Leadership Development

Leadership Development equips churches and ministry teams to identify, train, and empower leaders for long-term discipleship and mission. Explore practical, Bible-based resources on mentoring, coaching, apprenticeships, and building leadership pipelines for elders, staff, and volunteer leaders. You’ll find guidance on cultivating character, clarifying competencies, delegating responsibility, and creating a healthy culture where leaders grow and multiply. Whether you’re developing emerging leaders, strengthening current leadership, or building a repeatable process for your church, these articles help you invest in people who can faithfully lead in Jesus’ name.

September 6, 2016

Mark A. Taylor

Shattered Certainties and the Challenge to Change

By Mark A. Taylor Good changes lead to happy results, right? Consider: The alcoholic decides to quit drinking. The dieter sheds unhealthy weight. A family, once separated by a parent”s overseas assignment, is reunited. But then: The addict doesn”t replace the payoff he has been receiving from his fix, and so he returns to his habit. The dieter doesn”t realize he must make a lifelong attitude adjustment about food and exercise, and so he regains the weight. The no-longer-single parent must give up some of her own autonomy now, and the result is conflict. Anyone experiencing or hoping to lead

August 10, 2016

Christian Standard

Loving Through Listening

By Jim Tune I”m pretty good at talking. It”s a big part of what I do for a living. When I look for leaders, I look for someone who can communicate. I”m convinced, though, that speaking and writing are only part of what it takes to be a great leader. Leading also involves listening. “Listening comes first,” writes Adam McHugh in his new book The Listening Life. We started listening before we were even born. Listening is a key part of what it means to be human. “Somewhere along the way we start to violate the natural order of things,”

July 22, 2016

Christian Standard

Carrying to Completion

By Earl Winfrey I can”t remember a time when church was not part of my life. I was baptized into Christ at 12 and felt the call to ministry and started pursuing a deeper knowledge of the Bible at the age of 14. Unfortunately, I got mixed up with the wrong crowd during my senior year of high school. I got married two weeks after graduation, and we had our baby five months after the wedding. For the first year and a half, I lived in denial, thinking my marriage was good. Then one day I woke up to find

July 18, 2016

Christian Standard

I Knew I Was Called

By Bart Rendel In the summer of 1985 my life changed forever during the North American Christian Convention in Anaheim, California! For years, my family had attended the convention for inspiration and connection. That summer we made the trek out west to visit family and friends. The convention was the centerpiece of our trip. I was between my 10th and 11th grade in high school. With college in the offing, I was seriously contemplating my life”s direction. How did he want to use me? Where should I focus my education? It was at the convention that I felt the Lord

June 3, 2016

Christian Standard

With Eyes Wide Open

By Chuck Sackett Immediately before worship was to begin, a leader in the congregation dumped a boatload of complaints on the preacher. As the preacher entered the worship area, his once light spirit””which had been anticipating worship and preaching””bottomed out in a wash of questions. Instead of worshipping, he fidgeted throughout the singing, trying to get his heart and mind back on track. He was agonizing over the complaints, frustrated by the timing, and momentarily incapable of preaching. Fortunately, Communion was served before the sermon that day. As he continued to try to settle his spirit, he felt a hand

June 1, 2016

Christian Standard

Perfectly Executing the Wrong Vision

By Jim Tune In his acclaimed book Why Smart Executives Fail, Sydney Finkelstein describes a fictional situation about a meticulously planned military operation. In his scenario, a special forces unit moves in with devastating efficiency and successfully accomplishes every objective; the forces kill or capture everyone in the base they were attacking. The unit suffered very few casualties. There was only one problem. The target they had attacked and captured belonged to friendly forces. Central command launched a massive investigation to figure out what went wrong. Several missteps were eventually identified. Operational protocols were reviewed, changed, and corrected. The only

May 18, 2016

Christian Standard

The Edge of Fear

By Jim Tune A great power is unleashed when a person confronts her worst fears and steps out in faith anyway. As an example, consider Katharine Graham. She ran the Washington Post during the Watergate era, taking on President Richard Nixon and the White House at considerable professional risk. Long before Watergate, Graham was a 46-year-old housewife when her husband, Phil, committed suicide in 1963. Though grieving, she took control of the family company at a time when there were few women in senior positions anywhere in the corporate world. She was, in a word, terrified. She had no female

May 11, 2016

Christian Standard

Creating Culture

By Jim Tune Pixar founder Ed Catmull had always dreamed of using computers to create a great animated movie. He achieved this with the release of Toy Story. “We”d been the first to make a movie with computers,” he wrote in his book Creativity, Inc., “and””even better””audiences were touched, and touched deeply by the story we told.” The problem? “Now that this goal had been reached, I had what I can only describe as a hollow, lost feeling.” Running a company didn”t seem to be enough. Catmull began to scratch beneath the surface, and realized things weren”t as healthy at

May 1, 2016

Michael C. Mack

Ministry Synergy

By Michael C. Mack Church ministries often find themselves working as silos, fixating on their own specific objectives and depending on their own resources. Imagine what could be achieved for God”s kingdom if different ministries learned to work together to make a difference in their towns, cities, and the world! For the body of Christ to work effectively to carry out Jesus” mission, ministry leaders must first learn to listen to the Head, that is, Christ, as well as to local church leaders who can coordinate teamwork. They must also see themselves as stewards of the ministry; they refer to

April 13, 2016

Christian Standard

Hacking Ministry

By Jim Tune One Saturday in November, hundreds of programmers and designers arrived at George Brown College in Toronto. They were armed with laptops and sleeping bags, although few of them would sleep. For 30 hours, they worked nonstop on creating products to improve the lives of people living with dementia, a disease that affects 47.5 million worldwide. Their reward: the opportunity to change lives, $175,000 in cash prizes, and the chance to pitch their ideas to influencers. DementiaHack is one of many hackathons taking place around the world. There are even Christian versions, like Code for the Kingdom, “where

March 28, 2016

Michael C. Mack

How to Create a Collaborative Culture

By Michael C. Mack In his newest book, Collaboration Begins with You: Be a Silo Buster, Ken Blanchard, in collaboration with Jane Ripley and Eunice Parisi-Carew, shows leaders how to empower themselves and build collaboration by empowering a team. “Effective leaders learn early in their careers that they can”t manage whole projects singlehandedly,” says Blanchard on his blog, HowWeLead.org. “They need an empowered team working collaboratively to achieve goals.” In the book, the writers use the acronym UNITE to describe what it takes to build a collaborative culture: “¢ Utilize differences “¢ Nurture safety and trust “¢ Involve others in

February 24, 2016

Christian Standard

Safety

By Jim Tune A word has been on my mind lately. I”ve been thinking about what it means for me personally, and as a preacher. The word: safety. I encountered the word in an excellent book, Crucial Conversations. “In order to speak honestly when honesty could easily offend others, we have to find a way to maintain safety,” the book says. “When it”s safe, you can say anything.” We often focus on the content of our conversations, but content isn”t usually what makes or breaks relationships. Safety is. Feeling safe allows us to talk about difficult things and to speak

February 23, 2016

Mark A. Taylor

Does Your Ministry Have a Right to Exist?

By Mark A. Taylor Tech expert Shelly Palmer, although sought-after about all things digital, would likely be lost at a church leadership conference. But he wrote something a couple of weeks ago to get any church leader thinking. He titled his blog post, “Does Yahoo Have a Right to Exist in 2016?” And then he proceeded, with two pages of well-researched facts and well-thought opinions, to support his hard answer: “No.” Whether you use the web portal Yahoo or not, his line of reasoning might get your attention. Should you ask his question about your own ministry, congregation, or parachurch?

January 14, 2016

Michael C. Mack

10 Things You Can Do for Your Senior Minister This Week

By Michael C. Mack 1. Pray for him daily. 2. Encourage him with notes, tweets, or in person (but not right before the service begins). 3. Help him focus on sermon prep by limiting interruptions during the week or giving him announcements shortly before he preaches. 4. Take on pastoral care responsibilities. A class or group should be the front line of pastoral care. 5. Be a minister. You are part of the priesthood of all believers, a minister of reconciliation, an important part of the body of Christ. 6. Treat him as a person and as an individual. Remember

December 18, 2015

Michael C. Mack

Questions to Ask Before Starting a New Ministry

By Michael C. Mack This is prime time for planning a new ministry in 2016. Here are some questions to ask, and answer, before venturing forward (these are compiled from various sources): What’s the purpose of this ministry? 2. Why do we need this ministry? (Is it really necessary?) 3. Would (or could) people do this ministry naturally without creating a program? 4. Are other people already doing this (and could we partner with them)? 5. Are we keeping the main thing the main thing, or is this ministry just one more thing to do? 6. How does this ministry

December 3, 2015

Michael C. Mack

Holiday Season Ministry Ideas

By Michael C. Mack Give gifts to people in need. Use the gift catalogs from International Disaster Emergency Services (IDES)””go to ides.org, select About Us, and then Newsletters, and then Gift Catalog””or World Vision (www.worldvision.org) to provide people the opportunity to buy useful gifts such as animals, handcrafted gifts, or clean water for children and families in need. You can even create a gift registry to help raise funds. Give gifts of time. In a small group or class, have each person identify one person they know who may need a listening ear or emotional availability from a friend this

November 7, 2015

Michael C. Mack

November Ministry Ideas

By Michael C. Mack November 21: National Adoption Day. Held the Saturday before Thanksgiving in all 50 states. On this day a number of courts and communities work together to finalize the adoptions of thousands of children in foster care. Ideas: Work with agencies in your community to support adoptions. Plan with adoptive parents in your church to advocate for adoption in your community. Plan your weekend services around adoption, inviting adoptive families from the community. Speak about God adopting Christians as his children (Romans 8:15, 23; Galatians 4:5) in your sermon or Sunday school lessons. November 27: Black Friday.

October 27, 2015

Mark A. Taylor

Nothing More Valuable

By Mark A. Taylor Maybe most wouldn”t suspect that loneliness, discouragement, temptation, and insecurity are companions of the person leading their church””especially growing, dynamic ministries like those led by the four guests in our most recent Beyond the Standard podcast. But each of them””Ben Cachiaras, Tim Harlow, Eddie Lowen, and Greg Nettle””admitted to at least one of these problems. And all four credited their association with each other as a key to rising above barriers to emotional and spiritual health. They”ve created a group where they”ve found the freedom to confess sins, share doubts, discuss problems and possibilities, and discern

October 2, 2015

Christian Standard

Tour of Duties

By Jennifer Johnson Recently, two older ladies in our church began taking Communion to members in the hospital. While this is far from the 24-hour, professionally trained chaplaincy program organized by First Christian Church in Decatur (see related article), for Miss Marilyn and Miss Pat it was a Bigfoot-sized step out of their comfort zones. “I was scared to death,” Pat said the Sunday after her first hospital visit. But she did it, gathering up the portable Communion set and her car keys and setting out on a faith adventure. Now she and Marilyn are old pros, sometimes scheduling their

October 2, 2015

Christian Standard

A Backstage Pass to Volunteerism

By Jennifer Johnson Like many churches, Compass Christian Church in Colleyville, TX, has a new members class””theirs is called “Discover Compass”””to share information about the church, its mission, and its ministries. Unlike most churches, Compass follows this up with a behind-the-scenes tour to help each person find a way to serve. “We hold the Discover Compass class one week and invite people to come back the following week for Serve Tour,” says Rich Green, serve pastor at Compass. “We begin with a short overview of the importance of serving and why it”s part of the Christian life; then we walk through

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