Building Church Leaders II

Theme 1: Strategic Planning

An important theme for any church, this booklet starts with an interview with Peter Drucker, an expert in organizational management and structure. Responsible planning
requires wisdom, direction from the Holy Spirit, and willingness to make difficult choices. Strategic Planning will help your ministry team grow in each of these areas by offering
helpful assessment tools and discussion questions to give shape and direction to your team meetings.

Theme 2: Connecting Newcomers

One of the most important activities of the church is to draw in people from the outside—whether believers or those who may have never been involved in the church before. The theme, Connecting Newcomers, helps evaluate how welcoming your church is and gives you tools to improve. Helpful topics include: how to foster hospitality on Sabbath mornings among regular worship attenders, how to make sure people are not
overlooked, and how to encourage membership to cultivate commitment.

Theme 3: Spiritual Formation

In our increasingly busy culture, encouraging prayer and spiritual disciplines among church attenders is consistently a challenge for pastors and ministry leaders. This
booklet includes teaching from wise spiritual directors, including Richard Foster, Henri Nouwen, and Ben Patterson. Articles range from “How to Pray as a Group” to “Where Do You Stand,” written to help leaders see ways that spiritual disciplines can influence character and behavior. Also included are practical activities designed to get ministry
leaders praying, titled “A Day in Prayer” and “An Hour in Prayer.”

Theme 4: Leadership Environment

This issue addresses how leaders can foster leadership among people in the church. Beyond mentorship, this issue focuses on the nature of discipleship and servanthood, both necessary characteristics of the effective church leader. The interview, “Jesus’ Game Plan,” is a compelling discussion with Sonlife Ministries director, Dann Spader, about Jesus’ leadership training plan, and how he worked with the disciples to train
them to build his ministry on earth.

Theme 5: Reaching Our Community

This theme is about understanding and loving people who do not know Jesus. It looks at the strategy of evangelistic ministry (“Why Seekers Come to Church”) and examines
spiritual motivations for sharing the gospel (“Lost People Matter”). Included are insightful
articles from Tim Keller and Leith Anderson on understanding today’s culture—and how a church rates in its ability to connect with the culture in which it functions.

Theme 6: Core Values

Sometimes it is hard for church leaders to know why they do what they do. What are the values that shape the church and affect how ministry is conducted? This theme will help church leaders identify and develop values that influence the culture and activities of the church. Articles include an interview with three leading pastors, including Randy
Frazee of Pantego Bible Church in Arlington, Texas, about church “climate”—the atmosphere or feel of a church—and what leaders can do to alter it.

Theme 7: Prayer & Awakening

What is the relationship between our prayers and God’s work in revival? This issue provides useful insights on this issue from people who have seen God at work
firsthand. The interview with Ben Patterson urges church leaders to make prayer the primary task and to hope for God to work mightily through his body, the church. Practical
articles give tools to help ministry leaders start a prayer ministry, create an environment for corporate (and individual) repentance, and cultivate discernment to hear God’s voice.

Theme 8: Healthy Small Groups

Whether your church has a mature small-group ministry or is just starting out, this theme helps you take ministry to the next level. Brett Eastman, pastor of membership at
Saddleback Church in Mission Viejo, California, applies Rick Warren’s purpose-driven principles to “the smallest form of the church,” the small group. Several assessment tools are included to help determine areas of needed growth in your small-group ministry, as well as strengths that can be capitalized on and encouraged.

Theme 9: Mentoring

Strong leadership is not enough to create healthy ministries: handing over the mantle to new leaders must also be a part of ministry development. Leaders must create a
system to reproduce and train other leaders to perpetuate the ministry. This theme teaches leaders how to pass along what they have learned to others. It also helps young leaders know how to find a mentor. Several articles are by Fred Smith, successful businessman and experienced mentor.

Theme 10: Energy & Enthusiasm

How can ministry leaders keep a runner’s pace when stress builds and strength wanes? In this theme, busy ministry leaders discuss how to maintain vibrancy while balancing a
full life and important kingdom work. In the how-to article “To Abide or Abound?” John Ortberg writes about the difference between a person who just survives and one who
thrives—and the spiritual implications of each lifestyle. This theme also includes sensitive devotionals about weariness and anxiety, as well as practical articles on how to set healthy boundaries and finding joy in work.

Theme 11: Volunteer Development

Unpaid workers in the church, while often the lifeblood of ministry, may not get the proper training and direction they need. This theme helps ministry leaders make the most of their volunteer staff. It teaches leaders how to motivate, train, and encourage people as they serve in volunteer ministry. In an interview, Bruce Bugbee, president of Network
Ministries, discusses the importance of calling and that a primary task of leaders is to help people in the church find fulfillment through calling. Church work becomes meaningful by helping people find where they serve best.

Theme 12: Creating Community

Fellowship is more than coffee talk between worship and Sabbath school, but how can we move beyond small talk to help relationships become more authentic? This theme covers communication basics such as how to respect others in speech, and tackles harder topics such as promoting confession and why we resist honesty with others.

M. Haase, September 2001