LEADERSHIP

PIPELINE
PROJECT

INSTALLING A LEADERSHIP
PIPELINE
Christopher Payne

Fort Hays State University | MASTERS IN ORGANIZAT IONAL LEADERSHIP

Abstract
Any organization that desires to outlast its founders should have a process in place that instills

its values, mission and vision in its employees and customers or patrons. The values should be

defined, its mission should be clearly communicated, and the vision recognizable to those who

would participate in the organization. In order to make sure that the ethos of that organization

continues to remain relevant, a process must be in place to train leaders from within who

understand its culture and climate and are equipped to help the organization stay on track with

its identity and purpose. Bible Christian Church was started in 1969 and has enjoyed steady, if

not rapid growth almost its entire life. It is led not by paid staff, but volunteer Elders who are

voted in every three years. Strangely, there is no formal training or detailed path for one to

take in order to prepare for this leadership role. Traditionally, men who have been there for a

while and have a good reputation have been selected to fulfill this role. In order to ensure that

Bible Christian Church continues its tradition of providing Biblical teaching and life-giving

community, a process must be installed that identifies these leaders for the purpose of

eldership and equips these people for the role they will fulfill in the future.
Acknowledgements:

I would be remiss if I didn’t start this section by thanking my brilliant and beautiful wife, who is

herself pursuing her Doctorate. She’s been patient, helpful and grace-filled as I’ve worked to

further my education. I’d like to thank my children for also being patient, helping to make our

household function and giving me the time to complete assignments.

As I reflect on this educational journey, I’m also very grateful for Dr. Jeni McRay, who was my

biggest cheerleader when I would become discouraged. She helped me see through difficult

moments and was instrumental in convincing me to stay on target when I wanted to give up. I

also want to thank Dr. Brent Goertzen who would patiently explain concepts to me that I

struggled to grasp. You are an incredible educator who both encourages and challenges

students to get the most from their education.

My Church, which is also my place of employment, has a lot to do with my success as well.

They have been willing partners as I’ve grown as a leader and have been receptive to new ideas

as I’ve presented them. One would not think of churches in the Midwest as adoptive of

innovative practices, but they’ve been so supportive, and that means the world to me.

Finally, I’d like to thank Benjamin Anderson, William Payne and Kearny County Hospital for

allowing me access to their leaders and for opening themselves up for my qualitative research

project. Without their permission, I would not have been able to do it.
Table of Contents

1.1 – Needs Assessment

1.2 - Statement of the Problem

1.3 - Literature Review

2.1 – Vision/Mission

3.1 – Plan

3.2 – Objectives

3.3 – Action Steps

3.4 – Timeline

4.1 – Project

4.2 – Leadership Pipeline

4.3 – Elder Onboarding

4.4 – Leader Compliance

4.5 – Identifying Leaders

5.1 – Project Outcomes and Measurement

5.2 – Learning Outcomes

6.1 – References

6.2 – Appendices
1.1 Needs Assessment

My friend Dave opened an import auto parts store in 1988. He was very knowledgeable

about air-cooled Volkswagens, and as customers would come in requesting parts for newer

cars, he would spend time researching them, often buying a wrecked or mechanically

damaged car so he could fix it and learn about it to provide better service to his customers.

It was a small but successful business. As Dave got older, he had hopes that he would retire

at age 55. In 2013, he put his successful business up for sale and many inquiries, and one

day he found out why. A larger company sent a representative to talk terms with Dave and

he told him in no uncertain terms that if Dave did not come with the business, it was

worthless. People didn’t buy parts from Dave because they were cheapest, or the most

convenient place to buy parts. They bought parts from a guy who empowered and

encouraged them to work on their vehicles. They bought parts from a guy who would guide

them through difficult repairs if they got over their heads. They bought parts from Dave

because of who he is. While business is certainly about making money and producing a

great product, those things are short lived without relationships. A business’s greatest asset

will always be its people. And because Dave was his company’s greatest asset and he had

failed to train up his replacement and equip someone to take over, his business will stop

when Dave can no longer run it. And much like Dave’s parts business, the church will not

survive without leaders equipped to lead the church.

Since its inception in 1969, Bible Christian Church has been very clear about what it, as

an organization is all about. The very name states its intention to adhere to Biblical

scripture as its road map for values, vision, and product. As a Christian church, its historical
and theological roots can be traced back to the Stone-Campbell movement of 1832

(Hawley, 1976). This is important to understand, as the aim of this movement was unity of

churches who believed in Jesus (Allen & Hughes, 1988) and a rejection of denominational

authority, preferring that each church be autonomous in its governance. These tenets were

the larger pillars that upheld the ideal of the “restoration of apostolic Christianity”, or a

return to Christianity as it was in the First Century. While this is a noble pursuit and one

worthy of the church’s efforts, the first century Churches met in homes and didn’t have paid

staff, nor did they gather in the size of groups that we now see in the American Church.

Bible Christian Church is a church of over 600 people who regularly gather on the

weekends, served by a staff of 11 people who lead over 200 volunteers. Unfortunately,

while the Bible provides insight and direction as to how to lead people well, it doesn’t

directly address the process of leadership development in larger organizations (it does

provide relevant and eternal leadership principles though). As such, liberties must be taken

to implement processes and structures gleaned from those described in the Bible to ensure

that the organization remains effective, productive and focused on its timeless mission of

making disciples of Jesus who make disciples of Jesus.

While scripture is not prescriptive in how to go about its mission, it is descriptive in the

outcome that it produces. The book of Acts describes a community of people who ate

together, studied the apostles teachings (what we would now call the New Testament) and

invested in the lives of one another. In the book of Matthew in chapter 4, Jesus invites his

first disciples to follow him. Throughout the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and

John, Jesus spends time with his disciples, teaching them his ways and giving them
 opportunities to do the things that he does. Jesus didn’t just call his disciples, give them a

book, tell them to come back once a week and get more information, and then send them

on their way. Unfortunately, that’s what many churches do, including Bible Christian

Church. There is no defined process by which the organization helps people move from

being new followers of Jesus to equipping them to lead the church. As an organization that

relies heavily on leadership from our volunteer elders, it is downright frightening that the

church hasn’t developed a process to identify and equip leaders to one day lead the church.

BCC has been very fortunate to have good elders who value Biblical teaching, healthy

worship and life-giving community, but there may also come a day when we accidentally

install elders who do not value those things and have no idea how to lead a church. To

ensure the lifespan and continued vitality of our church, a discipleship process must be

installed utilizing Biblical principles to identify, raise up, and equip the future leaders of the

Church.

1.2 Statement of Problem

This year, between 6,000 and 10,000 churches will close worldwide (Rainer, 2018). They

will shut their doors and cease to exist as an organization. While the reasons will vary,

when distilled down to their least complex factors, the blame will lie squarely on leadership,

or more accurately, a lack of it. Author Jeff Iorg (2010) states that many churches have “lost

their mission, identity, focus and in some cases, their credibility.” These churches that are

closing and declining have not equipped the next generation to lead and have suffered

greatly for it. Many Christian Churches from the restoration movement (Stone-Campbell)

have focused on the transfer of information from the pulpit as their sole purpose for
 existence, and in doing so, have actually veered far from the course of becoming like the

early church, which was characterized by its community and discipleship focus. Instead of

working to create communities where people could work out their faith with other

believers, they’ve simply redefined discipleship as coming to a large gathering to hear an

expert talk about the Bible. Bible Christian Church, while not declining is still following in

the footsteps of those shuttered organizations by not having any systems officially built in

to its operation to identify, raise up or equip leaders who are prepared to fill the position of

Elder and lead the church. As an organization whose sole purpose is to make disciples of

Jesus, not having an actual process to disciple, train and mentor future leaders creates a

culture of not practicing what it preaches, which in turn damages the integrity of the church

itself.

1.3 Literature Review

Discovering Our Roots: The Ancestry of Churches of Christ – C. Leonard Allen, Richard

Hughes – P. 108

This page in the book describes the movement’s most essential features, including unity in

faith in Jesus and each church’s right to self-governance – a decidedly American ideal.

Redigging the Wells: Seeking undenominational Christianity – Monroe E. Hawley pp. 27-32

This section of the book, which describes the historical events that took place during the

Stone-Campbell movement, shines light on the ties of current Christian Churches/Disciples

of Christ/Church of Christ to the earliest desires of Alexander Campbell and Barton Stone to

have a church that was unified in the simpler, foundational theological points found in

scripture, rather than being divided by the easily debatable, less clear Biblical ideas.
Hope for Dying Churches – Tom Rainer

In this article, Rainer presents the sobering statistic that between 6000 and 10,000 churches

are closing yearly. He cites our current culture as an indicator of waning popularity of

Christianity among younger generations but is quick to make sure the reader doesn’t place

blame external forces so much as a lack of commitment, selflessness and urgency on the

part of the church’s leaders. Identifying the need for revitalization, he offers suggestions on

where currently dying churches need to focus: return to purpose, becoming a house of

prayer and being eager to accept changes in methodology. He also suggests a focus on

evangelism and discipleship (discipleship is the Biblical word for leader development) and

finally a refocus of attention and resources outside of the church, rather than inside. He

closes by suggesting that churches take a community survey that determines the physical

and spiritual needs of those in the neighborhood of the church and revamping the focus to

reflect that information.

How to Build a Healthy Leadership Pipeline – Tony Frost

Tony Frost paints the reader a picture that ensuring a healthy development process for an

organization’s leaders doesn’t happen without intention. In order to create a pipeline that

applies to your organization, the “product” must be defined. What do you want the

pipeline to produce? Frost suggests that the first thing a company needs to do is focus on

three “C”s. Competence, character and commitment. Most organizations care about

loyalty and competence, but far too few focus on character. The second focus needs to

zero in on roles that challenge potential leaders. Frost encourages organizations to put

leaders in roles they may not be prepared for so that they can stretch. Finally, Frost asserts,
 the organization must invest in this pipeline. Coaching and mentoring are important and

should be built in to corporate development and executive coaching programs. Good

leaders need to know that their organization is as dedicated to them as they are to the

organization.

Six Steps to Building a Leadership Pipeline in Your Church – Brad Malphurs

Malphurs offers six sequential steps to develop a culture of leader development. His first

step is to “Cultivate a mindset that leaders must equip and train”. Instead of simply leading

classes or events, current leaders should focus on raising up leaders within their group.

From there, the author calls on leaders to develop practices that can be duplicated within

other leaders and that invite people to come and participate. Step three is to identify who

the first participants will be in the newly created pipeline. Defining the places, identifying

expectations and celebrating movement in the pipeline will help establish its place in your

culture. Step four requires making space and roles for coaching within the church. Step five

is to clarify the competencies needed at each level of the church’s leadership pipeline. This

is essential so that the people within the pipeline can agree upon and be held accountable

to those metrics. Finally, step six is to make sure that the activities that you do and the

things you measure will lead to the development of leaders.

2.1 Mission Vision

The goal of this leadership pipeline is to create a self-propagating leadership structure that

automatically and intentionally identifies and equips leaders to lead their families, friends,

co-workers, community groups and churches. Imagine what the church would look like if it
 didn’t have to hire people from other places, but raised up its own pastors, worship

musicians and student pastors. Imagine how the church could impact its community if the

best leaders in the area didn’t simply come to church to make its weekend services better,

but were deployed by the church every week to be the best leaders, bosses and employers

the area has ever seen. Not only would it make for incredible workplaces, but it would

literally improve the economy because people would want to come to work and be excited

to perform well in their workplaces and the businesses would thrive which would increase

income and earning potential.

Not only would the church that launched the pipeline thrive and the businesses effected

by the pipeline thrive, but other churches would thrive as the pipeline would produce

leaders who would plant churches that also share the leadership development culture,

creating more capacity for leaders and more on-ramps for future leaders.

Ultimately, the goal of the pipeline is to realize Jesus’ last words to his disciples in

Matthew 28:19 when he tells them to go and make disciples and to teach them everything

that Jesus taught them, creating a system where disciples make disciples who make

disciples and with good stewardship and intentionality, this goes on forever.

3.2 Objectives

Objective 01: Create a Pipeline and define the expectations

Person Date to be
Action Step Responsible Completed
(What): How: (Who): (When): Resources: Communication:
Meet with
current leaders Stuart
who are Wagner,
prototyping the Eddie
Decide on leadership Labrier and Conference Email and
Language pipeline Chris Payne Oct. 2 room Google Docs.
 Define Look to scripture Chris Payne, Oct. 15 My Living room. Email and
requirement to find equivalent Sarah Wise, Google Docs.
of each level in how Jesus led David
his disciples and Brager
qualifications of
leaders as defined
in 1 Timothy.

Objective 02: Define onboarding process for elders

Action Person Date to be

Step Responsible Completed
(What): How: (Who): (When): Resources: Communication:
Keith
Rathbun,
Vernon
Meet with current Clark, Kurt
Meet with elders to define a Cathcart,
elders to good elder, then Stuart
brainstorm work backward to Wagner, Conference In person
on- create steps to get Eddie room, voice meeting, email
boarding there. Labrier October 24 recorder and google Docs.

Objective 03: Create steps for compliance of current leaders

Person Date to be
Action Step Responsible Completed
(What): How: (Who): (When): Resources: Communication:
Meet with
current leaders
Define on the what and
Compliance when of bringing About 20 Conference Email, in person,
process leaders leaders Oct. 24th Room ZOOM

Objective 04: Identify leaders and levels to initiate pipeline church-wide

Person Date to be
Action Step Responsible Completed
(What): How: (Who): (When): Resources: Communication:
 Meet with
current group
and ministry Chris Payne Church Email, in person
Identify leaders to put and about gymnasium, large group
leaders together list 20 leaders Nov. 6th sound system gathering
Have “ICNU” Coach current Current Nov. 20th Homes, dinner In person.
conversations leaders on how leaders table
with leaders. to invite
participants into
the pipeline.

3.3 Action Steps

Decide on language. What do we call each level of the pipeline? This will be important as it

needs to reflect meanings that the church already uses and understands. As I’ve been here

for five years, the language that I’ve used has been intentional and should make sense to

the church. Meet with current leaders to determine timelines for implementation of the

pipeline, elder onboarding and leader compliance.

3.4 Timeline

Oct. 2nd - Meet with current leaders and finalize language and titles for pipeline

Oct. 15th - Define each level based upon a biblical understanding.

Oct. 24th – Establish on-boarding process for Elders.

Oct. 24th – Define process for existing leaders to participate in pipeline.

Nov. 6th – Identify future leaders to put in pipeline

Nov. 20th – Contact and invite aforementioned future leaders in to leadership process.
The Leadership Pipeline for Bible Christian Church
 4.1 Project

Installing this leadership pipeline requires participation of current staff and elders. Since

I’ve had this in mind and been prototyping it on a smaller scale within our small group

gathering structure (LifeGroups) four of six of our current elders and all of the staff have

gone through all the steps needed to fulfill the leadership requirements stated in the

leadership pipeline.

After completing the meetings described in the objectives section above, the language

and pipeline have been completed. The Pipeline (Picture above) was accepted by the elders

for discussion. Since this pipeline has already been prototyped through our LifeGroups up

to the Ministry Team Leader level, I can say that it has been an effective tool to invite and

raise up leaders and quantify their success. However, to ensure the success of more than

just LifeGroups, this pipeline is proposed to be installed at the bylaw level, which would

apply to future leader onboarding for the entire organization. The following is the

presentation of the Leadership Pipeline to our elders and congregation.

4.2 Leadership Pipeline

Our desire for a process of leadership selection and development came from the calling

that God has given Bible Christian Church as a spiritual influence in the Jesus following

community of Garden City and surrounding areas. If we are called to lead people to Jesus; if we

are called to plant churches in a rapidly growing area and if we are going to raise up leaders

who will live out the gospel, what processes and goals do we have for people who will answer

this calling?
 This is what we’ve come up with. It’s called the leadership pipeline. But before we dig

into what it is, we need to understand what it isn’t. As we approach this topic of developing

leaders, we need to understand that a person who is an apprentice leader isn’t any more or less

of a Christian than someone who we’ve labeled a “Pastor” or “missionary”. Its simply someone

who has met what we think are the qualifications to serve in that capacity under the

organization of Bible Christian Church. At the end of the day, our desire is to make disciples

who make disciples. There is simply no higher calling than that.

But we can provide certain venues for people to operate within their areas of giftedness

so that they can be obedient to the calling that God has given them, which, in turn, allows us to

be good stewards of the people that God has entrusted us with. My hope is that this pipeline

and structure will give us avenues to empower and release people into ministry in their homes,

classrooms, places of work and even church planting.

First, we want to start with someone who is a Disciple.

This will be someone who is hearing what Jesus is saying, and is being obedient to that. Ideally,

we can think of lots of people who are excited about what Jesus is doing in their lives. Perhaps

they’ve approached us, or we have seen the evidence of Jesus moving in their lives. These are

the folks that we want to steward into the leadership pipeline. In order to step in to an

apprentice position, the Discipleship Training Class must be completed.

The next step in this process is what we are now calling “Apprentice”. The people we would

want to put here are those who are a) faithful to God, b) available to serve c) teachable. Our
hope is that they would be in this role for at least 6 months, but its not a rigid timeline. Some

may thrive in this role indefinitely.

- Faithful to God – Our hope is that this is a person who is serving in one or more

capacities in the church, as well as living a life that reflects someone who is hearing and

doing what Jesus is calling them to do

- Available to Serve – Someone may possess amazing leadership skills but be so wrapped

up in so many things that they are neglecting biblical duties such as parenting, spending

time with their spouse or engaging in a community of Jesus followers. We want to

encourage a healthy rhythm in a leaders life that includes both abiding (rest) and work.

If we burn leaders out in the church, we are focusing more on “doing ministry” than

being ministers.

- Teachable – An individual may be a charismatic leader, but if they are unable to come

under the authority of their group leader, or pastor or elders, they will do more damage

than good. We want to raise up people into their calling, not people who are interested

in the position of authority. A good way to quantify or measure can be found in this

equation:

Teachability = Willingness to Learn mulitiplied by Desire to Change.

I’ve had more than a couple people express interest in leading a bible study or a LifeGroup

that I’ve had to turn down, at least temporarily, because they weren’t engaged in a

community of Jesus followers or because they simply weren’t able to give the time needed

to be successful. By providing feedback on why someone can’t step into that role, we’re
providing accountability and goals for people to aspire to, and we maintain the integrity of

our church by responsibly raising up quality leaders who know what their expectations are.

Leader

Once someone has served in the Apprentice Leader role, if they have a vision to lead a

group, we would start looking to see if that individual possesses the following qualifications:

Does this person have influence? Is this person on mission? Are they a good

communicator? Do they delegate?

- Influence – Is this someone who leads naturally? Do people listen to this person? Is this

person known in their group and do they contribute and add to conversations?

- On Mission – A person who is on mission is engaging with the world around them. They

know their neighbors, invite people into their homes and have likely invited people into

their Jesus-following community. This person has shared the gospel both in the way

they live and with their words to someone.

- Good Communicator – In the apprentice leader role, this person has hopefully had an

opportunity to communicate what the groups goals are, what they are doing in the

upcoming weeks or even been able to navigate relational struggles through

compassionate conversation.

- Delegates – Does this person attempt to bear the entire leadership weight on their

shoulders or do they invite people into ownership with them?

Again, I’ve had to tell people “no” who, in my opinion would make amazing leaders because

they didn’t have influence. I would hate for someone to be excited about leading a group,
only to give up when no one showed up for what they felt was an awesome event or group.

Thankfully, because we were able to provide tangible feedback as to why launching a group

at that time wouldn’t work, they are now in a position where they have influence and also

meet the other criteria.

After serving in the “Leader” capacity, some people will have naturally done a few things

that would make us want to look to them for additional leadership responsibility. If a

Leader has mentored and developed apprentice leaders, if they support and encourage

other leaders, if they give and receive accountability and have built teams through

relationship, we would consider them to be Ministry Team Leaders (MTL’s).

Coincidentally, these should be the expectations of those we would desire to have in

eldership as well.

- Mentor and raise up Apprentices – Our hope is that this individual is seeing leadership

potential in those they lead and is inviting them to lead and disciple others along side

them

- Support and Encourage Leaders – This individual is the proverbial tide that raises all

ships. Because they lead well, they inspire others to do the same. They help other

leaders navigate life situations and invest and disciple them to raise up leaders too.

- Give and receive accountability – This person is always looking to raise the bar on

discipleship, both in how they do it, and how they help others disciple. They are

teachable and are able to teach others in kindness and gentleness.

- Building teams through relationship – This person not only leads but invests in those

they do life with. They invite people into whatever it is that God has given them vision

for, and they inspire others to do the same. They don’t build teams through positional

authority, but because they live a life on mission that reflects the personality of Jesus

Christ.

The people described above aren’t perfect people, but they are living a life that is worth

following. In Paul’s words, they invite people to follow them as they follow Jesus (1

Corinthians 11:1). From the MTL’s, there may be people who have a specific vision for a

church or gathering. As they develop as leaders, they become strategic and intentional in

communicating that vision as they work towards it. They invite leaders to come alongside

to accomplish that vision, and they are continually investing in their own relationship with

Jesus and learning. These are the people that we would want to release to plant churches

or other gatherings (that we may not have even considered!) and we would call them

Pastors or Planters.

- Has vision for a church/community – This individual has a vision they’ve shared with

staff or elders that we can release them into and hold them accountable to.

- Strategic/Intentional – This person has a plan and a way of inviting people into that plan

that lines up with scripture and the leading of the Holy Spirit. They are able to

communicate that plan and the steps involved.

- Leads Leaders – Leaders want to follow this person because of their character, their

vision and their calling. This will be a natural result of clear communication of vision
 - Invests in continued learning – The more we learn, the more we know what we don’t

know. In humbleness, this leader is continuing their education of the word, of culture

and the context in which the gospel is presented.

My hope is that this pipeline and process gives us more reasons to say “yes” to people who

are obedient to Jesus, “not yet” to those who aren’t clear in their calling, and no to those

who are simply seeking power and and aren’t on board with the Mission and Vision that

God has entrusted Bible Christian Church.

4.3 Elder On-boarding

Current

Bible Christian Church uses the Biblical principles for eldership as described in the books

of Titus (chapter one, verses five through nine) and 1 Timothy (chapter 3, verses 1-7). The

qualifications are that the elder should not live a sinful lifestyle, must be faithful to their

spouse, a spiritual leader in the household, not quick tempered, drunk, violent or

untrustworthy. They must also be hospitable, able to teach and gentle. While these are

essential qualities in leadership, the church lacks the processes in place to invite people who

possess those qualities into a leadership role in the church so that they can be proficient elders.

Our current process is as follows: 1) Elder nomination forms are presented to the

congregation. 2) Names are submitted to the current elders. 3) Potential elders are

interviewed by current elders after filling out an elder application form. 4) Current elders

present candidates they recommend from the submitted names back to the congregation to be

voted in or not. 5) The potential elders then join the elder board at the first of the year.
 Unfortunately, there is no training, no equipping and no mentoring. They are simply

thrown in to that role and hope that the succeed. After meeting with several elders and staff,

we have agreed upon the following process:

Proposed Elder on-boarding process

Step 1): Elder forms are submitted to the congregation, and the church nominates an elder.

However, it is asked that the names submitted are only those who have served in a leadership

capacity in the last 5 years or are currently serving in a leadership role in the church. This

would ensure that individuals eligible for this position have completed the requirements

outlined in the leadership pipeline.

Step 2): Assuming the prospective elder meets the prior requirements, they would then enter

into a 6 month mentoring processes with existing elders. This would include but not be limited

to a weekly meeting and a structured growth process including leadership training.

Step 3) After 6 months of mentoring, the prospective elder would be permitted to attend elder

meetings and sit in on leadership discussions. However, they would not be able to vote. This is

for the prospective elder to observe the processes and responsibilities.

Step 4) After completing the year-long mentoring and observation requirements, the elder

would then step on to board with a vote of approval from the congregation. This vote is not a

popularity contest, but an affirmation of the individuals reputation within their church

community. We would invite anyone, if they had any biblically based concerns to share those

with the eldership before the vote is taken.

Step 5) With congregational approval, the prospective elder starts the new year as a voting

elder with leadership responsibilities.

4.4 Leader Compliance

At this point in the process, most of our existing leaders have entered into the process

and understand the need for each step’s requirement. However, there is an elder and some

group leaders who have not. The very first step for any leader in our church for the last 5 years

is the Discipleship Training Course. I developed this course to establish language, present the

pipeline and introduce some basic leader behaviors and attitudes that people would need to

get started. It’s a four week course and includes a leader guide and participant manuals.

One of the challenges for getting people in to this course have been limitations on my

schedule. Because I currently fill two positions, my availability has been limited on weekends. I

have since resolved this by equipping two other leaders to teach this course, opening up more

opportunities for leaders to get started.

Another challenge has been convincing some leaders that they need training in how to

lead if they’ve already been leading. A primary attribute of the “Apprentice” role is

teachability. If we have existing leaders who aren’t teachable, they are limiting their ability to

grow and invest in other leaders. Because the church is a volunteer organization, simply firing

someone who has influence in a community can be a huge roadblock to compliance and

organizational unity. However, we are not without recourse. Of the leaders who do not value
furthering their growth, very few are left in the organization. They consist of Sunday school

classes that haven’t grown or changed their membership in years. Currently, we’ve found that

communicating that we will no longer consider them a ministry of the church, but will continue

to allow them to gather in our building has either killed off those groups over time, or has

opened the door to why we’re doing what we are doing.

The church is named “Bible Christian Church”, and so the understanding is that we adhere

to scripture for our processes and policies. Helping people to understand that we are

admonished by the founders of our faith (Jesus and Paul) to equip the saints (Matthew 28:8,

Ephesians 4:12-16) and not to teach the crowds has been an effective conversation when

moving people into compliance with the leadership pipeline. However, this has been mostly

informal, as the pipeline itself is not a part of our bylaws or operational guidelines yet.

4.5 Identifying Leaders

At Bible Christian Church in Garden City, KS, it would be nice to select leaders from a pool of

successful business and community leaders and tap into their expertise and experience to lead

people and ministries at the church. However, as an isolated town two hours from the closest

interstate, our reality is that in most cases, it falls on us as an organization to develop people

with potential into those leaders. Thankfully, this was also the plight of the early church, so we

get a picture within the Bible of who they chose to lead and what the early church expected

from them.

The first expectation was that anyone who wanted to follow Jesus must deny

themselves (Luke 9:23). So, as we scan our landscape for leaders, we look to people who are

sacrificing their time to make ministry happen. We identify people who have made themselves
available. The second thing we look for is not someone who does everything perfectly, but

someone who learns from their mistakes and takes corrective action. Mistakes or “unexpected

occurrences” provide opportunities for innovation (Drucker, 2002) and reveal a teachable spirit.

Lastly, I identify faithfulness (in the pipeline) as a prerequisite for apprenticeship. Faithfulness

should include adherence to their faith and a desire for continued growth and a commitment to

consistency. Plenty of people want to lead, but not everyone is a consistent person who does

what they say they’re going to do.

5.1 Project Outcomes and Measurement

While the goal of this project is to launch these initiatives church-wide, I have been

informally utilizing tools such as the Discipleship Training Course and leadership pipeline to

introduce new leaders or leaders who are stepping into new roles to leadership training and its

importance. Since November of 2014, the direct result of these initiatives has been 7 new

groups, 25 new leaders, 35 apprentices, and 3 elders. Two groups have multiplied more than

once and one group has just recently multiplied. Every current leader serving right now at BCC

has attended the discipleship training course and a new group of prospective leaders are

currently attending under a couple that I have mentored to lead the course.

The goal of these measures is to produce fresh leaders, invitational culture (where new

people are invited to invest their time), innovation, and eventually, new churches that reaching

unreached people in ways that we’ve never thought of before.

This leadership initiative has been tested over almost five years and has been refined in

the process. Early on in the process, we pretty much allowed anyone who wanted to try

leadership to step into an apprentice role, and while we were fortunate with most of them, a
few of these prospective leaders were actually harmful to some of the groups they poured into.

This feedback from current leaders helped shape the language, and now we no longer call that

role “Apprentice leader” as it implies a guarantee that they will lead a group or ministry

eventually. While we hope that to be the case, it isn’t always true, and managing that

expectation has helped us be more considerate about who we invite in.

5.2 Learning Outcomes

One of the earliest lessons I learned when rolling out the leadership pipeline informally,

is that the traditional “leader” in churches is usually not a good fit for a process that requires

internal reflection, difficult conversations and constructive criticism. For at least a Century, the

American church model has dictated that a leader must not have any flaws or issues, or at the

very least that leader must hide them and not learn to talk about them. The leaders who were

leading when I got here had created a culture where the majority of the success or failure of

their group or ministry lay entirely on their ability to have the right answers and know all of the

knowledge. This, in turn, created a culture where a strong personality or gifted teacher could

have success up until they burned out or moved away, and their ministry would end with that.

The leadership pipeline, on the other hand, creates systems that allow ministries and groups to

thrive well beyond their formation and their first leader, but also gives the freedom for

ministries to make changes when things don’t work out because it creates a culture where

multiple people have permission to speak into it.

Because of the investment made early in my tenure at Bible Christian Church, we now

have fresh leaders who aren’t overworked but have created teams to help them accomplish

their goals. By preparing these leaders before they were leaders, they were able to learn from
the leaders they apprenticed with and use their own gifts and efforts to innovate in the context

of their groups and ministries. For instance, one leader and her team launched the Foster Care

Closet, which gets resources to parents who foster children or have kids who need emergency

placement. Because of her vision, other groups have made the Foster Care closet their mission,

and they frequently take their groups shopping for the things that the Foster Care closet needs.

Upon sharing this with other group leaders in huddle (A monthly gathering of a group of leaders

to share and encourage), we have at least five other groups who are partnering with local non-

profits to serve them at least monthly, including a center for the developmentally disabled and

a local homeless shelter.

Another example is a group leader who leads children exceptionally well has launched a

Facebook group that challenges parents and encourages them to get into the Bible with their

kids. That group has grown into an online community of people who share hints and tips on

how to engage their children in meaningful spiritual conversations and activities. This group

leader was encouraged by her ministry leader (who is a staff member that is using the pipeline

in her ministry) to use her gifts and efforts to encourage other parents.

I feel like these examples are just a small sample of how I’ve utilized and mastered

Leadership Development systems for performance improvement, succession management and

organizational change (McCauley, Kanaga, & Lafferty, 2010).

The leadership pipeline also utilizes another leadership concept for feedback;

specifically, developmental relationships in the form of mentors and coaches (this is the Leader

and Ministry Team Leader levels). In order to continue growth and encouragement for our

leaders, we implemented huddles for leaders. A huddle is a monthly (or more frequent)
gathering of leaders designed to grow in leadership through a book study and encourage one

another with stories of successes and challenges. I recently handed over a huddle to a couple

who has been with us since we first started, and they are really driving the missional aspect of

the groups that they now lead. This directly reflects my understanding and use of

developmental relationships (McCauley & Douglas, 2004).

 6.1 References

Allen, C. L., & Hughes, R. T. (1988). Discovering our roots: the ancestry of churches of Christ.

Abilene, TX: ACU Press.

Frost, T. (2015, April 17). Building Healthy Leadership Pipelines. Retrieved from

https://iveybusinessjournal.com/how-to-build-a-healthy-leadership-pipeline/

Hawley, M. E. (1976). Redigging the wells: seeking undenominational Christianity. Abilene, TX:

Quality publications.

Kinley, G., Smith, F., Heffler, J., Manning, E., & Rainer, T. (2018, November 27). Hope for Dying

Churches. Retrieved from https://factsandtrends.net/2018/01/16/hope-for-dying-churches/

Malphur, B. (n.d.). 6 Steps to Building a Leadership Pipeline in Your Church. Retrieved from

https://malphursgroup.com/6-steps-to-building-a-leadership-pipeline-in-your-church/

McCauley, C.D., Velsor, E.V. (Eds.). (2004). The center for creative leadership handbook of

leadership development. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.fhsu.edu

6.2 Appendix A

Meeting Notes – October 15 –

Present: Chris Payne, Stuart and Erin Wagner, David Brager

Controversy over the term “Apprentice leader”. The reason is because it creates the

expectation that the individual will be a leader. Almost a guarantee. Changed level name to

“Apprentice”.
October 24 – Met with co-chairs of the elder board. Presented pipeline and compliance

documents. Informally approved and will be brought for conversation on December 17th

meeting.

November 6th – Met with current leaders of groups and ministries. Defined 1 Timothy 3 as

applicable to good leaders, regardless of gender. Invited leaders to submit names of people

who exhibited those qualities within their groups. These are people we determined would be

targeted for Discipleship Training Class, regardless of availability of leadership position for

them. Next steps were determined to be conversations between leaders and potential leaders

in the form of ICNU (I see in you) conversations. No pressure, but an invitation to use the gifts

they have to push the kingdom forward, even if not at our church.