Right before I graduated high school, God opened my eyes to what he had been doing in my life up to that point. He had provided experiences that not only helped me develop as a musician and a leader but guided me towards a heart of service.
Read MoreI am currently a full-time ministry resident for the Online Campus at Real Life Church in Santa Clarita, CA. I chose to do a residency through Leadership Pathway because I felt that the protection and care that they offered in assisting me to find a church that was a good fit for me was unmatched.
Read MoreLeadership Pathway helped me with my next step after college by getting connected to where I now serve as a Production Resident at Waters Edge Church, a multi-site church in Yorktown, VA.
Read MoreI really had no intentions of ever being in ministry. I had always wanted to be a manager of a company, and that’s what I pursued in college. I loved my last job, where I was able to share Christ with my coworkers nearly every day. I thought that was God’s plan for me, until I realized that God was laying it on my heart to do more for the church through full-time ministry.
Read MoreI knew when I was 13 that God was calling me to ministry. I want to give students and kids the experience I grew up with. I want to be part of teaching the next generation about Christ. I had so many awesome leaders in my life, and I want to be that for someone else!
Read MoreI think a lot of pastors were thrown in the deep end of the pool during their early years in full-time ministry. I get it, ministry is hard when you get started. You have to learn how to swim while getting some water up your nose. I think that kind of development has surely produced some grit in this generation of church leaders, but I think it’s also produced a false assumption that young leaders should be taught the same way.
Read MoreContinual feedback loops rooted in relationships are the best source of feedback. But we still need the official review and here’s why.
Read MoreDon’t let your leadership development plans get 2020’d in 2021.
Here are four reasons why I believe it’s the perfect time to leap:
Brian Tome of Crossroads talks about what it means to be an Aggressive Leader at our annual Lp kick off.
Read MoreI think the hardest part for me is learning all of these new skills that I have never done before. I want to know it all. I want to be able to do things right the first time and provide detailed answers when someone asks what would be best for their church. Blocking out this fear of failure has been a challenge for me, but Residency has taught me to take on the new challenges and learn from my mistakes in the process.
Read MoreLike many privileged white males, I’ve been reading, studying, watching the images on TV, spending time downtown amongst the boarded-up buildings in my city. I’ve been asking non-white friends, and those with non-white children what they are thinking, and trying to learn.
This week I told one of them I’d been waiting for him to post something so I could share it. He is one I’ve learned much from over the last decade and love reading his insights into current events like we are living. I was shocked at his answer.
Read MoreI’m (Steve) a read-the-instructions kind of guy, so I thoroughly read the Leadership Pathway materials and asked lots of questions. These are some specific thoughts we learned and began to value in this process:
1 It’s not about what a resident can do for us but what we can do for them.
2 We had to anticipate and embrace our roles as a supervisor, coach, and PARENT.
Read MoreI'm old enough to remember 9-11, the downturns(s) of ‘06, the housing bust of '08, black Monday (when was that?) , and the Swine flu. These events changed us forever, but we always have reset to a new normal.
When this virus is over and we have once again normalized to our new normal we're still going to be wondering where your next staff leaders are coming from and asking the question "Who's the Next You?"
My leadership journey began when I was in high school, volunteering as a Sunday school teacher and in college, leading some high school girls in my church. For about a year, I began praying about God’s call on my life to ministry. I knew I needed to be obedient to trust Him and take that leap into ministry. I hadn’t actually pursued a ministry degree while in college, so I didn’t quite know the right route to take. I searched for internships and residency programs.
Read MoreStefanie Rowe LPC, LIMHP is a licensed counselor and Strengths Coach in Omaha. As a wife, mom, Christian University professor, people helper, elder and on the teaching team at her church, Stonebridge Christian Church, she has a unique view into current and future church leaders. She seeks to empower them to lead and love those who are on their team and within their reach who have mental wellness concerns.
Read MoreOne tool we use to help young leaders get perspective we call Data Points. It’s a non-scientific way for a young leader to look back twelve or eighteen months and see objectively how they’ve been doing in key areas.
We mark the data against the timeline (across the bottom) as well as a grading scale of 0-100 vertically.
Read MoreThis is the first in a four-part series on helping young leaders get through the first year of ministry and helping them take the healthiest steps.
I learned from my long-time friend, Bart Rendel of Intentional Churches, that the best planning is done when in perspective.
Read MoreResidency has provided me the courage to pursue ministry rather than continue only as a volunteer; plus, learning leadership soft skills has been much more valuable to me than any time I spent in a classroom while enrolled at a Christian college.
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Currently, I serve as a Worship Resident at the Lexington, KY campus of Crossroads Church (Cincinnati, OH). From the beginning, residency has been a challenge, but in the absolute best way that is making me grow and get better! I have known for a long time that God called me to be a worship leader, and now I am in a position to do everything I can to make that a reality.
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Leadership Pathway connected me to Community Christian Church in the Atlanta suburb of Sharpsburg, GA. I was taken by their motto as a church ‘for the rest of us.’
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