Food for thought on ‘Who’s your next?’

There was plenty of food for thought on the topic of leadership for the 130-plus people in attendance at the Who’s Your Next? Discipleship Conference on Feb. 5 at Citypoint Church in Tempe.

The conference was offered by the Arizona Mission Network of Southern Baptists in support of the AZMN vision introduced by Executive Director Monty Patton last year. The vision revolves around four questions: Who’s your one? Who’s your next? Where’s your next? How can you help?

“The American church must get better at raising leaders. We need to think small, not big. We need to think slow, not fast. What if it looked like two people around a coffee table instead of 20 people in a room? Developing leaders is not a linear process, it’s messy,” said Mac Lake, the main speaker at the conference.

The sessions led by Mac Lake at the Who’s Your Next? Discipleship Conference included times for pastors and church leaders to talk in small groups.

Lake leads The Multiply Group, an organization dedicated to helping churches and businesses build intentional leadership development cultures. He has written seven books, besides being a former pastor, church planter and a leadership strategist with the North American Mission Board.

In his talk titled “The Leadership Pipeline: Identifying Potential Leaders” in the first session, Lake shared four steps to spot leaders:

1. Lead in a way that attracts potential leaders
2. See potential in people
3. Look for God’s work in people’s lives
4. Pray, invite, and raise the bar for leadership

He shared a chart of the timeline of Jesus’ public ministry years (spanning from 26 AD to 30 AD) to outline His leadership strategy:

• Come and See
• Follow Me
• Be Apostles
• Initial Leadership Development
• Identify Leaders
• Be Movement Makers

“We have a discipleship problem, not a church planting problem,” Lake said. “People don’t follow desperation, they follow inspiration. Stop looking for leaders who are ready, and instead look for leaders who are willing. Don’t look for cultural leaders, look for biblical leaders.”

Participants at the Who’s Your Next? Discipleship Conference received a copy of Mac Lake’s book Leading Others, thanks to a donation by Willow Hills Baptist Church in Prescott.

He shared the ABCs of recruiting leaders:

• Acknowledge the strengths/passion you have observed in a person
• Express belief in their potential
• Challenge them to pray about becoming a leader

Conference attendees came from all over Arizona and were an even mix of pastors/church staff members and church volunteers.

In the second session, Lake pointed out the need to create a strategic discipleship pathway to raise leaders.

“When your process is intentional, it becomes reproducible, and then eventually turns unstoppable,” he said. “Refusal to reproduce leaders is the sign of a selfish leader.”

He then listed four steps to raise leaders:

1. Create a strategic discipleship pathway for leaders
2. Get potential leaders into an apprenticeship relationship
3. Cast a strong vision for developing leaders
4. Challenge and release

Lake laid out the following steps for a person in the leadership pipeline framework: Lead self, then lead others, next lead leaders, then lead a ministry area, and finally lead the church.

“The goal is not to raise every one in your church to be top leaders, but rather to lead them to the level of God’s calling on their lives,” he said.

Pastors and church leaders at the Who’s Your Next? Discipleship Conference huddle during a breakout session on Moving Discipleship Beyond Sunday Morning.

While answering a question on how to deal with a leader who resists the idea of reproducing leaders, Lake stressed that the goal should be to coach a person’s potential instead of criticizing their problem. Leaders who develop leaders become better leaders, he added.

Candy Burtis, who leads the greeters’ team at Pinal County Cowboy Church in Casa Grande, was among those attending.

“Mac’s explanation of the timing, selection and training of Jesus’ disciples was quite eye-opening and contrary to today’s worldview of choosing job candidates,” she said. “Where we look for people who already possess the qualifications and are a ‘good fit,’ Jesus invited followers and used extensive ‘on-the-job’ training to develop them into disciples and ultimately apostles.”

Ryan Lashua, associate pastor at CityView Church in phoenix, noted that the conference was a good reminder to be aware of Jesus’ leadership model and get back to it.

Conversation on Succession

Lunch break was followed by a panel discussion on pastoral succession in churches. It featured Brett Carlson, lead pastor of Mountain Ridge Church in Glendale, and Chad Garrison, lead pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Lake Havasu City, with the moderator being Brian Dodridge, associate pastor at Wellspring Church in Goodyear.

Carlson said it is better for the lead pastor to leave early than late.

Brian Dodridge (from left), associate pastor at Wellspring Church in Goodyear, leads Brett Carlson, lead pastor of Mountain Ridge Church in Glendale, and Chad Garrison, lead pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Lake Havasu City, in a discussion about pastoral succession.

“The best way to identify potential successors is to invite people to work on short- and mid-term projects with you and evaluate how they do,” he said. “If you notice a potential successor, elevate them into greater leadership roles over a period of time so that it becomes obvious to the congregation who is going to be the next lead pastor after you leave.”

Garrison emphasized that the next leader should come from within the church if the church is multiplying.

“If the church is stagnant, you must bring a leader from outside,” he said. “If the potential leader is doing things as good as you do, you should quit.” Lead pastors must remember the church is not theirs. They need to kill their pride every morning, he added.

The conference also featured four breakout sessions:

• What should I be looking for in my “next”? led by Cory Bramlett, community pastor at Mountain Ridge Church in Glendale
• Maximizing Leaders of all Ages led by Tom Burks, lead pastor of Stone Ridge Church in Yuma
• Moving Discipleship Beyond Sunday Morning led by George Barnes, lead pastor of HiWay Baptist Church in Mesa
• Moving Beyond a Pastor-Driven 1:1 Discipleship Model led by Whitney Walters, senior pastor of Willow Hills Baptist Church in Prescott

Videos of Mac Lake’s two sessions are available here and here.

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