10 Articles that will Help your Church Develop Young Leaders

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10 Articles that will Help your Church Develop Young Leaders

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

It seems like everywhere you turn lately some national church leader is writing about the bleak future of the US Church due to younger generations leaving. While churches across America are struggling with attracting, keeping, and developing the next generation of leaders it doesn’t have to be that way. Over the years I’ve written quite a bit about developing young leaders. Here are some of the more popular posts.

3 Challenges that Every Young Leader Faces

Young leaders face all kinds of challenges. But there are 3 challenges in particular that all young leaders face early on. If not handled well these three challenges can lead to stress, anxiety, insecurity and frustration. Add all of that up and you’ve got a recipe designed to not only undermine your current leadership role but keep you from growing as a leader.

5 Keys to Developing Young Leaders in your Church

In working with churches around the country unfortunately churches that really develop young leaders have become the exception rather than the rule. It doesn’t have to be that way. This list below of “5 Things Young Leaders Need” is a great place for your church start.

Leadership Lessons I Wish I Understood as a Young Leader

Lately I’ve been thinking about some leadership lessons. You know…the “I wish I knew then what I know now” kind of stuff…So in no particular order here are 5 Leadership Lessons for Young Leaders based on my experiences training for a triathlon.

How to Develop Young Leaders

Volumes have been written about investing in and developing young leaders. While there are a lot of great resources out there I think often times we over-complicate what it means to develop young leaders. In fact here are four simple steps that Sr. Level Leaders can take to invest in the next generation of leaders.

The Freshmen get Smaller every Year

In other words every year there is a new freshman class. Every year as you get older they seem to get smaller, weirder, and more clueless. And somehow the older you get the more it seems you were never that small, that weird, or that clueless. But you and I know better, don’t we? The best leaders I’ve ever been around know there’s great value in hanging out with the “freshmen.” In fact here are a couple of things I’ve seen some great seasoned leaders do over the years to invest in the next generation leaders.

How to Identify Young Leaders in the Church

Do a quick Google Search and you’ll find volumes written about this next generation entering the workforce. Much of it is written from a negative perspective. The search will tell you that this generation is entitled, lazy, they don’t follow through and they can’t be trusted with real responsibility. This trend has great implications for the modern day church. And while the researchers might be right, I still believe that there are great up and coming leaders in the next generation taking their place in the church today. Two reasons stand out and have convinced me.

Why Your Church should Play more Freshmen

Charlie Strong, the Head Coach of the Texas, Longhorns and former longtime Defensive Coordinator of the Florida, Gators say to the veteran players on the team that when it comes to position battles the tie is going to go to the freshmen. In other words, if a veteran (Sr. player and incumbent starter) is tied with a freshman when it comes to talent and performance the Freshman is going to play not the Sr. Sound harsh? I think there’s a lot that the church can learn from Coach Strong when it comes to recruiting and developing young leaders. And the future of the church may depend on it.

I asked 5 Mega-Church Pastors 1 Question: “How do young leaders earn the right to be heard and succeed on your team?”

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with 5 Phoenix Valley Pastors who are leading multiste churches that range in attendance from 5,000 to more than 15,000. In the next couple of days I’m going to be sharing some of their comments about Church Leadership. This is what they had to say about young leaders.

How do you know if you’re Called to Ministry?

Working with young leaders, one of the most common questions I find myself fielding is, “How do I know if I’m called to ministry?” And while there are some good biblical verses we could point to or theological answers that could be given I’d like to get very practical with you for a moment. If you take the time to ask, and listen, to the stories of people who have been called into full time Christian Ministry you’re likely to hear some very similar responses that generally include the following four components.

Reaching and Leading Millennials

When The Unstuck Group is helping churches with strategic planning, one of the most common concerns and priorities that churches identify is attracting Millennials and young families. With this in mind, we at the Unstuck Group have something special for you — a new eBook comprised of practical chapters to help you think through some of the most important aspects of reaching and leading Millennials.

Posted in Leadership

A Large Multisite Church in Phoenix is Hiring Worship Leaders/Pastors!

Sunday, January 17, 2016

I’m pleased to announce a new Staff Search. Sun Valley Community Church, the church I have the honor of serving at, is beginning a national search for two new full-time Worship Leaders/Pastors. Sun Valley began as a church plant in 1990 in Chandler, Arizona. Over the years Sun Valley has grown into a large mult-site church in the Phoenix metro area. Currently there are four campuses located in Casa Grande, East Mesa, Gilbert, and Tempe with a total weekend attendance of more than 6,000 people. A fifth campus will also be opening in Queen Creek towards the end of 2016! Sun Valley has been named by Outreach Magazine as one of the top 10 fastest growing churches in America. Sun Valley has also been featured in a book by Leadership Network about church mergers: Better Together: Making Church Mergers Work. To learn more about that story click here Part-1 and Part-2.

The Worship Leader/Pastor will support the vision of Sun Valley by leading teams that create and execute engaging, Christ-centered musical worship experiences. They will work with the Creative Arts Team to support the overall Weekend Worship Experience with video, tech, lighting and creative elements that enhance the weekend experience. They will be a model of integrity, living out biblical truth and demonstrate the Core Values of Sun Valley – authenticity, community and generosity!

Click below to learn more!

Posted in Leadership

6 Keys to Successful Small Groups

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

The other day the consulting team at the Unstuck Group was having a conversation about how to help churches get unstuck when it comes to the disciple-making ministry at their church. In particular we were discussing Small Groups. In the conversation Chris Surratt who runs SmallGroup.com and serves as a Ministry Consultant with the Unstuck Group mentioned 6 great questions that churches should be talking about if they want to have a successful small group ministry.

#1 Is the Sr. Pastor a Champion for Groups?

The churches that I’ve observed that have best small group ministries have a Sr. Pastor that isn’t just a public fan of groups but they are personally in a group. They lead with moral authority by not just saying do as I say but they personally model biblical community in groups. Having a hard time convincing your Sr. Pastor to join a group? Then follow this link to a post that will help.

#2 What’s the Competition?

Churches that have a ministry menu mentality usually have the most difficult time building a successful groups ministry. The more ministry opportunities that you offer such as midweek classes, prayer services, and so on the more choices people have. The more choices they have the less likely they’re going to choose being in a group. By offering a ministry menu churches are unknowingly undermining their group ministry.

#3 Is there a Key Leader?

Who wakes up everyday thinking about Groups at your church? It doesn’t have to be a full-time staff member; it could be a high level volunteer leader. But either way one thing that all churches that find success in their groups ministries have in common is a key point person who is responsible for groups.

#4 What’s the Win?

At the end of the day what are the expectations for groups at your church? What are you hoping happens through groups? What’s the point of groups at your church? Put a clear target on the wall and then build a plan to move towards it.

#5 Is it in the Budget?

Just like you can tell what’s important to a person by looking at their “check book” you can tell what’s important to a church by what they resource and budget for. Churches that find success in their groups ministry budget for success.

#6 Is it Scalable?

Is it easy for new people to get into a group? Do you have enough leaders to accommodate new groups that are starting? Do you have experienced group leaders who can offer coaching to leaders who are just starting out? If the answer to questions like these are no then you’ve got a system issue somewhere and you’re going to have a difficult time scaling as the church grows.

By the way, follow this link if you’re interested in picking up Chris’s new book Small Groups for the Rest of Us.

Posted in Leadership, Spiritual Formation

The Most Important Leadership Question You Aren’t Asking

Sunday, November 22, 2015

Volumes and volumes have been written about leadership. You can search online and purchase any number of books about how to lead effectively, how to improve as a leader, you can pick up a historical account of how the best leaders have led, and there is never any shortage of books that will help you define what a leader is and determine if you are one.

While I’ve read my share of leadership books, wading through all of that can simply be exhausting. When it comes to determining if someone is a leader or not I prefer to start with a simple question:

What kind of affect do they have on the people and the organization around them?

How do they make people on the team feel?
Do people want to be around them?
Do they improve the performance of the team?
Are people inspired by being around them?
Do people naturally follow them?
Do they produce results?
Can they persuade others to adopt their ideas?
Can they move the organization towards the objective?

Sometimes the best way to determine if someone has a leadership gift is to take a step away from all of the leadership science offered up in most books and simply observe if they’re actually leading. That’s what leaders do.

Posted in Leadership

5 Keys to Developing Young Leaders in Your Church

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

It seems like everywhere you turn lately some national church leader is writing about the bleak future of the US Church due to younger generations leaving. Well, recently I spent some time at a place that made me really hopeful about the future of the church in America.

This past weekend I had the opportunity to do some coaching at Ethos Church, a young multisite church located in Nashville, Tennessee. In just 7 years Ethos has grown to 3 locations and more than 2,500 people in attendance, and the rate at which they are baptizing people is in the top 10% of churches in the US! Plainly stated God is using the ministry of Ethos Church to change people’s lives. But what excited me the most about my time with them was everywhere I looked there were young leaders, and not just serving as interns or in some inconsequential role. But there were young men and women in their 20’s and 30’s (the ones in their 30’s were the old ones…I guess that makes me ancient now) who are serving as the Sr. Leaders of this fast growing church.

In working with churches around the country unfortunately churches like Ethos have become the exception rather than the rule. It doesn’t have to be that way. This list below of “5 Things Young Leaders Need” is a great place for your church start.

1. Opportunity

Even leaders who have been gifted greatly don’t start out as great leaders. Someone somewhere gave them their first opportunity. The tough thing about leadership is that it isn’t learned in a classroom it’s learned by leading. In order to grow and develop, young leaders need the opportunity to get real hands on experience.

Question: Does your church give young leaders real opportunities to lead stuff that matters?

2. Access

Young leaders need access to real leadership conversations. They need to be a “fly on the wall” in board meetings, management team meetings, and executive team meetings. They need to watch the Sr. Leaders in the organization lead through the tough stuff and make the big decisions. They need access to ask experienced leaders questions about how they lead and why they do it the way they do.

Question: Do the Sr. Leaders in your church give young leaders unfiltered access to watch real leadership take place and discuss it?

3. Authority

Young leaders don’t just need busy work to keep them occupied. Once they’ve proven they can deliver through following through on tasks being delegated to them they need to be empowered to make real decisions and exercise real authority to accomplish objectives through leading their own teams and delegating to others.

Question: Does your church give young leaders real consequential responsibility?

4. Grace

Part of the nature of being a young leader is making mistakes. Even experienced leaders don’t get it right all the time; and young inexperienced leaders certainly are going to make mistakes, it’s the nature of young leaders. How you respond when young leaders fail matters.

Question: Does your church give young leaders the room to fail?

5. Coaching

Great coaching can make all the difference in the performance of a team or a particular player. Great coaches do four simple things with their players. They train their players before the game, they put their players in game like situations in practice and get “reps” in before the real game happens, they make in game adjustments, and they watch the game film after the game to review and learn from the player’s performance.

Question: Does your church expect young leaders to learn on their own through their own experience or do you actually coach them?

Posted in Leadership, Spiritual Formation, Staffing