Leaders For The Harvest
Tonight I was on the phone with one of my good friends from Kansas City that I haven’t had a chance to chat with in a while. I was describing some of the wins we are experiencing and some of the challenges that are occurring at the same time. After two or three minutes, my friend gently broke into the conversation and challenged me. “You know what you should be spending your time doing right now is developing leaders for your third and fourth house church right now, right?”
I was dumbfounded (for a couple of reasons). I was shocked by how quickly he saw straight into the heart of some of the problems I’ve been facing. But more than that, I was shocked at how obvious what he was saying was and how clearly I had missed that fact. It seems that in preparing a church for the harvest, I had totally neglected leadership development in our midst.
But the conversation gets right to the heart of a problem that I believe we face in the West. Our ability to reach further into the harvest depends significantly on our ability to raise up new, harvest-minded leaders in our midst. We think finding the harvest is our biggest issue. We often forget that the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.
Join me today in praying that God would raise up workers for His harvest here and where you are.
Photo Credit: Bosworth Battlefield (2) by Jams_123
Kingdom Leadership and the Future of the Church
We’ve been talking a lot in our house church about what the future looks like. What does it mean to be a church made up of more than one house church? What does leadership look like in an environment like this?
So this morning I ran across a post by Len at Next Reformation that captures some of the spirit of what I believe Kingdom leadership looks like in the days ahead. Here’s the quote:
“Brian McGaffigan writes,
The job of facilitator/change agent was described by Ifor Ffowcs-Williams when he asked the question: ‘Would you like a job that offers no formal authority; a high degree of uncertainty; no regular hours; and you will need to earn respect from skeptics; be proactive when the limelight fades; work with energy drainers; lead from behind – no ego tripping. The upside of the job is that you can break patterns; cross boundaries; build bridges across your community; be a hero finder uncovering talent; make things happen through others; influence people in and beyond the cluster; satisfy your hunger for Action; and make a dent in the universe?'”
Obviously there are a lot of character qualifications and Kingdom mandates left out of this description. But if you marry the kind of person Scripture says should lead with these characteristics, I think you get a much clearer picture of what Kingdom leaders look like.
What about you? What would you add to this list? How is this different than leaders you see in the world?
Photo Credit: Desert Leader by Hamed Saber
Food For Thought: Thirty Days To Greater Fruitfulness Week 2
Every week here at Pursuing Glory I try to bring together the best posts I’ve found that will equip the end-times church to operate in her God-ordained destiny. These are the best blogs, articles, books and other resources related to our purpose here at this site. Feel free to visit, comment, and make use of the resources found at each site.
I never knew that blogging every day could be so difficult. The people who do this regularly must have no other job or commitments (or they lack small children). Despite my complaining, this has actually been a good process and I’ve learned a lot about Jesus, listening, blogging, and writing. And now, on with the links.
A New Kind of Disciple Felicity Dale reposts a blog from Intentional Gatherings about a spiritual revolution taking place among young adults in the United States. It’s a must read at Simply Church.
New Generations International Newspaper Check out this excellent story at David Watson’s blog, Touchpoint, which tells the story of a miracle happening in their church planting network in Southeast Asia.
What is Organic Church This is an in-depth article between Neil Cole and Frank Viola. Each call what they are doing organic church but the result is very different. I think this interview by Keith Giles at Subversive1 is incredibly helpful. We have a lot to learn from both men.
Spiritual Family This blog looks at the shirt that has taken place as a movement-oriented house church network begins to operate as a spiritual family. House churches will never work if we don’t do both. Find more at A Holy Discontent’s Weblog.
Emerging Doubt This post is by Steve over at Movements.net. Steve brings us up to date on why much of the “Emergent Church” conversation didn’t help bring the Gospel to others like they said it would.
Thirty Days To Greater Fruitfulness, Week Two And finally, my little contribution to the internets. Check out the exploits of a man committed to listening to Jesus and obeying what he hears for 30 days.
Photo Credit: Design Probes – Food for Thought by centralasian.
Cluster Map
Pursuing Glory 