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Leadership development is a three-fold matter — let’s call it heart, mind, and soul:
Heart deals with personality, talents, spiritual gifts, abilities, and passions. Heart is shaped by one’s upbringing, experiences, time taken in practice, and education. Mind is all about what one knows. One’s education, what has been studied, abilities gained, and what one has learned over a lifetime impacts this area. Soul relates to spiritual maturity. Obedience to God’s Word, strong habits as a disciple of Christ, and closeness to the heavenly Father are all measured here. The development of leadership must address all three of these areas in a balanced way. Neglecting any one of these areas leads to catastrophic results.
I. Let’s take a moment to examine the MIND area first. In relating to Spanish pastors, the error I have observed all too often is equating knowledge gained with disciplemaking. That is, successful discipleship strategies are often measured by how many people are attending small group Bible studies and, at times, worship services. There are a couple of problems with this measurement:
First, the majority of Spanish language church attenders are oral learners. While many of them read, they do not make a habit of it and their reading comprehension level is extremely low. Yet, churches continuously use literate methods to teach and relay information. The teacher stands in front of the group and reads the lesson to the group, or asks the group to read the passage and then proceeds to lecture them for the rest of the time. The pastor spends 30 – 45 minutes of time lecturing the congregation each week.
This leads to the second error: the church assumes that because information is being passed on that learning is taking place. Even if this were so, information learning is not equal to behavior modification or personal change in core values. Generations born since the late 1950’s no longer accept information at face value. Therefore, objective truth received has no subjective meaning until it is truth validated by personal experience. Therefore, mind and heart go hand in hand as life experience validates information learned. Often times, one must practice basic knowledge acquired before advanced knowledge can make sense or be learned — just like Jesus’ disciples had to!
IMPLICATION: The majority of first and second generation Spanish speakers in America must be discipled using orality methods. The small group leader must become a facilitator for the group and cease being the “one-way” teacher. The Holy Spirit becomes the leader to truth as all rely on God’s Word to provide the answers and the group leader no longer has to be the head theological expert. The result is quicker multiplication of group facilitators and the group members become more involved in the learning process. The key tools in this area are Chronological Bible Storying, inductive Bible studies, narrative preaching, and audio/visual Biblical media. Links t this material may be found at www.missionalmisfit.com, www.chronologicalbiblestorying.com, www.churchplantingvillage.net, www.sbtexas.com/churchplanting
II. Discipling to one’s HEART is probably the easiest of the three areas and yet possibly the most ignored. Too often people are assigned tasks among the church body that have little to do with their giftedness or passions. So, when they fail to carry out the task, they get blamed for being irresponsible or immature. The reality is that they were probably frustrated and bored because they were asked to do something they had no ability to accomplish or were not interested in doing in the first place. Disciplemaking must help followers of Christ discover their giftedness and find places of service within the Body that utilizes their talents, passion, and giftedness. This way they are continually challenged and motivated, which then serves to reward their passion and perfect their gifts. Heart also has to do with the development of skills. That is, the more one acts upon information learned, the more one’s skill and ability to learn increases.
IMPLICATION: Rather than just having someone take a spiritual gift survey, the disciple should be given multiple opportunities to experiment in different areas of service to help them discover what they enjoy doing and what they feel gifted to do. This could include anything from mentoring people into different church leadership positions to simply allowing someone an opportunity to pour tea at the fellowship meeting or set up the chairs. An environment of encouragement should exist around whatever the Body engages in that allows its members to try out things and eventually commit to whatever matches their giftedness and passions.
The church should also be able to immediately plug anyone who visits into an area of service: from unchurched prospect to committed Christians. Remember, these areas of service are not limited to things within the four walls of the building that happen during scheduled church programs. The majority of what the Body is about should be happening outside the walls and outside of normal church programs anyway. Functional strategies could include servanthood evangelism projects, Epoch from NAMB, missions opportunities, spiritual gift inventories, mentoring relationships, and small group life. Coaching or mentoring relationships are also extremely valuable for gaining in skills and properly applying the information received. At times, the importance is not just applying the information, but applying it correctly. Coaching is an invaluable asset for most disciplines.
III. The area that is probably the most difficult and takes the most time is the SOUL. A biblical worldview is evidenced by one’s behavior even more than what one knows. Spiritual maturity grows as one puts into practice the information received using the talents, gifts, and passions one possesses. Opportunity and accountability are key issues here. One must be shown and be given opportunities to apply received information. Most strong disciples of Jesus have and/or have had strong accountability in their lives. Knowing God is more than just knowledge of who God is or desires; it is the willful obedience to His Word and will in one’s life that results in the development of a stronger personal relationship with the Father. A disciple learns to hear God’s Word and immediately put it into practice. This is strengthened over one’s lifetime and will never be perfected on earth.
IMPLICATION: Having a prayer life is basic to survival as spiritual growth is all about spiritual warfare. Small groups are among the best venues a church has for providing both of these. Groups can discover immediate relevant application to God’s Word and group members hold each other accountable for obedience. Small groups are also safe places for sharing spiritual journeys and having committed people pray for one another. Coaching is also valuable to help one deal with spiritual issues. The coach will interrogate reality and help keep focus and accountability in one’s life. A spiritual journal is also a great tool for measuring progress and wrestling with key issues along the way.
Although the list of strategies listed are not all inclusive, it should provide a solid springboard from which to measure one’s current framework and add to it those things that would contextually benefit the church’s disciplemaking process. The church cannot assume that the disciple will know how to do any of the things mentioned above. Therefore, time must be spent developing the strategic pieces and environments that will help the church participants grow into reproducing disciples of Jesus.
Disciplesmaking tools and additional links mentioned here can be found at www.missionalmisfit.com. Neil Cole’s Life Transformation Guides are also a great resource for small group accountability.
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