May 2017 » GProCommission

May 30, 2017

A Biblical View of Stewardship

“The Table Podcast” featuring Dr. Darrell Bock and Greg Forster via Hendricks Center for Christian Leadership and Cultural Development at Dallas Theological Seminary “We urgently need to recover the calling to whole life discipleship. The largest portion of our life, our work in the home and in our jobs, is excluded from our concept of discipleship and stewardship. Most churches have nothing spiritually powerful to offer for the activities that define our daily lives other than the other six days of the week. This leaves us preaching of faith that is not relevant to the totality of people’s lives. And it also […]

May 25, 2017

How to Develop Curriculum that Changes the World

Mr. V was crushed. According to the outdated advertisement for the Lausanne Conference he was reading about online, he had just missed a gathering of pastoral trainers. He didn’t even know other people like him existed. “I thought I was the only one out there, doing this pastoral training thing.” His ministry was in need of connections and so much more…and then as if by divine intervention, a small ad caught his eye for something called the Global Proclamation Congress for Pastoral Trainers. He had never heard of it before but something told him this was his shot. This was […]

May 25, 2017

Immediate Indigenous Leader Development

By Jim Brenneman Via LeaderSource Some friends of mine are getting ready to head to the mission field in South America. When asked what they will be doing there, the answer was pastoring a small church and discipling the believers while doing evangelism. Here is what I wrote to this young couple: You guys are supposed to be doing much more than pastoring and evangelizing in a remote village! Read more at HealthyLeaders.com

May 23, 2017

Build Leaders by Making Disciples

By Jim Whelchel via Global Alliance for Church Multiplication Today it is popular to talk about our need for more spiritual leaders. We are laser-focused on leadership development. We are told it is the key to grow churches and expand the kingdom. Particularly in the West, programs have proliferated in the past 20 years to meet the great need for leaders. Many such programs have been exported to the church around the world. Unfortunately, we still have a dearth of spiritual leaders. Read more at the GACX library.

May 18, 2017

How To Overcome Inevitable Resistance to Change

by Chuck Gianotti “We never did it that way before!” You have sought the Lord’s guidance and are now leading His people in a new direction of ministry. But, there is resistance to change. Certainly, change can be misguided—like trying out the latest fad to sweep the Christian world. And change is clearly wrong if it involves compromising biblical principles or doctrine. But, the Lord can also inspire change in ministry methods. The visionary elder or church leader longs to adopt Paul’s creative attitude in 1 Corinthians 9:23, “I have become all things to all men so that by all […]

May 16, 2017

The Secret to Longevity in Marriage and Ministry

On May 5, 1959, two sweethearts exchanged “I Do’s” in a small church, in a remote barrio (countryside) north of the Philippines. This year, 2017, they celebrate their 58th wedding anniversary. They also celebrate the same number of years in service to God’s work. This couple is Met and Ina Castillo, my dear parents. Dad is now 82, while Mom is 80, yet they are still active and passionate about the ministry. Wherever they go, people will often ask,“What is your secret?” They have much advice to give, but one ingredient that I have had the privilege to witness growing […]

May 11, 2017

Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome Parts 1 & 2

By KEVIN HALLORAN via Leadership Resources In his early life as a pastor, Kent Hughes faced a personal crisis. He seemed to be doing everything right in ministry, but his church wasn’t growing—at least not compared to the church across town. This lack of ‘success’ ate at him and made his efforts seem worthless. What else do I need to do to be successful? Read more at Leadership Resources’ blog.

May 9, 2017

Christ-like Leadership (It’s all about Christ-likeness)

As we reflect back on the GProCongress in 2016, we recall that pastoral health is key to church health, societal health and ultimately transformation. It was a running undercurrent or theme to the GProCongress. Why? Because the quality of our influence hinges on being a holistically healthy pastor. During the parallel session on Spiritual Engagement, we hammered this theme hard, digging ever deeper into the importance of what it means to be a Christ-like leader! It’s so pivotal that the movement I’m a part of, highlights it as our second of four core outcomes. Even the Lausanne Movement in […]

May 4, 2017

Serving Contextual Communities: The Bond Model

By Dr. Riad Kassis via International Council for Evangelical Theological Education Are our seminaries conscious that they are functioning in societies that have various crucial needs? Are our educational systems and curricula geared towards meeting these needs? How are we equipping our students and future leaders to face the communities that are affected by war, poverty, disorder, and disaster? These are some of the issues that I will attempt to address. Read more at ICETE‘s library.

May 2, 2017

Engaging Community Leaders of a Marginalised Group

By Rev. Dr. Rachel Rajagopal In the last three months, I hosted meetings with various groups of Garifuna leaders from the Atlantida region of Honduras. My stipulation to the Garifuna community leader who was helping me coordinate these meetings was very clear: only those aged 21 years – 50 years were to be carefully selected and invited. They needed to be current or emerging leaders in the community. After much prayer, I decided to conduct meetings with four different groups: Single female leaders Young adult leaders Single male leaders Young adult married couple leaders Among the 8,000 Garifunas in one […]