Video Transcript: Mentoring Leaders and Planting New Churches

Today we're going to talk about mentoring people, leaders, and planting new  churches. In some ways, the DNA of planting future churches is laid in the very  beginning of planting your church. automatically when you plant a church, if you  have it in your mind that you are going to plant another church, and this is going  to reproduce, if that is already in your mind, as you mentor leaders, mentor  young people, mentoring some of the young men of your church to think about  leadership, as you think about that, even in the very planting, it sets a culture it  sets a thinking in place, even in your church, in your leaders. And what it does  too is it keeps in a sense that the cutting edge of the gospel being proclaimed  out right in front of your church is actually in the culture, it's in your heart. So  when you begin mentoring leaders, one of the things you're going to help them  see is that they have to reproduce their walk foundationally now, now, what does that mean? Well, at a very core level, it means that, you know, fathers and  mothers, reproduce their walk to their children, that the children understand that  what they're doing is reproducing their walk, and their friends, that they actually  are witnesses, and they have something to say. So, at the very core of  mentorship is getting this concept of reproducibility right there at the very start.  Now, when you when you mentor, let's say you're going to mentor elders, or you mentor deacons, or people who are going to be the key leaders, a lot of times  people when they mentor them, they mentor them along skill sets, a lot of  church planters will do that, they'll help them identify their gifts, I have no  problem with helping people identify their gifts. But one of the things that that's  often missed, is that in mentoring, let them reproduce. Our true walk when you  mentor them, do your leaders actually themselves walk with God? Is their walk  reproducible. For instance, you can have a leader walk with God, but if their  walk is so hard to reproduce so much into the answer, man, so much into critical attitude, so much into heaviness. Your mentorship is to help them in their walk,  so that, when they walk with God. It's clear, it's real, it's there's good habits.  Their spouse responds to that walk with God, their children, walk with God in the way that that you can see there's health in the home. So when you mentor  leaders, what you're you're doing is is not only them, help them, help them get  their gifts, but help them actually succeed. You know, people will say, you know,  I'm an existing church, I know this is a church planting class, and I'm an existing  church. And we'd like to do more discipleship style things, and how can we do  it? And I often tell the pastor, you know, what, if you can actually help your  elders now get a walk with God. That's the first step of getting into the rest of the church. It's kind of a sad thing, that so many elders today are not living up to  even, you know, a good portion, or the majority of those characteristics that are  talked about in I Timothy and in Titus. And these are, these are like the dirty little secrets, you know, it's like, well, you know, we're just getting a warm body to  serve as an elder or a deacon. A warm body is not going to cut it. Mentoring is  actually leading people into what into a walk. And if they're actually walking with 

God, and they're sold out for Christ, you're gonna grow. And if they're sold out  for Christ and have the fire of reaching out to their neighbors and wanting their  neighbors to know about the Lord, you're going to reach more people.  Mentoring, a leader is not trying to make them into a little you. You're trying to  help them become who they are in Christ. Good walking, talking, listening,  responding, repeating, repeatedly, habits with God, that the habits of their family  are there as well. Mentoring a leader is a great responsibility that a church  planter has there's a couple of walls that I want to talk about when when you  mentor a leader. One thing is a lot of times, when you're first building a  relationship with someone you're mentoring, there's this wall of not really  sharing the truth about each other's lives. And one of the things that we'll be  careful about that is to respect confidentiality and make it very clear that, that  you're mentoring in such a way that you're sharing the truth about each other's  lives. Even as a pastor, you know, and I wouldn't say the pastor has to air his  dirty laundry all the time, because everybody has dirty laundry, because the  heart is definitely bent on evil. And the person you're mentored mentor's heart is  bent on evil. But there has to be a sense of when you're mentoring someone,  that the drama, the truth of our changing lives, can be shared with one another.  So that this, so they the person who is seeing you, as a mentor, will see that  you're in the process of being teachable and changing. And here are real issues  by which you're making those changes. And the person who's being mentored,  then sees that you're changing, you're in transformation, that gives them a lot of  hope to share. But also to get into that process. I mean, even elder's meetings,  you know, once you start, you'll get like a elder team, that's really important to  do is to be encouragement for one another as elders and deacons, where you're encouraging one another growth because you know, if your leaders are growing, your church is going to grow. If your leaders are unteachable, critical, picky,  ornery, miserly. Your church is eventually going to get polarized. If your leaders  have have dissension, your church will eventually divide. And if you're a new  church, and you have those kinds of dynamics happening, the church is going to have a hard time and Satan will get a great foothold in your church to hurt  things. So mentoring leaders at the very beginning is to mentor them in a real  walk, mentor them in a teachable walk, mentor them in a way that that shows  that you're teachable, that you're growing, that you're humble. Because if you're  humble, and you're walking with God in that way, humbly walking with God, then that's something that spreads is reproduces to them. Another point that I want to talk about real quickly in the mentorship of leaders is is kind of a dynamic, that  to help them into a lot of times leaders, if you aren't intentional can be polarizing  without trying to be so. And I'll give you some examples of that. Right now, the  big debate in churches is really the debate over is should something be  grassroots, or should something be centrally controlled? Now, you'll find this  debate is raging in the western church scene America and Canada. Well, it fret 

now, if there's too much emphasis on centrally controlled, what you have is a  programmatic church, that becomes a spiritual foster care provider, and that  everybody is so controlled by the programs of the church in terms of their  connection to the church, that they're a cog in the whole apparatus and their  spiritual life is connected to the power of the centrally driven programs. Okay.  Now, on the other hand, there's the other poll, and that is that, you know,  churches, pastors, leadership from the church is all bad. And what really matters is the family the family, in almost at times, the family only, and you're in suspect  anything a pastor says a suspect anything the Church says a suspect, and what  I say matters and, and I go to church, and, and I basically, I see church through  my lens and my terms only now, here are two poles now, what you'll find is in  your mentoring leaders, is that they're going to be somewhere in here. And if  they are on the I believe in program side, you know, that that is going to be you  know, you're going to be mentoring them to say, you know, you got to take  personal responsibility, and that, you know, the church only can support your  walk in you got to actually walk with God and your family has to walk with God,  your spouse, your children, that you actually have to have a real see that's more grassroots. See, you got to be real in You're walking with God. And we got to be  careful in our church that we do not create so much infrastructure, that we divide families and fragment families and make it so that families go here, there and  everywhere. Okay. So, you know, but you'll also get people on the other side,  you know? Yeah, you know, anything that church does any program that's out of  bounds, you know, and all there is, is a family. And the difficulty of that is, is is  that the family can become almost idolatrous and feeling oh, how can that  happen? Well, it can, where you'll have in in where it really shows its head the  most is when the children grow up. And they try to be their own family, and they  try to leave home. But now the family has tight control. And that, you know, they  even regulate everything from who the next generation meets and, and in the in  if Dad is or mom is wrong, there is no accountability for Dad or Mom, do mom  and dad need accountability, we all need accountability, we all need to be part of the body of Christ. Now, when you're mentoring leaders, you will find that there'll be two poles now where are you to mentor is to get the strength of the corporate the church. Connection five is our terminologies. Without taking away the the  ability of the grassroots, the family, the individual, to work with God, and as a  leader, this is going to be one of your mentorship issues at every council  meeting is being very careful that you keep that balance, that you keep that that  the families are strong. But the church is strong, is that the church is weak, the  families are strong, or the families are weak, the church is strong is that the  church is strong, the families are strong, marriages are strong. And you watch  that balance. And in mentorship, this is going to be one of your critical issues.  Because see, you can get poles on both sides of those of that side, you can go  to the point where churches will divide over decisions made upon those two 

poles. And as a leader, you want to mentor balance. One more thing I want to  talk about is having a church planting plan, even if you're a new church, you  know, really as a leader, what you're going to be looking for is you're gonna look  for leaders. And when you find the leader is so much about church planting is  about finding a leader. And even if you're a brand new church plant, and you  identify some leaders, one of the things I pray about is who have I met that can  at least make an impact here, but can also plant a new church who has that  those gifts, that character, that calling that walk that can reproduce, to plant a  new church, and you can start it right away. And if you identify a leader, how can I help that leader come on a track to get the necessary training to become a  leader, a church planter? That's my passion about Christian leaders Institute. My passion is is that as you plant churches, and get mentored, and lead, that you  will find church planters and that you'll send them back to Christian leaders  Institute and you'll be the mentor and we'll work with you the mentor in  mentoring the new church planter giving the new church planter what the new  church planter needs will help you help the new church planter. That's my  passion. And if we would as leaders and church planters get involved with this  right now and think of the world like this. Can you imagine in 25 years, how  many more churches will be planted? That's my challenge as you are planting  churches. Look for leaders to Plant more churches.