Mentoring Leaders

I just finished Carson Pue's Mentoring leaders: Wisdom for developing character, calling and competency. Pue presides over Arrow Leadership Ministries, an international ministry founded by Leighton Ford based in Canada.

Pue's emphasis has been on mentoring individual leaders through their consulting ministry. But his insights can be helpful for any local church, or for that matter, any seminary whose sole purpose is to train church leaders.

Here are some of my notes from the book.

Five Phases of the Mentoring Matrix

1. Self-awareness - deep-seated understanding of who we are as children of God though Jesus Christ
2. Freeing Up - disentangling ourselves from those things that hold us back and having our needs fully met by Jesus
3. Visioneering - discovering God's purpose for our lives
4. Implementing - beginning purposeful in how we live and lead
5. Sustaining - learning how to realize our purpose and maintain zeal for ministry

Starting with Self-Awareness
"The most significant thing in navigation - the very most important piece of information - is knowing exactly where you are."

Daniel Goleman places a great deal of emphasis on the importance of being able to recognize feelings and sees this as central to his measurement of what he calls emotional intelligence. "Self-awareness - recognizing a feeling as it happens - is the keystone of emotional intelligence ... the ability to monitor feelings from moment to moment is crucial to psychological insight and self-understanding. An inability to notice our true feelings leaves us at their mercy. People with greater certainty about their feelings are better pilots of their lives, having a surer sense of how they really feel about personal decisions from whom they marry to what job they to take."

What keeps leaders from Self-Awareness?

• Lack of feedback. It seems that the higher one rises up the ladder of leadership, the less feedback one receives. The battles of being a leader cause us to become isolated.
• Seminaries have not historically been strong in the feedback area themselves. They are caught between their deep desire to provide foundational content and doing anything that might cause a student to withdraw from school.
• Insecurity. Insecurity breeds misleadership. It erodes confidence within leaders and makes it very difficult for them to leader others. It can also surface during times of great success, not just in negative times.
  
• Busyness. Most leaders function at high rpm. Problem: We can actually get addicted to the adrenaline rush of our leadership. When this happens, we do whatever we can, unconsciously, to feed our need for adrenaline. It actually feels good! Problem: no time for reflection.

How at peace are you?
Once leaders have a clear understanding of their place as a child of God, there is a new peace or shalom that embodies their life and their leadership. Anxiety and drivenness decrease as we mature in our spiritual walk, while at the same time, there is an increase of that inner sense of peace. When leaders lead out of peace rather than frenetic activity, fewer people are hurt and the work of the Lord is multiplied in ways unimaginable.

Ukraine - New Ministerial Training Initiative Begins

After one year's planning and preparation, today we begin a new training program for ministers in Ukraine. Using a combination of intensive courses and distance education modules (textbooks, workbooks and DVD), the new program will offer ten courses in two years. Additionally, the courses are coordinated with the extension program of the seminary in Moscow.

The Ukrainian program is an pilot program that, if successful, will be implement in other regions of the Russian speaking world - especially Moscow, Siberia, Belarus, and St. Petersburg.

The Ukrainian program begins this week with an intensive seminar on church growth and evangelism with Nick Park, senior pastor of Solid Rock Ministries in Ireland. Following the intensive course, an extended course on "Living the Faith" will be facilitated by our national education director, Ebi Dudzsus.

Krehwinkel Church of God Has a New Pastor

Today it was formally announced that Frank Wetzel will become the new pastor in Krehwinkel. Krehwinkel, one of the oldest Church of God congregations in Germany, is the hometown of Herman Lauster (the pioneer, who brought the message of Pentecost to this part of Germany). The church in Krehwinkel happens to be Claudia's home church. (Her parents still attend there and we were married there.) Krehwinkel has been without a pastor since Heinrich Scherz retired last summer and moved to South Carolina.

Frank and Anja Wetzel comes to Krehwinkel from Hamburg (Elim Gemeinde Hamburg - Mitglied des Bundes freier Pfingstgemeinden) in northern Germany. Yesterday, his credentials were formally accepted into the Church of God. The local congregation had already voted for Wetzel last month. And today he was formally introduced to the congregation.

However, things go more slowly in Germany. Frank and Anja will first move here in January and begin his pastorate in February. As is customary in Germany, one must give employers and landlords three months notice. And one doesn't "give notice" until they have a secure job/apartment in their hands. And in their transition, they will first live in our apartment building here in Rudersberg.

Izhevsk, Russia Church Celebrates 12 Years

This weekend, the Church of God in Izhevsk celebrates 12th Anniversary of its ministry in Izhevsk, the capital of Udmurtia Republic. As you can see by the previous sentence, the ICOG was among the first generation of churches planted by the Church of God in Russia after the fall of the communist regime.

Most of us Americans have probably never heard of Izhevsk; but it the home region of the AK-47 machine gun. Our provost in Moscow, Ilya Okhotnikov, hails from this region. Representing the seminary, Ilya has gone to his home church for the celebration and he gives this report.

In 1995 I was there in Izhevsk as well as the whole team of 7 men and women and wonderful missionaries of the Church of God: Dr. Jack R. Buskey and Jeanette L. Chesser at the very establishment of the church. The legal incorporation with the government was part of the ministry the Lord allowed me to have there and also I served as Assistant Pastor, Church administrator, translator, home group leader etc.

Some facts and statistics:

• 250 and up to 360 during special events in attendance are currently at the Izhevsk Church of God.
• 2 services during the week with Sunday service.
• 6 branch churches in towns and villages of the Republic (Kilmez church, Sarapul church, S.Zyatsi home group, Lukshudya home group, Izh-zabegalovo home group, Kambarka home group) have been established by the mother church.
• 5 ministers have been trained at Eurasian Seminary in Moscow.
• One branch church already sent their own minister to be trained at Eurasian Seminary in Moscow.

Pastor Peter Ovechkin as well as his first Assistant Albert Shakirov are graduates of the Eurasian Seminary with a Bachelor of Pastoral Ministry degree. The church trains it ministers in a church Bible School and also sent 5 ministers to be trained at the Seminary.

Also the Izhevsk Church of God has 10 ministries of its own that are actively functioning at the church on a regular basis:

1. Youth Ministry (30 members)
2. Children's Ministry (60 children)
3. Men's Ministry (15 members)
4. Home group (7 groups) ministry
5. Prayer Ministry and Co-dependant Ministry
6. Golden Age ministry (for those with rich life experience) 12 strong grand mothers.
7. Drama Ministry with Professional Theater artists (12 members of the church)
8. Social Ministry via a non-profit organization established by the church, called "Spring" fully supported by the church with the annual budget of $4,200.00:
1. Bread and cloths and food distribution to homeless (for 25 people every Sunday, once in 3 months financial support of widows and large families).
1. Rehab center support (financial support).
1. Children's home ministry (camp meetings for kids, assistance to the homes in repairs, financial contributions, assistance to grown up kids in finding employment, housing, etc.)
   
9. Missionary ministry among villages of the Udmurtia Republic (evangelistic outreach teams traveled via 10 villages for the last Spring-Summer 2007).
10. Church Bible School ministry.

Europe: Creationism is a Threat to Human Rights?

The following is an excerpt out of an article from Reuters News Agency. For the entire story, click here. It's one thing to dismiss Christian beliefs as "superstitious." But when governments or International bodies start labeling basic beliefs as threats to human rights.... Well, you can figure out the rest.

Europe's main human rights body voted on Thursday to urge schools across the continent to firmly oppose the teaching of creationist and "intelligent design" views in their science classes.

The Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly approved a resolution saying attacks on the theory of evolution were rooted "in forms of religious extremism" and amounted to a dangerous assault on science and human rights.

The text said European schools should "resist presentation of creationist ideas in any discipline other than religion." It said the "intelligent design" view defended by some United States conservatives was an updated version of creationism.

The Council, based in the eastern French city of Strasbourg, oversees human rights standards in member states and enforces decisions of the European Court of Human Rights. The resolution, which passed 48 votes to 25 with 3 abstentions, is not binding on the Council's 47 member states but reflects widespread opposition among politicians to teaching creationism in science class.

Just Walk Across the Room

My latest book on my reading list is Bill Hybels' Just Walk Across the Room. I've read several of Hybels' books such as Descending into Greatness, and Courageous Leadership. But I would rank this book as perhaps his best motivational book - motivation for each Christ-follower to share the story of Christ with his/her non-believing friends.

I wouldn't categorize this book as a textbook on how to "do" personal evangelism. Hybels and Mark Mittelberg already wrote a book on that topic - Courageous Christianity. But Just a Walk gives a better insight into Hybels' way of thinking through the process of sharing his testimony with none believers. Along the way, there are a couple of exercises plus the reflection questions at the end of each chapter that easily helps the individual reader as well as small groups who use this material as a study.

Update from Moscow

ETSM began its new school year with 11 new students. This is a relatively high enrollment. (In fact, the only time we had more than 11 new students was with the initial group of students ten years ago). Altogether with the returning students and interns, we have an enrollment of 36. We have an additional 36 students enrolled in the Moscow “extension.” The new students come from various parts of Russia, including Caucasus, Urals, Samara, Siberia, and Moscow proper.

The school still has several hurdles to jump in the licensing process, so please keep it and also us in your prayers. Today our provost met with officials from the Federal Registration Services, a division of what used to be the KGB, to discuss the needed changes to the seminary’s constitution in the licensing process. Apparently we need to make some minor changes before our new constitution can be accepted by the FRS. But our provost (Ilya Okhotnikov) stated that the overall tone from this government office was constructive.

A Happy Song

Well, today is Monday and the first of the month. That means most of the bills are due this week (e.g., rent, car payment, etc.).

So... I found a video that will help brighten almost anyone's day. Chevy Chase teaming up with Paul Simon. Enjoy!