Episodes

  • Developing Leaders in the Workplace and in Church

    Developing Leaders in the Workplace and in Church
    Mar 14 2022
    Today we sit down with Dr. Gene Herndon. Dr. Herndon is a business leader, a coach, an author of numerous books, and the pastor of Stone Point Community Church in Glendale Arizona.

    Dr. Herndon spoke about:

    • Leadership Development
    • How to use millennials as leaders
    • How to repurpose your sermons to reach more people
    • Monday Morning Masterminds 
    • and his leadership training for business and church leaders.

    I really appreciate the time that Dr. Herndon gave to Coaching Christian Leaders. I learned so much from him and I am sure you will as well.

    Resources

    www.GeneHerndon.com

    www.m4.geneherndon.com

    www.stonepointcc.org

    His most recent book - The Elephant in the Room
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    42 mins
  • Developing Leaders on the Mission Field

    Developing Leaders on the Mission Field
    Sep 17 2021

    How do you develop trusted leaders to take the work forward - even in your absence? Adam Hussey shares his expertise in leadership development.

    Today we sit down with Adam Hussey. Adam is a missionary with Action International. He and his wife Alei serve in the Philippines. Much of their work is centered around developing local church leaders. 

    Also, Adam has some unique ideas on how missionaries can raise financial support in these tough times. 

    Contact Info

    The best way to contact Adam and to learn more about his work is to visit his website.  You will find Adam at www.actioninternational.org/missionary/hussey.  There you can email Adam and read more about his ministry.

    Also, check out his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/TeamFaithHopeLove

    Closing Thoughts

    Thanks for listening to Coaching Christian Leaders. You should subscribe to this podcast so that you’ll never miss an episode.

    You can find this podcast in just about any podcast app. We are on Apple Podcasts, Deezer, Gaana, iHeartRadio, Google Podcasts, and now we are on Amazon Music. Check it out and make sure you subscribe.
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    39 mins
  • How to Develop a Personal Discipleship Plan

    How to Develop a Personal Discipleship Plan
    Apr 13 2021

    Michael Ward, the author of The Sixth Sola, shares his approach to personal discipleship.

    Michael shares:
    • How he came to Christ
    • The other five solas
    • The purpose of the book
    • the intended readers
    • His view on other methods of personal discipleship
    • How preaching can be more effective
    • The reading plan
    • The Great Relationship versus the Great Commission
    • How this approach has impacted him 
    • If the Bible were a gym, what would be the exercises?
    Resources

    His Book: The Sixth Sola

    His website: 6thsola.com

    Closing Thoughts

    Thanks for listening to Coaching Christian Leaders. You should subscribe to this podcast so that you’ll never miss an episode.

    You can find this podcast in just about any podcast app. We are on Apple Podcasts, Deezer, Gaana, iHeartRadio, Google Podcasts, and now we are on Amazon Music. Check it out and make sure you subscribe.

    This is Mark Jones and I will speak with you soon.
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    48 mins
  • The First Leader You Must Train

    The First Leader You Must Train
    Mar 22 2021
    Every pastor I've ever met wants to reach the lost and build disciples. I believe that’s you as well. I know you want to see people saved and for your church members to grow in their love and understanding of Christ. That’s why you got into this work. But now, after years of doing this work, you realize that it’s impossible to do it alone. You need help. You need others to come alongside and share the load. In part, that’s why you are listening to me. That’s why you found this podcast. You want to learn how to identify, train, and release leaders into the work. This is Mark Jones and I help pastors reach the lost, build disciples, and develop church leaders. Thanks for listening to Coaching Christian Leaders. If you want to know more about how I can help, then please visit www.CoachingChristianLeaders.com In today’s episode, we are going to focus on the most important leader you must train. You must train this leader before all others. And a failure to do so will cause problems. Who is that one leader you must give the priority to? It is yourself. Over the past four leadership development episodes you have: identified a leadership position to develop.You have written a short job description.I have asked you some questions with the hope of creating in you a sense of urgency.And we have brought the Lord into our planning. And today? Today we are going to focus on ourselves. We are going to work on our own leadership skills. Let me take a couple of minutes and tell you a bit about myself. My story will help you understand the value of personal leadership development. For me, becoming a pastor is a second career. Before I was a pastor I was career military. I retired from the Air Force in 1995 and shortly after that went into full-time ministry. The work I did in the Air Force – I was a Russian Linguist – had nothing to do with pastoring a church. So about one year before retirement I began to work on a Master of Divinity. Then about one year after retiring I went into ministry. I tell you this because early in my ministry career I realized something. Seminary did not prepare me to lead a church. In general, Bible colleges and Seminaries do not train pastors to lead churches. In seminary, I had only one class on pastoral leadership. All the other classes were on theology, Bible book studies, and language (Greek, and Hebrew). Those things are essential but they do not prepare you to lead a church. Where did I learn how to lead? The leadership skills I possessed, in the beginning, came from my years in the Air Force. The rest I learned on the job and from speaking to other pastors. And now I want to share with you what I have learned. Over the next few episodes, we will work on personal leadership skills. You need to learn to read with intention.You need to work with a coach or a mentor who will challenge you.You need to surround yourself with a small group of peers and meet with them regularly. Today we will focus on reading with intention. One of the best ways to learn to lead is to read with intent. If the internet is telling the truth, then CEOs read approximately 60 books a year. That’s five books per month.  You are the CEO of your church. I know you already read to preach. Books that help you with message prep probably equal 2-3 books per month. So why not use the other 2-3 slots and read for leadership development? About a year ago I came across an article by James Clear titled 7 Ways to Retain More of Every Book You Read. James Clear is the author of the book Atomic Habits. I’ll put a link to this article in the show notes. But for the next few minutes, I will give you Mr. Clear’s seven points and put my spin on them. Quit More Books You do not have to read a book cover to cover. If it is not bearing fruit stop reading it. Not every book is worth the investment of time. And often you can get what you need early and then move on. Let me add this. If you want the information the book contains but find the book to be a drag to read, then buy a summary book. Here’s what I mean. Say you want to read Jim Collin’s book Good to Great but you do not want to read 400 pages. Someone has written a summary book and it's on Amazon. Summary books give an overview of the major ideas, they give an analysis, and they are typically under 50 pages long. You need to be reading more to improve your leadership skills but if the book does not click with you then quit it. And if you think the info is good but the read is overwhelming, see if someone has written a summary book. Choose Books You Can Use Instantly You need to be reading on the subject you can instantly use. Later I will recommend a few books you should read first. One of those is Paul Axtell’s book Meetings Matter. As I read that book, I began to use his ideas to change the church board meetings. It was exciting to see his ideas come to life in our meetings. Create Searchable Notes This bit of advice improved my reading. Today I ...
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    14 mins
  • Values-Driven Leadership

    Values-Driven Leadership
    Mar 1 2021

    Bobby Albert is the President of Values-Driven Leadership. He is the author of The Freedom Paradox, Principled Profits, and True North Business.

    Today we spoke with Bobby shared his insights on leadership and the state of our country.

    He Shared

    How he came to know Christ as your savior.

    Why he wrote The Freedom Paradox.

    What is meant by “Freedom Paradox.

    How Freedom + Responsibility = Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. 

    What’s the value of going all the way back to the birth of our nation?

    Four cultural changes

    1. People are acting on emotions rather than principles
    2. People are exhibiting scarcity mindsets instead of abundant mindsets.
    3. People are focused on symptoms instead of the root problem.
    4. People no longer understand how you communicate is as important as what you communicate.

    What is the hope for American?

    His Books

    The Freedom Paradox

    Principled Profits

    True North Business

    His Website and Email

    BobbyAlbert.com

    Bobby@BobbyAlbert.com

    Visit TFP-Book.com for a free gift.

    Closing Thoughts

    Thanks for listening to Coaching Christian Leaders. Please subscribe to the podcast. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Deezer, Gaana, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, and most any podcast app.

     
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    56 mins
  • Where's God in Your Plans?

    Where's God in Your Plans?
    Feb 15 2021
    Pastors, God has commissioned you to make disciples. God has gifted you to equip your church members for ministry. And God has committed you to train up not one generation of leaders but to oversee the training of two additional generations of leaders. But are you? Are you doing these things? I know I have struggled to develop leaders. Why? One reason is that I got busy doing church. Each week was filled with sermon prep and then preaching; administration, phone calls, visits. Nothing wrong with that. But weeks would go by, then months. And before you know it a year has passed and I still have not developed a leader. But that’s changing. And I want to share with you how it is changing and what you can do to develop the next generation of leaders at your church. This is Mark Jones and you are listening to Coaching Christian Leaders. Today we are going to answer an all-important question. And we must know the answer to move forward in our leadership development. Here’s the question – How do you know if God is in favor of your plans? Does God support what you are planning? Let me share with you something that I do. And always when I do it I regret it. I get a great idea. I develop a plan. I identify the resources. I contact the people. And I forge ahead. But I forget to do one thing. And because I forget this, often my plans fall flat. What do I forget to do? I forget to include the Lord. I forget to seek His help and I forget to commit this plan or this idea to God. And you know what happens? Eventually, nothing, because God has not established these plans. If you have listened to the first 3 episodes on Leadership Development maybe you have noticed that I have yet to identify a person to train. I have not covered how to select a candidate. That’s on purpose. We are going to lay this whole thing out before we go and identify and recruit trainees. You see I am taking the Field of Dreams approach. Maybe you saw the Kevin Costner film where Kevin Costner’s character, a farmer, hears a voice in the cornfields “Build it and they will come.” And so he does just that. He builds a baseball field. That’s what I am proposing. We are going to build a leadership development program before we even pick out a candidate to go through the program. We are going to create each step and then we are going to ask God to give us the leaders to train. But what if we do all this planning and fail to include God in the effort? It’s possible that when the system is finished there will not be a candidate because we did not include God in the planning. So let’s bring God in now before we get too far down the road. Open your Bibles to Proverbs 16 and let’s consider the first three verses. I’ll read from the King James Version initially. The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord. 2 All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the Lord weigheth the spirits. 3 Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established. Of the three verses, verse one is the most difficult one for me to understand. The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord. So I read through some commentaries, especially those that are language heavy, but they confused me even more. I also considered other translations. Here’s the ESV. The plans of the heart belong to man,     but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. Or how about the NIV? To humans belong the plans of the heart,     but from the Lord comes the proper answer of the tongue. On and on I studied and finally I selected Pastor John MacArthur Jr.’s understanding of the verse. Here is his note from his Study Bible, “Human responsibility is always subject to God’s absolute sovereignty.” Dr. MacArthur’s note seems to square with the majority of others and the other two verses, 2-3, support the idea. “Human responsibility is always subject to God’s absolute sovereignty.” The Good News Bible translates the verse with the idea that Dr. MacArthur is teaching. We may make our plans, but God has the last word We can make all the plans we want. And we should do so. But always remember, God is ultimately in control, especially when it concerns His church. Now let’s consider verses 2 2 All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the Lord weigheth the spirits. When we plan, according to verse 2, when we develop systems and programs, there is nothing wrong with that, but...we can be deceived. We can even deceive our own selves. We can with good intention come up with plans and programs that are in conflict with God’s Word. Maybe we find or develop something that is completely out of step with God and His Word. Verse 2 teaches that God weighs our ideas. He examines our motives. He determines the truth in our plans. So if we can even trick our own selves into a less than perfect idea, what can we do? The answer is in verse three. 3 Commit ...
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    12 mins
  • Without This, Your Leadership Development Will Fail

    Without This, Your Leadership Development Will Fail
    Feb 5 2021
    Often when we start a new project, when we begin to develop a new program, if we are lacking a certain ingredient, if we do not have one specific emotion, the project withers and dies. But when we possess it we will see the project through. This is Mark Jones the host of Coaching Christian Leaders and today I will share with you that one essential ingredient you must have to move your leadership development program forward. When we last met, you were taking your first steps in leadership development. You determined the leadership position to develop and then you created a one-page job description for that position. If you have not done that then take a few minutes to do so. What is that position you wish to develop? I am working on developing elders. Maybe you need to create youth leaders or build up your children’s staff. Maybe it’s a deacon or women’s ministry leader. Whatever, you need to identify it and then create a simple job description. In the last episode, I encouraged you to ask yourself this question – Why does my church need this leader now? And I wanted you to link your answer to your church’s mission statement. Here’s is what I mean by that. Our church’s mission statement is To Share Christ and Build Disciples. So when I ask myself Why does my church need elders now? – the answer must satisfy the mission statement. I need elders now to build more disciples. If your need does not satisfy your mission statement, then pick a different leader to develop. If you want some additional help with these steps just grab my worksheet titled First Steps. You can find it at CoachingChristianLeaders.com on the Worksheets tab. The First Steps Worksheet covers this episode and the previous two episodes. You can use it by yourself or print multiple copies and use it with your team. Go to CoachingChristianLeaders.com, open up the Worksheets tab, and grab your copy. Five Coaching Questions Today we are going to cultivate something essential. Very early in the creation of this leadership development program, we need this essential ingredient or the process will fail. What is it? It is a sense of Urgency. Why urgency? Without urgency, there will be no lasting motivation to take this on. There will be no passion in the process. And when there is no sense of urgency there is no forward momentum. How do create urgency? You will create urgency by answering the following coaching questions. So grab a piece of paper and something to write with or grab the First Steps Worksheet and let’s create some urgency. In order to create a sense of urgency, I am going to ask you five coaching questions. Take the time to honestly and fully answer each question. I wish I was sitting across from you. When I personally coach pastors, it is questions like the following five that I ask. And pastors grow dramatically as they think and answer each question. When I coach a pastor we explore each response and dive deep into the pastor’s situation. Since I am working with you via a podcast I want to encourage you to answer each question fully and honestly. Bounce these questions and your answers off of a close friend or mentor. Better yet, discuss them with a key leader in your church. Here’s question number one. Without this leader what is the current situation at your church? Take a minute and think this through. Then write down a short paragraph that explains the current situation without this leader. You are trying to assess the impact not having this leader makes on your church. I told you that I am working on developing some new elders. But for this question, I’ll use a different need as an example. I need a Children’s Ministry Director, someone to pull together our different children’s ministry teams and give them focus, training, and support. I have a Pioneer Club Director. I have someone overseeing Children’s Church. I do not have anyone overseeing Children’s Sunday school and I do not have a Children’s Ministry Director. Without this position filled and developed the different children’s ministries never coordinate with one another. The staff that teach the kids during Sunday School, mid-week Pioneer Clubs, and Children’s Church never go to any training. And we are really dropping the ball in how we minister to kids. So what about you? Without this leader what is the current situation at your church? What could be the situation at your church when this leadership position is filled? Wow, what a question! Let your imagination run wild. Envision what could be if you had this position filled and functioning at its fullest potential. Using my example of a Children’s Ministry Director, I see kids coming to Christ. I see staff connecting, coordinating, and serving at a high level. I see families growing in their faith.  I see a focused, trained, and supported children’s staff. What could be the situation at your church when this leadership position is filled and the leader fully developed? ...
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    12 mins
  • Step One of Leadership Development

    Step One of Leadership Development
    Jan 18 2021
    Intro What‘s stopping your church from fulfilling the Great Commission? What is stopping your church from sharing Christ with your community, building small groups or Sunday School classes, from staffing children’s ministries? You might say, “I don’t have enough people. I’m boiled down to just a faithful few and we’re doing all we can. And we can’t do any more than we currently do.” But here’s another reason. And I will use myself. The reason we were falling short...The reason we were not fulfilling the Great Commission is that we were just doing church and not intentionally developing leaders.   This is Mark Jones and I help pastors create leaders. Now is the time to get intentional and begin to create a system that will develop future leaders. In the last episode, I presented a biblical foundation for Leadership Development. I shared with you three Scripture passages: Matthew 28:19-20Ephesians 4:11-12And 2 Timothy 2:2 I discussed that God has commissioned you to Make Disciples, ;that God has gifted you to Equip the Saints for Ministry, and God has entrusted you with the responsibility to train Multiple Generations of Leaders. If you have not listened to this episode I recommend that you do so. Today we will build upon this simple foundation and begin to construct a simple Leadership Development System. Today is that first step. Here are a few ground rules for ME as we go forward. Anything I share with you on this podcast must be simple and actionable.The system we create must be attainable by both small churches and large churches.I want to keep these episodes short and give you something you can easily do before the next episode drops. So I will give you a bit of homework. With that said, let’s get to work. Step One - The What Here is our first step in creating a Leadership Development process. You need to determine the What and the Why of this system. Let me explain. You are going to start creating a Leadership Development system by looking at the end of that process, the finish line. I want you to determine the finished product before you determine the system to get there. To do that, you need to know What you are developing and Why you are developing it. Here’s an example. Remember in the last episode I shared with you that my elders were concerned. They felt strongly that we needed some new elders and some new Sunday School teachers. That then is my What. What do I need to develop, what kind of leader do I need to develop? I need Elders and Teachers. Truly my church needs more than that. I could use some new deacons and deaconesses. I could use some new workers in our Children’s Ministry. I could really use someone to develop an outreach team. On and on I could go. That might be your case as well. You might need all types of leaders. But no church and no pastor can develop all of these at once. So we need to make a choice based on an immediate need. And this immediate need, if developed, will lead to the development of other leaders. Here is what I mean. Let’s you and I answer the first question: What Leaders Do You Need to Develop? Take a minute to brainstorm and then write down every leader you need to develop. I’m going to write down Elder, Sunday School Teacher, and I’m going to write down all the others I mentioned – Deacons, Deaconesses, Outreach Team, Children’s Ministry workers. You do the same – Write down every leadership position you need. Answer the first questions -What Leaders Do You Need to Develop? So you have before you a list of the leaders you need to develop.  Out of that list, you need to pick just one. I know you want to develop all but that’s not practical. Choose one. How do you choose the one? For me, I’m going to listen to my elders. They pointed to the need for new elders and Sunday School teachers. But that’s two, not one. Then I’m going to think about this – If I develop one of those will that process lead to the development of another. For me the answer is yes. Here’s what I mean. For the most part, our adult Sunday School classes are led by our elders. If I develop elders I am also developing Sunday School teachers. I can pull back and look at this another way. If I develop men I can then begin to identify those who would function well as elders and those who may function better as deacons. That idea takes in the direction of discipleship. I’ll have more to say about how to use discipleship to develop leadership in a future episode. But going back to the idea of first developing men, I am now setting up the possibility of identifying both elders and deacons and then from that pool of men and developing the leaders.   So look at your list. Ask yourself a few questions. What leader do I need to develop that fills the most immediate need?What leader, if developed, will also lead to the development other leaders? Now that you have determined What Leader to develop it’s time to determine the Why. Step Two - The Why ...
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    13 mins