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

Building Church Leaders

Theme 1: Assessing Church Needs

Assessing Church Needs will help your leaders accurately appraise various aspects of your church. In the interview handout out with Kennon Callahan, nationally know church consultant, he explains clearly how to match the strengths of your church with key objectives to move ahead. This interview will generate a productive discussion that will bring change to your church. Other dynamic contributions to this theme are Eugene Peterson on “The Success of Failure” and Leith Anderson on how your leaders can be “Wise to the Times.”

Theme 2: Character of a Leader

This theme begins with the riveting interview on integrity with Chuck Swindoll, veteran pastor and seminary president. In a devotional, Bill Hybels, pastor of Willow Creek
Community Chruch near Chicago, discusses the dangers of spiritual vitality. A case study titled “Hope for the Dry Times” will help your leaders press ahead when they don’t feel spiritual.

Theme 3: Reaching People

How should your leaders respond to the increasingly secular world around them? In a power interview, Ravi Zacharaias, a Christian apologist, shows how the gospel can be “Good News for Happy Pagans.” Plus, several assessments to aid your leaders to evaluate the effectiveness of your church at outreach. “From Friendly to Connecting”
will prompt your leaders to determine how well your church connects new people into the life of the church.

Theme 4: Church Health

Who better to speak to your leaders about church health than Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Community Church in Mission Viejo? Just photocopy the interview with
Warren and lead your team in a discussion on the health of your church. To prepare your leaders theologically, pass out “What God Thinks,” a key devotional that will stir your
leaders to worry more about the “attention of God than the respect of your community.”

Theme 5: Spiritual Care

What does it mean to shepherd a soul? As pastor, you know you can’t do everything; you need an army of trained shepherds. You’ll find help to train them in “The Business of
Making Saints,” an interview with experienced pastor and writer Eugene Peterson. Plus, there are special how-to handouts to help your leaders care for chronically and
wounded people in the church.

Theme 6: Handling Conflict

Conflict can poison the life of a church. But it can also have a positive effect. Prepare your leaders for handling conflict—and thus protect your church—by discussing
“Conflict Above Ground,” an interview with Bill Hybels, pastor of Willow Creek Community Church near Chicago. This interview will train your leaders to see conflict in a new
light and help them deal with it in a more biblical way.

Theme 7: Recruiting and Staffing

Every church could use more volunteers who know their gifts and love to serve God. In the devotional “Recruiting with Twisting Arms,” you can discuss with your leaders the
kind of motivation for God’s work that truly last. Your leaders will learn recruiting skills that will fill the positions most needed in your church.

Theme 8: Finances

One thing is for certain about money: There’s never enough of it. This theme will help your leaders make better use of what God has given and explore new ways to encourage people to give more. This theme will also train them to think more biblically and
strategically about the relationship between money and ministry.

Theme 9: Motivating Leaders

John Maxwell, former pastor and now president of INJOY, an organization that specializes in training leaders, shares some of his best insights on motivation with
“The Potential Around You.” Plus, pass out “Finding Your Leadership Style,” which will help your leaders identify their primary leadership gifts-and thus strengthen your church.
These –and other handouts-will communicate to your leaders that ministry, at its core, is a heart for God.

Theme 10: Worship

In this section, you’ll find a host of resources to help your leaders understand worship better and lead it more effectively. The multiple learning formats -case studies,
devotional, an interview, how-to-articles- help train your team in the practical aspects of leading God-honoring worship.

Theme 11: Vision

Vision is easy to talk about but hard to create and implement. If your church needs a new vision or to upgrade the one it has, you’ll want to have your leaders read “A
Big-Enough Vision,” an interview with Max De Pree, Sunday school teacher and former CEO. This interview will challenge them to lead the church to another level spiritually and
strategically.

Theme 12: Building a Team

Great teams achieve great things. Turn your board into a dynamic team that can lead your church into the 21st century. Give “Recruiting Team Players” to your nominating
committee to read. Then discuss with them what type of people should-and shouldn’t-serve in top church leadershippositions. Your church will be strengthened in the
process.

M. Haase, September 2001