Once upon a time, a man decided to plant a new church in a new city. All his plans went better than expected and in no time a booming church had grown up with no problems and little effort.
The End​

 
Recently a group from our church attended the Discipleship.org conference. We engaged with about 1,400 other “Discipleship First” folks to be encouraged by brothers and sisters from around the world and to hear the ways they grow disciples who make disciples.
 
Here are 5 key points that I walked away with from the conference:

1. What’s your end result? Not every discipling process has the same end goal. Some processes focus on becoming an essential learner and doer of the word. Others focus on helping people be firmly rooted in faith. Others help with specific problem areas of life. Still others are aimed at those super disciples who are going to change the world. Know who the people are you will disciple and what you want to see Jesus accomplish in their lives for that specific period of time.

​2. The Word of God is powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword (Hebrew 4:12). Make engagement with the Bible a central feature of your discipling process. What scriptures will you memorize together and why? What biblical readings will focus your attention?

3. The discipling leader sets the stage. As a discipler, you are inviting others to learn from your life. You determine the time, place, and the content. If they’re not willing to work with your schedule, they may not yet be ready to engage that level of discipling.

4. Discipling is best done in groups of 3 to 5 people of the same gender. The focus is on obeying scripture and reflecting on the interaction between scripture and doing. Being small in number and gender specific allows a greater flow of interaction, confession and accountability.

5. Any plan is more effective than no plan. There were 18 tracks at the 2018 Discipleship Conference, each led by a group with disciple making as their goal. Here are 3 of the plans presented:​

1. SOAP journaling method:  Scripture to read and write (about 10-minutes worth), Observations (what do people notice?), Application (what will they commit to do?) and Prayer (what do they need to pray to obey?)
2. HEAR journaling method by Robby Gallaty: Highlight, Explain, Apply, and Respond.
3. DBS (Discovery Bible Study). A simple discussion format that reads the text 3 times, then asks what it says about God, people, and what will we commit to do? 

What struck me is that discipling doesn’t need to be hard; it needs to done! Who will you disciple?

​A friend of mine introduced me to the acronym BHAG: By the Hand of Almighty God. In their book, Built to Last (1994), James Collins and Jerry Porras defined a BHAG (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal) as “a long-term goal that changes the very nature of a business’ existence.” These are the type of goals that change history, like when John F. Kennedy said, “that this Nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth.”

Like a vision drives a country, I believe a BHAG is what ultimately drives a church.

BHAGs are meant to shift “business as normal.” BHAGs are nearly impossible to achieve without consistently working outside of our comfort zone. They require a commitment and confidence that moves us to persistent effort, over decades, even when the odds seem impossibly stacked against us.

The only way a church, or any organization, can pursue a BHAG dream is with a long-term plan that ties together mission, vision, and decisions into action. Without such organized, systematic planning no BHAG will survive.

Since 2009 Kairos has been helping churches think strategically about their future through a strategic planning process called StratOp. StratOp employs a series of insightful tools to help churches gain perspective on their own reality, strengths and weaknesses, and ultimately to immediate and long-term decisions that will move them towards progress on their BHAGs.

It is the persistent application of effort towards a plan that ultimately drives us towards the BHAGs God has set before us. No, we’re not doing this by our own strength or will. God is in charge. But He still asks us to do the hard work that needs to be done as He energizes the results.

If you are interested in the StratOp process, contact me at sgranberg@kairoschurchplanting.org.

Being a spiritual mentor does not equal being a religious leader. Mentors are not necessarily managing the direction of the church itself. The reality is they are leaders, but maybe look different from what you expect. It’s important to know the traits of spiritual mentors, these individuals are valuable in the development of the disciples within your congregation.

Here's a more accurate picture of what a spiritual mentor looks like:

Does your church have a podium or a stage?
 
That may seem like a strange question, but it is important if your church is going to attract and hold 21st century people. One of the major concepts that drive 21st churches is that worship is an experience—not a service. Services are by nature stable events that follow a standard, non-changing script. Experiences, on the other hand, are intended to be adaptive, creative and designed to communicate a story.
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The greatest outpouring of God’s power is found in the Gospels; we are still measuring the impact of Christ to Earth.  But the story of the greatest disbursement of God’s power in human history is found in the book of Acts.  Never before had so many humans, from so many places, been the means to the astounding activity of God.  The outpouring of the Spirit of God brought forth love, sacrificial sharing, healing, miracles, and boldness in unprecedented occurrences.  And almost every occurrence was accompanied by the prayers of many.  In light of the 34 references to prayer in Acts we should ask: are we calling on God with the frequency or intensity of the first believers?

I think we know the answer and I believe we need to pray at 3 new levels.

There’s a lot of interest and activity surrounding discipleship today, and that is good! As I hear and read a lot of this discipleship talk, it often seems to be in the context of maturing those who are already believers—often lifelong believers. We need to continually remind ourselves that the discipleship journey includes life from unbelief to mature discipleship.

How far out do you plan your sermons? Three months? A year? How about three years? I’ll admit, I don’t hear many of us talking about a three-year preaching calendar. But, vision typically stretches out three to five years. If your sermon planning only goes out one year, how do you expect to push your vision forward?
 
The visionary leadership power of the pulpit is immense. I want to give you a free, 3-step Vision Preaching Calendar template to help you release your God-given preacher super powers:

• Step 1: Engage Your Vision
• Step 2: Plan Your Seasons
• Step 3: Insert for Balance

 
Step 1: Engage Your Vision
Your church depends on you, its lead pastor, to listen to God and lead them in the direction He intends for the church. This vision work is yours, baby! No one else can do it. Begin your sermon planning with a clear, compelling, concrete vision statement. What needs to be accomplished and what do your people need to bring the vision into reality? If it’s going to take collective prayer, how will you activate them? If it’s a lot of money, how will generosity be raised? If it’s serving your city, how will you motivate them? List the vision and people needs necessary to reach your vision these next three years, then order the needs by importance and logical sequence. Finally, sort those vision needs by year. What must happen this year and into years two and three?
 
Step Two: Plan your Seasons
The church calendar has a repeating rhythm of two seasons—Grow and Disciple. The Grow seasons are fall and spring while the Discipling seasons are winter and summer. Tom Nebel calls this the Two-Hump Camel Church Calendar (watch his video here). 

The Grow seasons are about reaching new people. They’re seasons of attraction when you address the natural impulses of life that open people up to the gospel. Use high interest sermon series during the grow seasons. Create space in your church for invitation and outreach The Discipling seasons are about consolidating growth and maturing people in the Jesus lifestyle. These seasons are ripe for vision-casting, textual studies, and topical lessons that resource people to grow as Jesus followers
 
With your vision and seasons firmly in mind, map out this year’s lessons so you know that your vision is being moved down the road. Once you’ve filled this year’s calendar with seasonal lessons, you’ve completed 80% of your annual preaching calendar. You’ll be leading your people from the pulpit in ways that make progress on your vision while using the natural growth and discipling seasons of your church.
 
Step Three: Insert for Balance
Use the remaining 20% of your calendar to balance out your preaching with the needs that arise because of life. Some of you might leave these eight or so Sundays empty to give you room to wiggle, to adjust dates, allow guest speakers, (or take your vacation!). Others of you will feel more comfortable inserting ideas to work on. Either way, these open Sundays allow you opportunity to adjust the content of your preaching calendar to the unanticipated events of life.
 
If you haven’t already downloaded your free Vision Preaching Calendar, do it now. Feel free to adjust this calendar so it meets your needs.

The difference between Training and Coaching is that Training is with those who are not part of the game yet.  Coaching is with the people who are already in the trenches and need sharpening. What better people to sharpen than your shepherding leaders?

Outside of my passion for the Kingdom is my involvement with coaching competitive youth soccer.  I have spent much of my life having the joy of playing the game of soccer, and enjoyed getting to play through my college years.  As I have gotten older, my body has decided that it is no longer willing or able to perform the way it used to.  Though my body was finished with the game, my mind was not willing to give it up.  Getting to coach kids is very similar to coaching leaders within a church context.  Both are wanting to lead, both are in need of improving and sharpening the gifts that they bring to the team.

There are more similarities between coaching youth soccer and coaching shepherding leadership within the church than you might think.  In both cases, you are developing individuals to become better and more focused. You are coaching your shepherding leadership toward putting the Values, Mission and Vision of your church into practice. You are equipping them to serve better, love better, be better. If your leaders are well-coached, they will be pouring into their flock to move people from non-believer to believer, to worker, and eventually into leadership.

​Take a minute and read Mark 9:14-29.  Looks at Jesus’ example as he coached his disciples on the importance of prayer .  He explained prayer to them, but first he practiced and perfected it in his own life.

Whatever you coach your Leaders to become, you should also be practicing. And whatever they encourage the congregation to be become, they should already be in the habit of doing. Here are 4 principles to keep in mind as you deliberately coach your leaders to leader the church.
 
4 Principals of Coaching Your Leaders:
1.      Major in principles rather than methods. Love. Obey. Pray. Serve. Teach the principles, but allow each leader to develop a personal skill set. It is amazing how God overlaps different people's talents to make one fully functioning body of believers.
2.      Major in meeting the needs in people, rather than on developing and imparting techniques. Specifics on how to do ministry can shift with seasons and culture. Love is timeless. Hope has no expiration date. Care doesn't go sour.
3.      Major in developing the thought processes, rather than the skills.  Help your leadership keep the big picture in mind, even when urgent matters crop up. As God prepares the soil of your leaders' hearts, he will bear fruit in them and through them.
4.      Major in how to trust God, rather than teaching theories on God. Does your leadership find strength in knowing about God or in knowing God? Do they function out of who and whose they are or how well they understand? Are they passing these truths along to the rest of the congregation?

Running technology is a constant activity anymore. Our computers update software automatically (yeah, right). Every now and then we have to turn our devices off and restart them because their brains get out sync. And then there are times we have to reboot everything with an upgraded operating system.

Leadership acts the same way. Sometimes we get into leadership ruts where it seems hard to do anything but the same thing, even when we know what we’re doing is not getting us where our church or ministry needs to be. Other times we’re hit by leadership jolts that throw us around and leave us feeling disoriented—or even downright nauseous. And then there are times we need to install a new operating system into our leadership.
 
The Kairos Discovery Lab is an opportunity for you to deliberately assess the state of your leadership in a supportive, spirit-infuse, highly engaged process. Discovery Lab will take you on a journey into your leadership that could change your life and ministry in just the way you need right now.
 
You’ll be part of a lab with other leader couples like you. People who are committed to their ministry leadership and ready to take it to the next level. The interview team will bath you in prayer and surround with support. You’ll leave knowing you are not alone.
 
I encourage you to put the next Discovery Lab on your calendar: February 18-22 at the COD Ranch in Tucson, AZ.
 
Right now, go to the Kairos website, download the Leader Self-Assessment, and get started on rebooting your leadership.
 
Father, I pray your courageous intentions upon these men and women who have accepted your leadership call in their lives. Fill them with your holy spirit for your glory and your kingdom’s good. Amen.