My journey toward ministry began in high school when my youth pastor decided to tap and encourage me to take on more leadership roles in the youth group. During my senior year of college, I was looking for what I was going to do, and I found out about the Leadership Pathway Residency opportunity at StoneBridge Christian Church in Omaha, NE through someone I know who works there.

You envisioned your church, you got the funding, you launched, you recruited, you interviewed (several times!), you onboarded, you invested, you coached, you prayed, consulted, …and that resident STILL didn’t work out.

The number one thing it takes to launch a residency is a name. A name of who might be considered to someday be a resident put into a system to be found, supported, and developed

It’s that time of year again! In ministry, the holidays can result in weariness with busy schedules and juggling expectations at home, yet, it’s the prime time in which people in the community often explore the Church and who Jesus is. How can we best serve others and help them meet Jesus if we, ourselves, are running on empty? The reality is, we can’t!

A look at Lp’s Masterclass in Denver - October 2023.

Brittany Crimmel is a 20-something Production Manager at Saddleback Church’s Lake Forest Campus in southern CA. As an impressive as that might be, it’s really her passion to grow, helping others meet Jesus all along the way that is inspiring, especially as you take a closer look into the path that got her where she is today and what the future might hold 5 or 10 years from now.

What leaders say about Leadership Pathway.

How to find support & develop the next generation of potential leaders.

Seth Godin calls these the REAL SKILLS for today’s workers.

We agree and it’s the basis of our coaching conversations.

You can’t recruit alone. Build a team to go with you. Share the work.

You already have your most powerful recruiting tool and it is free.

We do this because the success that your organization will have in leadership development will only be as strong as the leaders you have who are doing the coaching and the one-on-one meetings.

Linchpin behaviors…we all have them. Helping young leaders get early and simple wins and develop a small amount of discipline may in fact land them in the place you’d love to see them get to. Focus on the behavior before the behavior.

Stef Rowe LMHC offers up eight areas to consider assessing for the Whole Person before going to professional counseling.

Churches that launch a residency are looking to move towards a new reality of leadership development for their future.

Brittany Crimmel is on the team at Saddleback Church. She shares her story of residency in Baltimore to San Diego and all the learning that has taken place. More than leadership, it’s all about pointing people to Jesus & helping them find their way back to God.

This conversation is for leaders who are at great churches who have a history and legacy and want to add women to an all-male team. Senior Pastor Mark Chitwood joins, Teaching Pastor and Elder, Stef Rowe to tell the Stonebridge story of adding women to their preaching schedule and elder board.

It’s always good to remember that we were all a younger generation once.

Getting fired from a job is often seen as a negative experience, but for young people in their early 20s, it may not be such a bad thing after all. While it may initially feel like a setback, there are plenty of experts who would say otherwise.

A commitment to being this type of church is at the core of all we do. Perhaps you could evaluate your church or organization through these six criteria that have now become values that we try to live in to with our partner churches.

How would you rate your church in owning these six values: