Numerous times I’ve observed and lamented the fact that few churches across North America have in place an intentional leadership development process. The latest research affirms the same.

James Gribnitz, in his research for a doctoral project at Dallas Seminary gives us four reasons why:

Churches don’t know how to develop leader

Churches don’t hire leaders based on their ability to develop leaders

Churches don’t hold leaders accountable for developing leaders

For many pastors, leader development is an aspirational not actual value. It is quite possible that training leaders can reverse the American church’s decline.

I have learned through the years to look for four qualities in leaders, whether they are men or women. I look first for a searching mind: a person who is mentally alert, who has curiosity about life, who wants to learn all the time. Such a person is always reading, always listening, always thinking about what he or she hears, and trying to reason out what is behind it.

-Ray Stedman

This year’s inductees into the Pro Football Hall of Fame included arguably the best receiver ever to strap on a helmet: Jerry Rice.

I wonder…

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Life Long Learning

One of the values we have corporately is the value of Life Long Learning. To live out this value corporately it means that we as individuals must be committed to personal learning.
This week I had the opportunity to attend the Willow Creek Association Global Leadership Summit. I intentionally carved out time in my schedule to be in a place that I could learn more about leadership and get perspectives from fourteen leaders around the world. The speakers were men and women I had heard or read about in the last year.
There was a common theme in all of their talks – never, ever, ever, ever, give up!
We as leaders face all kinds of trials (actually problems) each and every day. They are people issues, client challenges, we wrestle with an overreaching government bureaucracy, and on and on it goes. These trials can derail us from reaching our goals and being the company or person we envision.
I too face these kinds of situations and actually at times say to myself – is this really worth all this effort, pain and heartache? Is this really where God has me to serve? Am I really helping leaders be better leaders or helping churches strategize and envision their future well?
This week I had the opportunity for leadership development. I intentionally put myself in a place that challenged, encouraged, intellectually stimulated me, and gave me many tools for meeting the challenges I personally face. The result is that today I am renewed emotionally, spiritually and can move forward with new energy and conviction – to never, ever, ever, ever, give up!
All this happened because of a value in my life of Life Long Learning. Our values do matter!

If leaders are so good at…

1. Recognizing the need for change in their people, and
2. Leading change in their organizations,

…why are they often so blind to change in their own life?

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Donald Miller is back again with a thought provoking piece on leadership. His question? Does the church cultivate leaders or just church leaders? Read more »

In this continuing series, I am using an article from Inc. Magazine in which Norm Brodsky outlined 6 successful business ideas. I’ve identified some leadership principles I see that may have driven his approach to business.

Here’s another principle I see: (more…)

Sometimes a subtle shift in perspective changes everything.

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This post is part of a series on leadership principles found in six controversial business ideas. Norm Brodsky put the ideas on the table in a recent article in Inc. Magazine.

Here’s the next principle I saw:

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In an earlier post, I referred to an Inc. Magazine article by Norm Brodsky in which he laid out six successful — and controversial — business ideas. I invited you to identify what leadership principles may have been in play to make those ideas successful in a business setting.

Here’s the first principle I saw:

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