Together on Mission

Cultivating competent Christ-centered leaders through story, symbol, and song to unleash their potential for impacting local communities with the whole gospel

Cultivating Competent, Christ-centered Leaders

Characteristics of a Christ-centered Leader

We believe competent Christ-centered leaders should focus on four core characteristics.

Relationship

Founded on relationship rather than control

Foundational to Jesus’ leadership was His relationship with the disciples. Rather than exerting control over them, He led them by walking dusty paths beside them, answering their questions, and entrusting them with insider information. He was honest in his conversations with them. They knew Jesus genuinely cared about them. Thus, He earned their trust, even when His words and actions were difficult to understand or receive.

Influence

Activated by influence, rather than hierarchy and authority

Jesus’ leadership was activated by influence rather than delegated positional authority. Despite His unrivaled spiritual authority, Jesus’ leadership of others was not accomplished through strong-arm coercion. Instead, people had a choice to follow Him or to reject His invitation and turn away. Our freedom to choose was one of God’s most profound displays of true leadership. A restored relationship with God that is dependent on a person’s choice is central to the gospel message. Jesus did not use a hierarchical structure to manage people; instead, He invested in relationships to influence people.

Kingdom Potential

Focused on a follower’s potential, rather than their production.

What most set Jesus’ leadership apart was His capacity to discern and to develop His followers’ potential. He saw people as image-bearers of his Father. He saw the future fueled by their collective, Spirit-empowered genius, and He consistently demonstrated His altruistic commitment for each individual to reach their own highest Kingdom potential. The radical priority that His followers grow to their maximum Kingdom potential was at the heart of Jesus’ life and ministry. He never held a prominent community or organizational position, and He did not seek success according to standard organizational measures. Rather, He took up the task of infusing His commitment into those who would carry the torch after His departure. He set His vision on the future where those He had developed would catalyze a movement to change the world. No greater, life-changing leadership priority exists.

Common Purpose

Committed to shared Kingdom purpose, rather than leader’s personal agenda

Jesus built relationships with people to forge a common purpose with them. A famous fish story in the Bible concludes with Jesus saying to Simon, “’Do not be afraid, from now on you will be catching men.’ And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.” (Luke 5: 10-11) Simon (and others) came to believe that Jesus was committed to their highest Kingdom potential, so Jesus’ purpose and their purpose became one. Through true relationships, Jesus profoundly influenced the lives of His disciples so that eventually they owned His vision and profoundly shaped the course of history.

10 Competencies of Christ-centered Leaders

Cultivate Character
Christ-centered leaders are spiritual leaders. They demonstrate integrity through their personal and public behavior. They emphasize growth and learning for themselves and those they influence. They champion people and standards that embody core biblical values.
Model Authentic Relationships
Christ-centered leaders treat others with respect, forgiveness, and acceptance. They lead out of humility, honesty, and love. They practice and teach healthy relationships.
Inspire a Shared Vision
Christ-centered leaders communicate a compelling image of a preferred future. They motivate others to envision and act toward worthy possibilities.
Challenge People and Processes
Christ-centered leaders practice innovative ways to improve themselves and the people they lead. They experiment and take risks to release individuals to reach their highest Kingdom potential.
Ensure a Healthy Ministry Culture
Christ-centered leaders align organizational values with biblical virtues. They steward resources so that the ministry becomes self-sustaining and self-perpetuating. They facilitate decisions and lead change in a collaborative environment.
Facilitate Effective Communication
Christ-centered leaders foster an environment where people are safe to tell the truth. They model and teach effective conflict resolution and people management skills.
Implement Strategic Planning
Christ-centered leaders build capable teams that discern and respond to God’s initiatives with effective strategies to accomplish a clear, common, and compelling mission.
Consider the Individual
Christ-centered leaders understand the diversity of the people they lead. They tailor their leadership approach to others’ cultural, gender, and personal differences.
Develop People
Christ-centered leaders intentionally develop others. They assist those they influence to identify and use their gifts. They challenge and support others in their development.
Advance Cooperative Partnerships
Christ-centered leaders conduct their lives and ministries under the Lordship of Christ, in partnership with His Spirit, and in cooperation with other Kingdom-minded people.

Through Story, symbol & song

Eighty percent of the world’s people – more than five billion – are storycentric communicators. Some of these people are non-literate; they have to rely on the spoken word. A much larger number can read and write, yet they are storycentric because they prefer to learn

by swapping stories,
listening to and creating music,
discussing with friends about their perspectives,
engaging in art and non-literate forms of expression,
and participating in a shared experience.

Evangelism and biblical storytelling utilizing the arts has been a massive success around the world – but – Leadership Development in this booming church has been lagging behind. The Garden Project is a fully immersive leadership development experience facilitated in small groups through STORYTELLING, DRAMA, ART, and MUSIC.

To Unleash Their Potential

People throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Pacific Rim need effective Christ-centered leaders. Many church/ministry leaders in this region are storycentric (oral-based) communicators who have not reached their full leadership potential due to three primary barriers:

the dominance of literacy-based teaching methods
cultural leadership biases that are inconsistent with the leadership example of Christ
negative personal experiences that have hindered their ability to lead effectively.

Freedom to Lead provides a leadership development experience that addresses these barriers so our ministry colleagues will have the “freedom to lead.” In turn, these more effective Christ-centered leaders will extend the church’s reach and advance the gospel in their communities.

For Impacting Local Communities with the whole Gospel

An emphasis on the whole gospel involves a holistic approach that cares about the whole person and the community in which he lives. Healthy leaders build healthy churches. Healthy churches sustain and extend church planting movements. They reproduce followers of Jesus to accelerate the gospel.

Some bring grace and peace to their communities, caring for spiritual needs and planting churches.
Others begin orphanages and hospitals, caring for the fatherless and the sick.
Some dig wells and establish health programs, preventing the spread of disease.
Still others institute literacy and educational programs that connect societies to one another and the world.

But it begins with leaders. The goal of Freedom to Lead is to assist storycentric leaders to be their very best in reflecting Jesus’ heart and hands to this needy generation.

These are some of their stories.

Strategy

The Garden Project participants gather several times a year in cohorts of 20-30. Gatherings take a deep dive into one of eight modules that develop Christ-centered leadership competencies. This is accompanied with intentional mentoring.

But, wait! How does this get beyond the 30 people in the cohort to reach the thousands of grassroots leaders that need this leadership development experience the most? We’re so glad you asked!