Episode 638: Systems for multiplying church leaders must have a healthy balance of the organic and  pragmatic. Host Clint Clifton discusses how to create an effective system of leadership development with Todd Adkins, director of LifeWay Leadership.

Your church would like to plant other new churches, but there are some day-to-day activities that are going to prohibit that, if you don’t have some systems set up for them. @ClintJClifton

‘Systems’ is not a dirty word. Sometimes, when we hear it, we think that’s a business-type thing. But God created the solar system and the circulatory system. @ToddAdkins 

The pendulum between the organic and the pragmatic seems to go back and forth a lot. You have to understand from a biblical perspective a healthy balance of both things – putting on both your shepherd hat and your stewardship hat. @ToddAdkins

Leaders learn in front of people. If you are a leader these days and you are not a learner, then you have a really, really short shelf life. @ToddAdkins

It’s really important for us to not just be dispensers of grace, but receivers of grace, so we can be conduits all the time. @ClintJClifton

The gold standard for us is to have a member of our church go through that process, not somebody from the outside. But if we can’t find members to do it, that’s not going to stop us from planting a church next year. @ClintJClifton 

When you have three elements together – knowledge, experience and coaching – that’s when transformation happens. @ToddAdkins 

When I look at a residency program, I look at inputs, throughputs and outputs. @ToddAdkins 

I want to be more hands-on with the people we’re developing. I want to do ministry alongside them. I want them to see me doing ministry and learn from the ways I do it bad and the ways I do it good. @ClintJClifton 

I’m starting high directive and very little supportive. But that flips over time from directive to supportive. There’s very little directive at the end. @ToddAdkins

If you’re always focused more on what you do, rather than who you develop, you’re not going to be a “successful pastor,” in my opinion. @ToddAdkins

I started a church 17 years ago that’s multiplied 20 plus times. And now my greatest joy in life is watching the gospel go forth from those men in their ministries. @ClintJClifton 

The greatest impact in my ministry will not be anything I do, but those I invest in and what they do for the glory of God. That’s where you find the deepest satisfaction in ministry. @ClintJClifton

Leadership is understanding that your fruit grows on somebody else’s trees. @ToddAdkins

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