As I was reading through 2 Timothy 1 it struck me that Paul told Timothy, ” I constantly remember you in my prayers.”  I don’t think he was simply praying, “God bless Timothy”.  Paul understood that Timothy was young and facing some pretty intense ministry pressure in Ephesus.  So undoubtedly he was praying for God to deepen Timothy’s courage, increase his leadership insights, expand his influence, and whatever else Timothy needed to exercise effective spiritual leadership.

When mentoring a young leader I’m looking for God to use the ink of my experiences to write leadership wisdom on their heart.  But it’s not enough to simply instruct, be a role model and share our experience with young leaders.  We must pray for them and seek to understand the specifics of what God is doing in their lives.  Mentoring is not a two way process…it is a three way process that includes God. It‘s GOD using YOU to shape THEM. Young leaders are susceptible to pride, the lure of power, foolish mistakes and giving up when discouraged. So it’s through prayer that God can give you a deeper understanding into their developmental needs.  If I look at mentoring simply as a two way relationship, then I may miss the dynamics of how God wants to use me in their life.

As you meet with the young leaders you are mentoring don’t neglect asking them, “What’s God doing in your life and how can I pray for you?”

Hey everybody, get ready because the Right Now Conference is coming up November 10-12 in Dallas, Texas and YOU may be able to go FREE!  Over 2500 leaders will gather for a powerful time of worship, speaking and discovering world changing opportunities.   I spoke there last year for the first time and was blown away by the commitment and vision of the Right Now team.   This is an amazing conference that will challenge and inspire you.

I will be speaking there again this year and the Right Now team has given me two tickets to give away to you!   This years speakers include Tony Evans, Larry Osborne, Max Lucado and more!

The Right Now Conference is really three events in one.  

Small Group Trader Pre Conference is an add on to the RightNow Conference and will focus primarily on Small Group Pastors and Volunteer Leaders, Discipleship Pastors, Assimilation Pastors and anyone who is responsible for carrying the churches mission out through Bible studies, discipleship or groups.

RightNow Conference is for Senior Pastors, Youth Pastors, Young Adult Pastors and anyone who is responsible for casting vision, leading, and equipping people to serve Christ.  Small Group Pastors and Volunteer Leaders, Discipleship Pastors, Assimilation Pastors and anyone who is responsible for carrying the church’s mission out through Bible studies, discipleship or groups. Key business leaders who understand that their work is a form of worship.

RightNow Experience is for all 20 & 30 something’s who want to make a difference with their lives… who will say that their faith in Christ matters… who are sick of the status quo… who want to be the hands and feet of Jesus… who are willing to risk… who will decide that the time is RightNow.

To win free tickets all you have to do is…

1. RETWEET this blog post
2. COMMENT BELOW – Make sure you include your Twitter name
3. WAIT TO WIN – At 9 AM tomorrow I will have my Project Assistant @jessicacar randomly select 2 winners who will win one ticket each!

Check out the video below to catch the heart and message of The Right Now Conference.

It’s highly likely that you’ve received some sort of formal training to do what you do.  If you’re a Pastor you probably went to seminary.  If you’re a Accountant you went to business school.  If you’re a Realtor you attended a Real Estate Course.  Formal training is valuable, but most organizations aren’t purposed to provide formal training.  That’s why we must work hard to create healthy informal training atmospheres. 

In 1986 I went to work for a pastor who became a mentor and a friend.  Each week I would meet him in his office.  There was rarely an agenda, he would just talk to me about life, leadership and my area of ministry.  The thing I valued most was the meetings were less like meetings and more like conversations.

Looking back I see now he knew exactly what he was doing with me.  He would engage me in conversation about things in my life so he could create connection with me.  Then he would move the conversation to leadership and ministry.  As we discussed the challenges and successes he would ask questions, toss out ideas all which would stimulate engaging conversation.  Ideas would lead to dreams, dreams would lead to goals, goals would lead to action plans…all generated out of a “conversation”.  

He was not only coaching me but he was collaborating with me.  We were a team.  During those meetings it was less like meeting with a superior and more like meeting with friend who valued the same things I valued.  A friend who wanted me to win.  A friend who shared the same values and vision.  It had such a informal feel yet with each meeting he was coaching me and growing me into an expert in my field.

There are several benefits to creating this type of informal development atmosphere.

1. The leader becomes a fellow learner
2. The follower gains confidence
3. The follower learns to become a better thinker and decision maker
4. The level of trust and loyalty between leader and follow is extremely high

I understand this approach may not be for everybody but it seems to be an approach many people respond to well.

Why wait for the next conference or training event to equip up and coming leaders when you could train them this week.  There are some extremely valuable development opportunities taking place in your organization this week and you may not even realize it.  What may look to you like boring ordinary meetings or events are actually exciting development opportunities for others.  Evaluation meeting, planning meeting, team meeting, management meeting, project meeting, one on one meeting, performance review meeting, budget review meeting, staff meeting or a particular organizational event all hold development opportunities for potential leaders.  We must learn to use what seem like ordinary daily events in the life of our organization as teaching opportunities for those who have yet to be a part of these types of environments. 

For example, let’s say you have a management team of four people that meet every week to review organizational priorities, goals and progress.  It’s likely there will come a day when that team will no longer consist of those same four individuals.  At some point someone new will be promoted to a seat on the management team.  So on occasion invite high potential leaders to sit in on these meetings as a developmental opportunity.  But in most organizations no one steps inside a Management team (or any other team) meeting until they are inducted into that team.  By bringing young or potential leaders into these type of environments you’re allowing them to see how you run meetings, make decisions, establish goals and priorities, evaluate, interact as a team and a whole host of other important leadership concepts.

6 questions to help you make the most of the weekly learning opportunities in your organization:

1. What are the meetings and events on the schedule this week?
2. What are the potential learning opportunities at these meetings or events?
3. Who should be invited to observe one of these meetings or events this week?
4. What specifics do you want them to watch or listen for at the particular event you’re inviting them to?
5. How will the experience be debriefed to ensure maximum learning has taken place? 
6. Who will be responsible for carrying out this debrief?

Leadership Challenge:  Take 20 minutes at the start of next week to plan at least one development opportunity for one of your up and coming leaders. 

As you are probably aware I spent last week in Togo Africa with Pioneers helping train a group of pastors and traveling to villages to assess their need for clean water.  While there I was amazed to see how the Pioneers team is taking the Gospel to unreached people groups in remote villages, plant churches and then raise up leaders in those villages to lead the church.  Through their work I witnessed the power of leadership development first hand.

In this video you will hear the story of three generations of leaders who are reproducing themselves in the lives of others.  And they’re doing this in an area where there is no electricity, no clean water, no access to resources and a very high illiteracy rate.  I was absolutely inspired as I witnessed the commitment and sacrifice of these believers.  If your church is interested in sponsoring one of these missionaries and the church planting efforts of Pioneers Togo email the Pioneers Togo Director, Pastor Francis Avoy at  francisavoy@gmail.com.   Also you can email me at maclake@seacoast.org  if you have questions about how you can help.

While they may not say it out loud, many leaders feel like they don’t have time to develop the people they work with.  This underscores a fundamental misunderstanding of leadership development. Developing leaders doesn’t always necessitate long hours of teaching and instruction. 

Every day we’re surrounded by small golden opportunities to develop the leaders around us.  But if we aren’t looking we’ll miss them. They come in the form of a short conversation in the hallway, a quick pop in the office Q and A session, or a casual exchange in the middle of a ministry event.  These “teachable moments” can take place every day if we simply take the time to look for them.

So how do we recognize them?  Teachable moments tend to come when someone is struggling with a task, project or person.  These struggles create feelings of fear, anger, frustration, disappointment or discouragement.  And there’s no doubt people are most teachable when they’re experiencing these types of heightened emotions. So when you see their struggle engage their emotions by asking questions that stir thinking.  Ask, listen, then carefully provide the coaching they need to help them get past the barriers they’re facing.  For example ask:  What’s causing your frustration?  What have you done about it so far?  What’s not working?  What are your options?  What’s your next step?  These types of questions help them wrestle through their situation.  Then follow up by asking:  What’s the leadership lesson we can learn from this experience?  In these golden moments of opportunity you identify their challenge, coach them in how to handle it and reinforce a leadership principle, and often times this can all be done in a matter of five minutes.

While I may not be able to remember the specifics of the circumstances I do know it was in emotional moments like these that key leadership principles were branded into my mind.

This Weeks Leadership Challenge:  Look for and sieze one of these 5 minute  teachable moments with someone you lead.

It’s simple to teach a new employee to do a job because they’re motivated to learn, they want to please you, and they find personal significance from performing well. So you tell them what you want done, they do it, you redirect where they may be off course and eventually they get it and they become a valuable contributor- a good ‘Doer” for the organization. This works well until they leave, then we have to start over again.

When we start someone out on a new job we aren’t thinking about who they will develop or how they will replace themselves, we just want the job done. But what if we changed our approach. What if we talked to them about developing others from day one…no from before day one. What if we talked to them about being a “Developer” rather than a “Doer” during the interview process. What if we told them we were hiring them not just to do a job but to teach others to do their job. What if we put developing others in their job description. What if a portion of their performance review was based on how well they’re developing others. This could radically change our culture over the course of time.

Are you teaching people to be “Doers” or “Developers”?

I played a lot of basketball when I was young and my primary focus in every game was to score.  Oh I loved to win too, but if our team lost and I scored double digets that was okay because “I won”.  Sometimes leaders develop this same mentality:  “It doesn’t matter if the organization is losing as long as I’m performing well individually”.   But when we develop this self-absorbed addiction for personal performance it blinds us to the giftedness, potential and contribution of others. 

Leaders we have to remember that we’re responsible for making each player on our team better so the organization can win. It’s interesting that the older I get the more rewarding it is to watch other people win.   Watching someone I’ve coached speak well, teach well or lead well is extremely satisfying.  It’s fun watching the organization win as more and more players are contributing their best.  So what can you do to help others win?

• Listen to their dreams.  Ask someone on your team, “If you could do anything what would it be?” and watch them light up as they describe what’s deep within their heart.  Listen intently and try to see their dream as clearly as they see it.
• Resource their ideas.  If you can help fund their ideas do it.  If not find other ways to resource their ideas by helping them get the training, books, relationships or experiences they need to take their ideas to the next level. Sometimes you may feel you have nothing to offer but you can give encouragement or hope which can be a priceless resource for someone who has a dream.
• Network them with others.  A well networked leader will be a growing leader.  When you connect people of similar passions and mission you open up doors of new opportunities, ideas, wisdom and experience that will change their lives.
• Develop their strengths.  Focusing on weaknesses can hold people back from becoming all that God created them to be.  Help others not only discover their strengths but develop them to the fullest potential.  Help them see the specifics of what they do well.

Who is God calling you to assist in a win today?

The largest gathering of Church Planters on the Planet…you won’t want to miss this. 

Being a multisite church has many benefits as well as many challenges.  Multiple locations requires that you have many leaders, but getting all the leaders from all locations at the same time for leadership training is a challenge.  In the past we’ve held “Leader Rallies” in our three regions on three consecutive days traveling to three different locations.  This was great for getting the regions together but we wanted to bring ALL of our leaders together.

So this Friday we are trying something new.  Through the power of technology we are doing our first All Leaders Conference for the leaders of all our ministries all at one time.  Leaders from all of our campuses will be joining in all at the same time.  Some gathering at their campus, some from their homes with their ministry teams and others simply joining us from the comfort of their computer. 

The conference will focus on the leadership topic of VISION.  Our desire is to help our leaders become better biblical leaders not just better church leaders so we will focus on how to cast vision in your home, workplace and ministry.  Our Senior Pastor Greg Surratt will kickoff the evening talking about the importance of vision.  He will then be followed by Reggie Joiner, from The Rethink Group who will be talking about Casting Vision in Your Home.  Next, Business Professor Ray Snyder will talk to us about Casting Vision as a Marketplace Leader.  And the evening will be closed out by Steven Furtick, lead pastor at Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC talking about How to Cast Vision as a Ministry Leader.

If you are interested in attending the conference non-Seacoasters can register at www.seacoast.org  and register as a guest.