(taken from Pastors.com. this excerpt is written by Tobin Perry and draws lessons from Ferguson, the lead pastor and co-founder of Community Christian Church in Naperville, Ill.)
He encourages all ministry leaders, including pastors, to immediately find people to apprentice. What do you look for? First, you look for ministry leaders that have the right ministry gifts for the role. If you’re looking to apprentice a pastor, you may look for people with teaching and shepherding gifts. If you’re looking to apprentice a chaplain, you may look for someone with the gift of mercy.
Second, suggests Ferguson, look for people you can trust and build a friendship with. “When that happens, you really have something special, an apprenticeship that can really make a difference,” Ferguson said.
While Ferguson believes that formal leadership development has a role to play in the process, it has been over-emphasized in the past. The key ingredient to strong leadership development is the one-on-relationship built between mentor and mentee.
“No matter who the ministry leaders are at our church, no matter what role they play, we’re always encouraging them to have someone that they are mentoring,” Ferguson said. “At the same time, each of those leaders has someone who is coaching them. We try to build in opportunities for those life-on-life relationships to happen, knowing that in time the apprentice will be taking on the ministry by himself or herself.”
As leaders begin replicating themselves, eventually the church will reproduce whole ministries, worship services – and even take the churches to new sites once all of the necessary components are replicated.
“But that happens one leader, one small group at a time,” Ferguson said.
Recent Comments