you mess up, confess it!

2. Divide your group based on gender for times of prayer.  I don’t like to air out my dirty laundry in front of another man’s wife, and I’m sure that you feel similarly.  Guys can be more openly honest when it’s just guys in the room.  We understand each other better, know how we think and operate, and often know how to minister to each other and hold each other accountable better than you do.  The same holds true for girls.

3.  If you’re the leader, meet with group members (who share the same gender with you) outside of the normal group meeting.  These times are great for building relationship, and opening up with areas of your lives that are not as easy to bring up in a larger group setting.

4.  Choose curriculum, and ask questions in the group, that cover a wide variety of Scriptures and topics.  You won’t know what areas people in your group struggle with until you ask.

5.  Encourage group members to find somebody that can hold them accountable.  It can be another person in the group, or a believer outside of the group, but it does not have to be you, the leader.  Your role as the leader is to encourage others to put themselves into relationships full of confession, love, and vulnerability.

Accountability, just like spiritual growth, doesn’t just happen.  You have to desire it, and you have to seek it.  Accountability is crucial to your growth in Christlikeness.  How much do you care about your growth?

 

Is your system working?

February 18, 2009 / / 13 Comments

I’ve been in my current ministry position now for a little over a year. Our church is structured around a three-fold strategy of creating followers of Christ: Gather, Commit, and Serve:

As we GATHER to celebrate Jesus and encounter biblical principles, COMMIT to one another in community groups, and SERVE by using the gifts God has given us to invest in the lives of others, we will grow in our passion for God, our compassion for God’s people, and our effectiveness in God’s work of developing growing followers.

That’s our system, and my role in the system is to facilitate, oversee, and help to develop community groups. I completely believe in our system, the simplicity of it (and the simplicity of what it means to be a be a follower of Christ), and am committed to it wholeheartedly. However, I’m always evaluating it, and specifically, the role of community groups in creating authentic community that fosters growth in godliness.

About two months ago, I was counseling a young man who had lots of questions about his next step in life. Basically, his question was, “What do I do next?” He needed help in thinking through future career options, future spouse options, financial next-steps, etc. He thought that his problem was that he struggled with change, and was afraid to take big steps. Over the course of only a few weeks, we determined that his problem was much greater. The next big step that he needed to take, the one that would determine the course of his life forever, was to become a follower of Christ. I told him that this decision would not necessarily make his life ‘easier.’ It would also not lay out in detail his exact next step. However, he would be resting his future in the hands of the One who created the universe (Genesis 1), who holds all things together (Colossians 1:17), and whose hand cannot be stayed (Daniel 4:35). So, this young man decided to place his faith in Christ!

That’s great news, right? I should be rejoicing, right?

I am, but I’m also saddened.

This man has been in one of our community groups for over a year. He has sat in a group every week, and still was troubled by the question, “What is the gospel?” This man is very intelligent, and can easily comprehend difficult, abstract concepts, but still had the question, “Why did Jesus have to die?” and “What does it mean to repent?” He didn’t know why we needed a sacrifice for our sins, and that Christ had offered himself as our perfect lamb.

If he was just a semi-regular Sunday morning attender, I could feel okay about this. But he’s there every single week, and is one of the most faithful members of his small group.

This bothers me. How could someone be plugged into what I thought was a disciple-producing ministry here at GCC and still have these questions? Let me reiterate that it was not for a lack of intellectual comprehension that this man did not know. He had simply not been asked the fundamental questions of the gospel and had the chance to interact with the Truth.

Is this an isolated issue, or pervasive? Is it a problem with the curriculum that we’re using? Is it a problem with the way that I communicate with my leaders? Is it our system? Is it a leadership training issue? Is it something that needs to be communicated more from the stage?

I realize that this post leaves me quite vulnerable as the leader of the small groups here at our church. But I want to be honest and say that this bothers me. I want to make sure that each of our group leaders is having gospel-centered discussions, both within the weekly group meeting and outside of it. So right now, I’m working through some ideas to ensure, as much as is humanly possible, that difficult questions are being asked, fundamental gospel concepts are being discussed and applied to life, and that those who attend our community groups have the chance to chew on and digest the great, life-changing truths of the gospel.

Is the goal of your ‘system’ discipleship? If not, what is the goal of your ‘system’? Is that goal being met? If it’s not being met, how willing are you to scrap the ‘system’ in favor of the goal?

Next post, I’ll fill you in on what I think the problem is. I actually think I may have nailed the issue. We’ll see.

 

Forward-thinking ministry

December 18, 2008 / / 2 Comments

How do you train up the next generation? Is that something that you even think about in life and ministry? As I’m thinking about the work that I’ve done throughout graduate school, now heading into my second year at Grace Community Church, and now entering fatherhood, I really want to make sure that what I’m learning and have learned does not die with me. I’m challenged by Judges 2:6-10. At this time in Israel’s history, they had seen the “great work that the Lord had done for Israel” (2:7) and had entered the Promised Land (Canaan). “The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua.” (2:7)

But Joshua died. And the people buried him.

“And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.” (2:10)

An entire generation forgot the work of the Lord. If we neglect our duty of telling the great story of God’s redemption to our children and to those we are working to raise up as leaders and followers of Christ, we will repeat the story of the Israelites. That bothers me! So here’s a few principles that will guide me as I work to raise up apprentices in 2009.

1. I will be intentional. If I never tell someone that I think they’d be a great leader, and intentionally work to develop them as a leader, it won’t happen. Apprenticeship does not happen naturally. You have to work at it. I will have to intentionally invest in others for the express purpose of building them up as a leader.
2. I will take risks. I will not just look for the most ‘mature’ people to step into leadership. If that’s the model that Jesus used, he probably would not have chosen any of the disciples. Rather, Jesus chose people who had a lot of growing to do. I will take risks on those who are not finished growing yet, but who are pursuing Jesus with all they’ve got.
3. I will give leadership opportunities. Some people need to be pushed out of the boat. They need to be given the opportunity to lead, with the real possibility of failure, but in the context of being shepherded. In other words, I will present leadership opportunities to those who I am shepherding, and actually follow up with them to see how it went. What went well? What tanked? How did you prepare for the opportunity? What will you do differently next time? If they’re never given the opportunity to lead, they won’t develop into a leader.
4. I will encourage apprentices where I see them leading well. Encouraging someone presupposes that I listen to them, ask hard questions, and look for the ways that the Lord is working in their life and ministry. “Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” (Hebrews 3:13) Encouragement works to fight against sin and burnout in leadership.
5. I will speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). I already know that this will be tough. Have you ever tried telling someone that what they did or said was wrong? How about doing that not out of a sense of entitlement, or from a stance of pride, but from a heart of love? That’s radical. And the crazy thing is that, when it’s truth in love, God uses it to work for their good.

That’s my plan for pouring into the next generation. What’s yours?

 
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