Leadership Development
Leaders live lives focused on helping others. These same leaders often need help in determining their own future direction. Uncertainty can set in as leaders attempt to navigate the rough waters that lead from success to significance, on their way to making their ultimate contribution for the Kingdom of God. Building leadership takes more than just doing. It takes commitment from every level of an organization to continuous improvement efforts. Leaders who experience convergence learn to steward their life experiences, charting their futures based upon God’s unique shaping of their life.
MODULE 1: Leadership Improvement Process
Understanding the step-by-step process of advancing allows for an increased prioritization of efforts in the areas of personal calling, major role, effective methodologies, and ultimate contribution so that leaders come to a place of convergence of being and doing as leaders.
Through the Leadership Improvement Process we collaborate with partner churches to identify essential elements of how God develops leaders, and how leaders move toward making their ultimate contribution to God’s Kingdom. This way, they are able to gain perspective and insight needed to clarify their ultimate contribution and move toward convergence as leaders.
MODULE 2: Biblical Eldership
Tens of thousands of churches around the world practice some form of eldership because they believe it to be a biblical teaching. Unfortunately, because of inadequate understanding of this doctrine, a great deal of confusion and unbiblical thinking surrounds the topic.
There are persistent, crippling misconceptions about eldership that hinder churches from practicing authentic biblical eldership. We feel that this subject is too important to the local church to be bogged down in confusion and error.
CRA’s Biblical Eldership training recognizes that our Lord’s command to go, to teach, and to make disciples of all nations—in other words, the discipleship process—cannot be sustained without elders.
CRA works with partner churches to examine biblical eldership in light of Scriptures and history, their responsibilities and qualifications, and assists in developing a strategic framework that serves as context for elders’ roles in the service of the local church and the Great Commission.
MODULE 3: Thinking Theologically
It is demanding to think that one day, local church leaders will be accountable to God for people in their care. This certainly includes the doctrinal health of their churches—Hebrews 13:17. Paul’s words to Timothy and Titus make that clear. Titus, for example, had to teach “sound doctrine” and identify elders who would “encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it” (Titus 2:1; 1:9). Timothy was told that a time would come “when men will not put up with sound doctrine” (2 Timothy 4:3). Thinking Theologically is about being faithful to truth and sound doctrine. It is also about life-transformation.=
Thinking Theologically: Module Key Purposes
Today, the pattern of church expansion in Africa is out of the ordinary. Despite the scope of the phenomenon, quality issues persist theologically. This is partly because there is a wide spectrum of theological views and ecclesiastical traditions. CRA works with partner churches to meet the following theological development of church leaders:
MODULE 4: LeaderShift
LeaderShift is about rediscovering the biblical foundation for leadership and church development. The module is designed to help the senior pastor identify, mobilize, and train leaders to lead as God intended. The core concept of LeaderShift is to help ministry leaders create a “serving church.” This requires turning vision into action through an intentional, systematic shift from primarily program planning and event coordinating to people equipping. The module provides the leader with the opportunity to actualize this through a step-by-step plan that equips others for ministry using the 4Cs model: calling, connecting, coaching, and changing.
Our overall goal is to assist partner churches understand the step-by-step process of shift and to develop a framework for training and releasing people into successful ministry teams of faithful, fruitful, and fulfilled believers who are making God famous.