|
LEADERSHIP TRAINING
~ by Robyne Beaubien
Leadership training
is a valuable part of building unity and maturity in a leadership
team. Spending time each week studying and praying together will
draw the women together and ensure that the team is "on the
same page." There are several ways to structure your time together
here are a couple of examples based on one and two hours of time
together. I should probably point out that I send "homework" with
the team after each session so they have spent time in the Word during
the week to prepare for our meeting.
One
Hour:
5
minutes - welcome and overview of the meeting
15 minutes - prayer time
5 minutes - my thoughts on the subject
20 minutes - group discussion
15 minute - ministry planning
Closing - brief comments on next subject and homework
Two
Hours:
5
minutes - welcome and overview of the meeting
5 minutes - focus on one team member - what is going on in her life, special
needs, praise, etc…
30 minutes - prayer time
10 minutes - my thoughts on the subject
35-40 minutes - discussion
20-40 minutes - ministry planning
Closing - brief comments on next subject and homework
Two hours a week is a lot of time for a woman to give up from her schedule.
It is important to start and end on time. When you are starting a women's
ministry, the focus of the ministry planning time will be to actually plan
an upcoming event, evaluate its progress and to sketch out upcoming events.
As your team develops, this time will be spent with each of the coordinators
giving a brief report on where they are with the areas they oversee.
I am often asked
what subjects should be covered during the discussion times. I would
suggest starting out with basics. Here is an outline of subjects
I would cover during the first six months of training.
1. Bible 101
A. Overview of the Bible
B. Overview of the Old Testament
C. Overview of the New Testament
D. Women in the Bible
2. What We Believe
A. Faith - what it is and what it means to me
B. Review your church statement of faith
C. Leading someone to the Lord
D. Writing/sharing a testimony
3. Jesus, Our Personal Savior
A. The promise of Jesus in the OT
B. The fulfillment of Jesus in the NT
C. What Jesus means to me/you
D. Letting Jesus live through me/you
4. The Church
A. A look at Acts
B. Church history
C. Historical writings that relate to the church (non-Biblical texts like Josephus)
D. Paul's letters
5. Women and Ministry
A. Four views - liberal to conservative
B. A look at what the Bible says
C. Where we stand
D. Questions and answers
6. Women's Ministry
A. A Biblical basis
B. Vision for our ministry - setting goals and writing a vision statement
C. Mission statements - ministry and personal
D. Questions and answers
After the first six months I try to cover issues that are specific to Women's
Ministry, like:
· Steps in planning
an event
· Mentoring
· Counseling women from the Bible
· Retreats
· Inductive Bible Study (4 parts)
· Planning and presenting a talk
· Bible 102 - a deeper look (4 parts)
· Personalities
· Leadership styles
· Spiritual gifting
· Dealing with difficult people
· How to lead so that others will follow
· Prayer, prayer, prayer
· Priorities
It will be up to
you to determine what areas are of interest, or need, to your women.
Prayer is key to being online with what God has for the women on
your leadership team.
One thing I have
learned is to never approach this training time with an attitude
of pride. Early in my ministry I learned the hard way that pride
not only causes dissension with others but it gets in the way of
what God wants to do! My prayer for you… set yourself aside and let
God lead! Your goal as a leader is to serve the women on your team
and in your church; to do whatever is necessary for them to be blessed
and grow in Him.
If you are looking
for an actual study to use during your training times, there are
some good books on our resource page, and I would also recommend
the following:
Jesus
on Leadership; Lifeway
Spiritual Gifts Analysis; Injoy |
