Preparing pioneers

"Gathering pioneers & giving them a project is a great way of releasing the pioneer and adding more momentum to the local church"

Preparing pioneers can seem a massive distraction to leaders whose primary focus is to diligently working hard to building a local church. However I believe, that a creative approach to training and mobilizing radical pioneers can often help build the local church, as well as imparting faith, vision and skills to the pioneers.

An example of this would be in the pioneering of new mission/midweek groups in your city. Gathering potential pioneers and giving them a new place to start is a great way of releasing the pioneer and adding more momentum to your growing church. On the job training for these trainee pioneers is so important. This should also include faith and perseverance and to learn to pray the Lords prayer “for more workers into the harvest field,” as this is great preparation for them to eventually move and plant a new church.

We also need to help pioneers find faith for finance. When I ran a youth group in my late teens as part of a local Methodist Church. We had no access to finance from the church funds. This led us to pray and find creative ways to raise money. Enabling us to purchase a mini bus, PA equipment and host many outreach events. Hudson Taylor the great pioneer to Inland China believed God for his finances before going overseas.

Training young leaders – apprenticeship

"Very few young leaders seem to be carrying leadership responsibility in today’s church"

A few weeks ago I attended a gathering of church leaders which was led by one of the young men I have helped train. It was great to see him lead so well and carry off the morning with a lot of authority. Last week I was at a gathering of some 700 leaders from across the Newfrontiers movement. From the front I asked how many of them had led their first church in there twenties. Most of the senior leaders of the movement acknowledged that this is when they had first begun. It provoked me to think about leadership development and how very few young leaders seem to be carrying leadership responsibility in today’s church.

As a 16 year old I left school and signed up to work for a company who designed and installed heating and cooling systems. This was one of the many apprenticeship opportunities that were available to me at the time. Over the years as a church leader this approach to training has served me well and has been the main building block to how I have trained many young leaders.

The program covered a four-year period. It had a mixture of hands on and practical experience, where you would work along side a designer to learn your trade. The program was punctuated twice yearly with an intense 6 week college course where you learned more of the theory. Very quickly it was expected that you would take on more responsibility as you handled increasingly complex contracts.
The other lesson you learnt from day one was that you were expected to be everyone’s “gopher”. This meant making tea and fetching lunch, in fact anything that the engineers thought they could get away with you doing. You learned very quickly not to complain and to serve if you were not going to get totally frustrated.  I personally enjoyed the interaction and banter this gave me with some of the engineers and in the back of my mind I thought that someone else would soon come in and be the new “gopher”.

When you reached 21 years old a lot was expected of you and the whole program was designed to equip you for this. Jesus had even less time to train his next generation leaders and if you look at his methods many of the characteristics were similar to my apprenticeship. This also included the same out come. That after a relatively short period of time youngish trainees would be commissioned to take on major leadership responsibilities.

There are plenty of leaders

"One of my many frustrations is that so many potential leaders remain un-discovered"

Why did I decide to call this blog “authentic leaders”?

One of my many frustrations is that so many potential leaders remain un-discovered because the leaders above them in the organization are looking for the authentic leader, or the perfect leader. They seem to be always wanting, and never getting, the finished product. This only leads to many potential leaders being undiscovered, passive, or quite deeply frustrated because they aren’t, or don’t look to others, very authentic.

This has the un-desired result of creating a shortage of leaders. All over the world the big cry is for more leaders. I have a problem with this gripe mainly from a theological perspective. If God, as I do believe, gives the gift of leadership (Rom 12:8) then I must believe that he give at least enough and probably more than enough to go round. I also believe that included in Jesus prayer about sending workers in the harvest field (Matthew 9:37-38) there will be adequate leadership gift to reap the harvest.

This led me to desiring a blog name “loadsofleaders.co.uk “. It just did not seem to have the same ring as authentic leaders, but it is my great passion to see potential leaders identified, empowered, coached and trained so that they fulfil their God given potential.