• The more leaders you have the more influence you have.
• The more leaders you have the more impact you have
• The more leaders you have the stronger your span of care
• The more leaders you have the more leader developers you have
• The more leaders you have the more people you have modeling the vision and values
• The more leaders you have the more you can focus on using your primary gifts
• The more leaders you have the more you’re positioned for future growth

What are other benefits you see of developing more leaders?

We all know that ministry can take a toll but rarely do we think about the impact it has on our long term emotional health.  How do you deal with the pain of ministry and maintain an emotionally healthy perspective?  Six years ago I picked up a book titled Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Pete Scazzero. The practical principles in this book gave me a new way to look at the inseparable nature of spiritual maturity and emotional health.  Because of the impact he’s had on my thinking we’ved asked Pete to be the featured speaker at LAUNCH Networks next Virtual Whiteboard on Wednesday, May 22 at 3:00 EST.  Pete will be sharing his latest thinking about The Emotionally Healthy Leader.

Space is limited so register HERE today. Even better have your whole staff watch it together and discuss it afterward.

Peter Scazzero is the founder and senior pastor of New Life Fellowship Church in Queens, New York City. For more information, visit www.emotionallyhealthy.org or Pete’s blog at www.petescazzero.com.

FREE EBOOK by Pete – The Emotionally Healthy Planter – https://www.exponential.org/ebooks/emotionallyhealthy/

• “and that day 3000 were added to their number”
• “the Lord added to their number daily”
• “and believers were increasingly being added to their numbers”
• “the number of disciples grew greatly in Jerusalem”
• “They increased in number daily.”

There’s no doubt it’s exciting to be a part of a growing environment. We love it when our small group spills over from the living room into the dining room. It’s thrilling to see the ushers putting out more seats in the auditorium because so many people have arrived for the 11:00 service. We celebrate when our church-wide serve event has 51% of attendees showing up and using their gifts. These are all good things and good signs of addition.

But when you look underneath the surface of Luke’s record of the early church it’s not a book about addition, it’s the story of multiplication.  The disciples could’ve easily become addicted to the rapid addition to their numbers in Jerusalem. They could’ve settled in and made plans for bigger buildings, more seats and increased capacity.  These are all good things. But the disciple’s obsession was not with addition, they recognized it was a movement that called for multiplication. The early church leaders begin to move the Gospel out, reproduce leaders and start a multiplication movement.  Somehow, as tempting as it must’ve been, they avoided the allure of addition.

What are the signs we’ve become addicted to addition?

• We’re more concerned with expanding seating capacity rather than sending capacity.
• We’re more concerned with how many people are in groups rather than how many people are leading and multiplying groups.
• We’re more concerned about how many show up to serve together at one time rather than how many we can empower to serve 24/7
• We’re more concerned about how many people are “following me” rather than how many people are “leaving me” to go to lead a movement of their own
• We’re concerned only about our community or our sphere of influence rather than the world and the nations.

One of the biggest temptations in a rapid growing environment is to become addicted to addition. Don’t get me wrong addition is good. But multiplication is better.

It’s important to get around big people because looking through the eyes of someone more experienced gives you a clearer picture of the critical Why’s and How’s required to lead at a bigger level. When meeting with a BIG Person take full advantage of the opportunity.

• Prepare a list of questions in advance.  Ask questions that enable you to learn from both their success and their failures.
• Listen more than you talk.  The temptation is to tell them your story.  Next thing you know 15 minutes has gone by and you’ve not allowed them to talk at all.  Don’t try to impress them with who you are and what you’ve done.  Introduce yourself, give 2 basics about yourself, tell them you’re there to learn from them, then start asking questions.
• Take Notes.  There is nothing more dishonoring asking to learn from someone and then not take notes as they’re sharing their best wisdom and experience.  *Follow up. Honor their investment by letting them know what action steps you’re going to take as a result of what you learned from them. Thank them and  let them know the specific difference their investment made in your life.

Not only will these steps honor their investment but also will make them more likely to say “yes” if you request a second meeting.

Here are Five Essential Actions a senior leader must take to ensure the continual population of his organizations leadership pipeline.

• Talk About It: Senior leaders can sometimes underestimate the power of their own voice.  When they talk about something people listen and respond.  What you’re vocal about can easily become a value in the organization. Talk consistently about raising up new leaders.
• Systematize It: Most organizations have no strategy or system for developing leaders. Leaving the leadership development of your organization to chance is poor stewardship of people’s potential. While the senior leader doesn’t create the system, he ensures that a simple reproducible system is in place.
• Expect It:  Inspect your pipeline regularly.  While the senior leader is not the one who oversees the development of the pipeline of leaders he must certainly have a constant awareness of its condition.  I recommend once quarter the senior leader receive a written report of who is in the pipeline, what level they are at and whose advancing and showing promise for the next level.  He also needs to be aware of who on his staff is raising up leaders or not raising up leaders.
• Model It: Nurture the development of his or her direct reports. Senior leaders have great demands on their time.  In fact, this often becomes their excuse for not practicing leadership development.  However their responsibility is to continually be developing the leadership character and competencies of their direct reports.  This keeps him and his team growing consistently.
• Celebrate It:  What gets celebrated gets replicated.  Senior leaders when you begin to celebrate the reproducing leaders in your organization you’ll begin to see a culture shift toward leadership development.  Too often our focus is on celebrating the new leader, rather than the one who actually did the hard work of raising them up.  Reward, recognize and celebrate

In a nutshell if you want to shape a Culture of Leadership Development – Talk about it, systematize it, expect it, model it and celebrate it.

When you lead an organization, team or church all eyes are on you. The success and progress of your organization is strangely intertwined with your significance and self-esteem. This is what makes it difficult for us to be honest with ourselves. There are times when things are not going as well as we like. The organization is in decline, resources are drying up or people are jumping ship. And instead of looking at the cold hard facts we try to convince ourselves that everything is okay. We find excuses for why things are not going well and worse we even put a spin to make it look like these things are positive.

I was talking with the church planter one day who told me about all the people leaving his church. He put a positive slant on it by saying, “You know we are just blessed to be sending people out.” But from everything I could discern people were leaving because he was not a leader others wanted to follow. When a leader is not honest with himself he will continue down the road of mediocrity which ultimately leads to failure.

When we’re not honest with ourselves…

• we fail to grow in essential areas that help us improve as leaders
• we lose credibility and influence with our followers
• we’re unable to move into a place of fruitfulness and fulfillment
• we hinder the work God wants to do in our own development

Remember Paul’s words in Romans 12:3 “Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.”  Take some time and ask yourself a few questions:

• How are things going, really?
• Are there excuses I’ve been making for poor performance or unacceptable results?
• Am I fruitful and fulfilled in what I am doing?  If no, then why not?
• Am I using my God-given gifts?  What’s the evidence of that?
• Am I excited about the future?  If no, why not?
• Am I actively listening for the promptings of the Holy Spirit?
• Do I feel challenged by the work that I do or have i grown stale?

The man who is honest with himself about himself will walk in humility and gain greater respect among men.

Past Two Years

• 39 Parent Churches (sending churches) we’ve partnered with to plant a new church.  Our mission is to Partner with churches to inspire and equip next generation planters to lead strong.  So this is the #1 measure on our scoreboard.
• 110 Church Plant candidates assessed
• 63 Church planters trained
• 34 Churches started
• 29 Churches in pre-launch stage
• 117 Baptized in 2012
• $745,000 grants given to new Church plants
• 4 Assessment Centers opened with 8 Assessments in 2013
• 8 Training Centers across the US

Vision

• 30,000 ft view – LAUNCH will partner with churches to start City Movements in 25 Cities in the next 5 years
• 10,000 ft view – In 2013 we will reveal a new funding site we believe will change the way church planters are funded.  Imagine a Compassion International model for sponsoring Church Planters. 100% of LAUNCH’s partnering church’s dollars go straight to the church planter.
• Ground level view – Virtual Whiteboard Sessions starting in May 2013.  Partners will gather every other month to learn from field experts.  Also in March we’re rolling out online training for LAUNCH Wives through the Right Now Training platform.

Here’s a picture of what’s happened over the past 2 years.  You can join the movement by going to www.launchstrong.com an click on Partners Apply.

You’re whole attitude can be transformed when you recognize that obstacles can be open doors for innovation and greater impact.  Pause, and ask yourself a few important questions and see if you gain a new perspective.

• What’s the real problem I face?  Sometimes the perceived problem is not our real problem.  Skilled leaders learn to identify the problem behind the problem.
• Is there a field expert I know that can help me process my challenge?  If you don’t know someone personally simply ask yourself “What would __________ (known specialist) do in my situation?”  Opening your imagination this way may give you a fresh perspective.
• What are 5 options for overcoming my challenge?  Write them down and reflect on them.   Remember some of the best ideas are born out of bad ideas.
• Is there another approach God is prompting me to take?  Perhaps He allowed the obstacle in order to help you find a better direction.
• What are the hidden resources I have access to that I’ve not thought about?  This is one of my favorite questions and has helped produce solutions for me on many occasions.  Sometimes the things that are closest to us are the hardest things to see.

Don’t wait for your obstacle to be removed…God put it there to grow you as a leader and to open new doors of opportunity.

It’s these reps during practice that give each player a higher probability of doing well in the game.

What areas do your young leaders need reps?

• Communication – find various platforms inside and outside organization to give your young communicators the opportunity to get more speaking reps.
• Decision making – put your young leaders in meetings where significant decisions are being made, allow them to have a voice, share their opinion and exercise their decision-making muscles.
• Leading teams – give your young leaders an assignment to lead a task force or project team.  Allow them to get the practice of getting results through others.
• Developing leaders – Challenge your young leaders to identify, recruit and train up new potential leaders. Ask them on a regular basis who they’re raising up and what that individuals next step is in their development.

Giving them reps accomplishes three things for these young leaders

1. It develops their competencies
2. It strengthens their confidence
3. It enhances their credibility

What’s your next step and getting your young leaders more reps?

Option one is to put our head down and get stuck in the mire of mediocrity, the forest of failures or the ocean of obstacles. We get discouraged and frustration fosters a desire to quit. Sometimes the frustration leads us to criticize the very people we’re supposed to love and lead. If we’re not careful frustration can lead to a negative spirit that overshadows our entire personality.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. If a leader harnesses the power of frustration it can lead to a lot of good. Instead of getting angry…get analytical and ask why the problem truly exists and what you should do about it. You might just discover some ideas that become game changers for you. Instead of cursing your team…coach them to see the opportunities for individual improvement. You might just end up developing the next super leader in your organization. Instead of focusing on the obstacle…look at the opportunity to develop a better process or product. You might just come up with a breakthrough to get you to the next level. Frustration can actually be a gift that can push you forward faster. It all lies in how you handle it.

You cannot eliminate frustration but you can chose to use it as a fuel for positive change.