David Fairchild and I spoke yesterday about a triperspectival hermeneutics.  He has posted some great insight into how to use a triperspectival hermeneutic .  Here is a snapshot, but I encourage you to read the whole post.

Our Triune God is omniperspectival and sees all perspectives simultaneously. This should humble us and cause us to seek other perspectives to gain a richer understanding of His truth since it shows us that we have a very limited view of things.

Prophet Perspective:

If we tend towards a prophet perspective, meaning that we are normatively and theologically inclined, we will often look at the text with a grid of systematic theology. This means that we read a passage of Scripture and almost instinctively think of the passage under its neatly categorized theological heading. We see the text as support for the bigger theological topics in an almost apologetic way.

Priest Perspective:

If we tend towards a priestly perspective, meaning that we are more often emotionally in touch and engaged, we may come to the text to see how this affects my heart, my emotions. We look at the text to “sense” what is happening within it. We may say things like “this is how it makes me feel,” or “I know it’s right intuitively, I just can’t explain it.”

King Perspective:

If we tend more towards kingly perspective, meaning that we are situationally oriented, we may come to the text with a concern for how this text applies to real life. How it is worked out practically. We look at the text to “see” what it looks like. The strength of the king is found in the ability to apply a truth to real life situations. A king will often come to the text and instinctively understand how it should look. A king may prefer discussion oriented learning rather that book learning. A king needs to get his hands on the idea and grapple with it in conversation. Kings are great at organizing structures and systems to work out the vision of the text. Kings are very creative when thinking through how to build bridges missionally to others as a church/corporation.

These are quick summaries, read the whole post at David's site including DIAGRAMS!  Our brother is getting creative over there.  Article: Triperspectival Hermeneutics

When Kaleo Church first started, there were a number of things we wanted to do because other churches were doing it.  One example is a Film & Theology night.  We desperately wanted our people to see culture through the lens of the gospel, but it never really took off unless David or I were there.  (Years later, a group started organically in our church and has been doing this as a weekly event.)  This and other events led me to think about how churches should start ministries & programs.  Here is a thought I'd throw out there:

If church leadership creates a program and tells people they should attend, it is not the gospel.

This goes for prayer nights all the way to film & theology.  There are two reasons:

1. The gospel say, "You are already approved and accepted", legalism says "this is what you need to do to be a good Christian".  Church leadership should facilitate natural outflows of the gospel.  Let's look at an example with prayer.  People, as they understand the gospel will want to pray together.  They will see their desperation for God to show up in order to reach the city, change hearts and everything else involved in being the people of God.  Churches should facilitate the process to ensure they are able to pray as a community.  At our church this has led to once a month prayer and fasting nights, prayer prior to service and a Monday night prayer night in addition to prayer being vital at all meetings and home groups.  If this is not happening naturally, church leadership should ensure that people are being taught the gospel as it relates to prayer and the Biblical call to prayer.  

2. The second reason (which is far less important) is that program driven churches lead from the center.  Church leaders should equip others, rather than being a pastor which will create a centrally lead church (see: Leading a Transformational Community).  In the long run, programs led from the center will hamper mission, create a precedent of non-missional people who rely on the pastors to do the 'real work' of the ministry.  At our church we've learned the hard way, when leaders have great ministry ideas for the church to do these 'programs' usually don't seem to survive in the long run.  Yet, when the people who are passionate about a cause are equiped, encouraged and supported, they are able to be released to do the work of the ministry in powerful ways.  These gospel or missional pacesetters help others see that everyone is able to be on mission and seek to advance the Kingdom. 

How do you fund a church plant?  For many planters money is the number one challenge to being able to pursue their calling.  I've been thinking about creative ways to do this and wanted to post an idea:  (This is at the idea stage, so things may change)

In order to (1) help church planters fund their ministry or (2) bring people on and train them up within a hands-on environment we would create a 'tentmaker' company. (Picture of Paul the 'tentmaker) This company would allow church planters to be trained and work part (or full time) from home or here in San Diego. The nature of the position would offer a residual commission, which would slowly taper off after a church planter quit working. (We're looking at a couple companies now that look like they'd work.)  The objective would be to create a plan that would fit earning goals of the planter, including after they quit working.

For people who want to transition into ministry, we would offer an intensive training.  During the day, trainees would work roughly 5 hours but also take one-class a day.  This class would teach practical theology for ministry, philosophy on ministry, missiology with hands-on projects to actively do this work in a multi-site church plant.  All this training would be done with other men who are learning from one-another and living in a community.

For example, we have a recent church plant on a college campus.  A person could come, work, be trained and actively participate in the new church plant.  The goal would be to transition the person to full-time ministry or to equip them to go plant a church at another college campus with a funding base from their work.

This is just a start, I appreciate any feedback/suggestions.  Church planters, is this something you would have wanted to do if you could have?

UPDATE: The Tentmaker Group has launched to help church planters raise funding.

The gospel and triperspectivalism are essential for reformed people. Why?  Because all too often we see a strong relationship between being 'reformed' and being contentious (see 1Tim3:3).  The other day someone posted an 'ultra-reformed' reply on an old post.  I went to his blog and found a numerous posts bashing Rick Warren, Benny Hinn, Market-Driven churches and the Emerging movement.  I can't say I disagreed with some of the assessments, but to have the majority of your posts be negative/attacks seems pretty high.  It reminded me of my past, where I was more concerned with winning the argument than loving a person.  

Be only as reformed as the gospel allows. 

The gospel changes us to hopefully be more grace-filled in how we approach others.  As we grow in the gospel, we should become both more humble personally yet confident in Jesus.  We can rejoice in the identity we have already been given of perfect sonship.  The gospel removes the 'poke-them-in-the-eye' debate mentality to win at all costs.  The gospel means we are more concerned with mission than shooting Christians in the back on the way to war.

Secondly, perspectivalism helps us become a more well-rounded person through community.  I believe that those who come to the reformed position tend to be prophets.  Prophets can become doctrine-focused/Normative.  As John Frame writes in his Primer on Perspectivalism:

…perspectivalism is an encouragement to the unity of the church. Sometimes our divisions of theology and practice are differences of perspective, of balance, rather than differences over the essentials of faith. So perspectivalism will help us better to appreciate one another, and to appreciate the diversity of God’s work among us. 

How can you structure leadership and decisions in a church to most effectively be on mission?  This is critical because when power/control are centralized in a church, the mission suffers.  Church leaders who micro-manage or want to be involved in every decision will end up creating an institutional church.  A previous post discusses framing decisions through a lens of Corporation, Community & Cause to create a transformational church. In that post, decisions are looked at as normative which need to be handled centrally, existential at the community level and situational which need to be handled by the 'cause leader'.  Here are three add'l criteria to leading a movement & decision making (see: Decision-Making Diagram ):

Vision/Values:  Elders and centralized leadership should decide and guard the vision & values of a church movement.  The larger the movement, the greater the effort should be made to minimize the centralized leadership from going beyond championing these areas.  This means beyond Biblical requirements, movements will need to ensure elders can function in overseeing a movement without micromanaging.  There will be a level of knowing that missional churches will tend to be messier than an institutional church.

Strategy: Ministry leaders or elders should be empowered to determine the strategy for their ministry focus or cause.  The strategy should agree with the vision & values and leaders should always be receptive to input, but the centralized leadership should be careful not to issue directives.

Tactics: Ministry Groups should be given authority to determine specific tactics on how to implement the strategy.  A team approach to ministry should effectively minimize the need for oversight from directors.

Credits: This topic was discussed at our Harbor Monthly Church Planters Meeting. 

We speak in stories.  Stories are the way people share what they really think and express who they are. Stories are the web that holds together a person's true beliefs. It is through these stories that we interact and communicate.   They are the currency to exchange ideas and as such are more important than 'facts'.  In an age of informational overload, Daniel Pink writes in A Whole New Mind:

"When facts become so widely available and instantly accessible, each one becomes less valuable. What begins to matter more is the ability to place these facts in context…"

It is through these stories that we interact and beliefs are challenged. God reveals Himself primarily in story and Jesus often teaches through story.  Christians need to understand the importance of this, including a greater understanding of their own story.

Here are three aspects of story that every Christian ought to know:

The Worldview story (Normative) : The worldview story is the driving story of a person's life. It is the story that shapes their interpretation of all things. This may be the humanist story or a postmodern story but none-the-less it interprets all other stories and life experiences. A Christian can recall when they became a Christian. Their whole life changed. This is because their worldview story changed. Christians not only have the greatest story ever told, but also each of our individual stories only make sense connected to the grand story as revealed in scripture. (Read: STORY AND BIBLICAL THEOLOGY PDF by Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Goheen)

Our Person Story (Existential) : Often Christians assume their 'testimony' is simply a resume like collection of facts about their 'conversion'. This is because many Christians have a wrong view of the gospel. If we see the gospel simply as the entry into the Christian faith, our testimony is reduced to this. As we grow as Christians, our personal story includes the continual grace renewal that the gospel brings. It is the idols that, by grace, lose their grip on our lives. It is the suffering that softens our hearts to love others. It is God using circumstances to sanctify us. It is our identity being changed and conformed to the image of Christ. This is the story we speak to others daily in both word & deed.  (Read: To Be Told…Know Your Story. - Dr. Dan B. Allender)

Mission & Story (Situational) : When your worldview changes and your very values and identity change, how you live will change.  Loving others and sharing your story will be a natural result of your understanding of the gospel story.  Anything less than this is a rejection of the Biblical story.  This is because in your worldview, you will see God as a missionary god and you as a missionary too.  Christians ought become great listeners as well as story tellers. We must re-think evangelism to be the sharing of our story, God's story and listening to others stories.

Listen to the Sermon: Telling Gospel Stories (MP3 & PowerPoint)

Good read at Christianity Today about Donald Miller.  One quote I found interesting regarding the impact of Blue Like Jazz:

(Donald Miller) compares his experience to Paul speaking to the Athenians on Mars Hill. Paul understood Greek culture, he was winsome, and he could make an appeal for truth in a way that Greeks would receive. I point out that in that scenario, Don Miller is Paul, and evangelicals are the Greeks.

Miller nods. "I actually believe that I'm setting people free from something that is frustrating them."

Read Full Article:  A Better Storyteller -Donald Miller helps culturally conflicted evangelicals make peace with their faith.

It's been well over a year since my first post on multiperspectivalism (or triperspectivalism), but more and more people & churches are seeing this as a framework to do effective ministry.  In the Acts 29 forum, there appears to be several churches who are re-thinking their structures based on this framework.  At Kaleo Church, Dick Kaufmann and Doug Swagerty (from Harbor Pres.) have influenced us greatly.  These two missional church planters have had years of applying a triperspectival approach to ministry. Also, they both taught on triperspectivalism with John Frame.  I've been told Redeemer is flying Dick out (who used to be 'Keller's right hand man') to do some consulting for them.  David Fairchild has also been emailing John Frame (right image, the man credited with introducing triperspectivalism) who we're trying to schedule for our regional event in San Diego. We are just at the beginning of unpacking this and seeing how it applies to the church & our lives but I thought it would be helpful to consolidate what we have so far:

John Frame's Primer on Perspectivalism (pdf)

Posts from my blogs: 

How Multi-perspectivalism and Tri-Perspectivalism should shape your Worldview

Triperspectival Ecclesiology - Being the Church as Corporate, Intimate & Group

The Decline of the Western Church and the Call to renew your Church’s Ecclesiology

Missional Eldership - Leading a Transformational Community

Creating a Church to Change Culture

Developing Leaders to lead

Triperspectival Ministry Assessment

How Mutliperspectivalism shapes Church Leadership and how you staff a church

Leadership Conflict Resolution: Prophet | Priest | King

What type of churches NOT to plant (triperpectival)

Deacon Training & Development

Other bloggers mentioning these perspectival approaches:

Ministry through the lens of Multiperspectival Epistemology 

Multi-perspectivalism

Frame Friday: Multiperspectivalism

Frame and Triperspectivalism

Ed Stetzer sent over his recent insights for Church Planters:

Church planters have a million issues to consider as they start a new church: what music style do we use, how do we let the community know about us, and when do we get started (to name just a few). Yet they may now be able to cross one more worry off their list—whether it hurts them to not meet in a "church" building.

This is something we had to think through as a church. Kaleo Church has met in a church, an office building, a theater, a warehouse and we are only a couple years old.  We've found that guests increased when we moved into the theater, but the downside it is hard to build community and do the family ministry. 

Our experience would agree with Stetzer's research, finding a church building is not important.  According to the survey of 1,200 people  asked, If you were considering visiting or joining a church, would knowing that the church does not meet in a traditional church building impact your decision?

• It would not make any difference  73%
• It would negatively impact my decision 19%
• It would positively impact my decision  6%
• Not sure      2%

Read the full article: Where Should a New Church Meet?

The North America Church Planting Seminar is an inter-denominational training event designed to equip church planters, coaches and supervisors to start, grow and multiply healthy, gospel-centered churches that result in the spiritual, social and cultural transformation of entire cities and regions. Christian leaders from more than 30 countries, representing over 100 denominations and mission agencies, have taken this church planter training.  This conference will be hosted at John Piper's church.

I will be presenting a couple sessions at the conference dealing with Message and Media: Communicating the Gospel in Our Post-Christian World

Session 1: Communication in Our Post-Christian World
The culture is changing and it requires new methods of communication.  This session will help you learn how to effectively minister in a post-Christian context.   Come learn the 1) five values of this Post-Christian generation, the 2) ten idols that enslave them and 3) effective ways to communicate the eternal and unchanging gospel message.

Session 2: The Internet & The Sovereignty of God
Pax Romana, the Gutenberg printing press and the internet.  God has used major technological and cultural shifts to bring sweeping change.  As our culture moves increasingly online, this session will help your church effectively use the internet to be missionaries to unbelievers, gather the unchurched and connect with your community.  Come learn how to use this powerful tool to change the community in which you are called to plant a church.

Session 2's title is a play of J.I. Packer's work, since a lot of reformed folks are there, I'm have to address the antinomy of internet outreach and God's sovereignty. :)  Let me know if you will be there…

View the other sessions & speakers such as Stetzer, Nabors, Childers, Ogne, etc (or view my mug shot). 

A group of Acts 29 pastors gathered for our monthly lunch together.  It was during this time we provide just-in-time coaching to those who would like to bring things to the table.  At this meeting three different churches discussed how to operate as a plurality of elders and yet make decisions when there is disagreement.  Several suggestions were given including weighing in how strongly you feel about the issue, but at the end of the day almost all church planter/pastors brought up the belief that there must be a first amongst equals.  Several people had tried to operate in a plurality of eldership without this, but both failed.  Further explanation: 

First Among a Council of Equals: Leaders Among Leaders: An extremely important but terribly misunderstood aspect of biblical eldership is the principle of "first among equals" (1 Tim. 5:17). Failure to understand this principle has caused some elderships to be tragically ineffective in their pastoral care and leadership. Although elders are to act jointly as a council and share equal authority and responsibility for the leadership of the church, all elders are not equal in their giftedness, biblical knowledge, leadership ability, experience, or dedication. Therefore, those among the elders who are particularly gifted leaders and/or teachers will naturally stand out among the other elders as leaders and teachers within the leadership body.

…the "first-among-equals" concept is evidenced by the way in which congregations are to honor their elders. Concerning elders within the church in Ephesus, Paul writes, "Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, 'You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing,' and 'The laborer is worthy of his wages' " (1 Tim. 5:17,18). All elders must be able to teach the Word, but not all of them desire to work fully at preaching and teaching. The local church should properly care for those who are specially gifted in teaching and spend the time to do so. Let us be clear about the fact that it is the spiritual giftedness of the elders that causes the church to grow and prosper spiritually, not just the eldership form of government per se.

 Source: BIBLICAL ELDERSHIP Restoring the Eldership to Its Rightful Place in the Church (pdf) NOTE: This excerpt is from an abridgment of Biblical Eldership: An Urgent Call to Restore Biblical Church Eldership by Alexander Strauch.

So how does this work? How are you operating as a plurality of elders?  Do you have a first amongst equals?

One of the ways I've been thinking about this is that as you look at a church as corporation, cause & community there will be elder(s) whose 'cause' is the mission/movement.  Taking from Outgrowing the Ingrown Church by C. John Miller, this is a 'missional pacesetter who is able to break through the church's natural tendency to erect barriers to guarantee the church's comfort and safety'.  This does not mean they are maverick decision makers but that they are focused on the cause of mission/movement in such a way that their gifts are being exercised in moving the mission forward. 

At Kaleo Church, while David Fairchild is the primary preaching elder, I have never seen him use this position as leverage to demand his way.  He builds consensus and seeks for unanimity even though many people at Kaleo might consider him the 'head pastor' because they are not aware of how decisions are made.  Releasing the elders to be on mission flows from a shared commitment to the corporate convictions.  This requires great trust between the elders, because other elders will have their own 'causes' that are guided by the normative/vision/values (corporate).  The plurality releases individual elders to make decisions at the edges of the church, advancing the mission or cause. 

All of this requires a shift for many traditional churches from a Pastoral to a Missional Church leadership paradigm.  For this, I'd recommend The Missional Leader: Equipping Your Church to Reach a Changing World by Alan Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk.  Their contrast of Pastoral & Missional Church leadership is excellent.  For example:

Lately churches have spoken a lot about being relevant to the culture.  For many churches, this was a necessary first step.  We had to begin by taking a missionary posture to understand the prevailing worldview and the ideological shifts that occurred in the last decades.  Sadly, many churches have not even begun this process.  For many of those that have changed, we are seeing new forms of church being expressed, new missional postures, great dialog with non-believers and a real intentionality to live as 'reformissionaries'. 

So now many of you have relevant churches,  what do you do?  What are the next steps for your church? 

Here is one area I believe Christians need to grow.  The Christendom Ghost (meaning the view that America is a Christian nation) is quickly disappearing. The reality we enjoy of morality, law and order are all based on this ghost that will be gone in a generation or two.  Being relevant is only one part of our calling, we also need to be a witness to a lost world.  Pastors and lay leaders need to train the church in triperspectival apologetics. Let me unpack these three apologetic perspectives:

Coherence (Normative):  We need to understand 'how we can know truth' and the framework through which all reality makes sense.  For Christians, we must be saturated with the  Biblical story & worldview and Presuppositional apologetics.   Often reformed or Calvinists focus on this area heavily.  (Further blog posts on worldview: Gospel, Story, Worldview, and the Church’s Mission, The Urgency of Reading the Bible as One Story in the 21st Century, Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity)

Correspondence (Situational): Science is the king of the day.  For example, evolution theory is the dominant framework that corresponds to reality.  Often non-believers use these evidences to dismiss Christianity to the place of values/preferences which are quite separate from scientific 'facts'.   Christians need to understand evidences and understand how creation and the resurrection are central to the correspondence of the Christian worldview.  Often Armenians champion this angle.  Yet we must know that evidences are not enough.  To quote David Fairchild, "Unbelief is not the absence of something it is the presence of something else, namely a spirit of opposition. It isn't merely intellectual; it is emotional. This attitude of opposition and disturbed emotions drives us to be hateful of the Gospel." (source: Sermon Understanding Unbelief )

Correlation (Existential): Christians ought to understand correlating impact of people's worldview (including their worldview created by their evidential arguments).  Often people's worldview comports to their emotional needs.  People accept what they want to live how they want.  Most people are walking contradictions in this realm. For example, a strict naturalist who rules out metaphysics still longs for love, hope & meaning.   Any story but the Biblical story must be shown for how the worldview wrecks havoc on how the adherent lives or worldview. (Read: Trilogy - Three Essential Books in One Volume by Francis Schaeffer)

I say all the above with one caveat, as Christians it is much more important that we are about 'Thesis' rather than 'Antithesis'.  We need to live out the gospel positively to show the strongest apologetic of the gospel.

Credits: Much of this came from a conversation with Tom Moller. 

Traditional/Centralized forms of church government destroy a church's mission.  At Kaleo Church we continue to re-think the form of our church and our church's ecclesiology for the sake of the gospel. As we do, we must also consider how we ought to lead, in light of a move from being a 'traditional, Constantinian Church' to a church designed to transform San Diego.

First, here are the reasons why we must re-consider traditional 'CEO' mentality churches shaped by Western ideas.  As a note this includes both CEO/Sr. Pastor churches as well as those who lead as a plurality of elders.  Traditional/Central led churches will… (see Traditional Church Leadership diagram)

1. be limited by it's leadership to be on mission.  This is because of the top down leadership which is a vote/control/power position.  The church creates a bottleneck where all decisions must go to the center to be processed by the few in order for action to take place.  The church will be limited by the leaders ability to make timely decisions on a frequent basis.  The overall organization is limited in scope based on what the leaders can support. 

2. significantly impair discipleship of their people.  The church creates a substantial 'pastor/leader' and 'laity' distinction where the people are trained to function as second-tier Christians.  Knowledge is centralized rather than teaching and sending people to make decisions and apply the gospel to diff't situations.  For example, one local church I know of would not let several young men who were passionate about starting a college ministry do so, because they were not seminary trained.  This church may be a great 'teaching' church but their people will not be discipled to apply this knowledge on mission to change their city.

3. have natural resistance to reach the margins of society.  Being the beautiful mess taxes the leadership because they will take on the counseling load or other challenges brought on by being missional.  It is easier to create a great family atmosphere where everyone is ok than invite broken people into the Kingdom.

4. cultivate consumeristic programs rather than equip people for transformation.  Ministry must be program driven because Christians are not freed to apply the gospel to transform the city.  Programs can only deal with problems, people on mission can transform a city.  

Side Note on Plurality of Elders:  I believe there is rock-solid Biblical case for the plurality of elders. (Suggested Reading: Biblical Eldership: An Urgent Call to Restore Biblical Church Leadership) I don't see how a Sr. Pastor led church can ever overcome the above problems (much less the below suggestions), unless the church functions as a plurality of elders.  Elders have the privilege of being the under-shepherds of the church.  (Jesus it the one true shepherd.)   For some, this role of shepherding creates a picture of sitting around 'watching the flock' only. The elder should be responsible for leading the flock on mission, teaching them theology to deal with the paths difficulties and praying, counseling, watching out for those who are having troubles.  But all of this is done with the emphasis on mission.

What does it look like to have a decentralized plurality of elders leading a triperspectival church?  How can we raise the bar of discipleship and create a sent people who are adaptive and on mission to transform a community?  Here are a few thoughts: (see Leading as a Missional Eldership diagram )

The leadership needs to view the church triperspectivally, meaning the church is a Cause (Normative), Community (Existential) and Corporation (Situational).   It is in this way the eldership will make decisions that are centralized, de-centralized and delegated to people on mission.  These are how these decisions might be made:

Corporation:  Elders should make central decisions about issues of doctrine, vision and values. It is critical they are united in their stand on principle issues of doctrine/theology.  This is like Paul gathering with other early church leaders in Galatians to ensure there was unity on the gospel.  Central decision making on vision and values will be heavily influenced by the elders involvement in the body and the goal is to install elders who have been raised up in the church and confirmed they understand the churches vision/values. 

Community: Elders should delegate and disciple the community to handle the bulk of the counseling, gospeling of believers and the function of mission.  If a community comes to a problem they can't handle, they can involve a community leader and escalate it up to the Missional Community Leader and eventually to an elder.  The goal is to push the active life of the church into the community.  This is like Jethro's counsel to Moses but also viewed in NT church life.

Cause: Particular elders (or leaders such as deacons) will lead people out on mission on causes.  These leaders may be particularly acute at mercy ministry, evangelism, apologetics, teaching, etc.  These leaders should be actively creating disciples in a systemic leadership development process so that decisions are made at the fringe of the community as those involved in a cause encounter difficulty.  It is only when the run into problems that they cannot handle or that impacts the entire corporation that they escalate problems inward.

The goal of all of this is to create a highly adaptable church body that provides flexible leadership decision-making at the appropriate level and creates a culture of people on mission.  This certainly is going to require great trust and a willingness to let people fail.  It also will require letting go of some of the control and trusting that the Holy Spirit that is in the leadership is also in the entire church body. 

CREDITS: A lot of this is triggered by Hirsch's The Forgotten Ways and The Missional Leader: Equipping Your Church to Reach a Changing World by Alan Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk as well as conversations with David Fairchild & Harbor Presbyterian.

Buzzard Blog: X-Ray Questions to identify your functional messiah/idols "The questions aim to help people identify the ungodly masters that occupy positions of authority in their heart. These questions reveal 'functional gods,' what or who actually controls their particular actions, thoughts, emotions, attitudes, memories, and anticipations."  From David Powlison's Seeing With New Eyes.  Read anything you can get from Powlison, the Tripp's or Ed Welch.

TallSkinnyKiwi: Pub Crawl for Jesus Churches urged to adopt-a-pub for a Pub Crawl in London.

Church Relevance: Evangelical Christians Disliked by University Faculty Sadly, the title could also be 'Evangelical Christians disliked by Evangelical Christians'

At the monthly pastors meeting here in San Diego we discussed leadership development.  Dick Kaufmann noted that churches need both systemic and systematic leadership development. 

Systemic Leadership Development is using your entire organization (the church body) in the process of developing leaders.  This is organic and is often through inviting & involving people into leadership paths.  For example, a community group leader invites an attender to lead a portion of the meeting.  Over time this develops into an apprenticeship, which eventually leads to a new community group leader.

Systematic leadership Development is planning a process or system to develop people.  Formal education uses this model, or elder training would as well.  

As leaders are put in positions of responsibility, here are the four modes of managing them:

Delegating - What areas of responsibility do they have a handle on and only require my time when they need help or are having trouble?

Participating - What areas do they need my involvement, where I am available to discuss options they've come up with.

Coaching - Where do they need coaching to help grow and provide guidance.

Telling - Where do they need me to tell/do things to train them so they can learn to manage these on their own?

The goal is to have all areas fully delegated and only require your attention when the leader needs help. Dick said the best book he's read on some of these things is  Leadership and the One Minute Manager.  Lastly, you are constantly working on issues of Confidence or Competence.  The most dangerous person is a highly confident/incompetent person.  You want to grow the confidence of the competent to maximize potential.