FW: Mentoring Leaders

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Church Leadership Center Most of us remember Augustine (345 – 430 AD) for the quotes attributed to him. A book entitled Augustine as Mentor suggests that in addition to being a theologian and bishop of Hippo (today’s Algeria), he played a significant role in mentoring leaders. Let’s first identify a few quotes, then we’ll define mentoring and describe selected principles for mentoring. Augustinian quotes: -You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. -If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself. -What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. -Love the sinner and hate the sin. -Christ is not valued at all unless He be valued above all. -Do not seek to understand in order to believe, but believe that you may understand. Augustinian mentoring: Mentoring is “ the work of one Christian helping another disciple or group of disciples grow in their knowledge and application of the teachings of Jesus and the Scriptures. Put another way, the mentor coached his disciples toward realizing the fullness of their salvation” (in Augustine as Mentor, p.55) This is a good, albeit broad, definition. It could also refer to discipleship or coaching. The working definition used by CLC is “a developmental relationship between a more experienced person (mentor) and a less experienced partner (mentee). Through regular interactions, the less experienced partner trusts and applies the mentor’s guidance for gaining perspective, skills, information, and experience.” For either definition, several principles provide helpful guidance for the mentors and mentees. These include the following. -Relationships: Mentors and mentees are invited into a caring personal relationship that is characterized by both discipline and grace. -Modeling and Involvement: Mentors not only model effectiveness and maturity in ministry but also involve mentees in the work of ministry, so that the mentees can grow from both the experience as well as from supervised feedback. -Releasing into ministry: Releasing flows from modeling as the mentee matures into new levels of responsibility and interdependence. Releasing is essential in order to avoid an unhealthy dependency on the mentor. -Resourcing leaders: Mentors provide continued encouragement, advice, and support to guide mentees in their dealings with the opportunities and challenge of life and ministry. Church Leadership Center participates in matching all of our participants with mentors. We also provide orientation and supervision of the mentoring process. “Mentor Check-in Reports” are conducted twice a year, where mentors are solicited for information (below), while their responses are followed up as is appropriate.   1. We are meeting (underline one) weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, less.   2. Activities, accomplishments, or areas of progress of the candidate during the past six months.   3. Areas about which I or classis leadership should be informed regarding the candidate’s progress.   4. Ways that we can be of further assistance to you or your mentee. Mentoring is at the heart of how Church Leadership Center works in partnership with pastors, churches, and other ministry groups. We also do assessment interviews and reports; personalized training plans, classes, and certification so that participants are able to increase their effectiveness in all areas of church life. Click here for more information. To view videos about Commissioned Pastors and those who support them, click here. To read previous blogs, click here. Please forward this email to a lay leader or church staff member who may benefit from information about leadership development and Church Leadership Center. To contribute financially to CLC or to learn about options for leadership development in your church, reply to this email.

FW: Dream Dream Dream

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Church Leadership Center Two leaders had coffee together recently. After the meeting, one sent the other an email saying, “I'm thankful for having met another man who has the invitation and freedom to follow his dream - and the dream we understand to be God's dream for us.” It’s a fact, leaders are dreamers. Sometimes the cogitation may be sweet, sentimental, and superfluous (as in the 1958 Everly Brothers’ song, “All I Have to Do is Dream.” For the video, click here”). At other times, the dreaming is innovative, ingenious and imaginative. Mary Luttrell writes about leaders as dreamers in the “North Bay Business Journal.” She quotes John Quincy Adams: “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” Luttrell continues, “Dreaming describes leaders imagining things that might be, that don’t currently exist — whether it’s a new product or service, a new entity, a new solution to a problem, a better process, or a healthier, stronger company, community or country. Dreaming in this context is the active and purposeful use of our imagination, our creativity and our intuition. Oftentimes, great leaders are called ‘visionaries’ because they are comfortable exploring the unknown, thinking and sensing what might be possible, rather than being content with the status quo.” Have you thought of Jesus as your visionary leader? Have you dreamt about His call to make disciples and advance the kingdom through you? He said to his disciples what is still being said to each of us, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (Matthew 9:37, 38). Church Leadership Center comes alongside leaders who dream about making disciples, about wanting to reach out, and about wanting to be involved in the harvest. Contact us today, and let’s begin working on leadership dreams together. CLC supports Kingdom dreamers to help bring their visions for leadership development into reality. Church Leadership Center is your resource source for leadership development. We do assessment interviews and reports; personalized training plans, classes, mentoring, and certification so that participants are able to increase their effectiveness in all areas of church life. Click here for more information. To view videos about Commissioned Pastors and those who support them, click here. To read previous blogs, click here. Please forward this email to a lay leader or church staff member who may benefit from information about leadership development and Church Leadership Center. To contribute financially to CLC or to learn about options for leadership development in your church, reply to this email.

Sticker Prices

Church Leadership Center Soren Kierkegaard once wrote of a strange break-in at a large store in his native Denmark where the thieves didn't remove anything. When clerks opened up in the morning, all the merchandise was still there. Instead of stealing the goods, the thieves had stolen value. They had switched all the price tags, so that the worth of each item had no relation to its price: a diamond necklace valued at $2; a pair of leather shoes for 50 cents; a pencil selling for $75, and a baby's rattle with $5000 on the sticker. Sometimes it seems as if our society has been invaded by thieves like that. Just when we think we know the value of something, the sticker price begins to spin. Worse still, the values placed on us can bounce like a stock market chart until we don't know who we are anymore. Shelley Rodriguez remembers the time she brought her grandson to a farm sale near their home in Independence, Kentucky. The boy was 8 years old at the time. Immediately he was captured by the magic of the auctioneer's sing-song voice. Yet something bothered him. "Grandma," he asked, "how is that man ever going to sell anything if he keeps changing the prices?" That's a good question for all of us. Of course, one might also wonder about God's price tags of human worth when reading the words from James. Why should "those who are poor in the eyes of the world" (James 2:5) have a higher value in heaven's gaze than any other demographic group? Though the answer is always a little slippery, it seems to have to do with the complexity of the human spirit. The hardest thing for any of us to do in life is to maintain integrity. Even though we are not, most of us, evil people, sin has a way of playing around with our hearts. On the outside we appear rather nice and respectable. In fact, much of we do is good and noble and kind and wise. No one can deny that. That is why CLC exists. We wish to stand together with leaders who need community to reinforce integrity. We wish to nurture leaders for whom the sticker prices reflect the values of the Kingdom of God. Integrity, when it happens, seems to make people so simple. What you see is what you get. Maybe, though, that is when sticker prices finally make sense. Church Leadership Center comes alongside leaders who want to grow, want to reach, want to stretch, and want to develop habits of responsive and responsible Christianity. Contact us today, and let's begin a new partnership.  CLC provides assessment interviews and reports; personalized training plans, classes, and mentoring so that participants are able to increase their effectiveness in all areas of church life. Click here for more information. To view videos about Commissioned Pastors and those who support them, click here. To read previous blogs, click here.   Please forward this email to a lay leader or church staff member who may benefit from information about leadership development and Church Leadership Center. To contribute financially to CLC or to learn about options for leadership development in your church, reply to this email. With thanks to Dr. Wayne Brower for this article. He is a board member and theological editor of CLC.

Down and Dirty

Church Leadership Center Henry Ward Beecher spoke of the morality of Christian faith like this: "Religion means work. Religion means work in a dirty world. Religion means peril... Religion means transformation. The world is to be cleaned by somebody; and you are not called of God if you are ashamed to scour and scrub." Sometimes we make too little of our faith. We let it become too tiny, too private, too pious. But the Christianity of the Bible is a deep Christianity. When we think about what Jesus went through, there are a lot of words that could be used: tremendous! incredible! overwhelming! awesome! But when we look at the cross of Jesus one word that can never be used is "easy"! To call it that would be a sacrilege! The same is true for an "easy" Christianity that buttons itself up in the coziness of warm feelings and private thoughts, without clothing others and acting on principles of moral responsibility. We would do well to call such an attitude sin. Lee Sharpe remembers a childhood incident that made a permanent impact on his life. It was the spring of the year and his father wanted to get the garden ready for planting. When he took his hoe and rake from the shed, both needed repair. He dropped them off at Trussel's blacksmith shop saying, "Whenever you can get around to it, I'd appreciate it if you could fix these. I know it's not much, and I hate to bother you with it." Mr. Trussel said it was no problem; he'd look after it. Several days later he called to say that the tools were fixed and ready. Mr. Sharpe could pick them up anytime. Lee went with his father that afternoon to get them. Mr. Trussel had done a fine job. But when Lee's Dad asked, "How much do I owe you?",  Mr. Trussel shrugged his shoulders and replied, "Don't worry about it. My pleasure." That didn't sit right with Mr. Sharpe. He was a fair man and wanted to pay a fair price for a fair hour of work. He took out his wallet and tried to shove some money into Mr. Trussel's hands. The blacksmith, however, adamantly refused. He held up his hands and said, "Sid, can't you let a man do something now and then  just to stretch his soul?" Young Lee carried that incident with him for the rest of his life. It was, for him, a vision of integrity: Mr. Trussel spoke and lived the faith he believed. Like Mr. Trussel, Church Leadership Center supports leaders who are persons of integrity and grace. As with the words of Henry Ward Beecher, CLC participants serve from the bottom up rather than from the top down. They are typically grass-roots ministers. Their calling and service is from within and to the life of a specific congregation. At CLC, we are passionate about coming alongside leaders who want to grow, want to reach, want to stretch, and want to develop habits of responsive and responsible Christianity. Contact us today, and let's begin a new partnership. Click here for more information. To view videos about Commissioned Pastors and those who support them, click here. To read previous blogs, click here. Please forward this email to a lay leader or church staff member who may benefit from information about leadership development and Church Leadership Center. To contribute financially to CLC or to learn about options for leadership development in your church, reply to this email. With thanks to Dr. Wayne Brouwer for this article. He is a board member and theological editor of CLC.