Training and Supporting Missional Leaders

As we have seen in the previous posts on this subject we are training and supporting leaders who have responded to a God given call and vision. That missional vision has come out of the missional culture that has been established. As we release those leaders into their missional vision it is essential that we have in place on-going support and training. All of us need this however experienced we are.

In her blog at the beginning of this series Helen wrote about apprenticeship. She gave us some very helpful thoughts on using the Lifeshapes Leadership Square as part of this process. The increasing use of the model of apprenticeship in the training and development of missional leaders as well as in society generally resonates with me personally.

I began my working life as an apprentice in the printing industry as a photo lithographer. When I started I signed a set of indentures that committed me to the company for 5 years. They also committed the company to me for that same period. There was a requirement on me to behave in a certain way but more importantly the company undertook to train me in the art and craft of photo lithography so that at the end of the 5 years I would be a qualified journeyman able to take my place among the skilled work force.

The training did contain some theoretical study and I still remember, even after many years the ‘inverse square law of light’, but mainly it consisted of practical training alongside skilled craftsmen.

They used the method we identify in the Lifeshapes Leadership Square. They did it while I watched. They talked to me about what they were doing and why and answered my questions.

Then I was allowed to help, again with lots of commentary on what was being done but now there were questions to me from them.

The next stage was one I still remember very vividly as I began to do some of the tasks. I still remember the things that went wrong and the discoveries I made through them.

Some of the mistakes kept being repeated until I really got it but in all that the people teaching me showed patience and persistence in ensuring that I learnt and could do the job. They gave lots of affirmation and encouragement, even when I kept making mistakes and they didn’t give up on me. That carried on through the next stage as ‘I did while they watched’. Sometimes that supervision was close at others it was just the occasional check. Very much low control, high accountability. I still remember the men who taught me during my 5 year apprenticeship. They invested in me and shared their experience and skills.

As I progressed through the years of my apprenticeship I began to take on some responsibility for other apprentices younger than myself. Not necessarily in teaching them great skills but in showing them how the place functioned and how to undertake the basic tasks that were essential for the smooth running of the department. When I was qualified I had apprentices of my own to train and it was through that process I learned even more about my work. Their questions stretched me and forced me to find answers to things I’d not thought of.

Training for missional leaders is important. Giving them the necessary information and skills is an essential part of the process. However we need to INVEST in them as thoroughly as we can both as regards to skill but also character. We should see them as whole people not just trainees. This requires us to commit to them in more than just skills training and the giving of information. This is costly but it is the way I have found that works. As we invest in missional leaders we are investing in disciples who in turn will invest in disciples and missional leaders.

I am so grateful to those who have invested in me over the years and to those that continue to do so. I would encourage you to thoroughly invest in those you are called to lead. You will have so much fun as you adventure together in missional leadership.

David Rosser

3 Weeks to go...!

November is rapidly approaching, which means we are on the countdown to our Missional Communities Taster Day in Sheffield!

The Taster Day will take place on SATURDAY 12th NOVEMBER at ST THOMAS' CHURCH PHILADELPIHA CAMPUS.

We will spend the day together hearing about and discussing both the Biblical basis for Missional Communities and many aspects of how they work in practice, whilst also getting people to share lots of stories about their experiences of leading Missional Communities.

It's going to be a great day and places are rapidly

fill

ing up, so if you are interested, make sure to get in touch!

For more information and ways to book on, visit us at www.missionalcommunities.co.uk

Training & Investing in Leaders (Part 2)

I'm writing this blogpost on the journey up the M1 to join in with a Learning Community at Sheffield with some members of our church team. As we chat in the car, we're reflecting on some of the things that have been helpful to us in our journey as disciples and missional leaders. We hope you find it helpful! - Jenny

Mike & Jenny

Invite people to share kingdom life with you. Jesus wasn't just a good manager or a strategic thinker. His way of doing mission and ministry was highly invitational and Incarnational - he lived with and amongst his team. What would it look like to invite some of your team to see your life as you follow Jesus? Not just the polished answers, but the hard decisions, not just the exciting breakthroughs, but also the disciplines?

Invest in the whole person over a period of time, not simply focusing on the present task at hand, but in their whole life, their relationships, their character, their lifetime calling. Who are you investing in for the long term? Are you using words to encourage them where you see their potential? Are you taking time to have the conversations that realty matter, including the hard questions of life?

Ignite them with a huge vision. Paint them a picture of what it would look like in your town or city when God's Kingdom comes that gives them space to grow and develop under you. Keep coming back to it, receiving it, interceding for it, and letting God enlarge it as a team together. Think about how to plan the year to give opportunities for this, think about a pattern of retreats, celebrations of what God has done and mission trips that will help leaders to look up from the details of life and catch sight again of God's call to join him in an adventurous lifestyle of mission.

With contributions from Gareth, Mike, Arun & Jenny

Training and Supporting Missional Leaders

So here we are again at the start of a new month and another new topic: Training and Supporting Missional Leaders. Once you've got a missional culture established and released some leaders into going for their missional vision you'll need to think about how to offer ongoing appropriate support and development for your leaders. It is crucial that leaders, who will effectively be leading small churches in their spare time, have enough support, training and encouragement to continue on with their vision and to see it bear much fruit. Without enough support there is a chance that they may find themselves over-burdened and under-equipped which could lead to burnout and failure of that community.

So what might be the key things to bear in mind as you think about supporting and developing your missional leaders?

1. Do it!

People will see what you value most by where you spend the majority of your time. If you really value growing a missional movement and supporting your leaders then I would suggest that they (and the rest of the church) need to see that worked out practically, as well as in just what you say. Look at your diary. Are MC leaders prioritised? If not, why not? Do they feel valued by how much of your time is spent on them and in visiting their communities, or do they see you focusing most of your time on central resources/events etc? Change your diary if necessary and put other people in place to do things you've been doing, or find someone whose job it is to take responsibility for coaching and supporting your MC Leaders. I know this is not always an easy one to change but I think it's vital for the growth and success of MCs in a church!

2. Apprenticeship

As much as possible take time to apprentice or coach your leaders in missional leadership. There are many ways to do this, not all of them requiring lots of time from you or them.

One of the best ways for a leader to be apprenticed is by them being raised up through a community by another leader using the Lifeshapes Leadership Square (going through a process of I do - you watch, I do - you help, You do - I help, You do - I watch.) Obviously when you are just starting MCs in your church this isn't possible, so then make sure that you spend time sharing stories of success and failure, your wisdom and your experiences of how you've led people before. Always give them the challenge to try and work things out for themselves with their team and the Holy Spirit - don't be tempted to 'rescue' them every time they have a problem or to tell them what to do. Keep them accountable for their decisions and actions (remember low-control, high accountability).

3. Training

Operate under the principle of 'just enough information, just in time.' In other words, don't 'front-load' your leaders with lots of information or training in areas they haven't yet experienced. The likelihood is they won't remember much of it. Give them the specific training they need as and when their experience demands it. Do balance this however with regular general leadership training/development input so that your leaders feel they are being invested into as they lead.

4. Value a range of leadership types

Don't assume that everyone ought to lead like you! Remember each leader is different, has different skills, gifts and passions and should be released to lead in their own identity rather than feeling they need to be like someone they're not. This might mean you need to help them discover some of what this is.

5. The most important thing is not the community they lead

Don't let your desire to grow healthy and fruitful communities within your church get in the way of growing healthy and fruitful disciples in your church. The most important things your leaders should invest in is their relationships with the Lord and with their family. Make sure they are putting regular time in their diary to spend in rest and re-creation. This might mean they can't get to everything you ask them to come to.....this is ok!!! You're much more likely to get healthy communities and people willing to step up to leadership if they see leaders who have healthy relationships and a healthy rhythm to their life.

6. Encouragement is vital

Nobody can get too much encouragement in their leadership. It usually comes rarely from the people we lead so make sure you give them as much as you can! Without it it's easy for a leader to become discouraged and disillusioned, especially when times are hard, so make sure you give them praise for specific things you've seen in them, and cheer them on when things get tricky.

I hope these few thoughts help you Church Leaders as you work out how best to train and support your Missional Leaders!

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

North East Learning Community Taster Day!

It’s an exciting couple of months for the Missional Communities Team with lots of opportunities to connect with churches across the UK.

On Saturday 5^th November 2011 we are running a taster day in the North East for Church leaders and their teams. The day focuses on discovering how Learning Communities are a useful tool in launching and developing Missional Communities within your church.

Venue: City Church at The Castlegate, Newcastle
Time: 9am - 4pm
Cost: £10 per person (includes lunch)
To book online visit: http://bit.ly/nRiqWz

To find out more about Missional Communities and other upcoming event visit http://www.missionalcommunities.co.uk/

Image: Paul Martin Eldridge / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Discovering and Developing Missional Vision (4)

Whilst trying to think of what to write about discovering and developing missional vision that hasn't already been covered in the excellent preceding posts, I struck upon the idea of turning the question around.

Instead of asking how can we (encourage others to) discover and develop missional vision, I pondered on the question:

"what holds us back from discovering and developing missional vision?"

Of course that's a very big question, no doubt with lots of big answers. None-the-less, I want to make just one suggestion.

I suggest that one of the things that holds people back is that they dont have a big enough revelation of the transforming power of the gospel of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is such an incredible thing that whenever we get a piece of revelation about it, we can't help but be excited by it. Its this excitement that we need to help people discover if they are to get passionate about mission.

We see how this principle works when we look at how things like acts of service, healing on the streets and prophetic evangelism have inspired new generations to engage in mission. The amazing thing about the Kingdom is that it has power to transform and its this transforming power that we see at work in expressions of mission that use healing or prophecy or even Gardening! The Kingdom breaks in and begins to transform the lives of those involved.

Anyone who has been involved in these expressions of mission will testify to what an amazingly exciting thing it is to partner with God in this way - in his Kingdom transformation. It's especially exciting if you're passionate about the thing you're seeing transformed.

If you enjoy serving others, then demonstrating the power of the kingdom through acts of service is hugely exciting. Equally, if you love to engage with people on a personal level then seeing them personally impacted by a prophetic word or physically healed will really get your adrenalin going.

It is this excitement about the transforming power of the kingdom that inspires people to step out beyond their fears.

But our understanding of this is still so small! There's still so much we need to learn.

Colossians 1:19-20 says

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in [Jesus], and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Through Jesus' death, there is kingdom power to transform all things! A wise lady once asked "how many things can you think of that would be excluded from all things?"

Just let that sit with you for a moment before you read on...

It's this revelation that the kingdom can transform all things that will get people excited enough about mission to be able to break off their preconceptions and step out beyond their fears.

Think about the people you work or study with. They, like you, were interested enough in your field of work to study or train for it and to dedicate large amounts of time to it every week. If you suddenly found you had some amazing new insights for your field of work that could bless not only those you work with but the community at large, wouldn't you want to share them? Don't you think your colleagues would be interested to hear more?

Now I don't pretend to have much in the way of answers to what that might look like but I firmly believe that God's kingdom has power to transform your field of work, your field of study, in fact, anything you might be interested in. After all, that's what all things means.

I'd like to suggest a few examples of what this might look like:

Think about how someone with a fresh revelation of God's principles of communication could begin to transform the world of marketing. Marketing is about businesses connecting with their customers, it's about relationship and communication; these are really important aspects of God's kingdom. Imagine if marketing was done in love and mutual respect. What a blessing it could be. People would be blessed with good, reliable information about products and services that really suit their requirements. As it is all we do is curse our junk mail and spam emails on a daily basis! This a huge mission field and one that has the potential to greatly bless not just one or two but whole communities, even the whole nation.

What about the hospitality industry? What are the biblical principles that could transform the way the hotel sector or the restaurant sector operates? Perhaps Kingdom cuisine would be amazing food that's healthy and supports sustainable farming practices. You might argue that this is already the latest trend without trying to make it into a mission field. But that brings me to my next point...

The Spirit of God will move and can and does work through all manner of things (remember the donkey that spoke to Balaam?!). Perhaps the move towards sustainably sourced foods is a move of God? What an amazing Gospel message it would be for a colleague in the your kitchen at work who is passionate about these things to say, this thing that's on your heart is on God's heart too!

I'm just throwing thoughts out here so please don't get too caught up in the detail if you disagree about what Kingdom catering might be like. My point is that its just amazing to realise that there is such a thing as Kingdom catering, or Kingdom software design or Kingdom tree surgery for that matter. God cares deeply about all these things and yet our silence on these matters when we talk of faith gives the unconscious message that Christianity is irrelevant to these things. For your colleagues who spend their working days engaging with such issues, that's actually quite an off-putting message!

So if we want to get engaged with mission, we need to get a bigger revelation of the transforming power of the kingdom, which means a bigger revelation of the relevance of the cross, a bigger revelation of why Jesus came and a bigger revelation of God himself.

People need a vision they can get excited about. In fact, that statement is redundant because you can't have vision without excitement, the two go hand in hand. So we must help people to discover God's transforming truth for the things they have been created to be passionate about

So I'll end with the following questions:

"What would [add your vocation/passion here] look like in the Kingdom of God?"

"What can you do to partner with God in that transformation?"

Written by Stephen Richardson