If you are a church leader looking to grow or replace staff, the hits just keep coming. Man…this is fatiguing. Our team feels your pain. I feel your pain.

It’s that time of year…summer…heading towards fall and their internship or leadership residency is coming to a close and it’s time to make an offer for full-time ministry on to your team. Is this a finish line or a starting line? It’s both! And we should honor both of those milestones in this new leader's life. Congratulations! They did it. You did it. What are the questions to ask to avoid the pitfalls of making a great situation potentially bad?

Three Traps to Avoid That Will Just Waste Time:

1. The Over Engineered Trap. You think if you write the curriculum and iron out the process over the next year then you’ll be ready. THE TRUTH IS: No matter…

Leadership Pathway is in its fifth year of helping churches recruit, support and develop their next leaders through coaching and field experiences of a church residency. Over those five years of launching church residency programs my tune has changed…

I knew I needed further development, though, and I desired feedback to help me get better as a leader, so as I was exploring my next steps for ministry, I discovered Leadership Pathway.

An Open Letter to the Recent Grad who Desires to Be in Vocational Ministry. Congrats on the accomplishment of your education!

I am the Central Services Resident at StoneBridge Christian Church in Omaha, NE. I’m serving in Operations and helping with things like the First Impressions Team, Security, Benevolence, and Building Rental.

My journey toward church leadership began in high school, but it took a brief detour in my 20’s and was reignited when I began teaching high school in my late 20’s.

Is our church advancing?
Is our church a place where I believe someone could learn best practices for ministry?
Do I have a staff member who has proven they are a developer of people?

We led a series of round table discussion with dozens of church leaders with over 800 years of combined leadership experience in small and large churches in a variety of settings. We asked two questions: a.) what are you looking for in your next hire? and b.) why didn’t that last hire work out like you thought it was going to?

In the next year, I hope to improve my leadership skills by working as part of a team. Sometimes it can be easy to try to get everything done on your own, but I need to remember that I am surrounded by people who can and want to help.

My journey in leadership began during my college years leading young men at the YMCA, as a camp counselor, leader of a college ministry, and eventually leading as a director of a mental health facility.

What we believe in a baker’s dozen tweets.

I believe churches all over should have this opportunity of bringing in young people as residents. It's awesome, especially when the church environment is healthy and willing to continue growing every day. My experience in residency has far exceeded any ministry experience I've ever had.

Residency was a clear choice for me to fully experience leadership growth in a safe space to do so. Leadership Pathway’s process made it super easy.

Should we hire a full-timer or should we launch a residency program?

Yes.

Our culture is talking a lot about self care these days. For whatever it’s worth— I’m a fan. As a licensed counselor who primarily works with pastors and other counselors, I find myself talking about self-care nearly every day.

There’s a reason airlines have pre-boarding groups when getting on an airplane. Those that have earned it, or need a bit of extra help, get to go first. This may be frustrating to you if you’re back in group 5 in the middle seat with no overhead bin space, but they’ve done this a few times and understand how to make it happen.

We’re thrilled to have completed a companion product to our coaching book. It’s the same topics written from the residency point of view. It’s a game-changer.

If I was sitting at the table with senior leaders wondering about residency, I would say that having residency at their churches is a really good idea because it can help various ministries at their churches grow, while simultaneously raising up the next generation of church leaders.