The Journey to becoming a Lone Nut

Watch the Video First!

I have watched this clip over and over again. It speaks to me about what it means to be a leader and it also inspires me to invest in emerging leaders who have the potential to turn a "lone nut "like me into a leader. I hope by nurturing these young, up and coming leaders and treating them as equals they can begin their journey of "lone nutiness"themselves, find a follower and lead movements across this country and throughout the world!

The first sign of a leader is followers. By definition a leader is someone who is followed. The first sign of a great leader however, is someone with the ability to identify emerging leaders. A great Christian leader spots something in someone and says "that's a leader", they invest and encourage, support and empower emerging leaders in the pursuit of growing Christ's kingdom not their own.

Bill Hybels in "Courageous Leadership" says "When I see a leader whose radar wand is spinning around to locate an emerging leader, or when I watch an older leader investing time and energy to coach and empower a younger leader, I am convinced that I am seeing leadership at it's very best" (Bill Hybels, “Courageous Leadership”  (Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 2009) pp122)

I am convinced that leaders must make this one of their highest priorities. Why? because only leaders can develop other leaders and create a leadership culture. Preachers and Teachers can't do it. Administrators can't do it, Mercy gifted people certainly can't. Only leaders can multiply the leadership impact by raising up additional leaders.

When a leader develops not only his or her own leadership potential, but draws out the leadership potential of other leaders as well, the kingdom impact from one life is multiplied exponentially. it produces far more fruit than any single leadership achievement could have. The impact of that leader's life will be felt for many generations to come. can you see why I believe this is what defines a great leader?

If you're a leader, and you want to be a great one, ask yourselves these questions...
1. Who are your followers?
2. Amongst your followers, who is emerging as a leader?
3. What can you do to invest, support and empower their leadership journey?

Whatever we do as church and community leaders we must create leadership cultures. We must identify emerging leaders, invest in them, give them kingdom responsibilities, and coach them into effectiveness. Then we can each experience the thrill of watching them soar. That will be leadership at it's greatest!

How To Have a Church that Loves Kids and Kids that love Church! 
- part 1 The Power of ONE

Over the next few weeks I am going to talk about what I believe to be the 4 essential keys to a great children's ministry.

I get many calls from children's pastors just staring out or looking to change direction and this is where I get them to start. To consider theses four things.

This week I'll be talking about what I call "The Power of One".

In Luke Chapter 15 Jesus tells 3 stories about One lost coin, one lost sheep and one lost son. These are stories that capture our hearts and the message is simple - Ones are important. They're important to Jesus and they should be important to all of us, especially in children's ministry.

My church is a large church we see nearly 400 kids come through a brightly coloured doors every Sunday and more during the week. Sometimes I stand up on the stage watching the huge mass of little ones arrive, it really is something else to see how many little lives we have the opportunity to impact and influence toward the God of heaven and earth. One particular Sunday I was standing on the stage, watching the children come in and feeling so blessed, then God directed my gaze to a new family. Mum and 3 kids. standing in the middle of the hustle and bustle of hundreds of kids coming into a space and all knowing what to do, what was expected of them and knowing each other. The kids in this family looked terrified, the mum looked terribly unsure. On this particular Sunday, (thank you Jesus) one of my very capable leaders went and introduced herself, explained what the morning would entail and introduced all 3 kids to their small group leaders. She had a nice long chat with the mum and invited her to stay for as long as she thought was necessary.

Phew, that was handled well. But it did get me thinking and it did lead to a big change in our ministry. You see, I have been a part of the same church for over 20 years, I know where everything is and I know enough people to feel comfortable. But watching this family who was new and afraid made me realise we were not looking after the ones, that Jesus talks about in Luke 15  very well at all. These little ones are as precious to Jesus as any other and they needed to be valued that way when they walked through our doors.

So, we started a welcome table, a welcome team, welcome cards and made sure people knew what was going on and how to get involved. But more importantly as the leader of the ministry I began to speak very generously about how important the "ones" were. We needed to start focusing on Relationships. Relationships became the key focus of our ministry. We realised that if we cared for the "ones", built relationships with them that everything else could come later.

“Relationship connection is the currency of kids.” States Jamie Doyle, the children’s pastor at River Valley Church in Minnesota[1] Technology and programs will never replace the power of relationship. Growing children’s ministries make sure that in the midst of all the programming, there is room for relationships with kids. Children have been patronised with entertainment for far too long. Children need to know that somebody with a name and a face knows them and cares about them. If no one on earth really cares, how will they ever believe that God does?God is a personal God He is personal reality and power – the power that works by thought and choice and evaluation. He is not a blind force that can be manipulated if one can only find the correct technique. The same should be with leaders to children in ministry. Leaders should strive to create relationship with children, get to know their names, their interests, their families, giving them a glimpse into how God knows them.

An emphasis on a relational style of ministry also establishes an excellent welcoming to the unchurched. A children’s ministry should ask themselves “What kind of church will we need to become to receive and to nurture new Christians?" A church where a child feels welcome and where someone knows their name is a far better place to nurture new spirituality than a cold, dogmatic environment. Fellowship in church is the way church was done since the first Christians paved the way. The first Christians were a genuine community of friends. From the beginning it seems that this idea of the church being in relationship with one another was assumed. A Relational ministry should be a priority of any children’s pastor.

So now we are a changed environment. We value friendship over programs, we value family over activities and we value relationship over numbers. We value the Ones.

Look out for my next entry on - Environment

Cath

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[1] Kidology Report, www.kidology.org, January 2007 , pp4