Filed under: Calling
What is calling, and a statement of personal calling?
A Personal Calling statement (PCS) is a concise summary statement of a leader’s best understanding to date of his or her unique shaping and personal destiny.
Re-visiting, and the clarifying your personal calling provides important benefits to every leader: Tools for future decision-making, greater understand of contribution and role, helps for role played on team and one’s unique contribution, and it provides an assessment grid that helps a leader to say NO, in order to say YES.
Calling consists of three components:
- Life messages and values (summary of past development.
- Summary of life purpose (Biblical summary of being)
- Direction through personal vision (unique contribution and summary of doing)
The 2:10 Life! (Ephesians 2:10)
God has always been at work shaping the life of a Christ-follower. The question is not whether He has a design but rather does a follower have the courage to align himself or herself with God’s forming work. As we each discover God’s shaping in our past, we are better equipped to discern where He is leading us in the future.
Filed under: Transitions
The life of every Christ-follower and leader goes through a series of transition moments. These become times of self-evaluation. consolidation and decision-making.
But followers often get lost in transitions, groping in the fog for answers, direction and understanding of how God is at work. They often want to escape these moments, and not live in the land of in-between. The irony is that the in-between periods of life, the transitions, God often does some of His deepest, and potentially greatest work, in the life of His followers.
“We cannot escape most of
the crises in our lives, nor
should we. In fact, these
events frequently provide
the energy for movement
in our spiritual journey.”
- Janet Hagberg. The Critical Journey
THE TRANSITIONS Terrain and its resources…ASSISTS CHRIST-FOLLOWERS IN THE NAVIGATION OF LIFE’S STRATEGIC MOMENTS BY PROVIDING AN UNDERSTANDING OF TRANSITIONS, AND HOW TO HEAR
GOD’S VOICE IN THE MIDST OF THE IN-BETWEEN!
As I have taught the Transitions paradigm to leaders I meet in my classes and in the market-
place, there is a welcomed excitement for these concepts. For the first time many who
have been committed to serving God, get a glimpse of God’s shaping activity in their lives.
This results in new zeal and courage to live a life that counts.”
There are core truths to know about transitions: The Characteristics of a Transition, The
Transition Cycle, Three Major Transitions, Transition Processing, and Five Habits that
move you through a transition and finish well.
Filed under: General Explanation
Core Concept 1:
Leader Defintion
A leader is a person with: God-given capacity, and a God-given responsibility, who is
influencing a specific group of God’s people, toward God’s purposes for that group.
(Dr. J. Robert Clinton)
At the heart of biblical leadership is the capacity to influence God’s people
toward God’s purposes. The accomplishment of God’s purposes in each generation
is the very essence of leadership. Scripture says David lived to fulfill God’s
purposes in his generation (Acts 13:36). That which distinguishes Christian
leadership from secular leadership or management is the capacity to influence
men and women to live for God’s ultimate purposes.
Notice from our definition that several components define a leader.
God-given capacity refers to one’s spiritual giftedness, natural abilities and
acquired skills.
God-given responsibility refers to a sense of accountability to God for the
burden (call) he gives a leader for influencing others, and how and where the
leader leads the people of God.
Influence refers to the capacity to affect others and alter or change their
thoughts or behavior. It is persuasion backed by credibility. In our information
society, leadership is influence. Whoever has the influence has the leadership,
regardless of his official position.
God’s people remind the leader that the church and its people belong to
the Lord. He is the Great Shepherd. Scripture clearly warns those who abuse
the people who have been entrusted to a leader’s care (Ezekiel 34:1–10).
God’s purposes refer to those unique callings and biblical mandates that
God gives his people. They are the commands of Scripture, are ageless in their
call, but have been uniquely applied in each generation (Acts 13:36).
Core Concept 2:
Shaping Christ-followers
God develops a leader over a lifetime. He intervenes throughout a leader’s
life in crucial ways, to shape that leader toward his purposes. Viewed from a life
perspective, God’s intervention is intentional and purposeful.
Ephesians 2:10 says that each of us is God’s craftsmanship. He has made us
and is shaping us for ministry which he prepared for us. When Christ calls
leaders into ministry, he intends to develop them fully. Each of us is responsible
to God for our own development and response to God’s initiatives in our lives.
God shapes a leader’s destiny through processing, time analysis and
development phases.
Processing describes the people, events and circumstances that God uses to
shape a leader’s life. God checks a leader’s heart and character, challenges his
view of ministry and faith, and leads him through incidents and experiences.
Core Concept :3
Shaping of Heart
God causes all things to work together for good (Romans 8:28). He uses
every circumstance, person or event that comes our way to shape our character.
He wants to conform us to the image of his Son (Romans 8:29). Leaders often
question God’s purpose in letting certain events happen. God always has a
purpose. The Lord uses these events to call us into deeper intimacy with him.
God develops character especially through ministry assignments. Ministry
assignments refer to a particular role or responsibility a leader has undertaken.
Ministry assignments provide the “hot house” for many important character
lessons. No matter how difficult the circumstance, no assignment is a wasted
venture in God’s economy.
Character formation is concerned with “being.” It helps a leader reflect
greater Christ-like characteristics in his personality and everyday actions.
Character formation sustains greater levels of influence.
Character formation means developing greater intimacy with Christ,
experiencing more of his presence and power for ministry.
Four kinds of checks, or tests, help form character:
• Integrity checks test inner convictions against outward actions. Early in
their development, leaders face personal inconsistencies. Resolving them
forces leaders to grow deeper in their walk with Christ.
• Obedience checks test a leader’s desire and willingness to respond to the
truth God has revealed. It is a call for action. These checks build greater
character depth.
• Spiritual authority is the source of true credibility in leadership. While there
are other legitimate means of authority, spiritual authority is foundational to
accomplishing vision. Spiritual authority is the direct result of God doing a
greater work in the deeper areas of a leader’s life.
• Word checks test a leader’s ability to hear from God through his Word and
through prayer, fellowship and divine intervention. Leaders must learn to
hear from God, especially in their personal growth and development.
Effective leaders minister out of who they are in Christ.
As a leader grows
in character, God grants a greater ability to lead (spiritual authority). Followers
recognize this growth in spiritual authority and grow in their capacity to trust
and follow a leader. Effective ministry flows out of abiding in Christ (John 15:5).
Core Concept: 4
Shaping of Hands
Ministry formation is concerned with “doing.” It means developing
deeper spirituality while building leadership skills.
Ministry formation is often the result of growth in:
• Understanding and experiencing leadership concepts
• Sensitivity to God’s revelation of his purposes
• Identification and development of spiritual gifts and abilities
• Ability to motivate followers to make the necessary changes which better
reflect the will of God
Ministry formation has to do with innate and acquired ministry skills. As a
leader develops, he grows in the understanding and use of leadership knowledge
and skills. An effective leader maintains a learning posture.
Growth in skill development includes learning better to hear from God,
discerning spiritual direction, handling people, organizing and delegating tasks,
communicating vision, and managing time and ministry priorities.
Growth in knowledge development centers on a greater understanding of
essential Christian doctrines, applying deeper spiritual principles to everyday
life, understanding leadership dynamics, motivating followers, understanding
organizational structuring and goal setting or strategic planning.
Mentors can build ministry formation through coaching and mentoring.
Filed under: General Explanation
Leadership development is the study of a leader’s ever-changing ability to
influence God’s people toward God’s purposes. Leadership today is all about
influence. Godly influence is the result of a growing spiritual authority in the
life of a leader. Dr. J. Robert Clinton’s research and writings in the area of leadership
development have uncovered principles and key concepts of effective, godly,
leadership. His research reveals that God shapes the character of a leader by
guiding him through a series of growth stages or development phases phases.
Each phase represents significant ministry or character growth in a leader’s life.
Development begins in the sovereign foundations and inner-life growth phases, as God shapes early faith. During ministry maturing maturing, leaders begin to grasp their unique role in the kingdom of God. Years later, God fashions life maturing character lessons. If leaders remain faithful through hard lessons, God allows a convergence convergence, a special part in furthering God’s kingdom. Some leaders enjoy an afterglow as they reflect on their life in Christ.
Filed under: General Explanation
Organic Leader Development (OLD) is less about what we do to develop leaders, and more about discovering what God is already at work doing.
God develops leaders over a lifetime. He sculps and shapes a leader through a variety of ministry and life experiences. Learning to identify God’s formation work, and then understanding how to cooperate with God’s organic, developmental work in a Christ-followers life is the essence of OLD.
There are at least five stages in the development of a Christ-follower. There are at least three critical transitions that a follower through as God moves a leader from one phase of ministry to the next. A transition occurs for emerging (20s-30s) leaders, leaders who face crossroad decisions (40’s-50s), and leaders who are in a quest to finish well (60s).
This site is focused on helping you to: (1) better understand the essentials of the Organic Leader Development paradigm, (2) recognize what are the implications for looking at life from developmental stages, and (3) discuss how to use this paradigm with in a variety of settings in order to better facilitate the growth of others.
For the learner, one of the key benefits to understanding this paradigm is personal
decision-making.
Organic Leadership gives Christ-follower additional tools to help them make choices and make life decisions and direction. It also helps assist in the development of other, and provide counsel in his or her’s decision-making about their future development.
