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 David Posthuma
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Two Principles that Guarrantee that You will Lead with Style
David Posthuma @ Aug 12, 2008 07:54 AM
Every pastor naturally desires to be an effective leader. So why do some succeed and others fail? Every church desires to thrive in its ministry efforts, so why do some churches seem to “do no wrong” while others can’t seem to “do much right”? These are complex issues. However, if pastoral leaders and their churches adopt two foundational Leadership Style principles and adhere to these principles faithfully, leaders will come to love their place of service and ministry organizations will overcome barriers that have held back their ministries for years. ________________________________________________________________________ Principle #2: Principle 1: Lead According to Your Leadership Style
It may be helpful at this point to review some of the common Builder characteristics. Builders are strong-willed, visionary people. They are highly entrepreneurial and are natural risk-takers. They are agents of change. Their strong personalities are both their strength and their weakness. As a strength the Builder’s strong personality helps cast vision passionately, recruiting people to buy into the vision and helping people implement the vision by giving clear direction. However, as a weakness, the Builder’s strong personality can be interpreted as “controlling” and insensitive to the feelings of others.
Overcoming Mission Myopia:
What Kind of Leader Are You?
David Posthuma @ Aug 12, 2008 07:47 AM
NOTE: Portions of this article were published in the July/August edition of REV! Magazine and in David's new book, Made for a Mission. An Introduction to Six Major Styles of Influence... At the 2007 Catalyst leadership convention, Andy Stanley passionately proclaimed: “Leadership is always ‘follow me,’ it is never ‘follow we!’” The context of Andy’s statement was his rejection of leadership by committee. I agree with Andy that committee-based leadership is not a healthy leadership paradigm. Yet, “follow-me”, when applied inappropriately, can also be detrimental to the health and vitality of a ministry organization. God designed numerous styles of leadership influence. Each style is good, created by God, and intended by God to be used for Kingdom purposes. However, when we fail to recognize or appreciate our personal leadership style, only surround ourselves with people who possess similar leadership styles to our own, or impose our leadership style upon those who serve under us, devastating consequences can result. What is Mission Myopia? It may surprise you to learn that even though the Bible is abundantly clear about the many parts of Christ’s body, when it comes to building ministry teams, many Christians and Christian leaders somehow forget that God created human diversity. It should be self-evident that not every Christ follower will look, sound, nor act like every other Christ follower. However, leaders often suffer from what I call “mission myopia.” The Oxford American Dictionary defines myopia as: “1) nearsightedness; 2) lack of imagination or intellectual insight.” Mission myopia exists whenever we consolidate around ourselves people who possess a similar ministry temperament to ourselves, or impose our ministry temperament...and its way of perceiving and serving...upon those closest to us. The problem of mission myopia was illustrated quite profoundly to me some time ago when I received a phone call from a pastor asking if I would be willing to meet with him. As we sat and talked, he began to unload his frustration with his church board. He felt his church board was lacking in integrity, failing to fulfill the ministry obligations to which they had agreed, and that he may now have to remove most of the board members. Over my years of pastoral ministry and consulting with ministry leaders, I had come across some difficult and even unhealthy church boards; however, the prospect of removing an entire board seemed quite extreme. As I asked him more about his situation, it became clear that this pastor had led his church leadership team through a strategic planning process that advocated and blessed only one ministry style…the pastor’s…as the required methodology for each one of his board members. In theory, the board members had agreed that the method outlined by their pastor was very important for their church. But in practice, it soon became clear that most of the board members were incapable of sustained personal ministry using the pastor’s methodology. I asked this pastor to describe specific personality attributes regarding each board member. As he did so, it became very clear to me that this well-meaning pastor was violating God’s ordained mission for each one of his board members. This ministry board consisted of individuals who were strong visionary leaders and project administrators. They were task-oriented and systems-oriented people. In contrast, the pastor’s personal style was “relational,” focusing on one-to-one or small group interpersonal ministry. This pastor did not mean to sin against his board, but in fact, by trying to treat each board member as an “eye”...to see and do things his way...he was violating each board member's divinely inspired ministry temperament. I tried to help this pastor realize that his ministry goals could be more effectively accomplished if he were to mobilize his board according to each person's unique personality. I encouraged him to ask his board for forgiveness and to repent of his judgmental attitude toward them. This was a crisis of the pastor's own making...he had forgotten to honor each part of Christ's ministry body. He was suffering from mission myopia.
The graphic below portrays a continuum of leadership styles, ranging from highly task-driven entrepreneurial leaders on the left, to highly relational and task-avoidant leaders on the right. This broad continuum is divided into six basic “styles” of leadership influence, which are grouped into three general categories: Builders, Managers, and Nurturers.
The Builders The Builder category consists of Pioneers and Strategic Planners. Pioneers are designed by God to develop new ministry programming, systems, and churches. They are strong dynamic leaders who value risk-taking for the Kingdom of God. They are typically strong personalities who thrive on vision…the bigger the vision the better. They are highly mission-driven. Pioneers make excellent church planters and new program developers. They think organizationally and systemically. As long as Pioneers are allowed to “build”, they can remain motivated. However, when a project or ministry becomes established and requires managerial and pastoral care duties, the Pioneer will likely become frustrated and discouraged. The Apostle Paul was a classic Pioneer. His goal was never to build upon another man’s foundation (Romans 15:20). Strategic Planners are designed by God to be the “architect” for new ministry development, and established ministry refinement. They are designers of systems and are highly task-oriented. They are the most “prophetic” of leadership types, in that they are able to perceive every major step that will be required to implement a ministry vision. However, they often assume that other people are also able to perceive these steps, and will appreciate the scope of the plan they wish to set in motion. Unfortunately, many other leader-types quickly become overwhelmed by the vast design details offered by the Strategic Planner. Strategic Planners can experience frustration and personal rejection when their “master plans” are not adopted, or are altered without their input.
The Manager category consists of Administrators and Team Leaders. Administrators are highly task-oriented and love to address the many operational details associated with any mission or project. They generally are not good at multi-tasking, preferring rather to work from a check-off list in their Day Planner or PDA. They gain great satisfaction from checking off accomplishments that provide resources and support to other team members, from their list. Administrators are able to implement and address the many operational details identified within a strategic plan. They are faithful, loyal, hard working individuals. However, they tend to associate their self-worth with the tasks they accomplish. If they “drop a ball”, which is rare, they will often internally punish themselves harshly. They may have difficulty delegating tasks to others, mistakenly assuming that “if you want a job done right, you have to do it yourself”. Team Leaders are unique. They are the only leadership style that has one foot in the task-oriented world, and one foot in the relational world. This unique ability to “bridge the two worlds” enables Team Leaders to be both mission-driven and sensitive to relational dynamics. Team Leaders are very mission driven. They naturally gather around themselves people to “go do” some mission or event. Team members often develop deep loyalties to their Team Leader because of the Team Leader’s ability to help each member accomplish a significant mission for Christ, while also affirming each team member emotionally and spiritually. Team Leaders can make excellent pastors and staff. However, Team Leaders do have a significant danger associated with them. The Team Leader profile is the leadership style commonly associated with a church split. In such cases, the Team Leader can point to many mission successes that have earned him or her loyalty from a significant pool of team members. Praise and admiration from team members can lead the Team Leader to become prideful, like King Nebuchadnezzar who said: “Is not this the great [ministry] I have built as [my church], by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty” (Daniel 4:30)? Prideful Team Leaders may feel that they are personally responsible for the various ministry successes within the church, and that if only they could be unencumbered by the restrictions of their superiors, they could be unleashed to accomplish even greater things. For this reason, Team Leaders should be surrounded with healthy accountability people to address any pride issue while it is small and manageable.
The Nurturer category consists of Pastoral Leaders and Encouraging Leaders. The Pastoral Leader is relationally-driven and task-task avoidant. The Pastoral Leader is generally concerned about the emotional and spiritual welfare of the group, team, or congregation…internally they ask themselves, “How are WE doing” emotionally and spiritually? Pastoral Leaders need significant interpersonal time with people. Administrative office duties will likely depress a Pastoral Leader. Similarly, vision casting, strategic plans, and organizational structures are all task-oriented skills the Pastoral Leader will likely be unable to implement effectively. In some cases, Pastoral Leaders may even devalue and dismiss systems and organizational structures as unimportant. Pastoral Leaders often wonder why everyone doesn’t simply minister as they do…person to person. The Pastoral Leader generally values small groups, recovery ministries, one-on-one discipleship, home visitations, hospital visitations, and social gatherings. The Apostle John was a classic Pastoral Leader. His repeated appeal to love God and love one another within his letters portrays his pastoral passion (1 John 3:11). The Encouraging Leader is our last leadership style. Like the Pastoral Leader, Encouraging Leaders are highly relational and task-avoidant. However, they are different in their overall ministry focus…While the Pastoral Leader asks “How are WE doing”, the Encouraging Leader asks, “How are YOU doing” emotionally and spiritually? Encouraging Leaders are generally gifted at analyzing people. They are very self-aware of the emotions of people around them. This leadership-type is seldom showy or public. Often Encouraging Leaders work behind the scenes informally. They shy away from programs and administrative duties unless these enable the Encouraging Leader to spend quality time investing into individuals. Encouraging Leaders generally make excellent councilors, spiritual formation mentors, prayer warriors, and recovery ministry leaders. They may also function well as small group leaders if the small group members are able to “go deep” with one another, spiritually and emotionally. Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, was a classic Encouraging Leader, so much so that the Apostles gave him the nickname Barnabus which means, “Son of Encouragement” (Acts 4:36).
It is important that we not only understand our preferred leadership style, and utilize that style effectively, it is also important that we appreciate that God has given us ministry partners who possess differing styles of leadership. Our challenge as leaders is to learn to value these differing leader-types, and to partner with them not merely as our “helpers”, but as co-workers for Christ. Below you will find a simplified Leadership Style assessment I utilize within live seminars and workshops. The online version hosted by AssessMe.org is far more accurate, but the results of this simplified assessment will give you significant insights into your personal leadership style. I encourage you to have other staff and lay leaders take the Leadership Style assessment so that you can build a more effective ministry team, positioning each team member according to their divinely designed leadership style.
A Simple Leadership Style Assessment
Pioneering: Score: _____ _____ I am a risk-taker _____ I am motivated by a noble vision _____ I am happiest when I lead others in new ministry ventures _____ I am driven to create and build _____ I am dissatisfied with the status quo
Strategic Planner: Score: _____ _____ I excel at creating systems _____ I see myself as an architect, creating master plans _____ I just think strategically _____ I would rather “design” than “do” _____ I use check-off lists for tasks _____ I am very organized _____ I see all the tasks associated with running a ministry _____ I hate seeing “balls dropped” _____ I gain great satisfaction when a task is finally completed _____ I love to lead teams of people _____ I see myself “in the trenches” _____ I like to “make things happen” _____ People look to me for leadership because I care about them _____ I care more about people than mission…people are the mission _____ I highly value unity and harmony _____ I enjoy serving people _____ I naturally nurture the spiritual & emotional welfare of others _____ I seek the welfare of the group _____ I prefer one-on-one ministry _____ I tend to analyze an individual’s spiritual development _____ People come to me for counsel _____ People feel better when they talk to me or spend time with me About the Author David Posthuma’s leadership style consists of a Pioneer/Strategic Planner blend, with a Planner ministry temperament. He is the founder of E-Church Essentials and the chief architect of the AssessMe.org online ministry mobilization assessment program. David has served as a church revitalizer, church plant pastor, church consultant, and since 1998, has designed software solutions for the ministry market. This article is adapted from his book, Made for a Mission….The ultimate resource for team building and ministry mobilization (CLC Publications, 2008). David resides in Holland, Michigan with his wife Tamara, and their two children, Joshua and Alyssa. For booking information, please call 1-800-724-1159, or visit www.AssessMe.org/extra.
Book Release: Announcing the Release of Made for a Mission
David Posthuma @ Aug 12, 2008 07:35 AM
Would you invest the time to answer the question, "Why am I here?" 
Announcing David Posthuma's book
Made for a MissionFinding Your Place in God's Redemptive PlanHave you ever asked yourself: "Why am I here?" Made for a Mission offers a biblically informed and strategic method to help you answer this all-important question. Made for a Mission is ideal for pastors, staff, and lay leaders who desire to be better equipped in the art of team building and ministry mobilization. The reader will be able to build more effective ministry teams, as well as have defined a personal life mission plan that honors their God ordained design. "I found your book intriguing and probably the most useful tool I've ever been exposed to... "
> More AssessME testimonials Quantity Discounts available through CLC Publications
Intentionally Engineering Ministry Structures for Maximum Impact, Part 1: An Introduction
David Posthuma @ Apr 30, 2007 01:27 PM
Every church organization exhibits a unique organizational personality. An organization’s personality type enables its leadership to effectively recruit and mobilize people with some ministry temperaments, while impeding the recruitment and mobilization of others. At this point it may be helpful to distinguish between the big “C” universal Church, and the little “c” local church. Within Christ’s universal Church, you are a vital member with an essential ministry role. However, the local church is not always so inclusive. When people don’t know how to fit within their local church, it is important to discern between the responsibilities of the individual and the responsibilities of the organization for addressing this problem. The local expression of Christ’s Church may at times have difficulty including and mobilizing differing people into ministry. This may be the result of unique institutional dynamics that inadvertently prevent people from participating within the mission. When this occurs, people have difficulty knowing how to serve and support the ministry of their local church. Sadly, pastoral leaders often blame their congregation members for the lack of ministry participation, criticizing their membership as “uncommitted,” when in fact, the organization’s structures may be inhibiting committed people from knowing how serve. Not finding a place of effective ministry service within their church, these committed people will generally develop their own personalized and isolated ministry. Christ never desired his followers to minister in isolation. He always sent his disciples out in teams consisting of two or more members (Luke 10:1 NIV). Similarly, the Apostles always had at least one or two support staff. Remember, we all need each other, and together we best represent the God who created all of us in his image. Our ministry temperament was designed to integrate with other ministry temperaments so that together, we can accomplish for Christ far more than we could ever accomplish individually. It may surprise you to learn that even though the Bible is abundantly clear about the many parts of Christ’s body, when it comes to building ministry teams, many Christians and Christian leaders somehow forget that God created human diversity. It should be self-evident that not every Christ follower will look, sound, nor act like every other Christ follower. However, the Church often suffers from what I call “mission myopia.” The Oxford American Dictionary defines myopia as: “1) nearsightedness; 2) lack of imagination or intellectual insight.” For example, the pastor of one church I was asked to consult with expressed that the biggest problem facing the church over its two decade history was that the church started many good programs, but had difficulty sustaining them. A simple assessment of the Senior Pastor and his board revealed that all the dominant leaders possessed entrepreneurial profiles…they were start-up people; this explained why they started many good ministries but were unable to sustain them. The church leadership needed to learn how to better identify the people within their congregation who excelled at establishing self-perpetuating ministry structures, as well as people who were gifted in managing ongoing ministry programs. The personality of a ministry organization has a direct bearing on its ability to mobilize people for ministry and build effective ministry teams. In fact, the personality of a church often dictates who may serve within the ministry. In the case of the church just mentioned, people who possessed entrepreneurial temperaments easily found places of service within the church. However, people who did not possess such profiles had difficulty knowing how to support the ministry. The principle of mission myopia, that people will naturally gather around themselves others who are like them, inhibits other people-types from participating effectively in ministry. Often, these disenfranchised Christ followers feel like there simply is no place of ministry for them within their church. They may have tried earnestly to find a place of ministry fit, but in the end, they have been made to feel rejected and devalued. I am confident that no healthy church leadership team desires to communicate to people that they are devalued. However, this unintentional communication occurs none the less. For church leadership, the principle of mission myopia infers the following: · Most all church ministries suffer from some level of mission myopia. · · When people cannot find a place of ministry service within their church, they tend to feel devalued and unwanted, and ultimately leave the church. Intentionally Engineering Ministry Structures for Maximum Impact, Part 2: Cultural Modification
David Posthuma @ Apr 30, 2007 01:26 PM
Unlike human ministry temperaments, which can mature but cannot be altered, organizational personalities may be intentionally modified. This is accomplished by positioning the appropriate people, who possess the necessary ministry temperaments, into key positions of influence. The goal in this culture-modification process is to broaden and deepen a church organization’s ministry impact by intentionally including more of the various parts of the body of Christ within its mission. A healthy and mature ministry culture seeks to include every willing servant of Christ associated with their church organization into an appropriate ministry position. Broad-based inclusion of many differing people, possessing many differing ministry temperaments, will likely challenge the organization’s established ministry culture. So, how can an established ministry organization position itself to be more inclusive of all ministry temperaments? First, culture modification is always a top-down process. Organizational leadership will want to evaluate the ministry temperaments of each person of influence, at each functional layer within the organization. For example, it is common in many churches to have three distinct leadership layers: · Layer 1 - Executive Leadership Team · Layer #2 – Support staff · Layer #3 – Lay leadership When you assess each leader for ministry-fit, and evaluate the cumulative results, you will discover that your organization displays a “temperament theme”. A temperament theme is defined in terms of “shared-quadrant-values” (e.g., Independent vs. Social) and not by the dominance of a specific ministry temperament (e.g., Protagonist) represented throughout the organization. Please refer to the four assessment quadrants PDF document. Each assessment quadrant (i.e., Relational Style, Information Style, Decision-Making Style, and Environmental Style) contains two opposing values. For example, the Relational Style category scores individuals (or organizations) along a continuum that ranges from Independent to Social. Temperament themes define the culture of a church as it matures through the various phases of its development. The simplest church model emphasizes a single quadrant-value; typically the “Social” value from the Relational Style quadrant. As the church grows and its ministry requirements become more complex, church leaders will incorporate additional quadrant-values at each stage. Although growth patterns will vary from church to church, this principle can be illustrated by walking through one common church growth scenario. The Churches typically develop in stages, according to their ability to incorporate and emphasize additional quadrant-values. A small church, at or below the 150-member barrier, will generally emphasize the Relational Style quadrant, and uphold “Social” as their defining cultural value. At this stage in the ministry’s development, the church functions much like a family with members who know and care for one another. There is little need for structure or programs. I recently visited with a family friend who pastors a family-feel church outside of the The Warm-Hearted Church If the leadership of the Family-Feel church believes God is calling the ministry to grow beyond the family phase of development, the church will then need to adopt an additional quadrant-value that will compliment and expand upon their established social-relational value. Often, the church leadership, without knowing it, will implement the Decision-Making Style quadrant and seek to position people who have a high “Heart” value into positions of leadership. This new value readily compliments their established social-relational value. Since the current structures and programs are small and simple to manage at this stage, these relational leaders will excel until their ministry responsibilities grow in size and complexity. The church is now positioned to grow beyond the 150 barrier, and will likely stagnate at around 600 people. The Structured Church The 600-person barrier represents the most significant cultural adjustment the church will have to make. At this stage, the church organization will need to define program systems led by leaders who possess administrative and team building skills. It is not uncommon that these administrative leaders are imported from outside the ministry. This is because the highly relational values which have dominated the church to this point may have alienated task-oriented people. Without realizing it, the church leadership will adopt an additional cultural value found in the Environmental Style quadrant, and seek to introduce into the established church culture a “Systematic” value. It is at this point that many relational people within the church begin to fear that the church is losing its “family-feel.” Relationships are no longer defined in terms of the entire church body, but in the context of service and common interest sub-cultures, as well as shepherding small groups. The relational leaders they have known and loved are now being re-positioned or replaced by people who possess strong administrative and team building abilities. I recently observed a 450-member church struggling with the difficult adjustment from Warm-Hearted to Structured. Its children’s ministry was led by a director who possessed a Protagonist ministry temperament. The Protagonist is charismatic when in front of people and thrives in a non-structured environment. The Protagonist is not skilled as an administrator or team builder. While this ministry temperament likely served the children’s ministry well in the early stages of its development, the non-structured culture was now impeding the children’s ministry from growing into excellence. The people who valued “winging it” rather than planning and preparation were able to function within the various roles required by the children’s ministry. However, people with ministry temperaments that valued administration, team building, planning and preparation could not find a place of ministry fit within the “wing-it” culture defined by the Protagonist leader. If the children’s ministry was to reach the next level of development, the Protagonist culture would need to be replaced or modified. The ministry temperaments that will be required to take the children’s ministries program to the next level are the very people that the established culture had until now been alienating. (Side note: A Protagonist’s ‘wing-it” values can always find a place of ministry service within a structured team-based culture. However, a structured team-based person can rarely find a place of ministry service within a “wing-it” culture.) When a Warm-Hearted church is able to transition to a Structured church, and include people who identify with and can implement the new “Systematic” cultural value within the church, they will find that a new army of systems-oriented people can finally be unleashed to serve within the church. These people have not known how to fit and serve effectively in the Family-Feel or Warm-Hearted church. But now, a new team-based synergy liberates strategic planners, administrators and managers to find places of ministry service, and to serve effectively. The Structured church will thrive until it reaches approximately 1,500 people. The Hierarchical Church The Structured church transitions into a Hierarchical church when it consolidates top-tier authority structures, while at the same time integrating a new quadrant value…the “Concrete” value found within the Information Assimilation style quadrant. The ministry now focuses upon providing many concrete and practical ministry services. Generally, there is a unifying thematic value that binds these many services together. Common unifying themes include: Outreach, Seeker Targeted, Seeker Sensitive, Life Purpose, Global Impact, etc. Because of the complex network of team-based ministries, literally thousands of people, of all ministry temperaments, can find a place of ministry service and rise up in status and influence within the ranks. Relationships are nurtured in the context of serving within a ministry team, joining with others around a common interest, or through participation in a small shepherding group. In recent years, the trend has been to break the Hierarchical church down into small functional and relational units. This process has given rise to regional satellite churches…one church meeting concurrently in various locations, via internet streaming from the mother church. With the new millennium, a post-modern reaction to the modernist Hierarchical church has given birth to the Intentionally Engineering Ministry Structures for Maximum Impact, Part 3: Beginning the Engineering
David Posthuma @ Apr 30, 2007 01:16 PM
It is impossible for churches to perfectly balance all the opposing values in each personality quadrant. If this “perfect” balance could be found, then all churches would simply be clones of one another, and so would look alike, function alike, and serve alike. The goal of cultural modification is not to make every church alike. Rather, the goal is to allow diverse ministry temperaments to play appropriate and supportive roles within the ministry’s unique mission and organizational development. Those ministry temperaments that have been kept outside of positions of influence within the organization may indeed provide the exact values, insights, and resources the ministry requires to mature to the next level.
Seven Strategies for Kicking-Off Your Online Assessment Center
David Posthuma @ Jan 22, 2007 12:25 PM
AssessMe.org is 100% committed to helping ministries around the world to effectively equip and mobilize their people for ministry. However, a common question we receive from pastors is, “how do I begin?” This brief article is intended to communicate the strategy we have most often communicated to pastors responsible for ministry mobilization within their church. Recommendation #1 – Use the AssessMe.org Portal in Your Website While there are numerous means by which your people can access your assessment center to take the assessments, the website portal is the ideal integration format. Using the website portal option enables your people to NEVER leave your ministry website. The benefits of this format include:
A sample portal is displayed below: Recommendation #2 – Resist Using the Registration Code Key Option Activate the registration key code option for your assessment center portal only as a last option in cases of severe assessment center abuse. The registration code key will restrict user registrations unless they input the access code, and so limit the number of people who register with your ministry. Most ministries are reporting less than 1% of the people who have registered with their ministry do not directly belong to their ministry. Recommendation #3 – Train Mobilization Counselors Before promoting your online assessment center to your congregation, it would be wise to have sufficient numbers of counselors trained to assist your people in interpreting and applying their assessment results. These counselors should have at least taken our online training webinar found at http://www.assessme.org/about/webinar/ . Alternatively, David Posthuma is available to meet with your leadership and conduct appropriate training on site. (See http://blogs.echurchnetwork.net/assessme/category/Consulting%20And%20Training.aspx.) Recommendation #4 – Promote Your Many pastors have found it very helpful to offer their congregations a mini-sermon series that explores the biblical teaching involving:
Each week, following the teaching time, display your church website on a large screen and demonstrate to your people where the Recommendation #5 – Promote Your Send a personalized email from the senior pastor, to each attendee of your church, requesting the attendee to visit your church website and letting them know that your ministry is offering FREE assessments that will help them better understand their God ordained nature and purposes. Be sure to include a link or button in the email that will take the recipient directly to your Recommendation #6 – Offer Testimonials on Your Provide pictures of people in your church, along with their reference quotations, regarding their positive experience in taking the assessments, and how the assessments helped them better understand their true ministry calling. Recommendation #7 – Provide a Privacy Policy Statement on Your Privacy is a huge issue for many people today. For many young adults, they may be reticent to share their personal information even with your church, unless they are assured that the information will be handles responsibly and appropriately. For an example of a privacy statement, CLICK HERE. Conclusion: These seven strategies commonly result in a very high percentage of church members and attendees registering with your Passion: Following God's Invocatio for Our Lives
David Posthuma @ Jan 22, 2007 10:08 AM
Our ministry temperament determines how we approach the world around us, as well as how we interpret our daily experiences. It also causes us to be attracted to certain types of experiences, and disinterested in other types of experiences. The result is that over time, we all develop unique patterns of interests, passions, and skills. One of the awesome opportunities I am privileged to have, as a father of two young children, is watching the personalities of my children emerge. I have a son, Joshua, and an older daughter, Alyssa. My two children could not be more different. Joshua is an aggressive, competitive, critical analyzer of details. One day when he was five years old, he emerged from the closet in my office with a box and asked what it was. When I told him it was a chess training set and asked if he wanted to learn how to play, he responded enthusiastically…and so the chess lessons began. In a matter of weeks, I was being humiliated by a kindergartener, as he began to beat me at almost every game. Joshua was so passionate about chess that he played it every day. If nobody was available to play with him, he would play by himself – both sides of the board. When he learned about regional and state tournaments, he wanted to compete. In that first year, Joshua won a trophy at every tournament he attended. Where did Joshua get this skill and passion? It is innate in his personality. His personality drives him toward certain activities and causes him to be disinterested in other activities. In contrast, my daughter Alyssa is a gentle spirited girl who loves reading, spending time with friends, and riding horses. On a recent vacation, we had an opportunity to take Alyssa to watch an equestrian competition. I was confident that this event would be the highlight of her vacation. However, within 30 minutes she was bored. At first I didn't understand why she did not enjoy the event; but after talking with her, it became clear...the problem was that it was a “competition”. Unlike Joshua, Alyssa devalues competition and prefers relational harmony. She would have preferred to spend the afternoon hanging out in the stables and talking with the people who owned the horses. Our personality type was given to us by our Creator to be used for his service, and it inspires, to a large extent, our field of potential interests. Over time, and with exploration, certain dominant interests emerge as passions, and with greater experience, our passions formulate skills. There is a direct linear relationship between our interests, passions, and skills. But how do these dynamics relate to our potential ministry mission? It is natural for people to look at their passions and skills as markers pointing them toward a career path. However, as Christ followers, it is more important that we interpret our passions and skills as markers intended to direct us to the work our Lord desires to accomplish through us. I want to remind us of the true meaning of the word “vocation.” The word vocation originated from the Latin word “invocatio.” Today, we would more closely translate this word to mean: “To call upon God for help.” Somehow over time, we have twisted the meaning of “vocation” from something God accomplishes through us, to something we do for a living. However, if you indeed desire to fulfill your divine mission in this world, I believe a mental, emotional, and spiritual paradigm-shift will be required. This paradigm-shift will re-orient your thinking and your priorities around a life-emphasis upon invocatio…passionately seeking to discover what God desires to accomplish through you! God’s revelation will then, in turn, drive all of your life priorities, including those involving career decisions. “As Christ followers, it is more important that we interpret our passions and skills as pointers intended to direct us to the kind of ministry work our Lord desires to accomplish through us.” So, when a boy who has always displayed a high degree of mechanical aptitude becomes an adult, he may chose to become a mechanic. Is being a mechanic his life mission? Well, it depends. Did he choose to serve as a mechanic simply to earn an income? Or, did he allow God to guide his decision-making process, and reveal to him where and how he might serve as a mechanic, in a manner that would best advance the The fundamental issue before us is whether our passions and skills will be used to serve our own ambitions, or the ambitions of Christ. Table 4-1 illustrates the dichotomy between the common Career Perspective verses a Biblically inspired Mission Perspective: Career Perspective vs.
God truly desires to accomplish a significant ministry through each one of us. Our personality, and subsequent interests, passions and skills are all intended to point us in the direction of that mission. That significant mission may be accomplished in the context of full-time ministry or lay ministry service, or while serving as salt and light within a secular context (Matthew
“Somehow over time, we have twisted the meaning of “vocation” from something God accomplishes through us, to something we do “for a living.” I already hear the voices of skeptics ringing in my ears…"but let’s be practical, I have a family and obligations…I need to make a living!” Don’t you think that God knows these things? Do you recall what Jesus told his disciples when he sent them out into the mission field for the first time? “….Freely you have received, freely give. Do not take along any gold or silver or copper in your belts; take no bag for the journey, or extra tunic, or sandals or a staff; for the worker is worth his keep” (Matthew 10:8-10 NIV). You are God’s worker, and you are “worth your keep.” If God is calling you to utilize the interests, passions, and skills he has developed in you to accomplish a God-empowered invocatio, then he will provide all that you require to accomplish his will. This is a difficult faith-lesson for many Christ followers to learn. Yet, we must be careful not to allow our lack of faith to erect obstacles that will impede or limit God’s ability to accomplish his work through us. While we all are imperfect in faith, should not our prayer be: “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief” (Mark This point was vividly illustrated for me this past summer when I took my family to the beach on Apart from his job, my friend is a highly creative person who absolutely excels at ministering to children. I asked him if he could do anything he wanted in life, what would it be? He responded that he would love to run a Christian camp for children. So I asked why he didn’t pursue this passion. He responded sadly, “Because any camp director position would pay half the salary that I am currently making.” I feel for my friend. He has a big beautiful home and a high paying job, but not only is he miserable, but for the sake of money he is potentially limiting his mission impact within this world. My friend would indeed be an outstanding camp director or children’s ministry director. He is perfectly suited for such ministry roles. His personality is ideal for working with children, his ability to communicate creatively is nothing short of phenomenal, he is passionate about ministering to children, and he exudes strong leadership abilities. To my friend’s credit, he does lead the children’s ministry in his church as a volunteer. But I cannot help but feel that God has much more in store for him, if he could only come to the point of trusting the Holy Spirit for help and financial support, rather than trusting in an international corporation. Within my own my marriage and ministry life, my wife Tamara and I have often wrestled with the question of how each one of us is called to serve the Lord. Tamara is a highly gifted woman with a Bachelor of Arts in Education, and a Masters degree in Communication. She also deeply values ministering to children, especially her own. It has always been my ambition to support my wife and family so that Tamara could invest into our children and into her ministry working with other kids. However, we have both discovered that God’s plans are often quite different from our own. For years, I had an overwhelming feeling that God was calling me to develop internet tools that would enable churches to extend their disciple-making and ministry-mobilization efforts online. This “calling” seemed to be in conflict with my sense of responsibility to support my family, because the reality was that to develop such tools would take many years and hundreds of thousands of dollars. As a result, I would not be able to receive a salary sufficient to support my family for at least three to five years. I repeatedly tried to devise a way for me to have a full-time salary and work on my “calling” part-time. However, God continued to close each door I tried. In the course of our struggle to discern God’s leading, a ministry friend by the name of Dan Webster suggested that Tamara and I fly to It is one thing to identify our various interests, skills, and passions. It is another to discern how God is directing us to use these attributes in our present life context. Remember, the Biblically based process of discernment will include four values-based questions:
2. What is my Primary Focus? (i.e., using my abilities to serve the needs of others) 3. How will I Measure Success? (i.e., by whether I have been obedient to God's leading and empowerment) 4. What is my Faith Focus? (i.e., reliance upon the Holy Spirit)
Article: Spiritual Formation's Impact Upon Ministry Mobilization
David Posthuma @ Nov 13, 2006 03:56 PM
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It is natural that parents have differing expectations for their children at various life-stages. Recently, my wife and I had to hold a family meeting with our children, who are now ages 6 and 9, to re-negotiate our family chore contract. We believed that our children had matured to a level that they should rightfully assume greater responsibilities within the household. The goal of the re-negotiated family contract was to ensure age-appropriate expectations for our children. So, for example, it would be unreasonable for Tamara and I to expect our daughter Alyssa (age 9) to cook all the family meals…this would only set Alyssa up for failure. However, Alyssa is more than able to manage the dishwasher and put away clean dishes. Similarly, assigning ministry responsibilities to people according to their spiritual-maturity is fundamental to effective team building and ministry mobilization within our churches. When we assign "childish" ministry responsibilities to our mature Christ Followers, they will likely feel insulted and believe the assignment to be an intrusion upon their valuable time. If we assign "mature" ministry responsibilities to our immature Christ Followers, the ministry will likely be damaged and the Christ Follower will likely fail. However, this immature Christ Follower’s failure is not their fault; rather it is the fault of his/her pastoral leaders who should have known better and set the Christ Follower up to fail. However, I know from personal pastoral experience that it can be very difficult to discern the true spiritual maturity of all our people. Without an appropriate system in place, it is nearly impossible to discern the maturity level of each person, let alone help them know how to continue the spiritual maturation process. Over the years of struggling with the tension between Spiritual Formation and Ministry Mobilization, I have come to believe that healthy ministries can only be developed if leadership places an equal emphasis upon both categories, and successfully integrates both categories. However, this integration process is very difficult for most church leaders to achieve because of the complexities associated with both spiritual maturity and ministry mobilization. In recent years, God has really been working on my heart to create integrated systems that will empower ministry leaders to effectively mobilize people for ministry, as well as intentionally nurture each individual’s spiritual formation. To date, AssessMe.org effectively provides integrated ministry mobilization tools, but it neglects the spiritual formation assessment process. With the Lord’s help, and with the help of our AssessMe.org pastoral leaders (that means you! J), I hope to address this problem in the near future. However, I cannot emphasize enough that I need your constructive input. For over five years, I have struggled to develop a spiritual formation assessment tool. However, I cannot get any two churches to agree upon what Spiritual Formation looks like. It has become clear that any such assessment tool will need to be customizable in its content.So I am requesting your help in two distinct ways. First, I have created a PDF worksheet (Get It Here) that you are free to use within your ministry to help leadership identify what ministry positions are appropriate for the various spiritual maturity levels. If you use the worksheets, I would love to receive copies to help me learn how pastoral leaders assign ministry responsibilities. Second, I have created a Flash-based Spiritual Formation assessment tool (Check it Out Here). While I can customize this tool for your ministry’s current use, the ultimate goal is to create a customizable Spiritual Formation assessment within AssessMe.org. I need your feedback regarding the current assessment structure and whether you find the structure helpful or not. I also need your recommendations regarding the wording used within the assessment tool. I want to thank you in advance for your constructive and helpful input. You may email me or post comments to this blog article. Lord willing, AssessMe.org will include an integrated spiritual formation assessment tool in the future. Spotlight: Ken Thomas, Executive Pastor of Lakeshore Vineyard Church Shares His Perspectives
David Posthuma @ Nov 13, 2006 01:52 PM
ASSESSME.org: Ken, please tell us a little about yourself and how you came to be the Executive Pastor for Lakeshore Vineyard Church.
Spiritual Formation Assessment
David Posthuma @ Sep 6, 2006 08:03 PM
Professional Consulting and Training Services
David Posthuma @ Sep 6, 2006 07:39 PM
ABOUT DAVID Imagine the possibilities once each and every staff member and lay leader is trained to develop and mobilize highly effective ministry teams. God has given David Posthuma exceptional strategic planning, team building, and ministry mobilization training abilities.
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