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 How to Develop Leaders in Your ChurchFit each person’s unique gifts.
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Development. This is where we place staff and lay leadership development. Once the staff person knows who he or she is and their ministry direction, they are ready to pursue their ministry development. We at the Malphurs Group believe that there are no less than five developmental dimensions: character, knowledge, skills, emotions, and the physical side of one's being. Someone on the team, such as the pastor in the small church,the executive pastor in a large church, oratrained consultant, should meet individually with each staff person to set up an initial plan that addresses these developmental areas. Then that same person should meet twice a year (oreven quarterly) with each staff person to see how they are progressing in their development and to hold them accountable for the same. Otherwise, the process will fall through the proverbial cracks. A benefit of using a trained, experienced consultant is that the staff will listen to and trust someone from the outside when they may not be as open with a pastor or an executive pastor for fear of losing his or her job. They tell consultants things they would never share with their pastor or another staff person. Another reason is that the consultant can head off or address problems that may exist between the staff person and the senior pastor. Once you have a staff development process in place, it becomes much easier to do the same with church laypersons. I would challenge each staff person to select and recruit those who work in their particular areas of ministry and develop them. Start with one or two as time allows. Once these people are trained, they, in turn, will multiply their efforts by developing others in the same manner. What you will discover in a very short time is that the process will replicate a number of leaders all across the ministries of the church. Dr. Aubrey Malphurs is a contributing writer to Church Executive and professor of pastoral ministries at Dallas Theological Seminary. He is president of The Malphurs Group of Dallas, Texas,the author of more than 15 books, and a member of the board for The Society for Church Consulting Excerpted and used with permission on ChurchCentral.com from Church Executive.com, © Power Trade Media 2009. © 2009 ChurchCentral.com |             |
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