I have aspired to be a leader within God’s church since I was sixteen years old. Aspiration needs to be managed well. It can be something that is misinterpreted as cockiness or misunderstood as arrogance. In this post I share are a few tips I would like to share to help those of us who aspire to wider leadership do so well.    

Over the course of this short series I would like to share several lessons I have learnt, and even some I am presently learning, that I hope will encourage anyone who feels they have further development and aspires to serve Jesus’ Church in greater measures through leadership. Next in this series is recognising the importance of putting family first.

Over the course of this short series I would like to share several lessons I have learnt, and even some I am presently learning, that I hope will encourage anyone who feels they have further development and aspires to serve Jesus’ Church in greater measures through leadership. In this post, I look at some of the tools of becoming teachable.

One of the things that you learn before long in church leadership is that often decisions are made that affect people, and yet those people themselves had no say in the decision. Sometimes you will be the one tasked with representing that decision to them. Sometimes you will be the one who the decision affects. Walking these situations well requires deep convictions, pastoral skill and lots of humility.

The CCM School of Leadership was created by Christ Church Manchester to train and equip those with a leadership gift to lead well wherever they are. When we drill down to the heart of leadership, we find that it almost always comes down to the same thing – developing people. Everyone around us is on a journey, and the best leaders are those who are able to help the people around them move forward on that journey, fulfil their potential and thrive in their ministry. In this Session, Mark Mumford drills down into this crucial topic of leadership development. Mark, along with his wife Nesta, leads Community Church in Derby. He is involved in the East Midlands Christian Fellowship, and he heads up the UK apostolic team for Salt and Light Churches.

Listen to the Audio Read the Notes Mark’s Story Mark is from a network called Salt and Light, and has been based in the East Midlands for 37 years. When leading the church there, Mark felt that God was going to plant multiple churches, so Mark named the church East Midlands Christian Fellowships to allow […]

The CCM School of Leadership was created by Christ Church Manchester to train and equip those with a leadership gift to lead well wherever they are. In this session, Andy Brownlee looks at why strategy is important, and how we can develop a strategy for growth.

In Exodus 18, we read an account of a conversation that Moses had with his father-in-law, Jethro, where Jethro gives Moses some important advice. This exchange holds some important leadership lessons for us all. 

The approach that Jesus took to developing these leaders was very intentional, and it was rather different to the approach that many of us employ in our churches. Jesus did not enrol his followers in a Bible college, nor did he follow a guided reading plan with them. There is no record of weekly ‘Bible study and accountability’ meetings. Rather, Jesus drew these men into the things that he was doing. Most of the three years of Jesus’ ministry were spent together. They saw first hand the things that he was doing. They had lots of unhurried behind-the-scenes time to ask their questions and understand what was really driving Jesus. They were given opportunities to go out themselves and do the same things that they had seen Jesus doing, and then were able to gather back and reflect on their experiences. 

For an organisation or church to have a noticeable impact and leave a lasting legacy, developing new leaders is crucial. It is not an option to rely on recruiting ready-made leaders. For some, leadership development can seem an intimidating task. The best place to begin is by looking at how Jesus developed leaders around him.