LeaderServe

  • Shift into Focus

    I’m having a seriously hard time keeping my focus. I start to write a few paragraphs about something important to me, but I get distracted two sentences in . . .

    In order to stay focused, I’m making effort to re-focus. Thankfully, TEAM has a mission statement to help me: Our mission is to partner with the global Church in sending disciples who make disciples and establish missional churches to the glory of God.

    TEAM’s mission statement captures our commitment to disciple-making and church planting. Each member of TEAM spends our time and energy in different ways, but we all contribute toward this common goal. As a Senior Director, I spend the bulk of my time and energy to encourage and equip other leaders in TEAM. I do this so that they can encourage and equip others, so that we can together see more people following Jesus and growing together in community with other believers. That’s why we’re here.

    I’ll never forget seeing “Schindler’s List” when it came out in the early 1990’s. There was a movie, too, but I’m talking about a brief magazine article about a young church planter in Germany. God gave this church planter a list of people in his community to pray for and pursue for the sake of the gospel.

    As an aspiring church planter, this little article reminded me that ministry is about people: people with faces, people with names, people with families, people with joys and sorrows, people who know Christ and people who don’t yet know Christ. The focus of what we do is the people to whom we have been sent.

    “Schindler’s List” helped me to focus during many years of preparation (seminary, support-raising, language study) and throughout my subsequent years of ministry in Japan, and the Czech Republic. Over these years, my list has included names such as Marcus, Naomi, Chie, Hiroko, Oki, Yasu, Kazu, Non, Masa, Shoji, Jan, Richard, Mira, Jana, Michael, Jirka. Who is on your list?

    This little article that left a lasting imprint on me was in a magazine published by TEAM, and the church planter was Diet Schindler.

    30 years later: Diet is still with TEAM, still serving Christ in Germany, and still inspiring and equipping others to make disciples. He’s written a new book, Shift: The Road to Level 5 Church Multiplication. I bought it here today, and I encourage you to check it out. You can also find it and other great resources for disciplemaking ministry at exponential.org. May Diet’s book and exponential’s resources help us keep our focus!

    Keep listening,

    David

  • Leading God’s Way?

    leading the way God leads vs. leading the way God calls us to lead

    I will lead blind Israel down a new path,
    guiding them along an unfamiliar way.
    I will brighten the darkness before them
    and smooth out the road ahead of them.
    Yes, I will indeed do these things;
    I will not forsake them.
    Isaiah 42:16


    I don’t believe we are called to lead in the same way as God. How could we do that? He is all-powerful. Omniscient. All authority in heaven and on earth belongs to Jesus.

    Not I. My role is to be a servant. Mine is a humble role. And yet I am also called to have courage, because I follow this God who leads his people down unfamiliar ways, towards the darkness. He gives us light for the path as we walk, but doesn’t often illuminate the path ahead of us. He will smooth out the road, but we will still encounter bumps. He is trustworthy. My role is to trust Him.

    Leaders have power. They may have authority by virtue of their position. They may have power because of their experience or expertise. They may have influence because they produce results. Whatever the source of power may be, leaders have it. What will we do with it?

    I believe God calls leaders use their power to give power to others. I think that’s His way for me.

  • Making Teams Work in Missions

    We just finished a webinar for Missio Nexus on “Making Teams Work in Missions.” If you missed it, a recording will be posted on the Missio Nexus website here within the next week.  I spoke about the challenges teams face, and what we can do to help teams succeed:

    1. Deploy real teams.
    2. Get the right people on our teams.
    3. Build healthy teams.

    These are topics that I covered on our old website, Building Healthy Teams, which no longer exists. We are gradually bringing some of the old content, including many resources for team building, into this new site.

  • Leading Change

    David has enjoyed teaching a DMin course, “Leading Change,” for Asian Christian leaders in the Doctor of Ministry in Leadership Effectiveness program at IGSL.

    Class participants include experienced church planting leaders, pastors, a retired military officer, an entrepreneur, and educators from four Southeast Asian countries.

    The International Graduate School of Leadership (IGSL) is an accredited, graduate-level school in Manila, Philippines with a mission to develop servant-steward leaders for key sectors of society.  Learn more at: www.igsl.asia
     

     

     

  • Proceed to Highlighted Route

    -Guest post by Sue Querfeld 

    I needed a way to figure out how to get onto that route and start making the correct turns to make my way home.

    A few years ago I had to take my daughter to get some immunizations.  We managed to find the doctor easily enough, but coming home was another story. 

    Somehow I got turned around and was not sure where I was or how to get home.  One thing I WAS sure of, though, was that we did NOT want to cross the bridge into Philadelphia, so I got off the highway at the last exit before doing that and ended up in Camden, New Jersey.  Camden is NOT a nice place to be lost. 

    I pulled into the parking lot of a convenience store and wondered what to do.  Then I remembered the GPS on my phone.  We had been out of the country for several years, so the phone and all its bells and whistles were new to me.

    I managed to find the GPS and even type in the address where we wanted to go.  It did its thing and a route was mapped out.  The voice said, “Proceed northeast on Maple Street.”  Umm, sure.  First of all, I could not PROCEED anywhere, as I was at a standstill, facing the wall of a building. 

    Secondly, which way was northeast?  I’m a left-right kind of person.  Unless I’m on the coast and know which ocean it is, I am NOT going to know which way is north, south, east, or west.  And lastly, I could only presume that the street in front of the store was Maple, but there was no sign to indicate that.  Sooo…. 

    That GPS had all the information I needed to get home, but I did not know how to get started.  I needed a way to figure out how to get onto that route and start making the correct turns to make my way home.

    That happens in other areas of our lives as well.  We have a goal, and even know a lot of the steps to reach it, but we don’t know how to get started.  Coaching is the piece that is missing.  A coach can help us access the information that we already have so we can find the route and get started.  And sometimes, just like on a GPS, there are several possible routes to take.  A coach asks questions that open our minds to new ideas, revealing more possible routes to reach that same goal.  

    Just as we sometimes run into unexpected obstacles when we are driving—construction, heavy traffic, debris in the road—that cause us to have to make a detour, we often encounter unexpected circumstances in our daily lives that make us have to adjust on the fly, changing our plans to accommodate a new situation.  Through an ongoing relationship, a coach can help us find the best way to navigate those unexpected detours and still reach our goal.

    GPS is only a tool; the driver is ultimately responsible for choosing the route and for getting the vehicle safely to its destination.  The same is true with coaching.  A coach asks questions, points out things that perhaps we have not thought of, and helps us to think in new and broader ways, but in the end we make the decisions about what steps to take to move toward out goal. 

    It could be, though, that those questions and the new insights that arise from them are just the thing we need to get us started on the route toward achieving our goals.

    –Sue has served over 20 years in church planting, discipleship, and coaching in Peru.  She coaches in both English and in Spanish; certified ACC.

  • Teams in Mission: Are They Worth It? (Part Two)

    “A real team has a goal that compels its members to work through their differences and misunderstandings. It compels the team to capitalize on their differences and create solutions that no one could design alone. That’s the kind of goal that transforms a group of like-minded people into a team.

    Missionary groups who are mistakenly called teams suffer in two ways: (1) they fail to catch the synergy that is inherent in real teamwork, and (2) they waste a lot of energy in trying to act like a team. Missionaries and mission organizations ignore this to their peril.

    So if you want to be an effective team, first make sure you really are a team. Then you can move onto the next step:” .….. continue reading “Part Two” of David’s EMQ article, posted by Ed Stetzer at The Exchange, Christianity Today.

  • Now it’s at The Exchange

    Surprise! My article in EMQ was posted by Ed Stetzer at The Exchange on Christianity Today. Time to write something new . . .

  • Article published in EMQ

    Some wonder if working in teams is worth it. We believe, YES, it is! As long as the team has a goal that compels people to work together, and as long as its members work to maintain good team health.

    Read David’s article, “Teams in Mission: Are They Worth It?” in the Evangelical Missions Quarterly, EMQ online, linked here. https://emqonline.com/https%3A//sample/emqonline.com/node/3649%23

    All the photos were taken in Prague. You may see someone you know.

    Take a few minutes to read and ponder the reflection questions at the end, such as, What’s something that you could do this week that could improve trust in your team?

     

  • 10 goals for a coaching series

    If you were to make one change in your life that would move you forward in living out your calling, what would it be?

    What would you like to accomplish, as we coach together over the next few months?

    The exciting thing about working with a coach, is that you, the coachee, set the agenda. Some might not know where to start. The following are some of the actual goals our coaches have worked with. The options are endless to grow personally and professionally, whether you are head of a large organization or a new mom partnering in ministry.

    • to keep up with the pace of life and do it well
    • to gain clarity regarding possible future move
    • to develop trust and understanding between myself and a co-worker
    • to lead ministry area to discover a clear, compelling vision for our future
    • to rediscover who I am in God, a healthy identity in my new role
    • to establish healthy patterns & practice of biblical rest
    • to more effectively and clearly communicate
    • to move forward in ministry while processing deep grief & loss 
    • to manage communication with supporters
    • to prepare and carry out discipleship training program

    A coach can help you manage a stressful or ambiguous job, think through life balance, or clarify something that has shifted. Coaching can provide a framework to take action towards your own goals.

    Look here to get started.

    (Coaching series questions adapted from materials by Creative Results Management.)

  • He taught us to love one another

    I’ve heard/sung “O Holy Night” four times in the last week. Some Christmas songs get tiresome during the holidays, but not this one. This song of hope, and faith, and awe towards the One who came to earth has always been one of my favorites. Since Sunday night, when I sang the hymn for the fourth time in a space of five days, the first line of the third stanza has been reverberating in my soul:

    Truly He taught us to love one another; His law is love and His gospel is peace.

    I want to live and lead like Jesus. Jesus followed the law of love, and asked his followers (who would become leaders) to do the same. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” Jesus was a peacemaker; He proclaimed blessing upon all who would be the same. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.”

    May this week give you many opportunities to love those around you, and to make peace in Christ’s name.

    Truly He taught us to love one another; His law is love and His gospel is peace.
    Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother; And in His name all oppression shall cease.
    Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we, Let all within us praise His holy name.
    Christ is the Lord! O praise His Name forever, His power and glory evermore proclaim.

    for the fascinating history of “O Holy Night”, look here.