A Mutual Empowerment Process is a great iron-on-iron and eye-to-eye way of meeting with a fellow leader to challenge each other to grow. It involves a pair of leaders each taking the Empowerment Test, then meeting over four sessions to unpack each other's results and hold each other accountable for taking some simple, practical steps for growth.
The purpose of this series is to offer some basic “entry points” for beginning to explore your Minimum Factor graph.
This post is for those whose Minimum Factor is Empowering Leadership.
Two initial points need to be made.
If you have a gifted evangelist in your church, ask them to explain why and how they share the Gospel with others.
Gather a group together in your church to map the needs of the surrounding community. Share your findings with others in the church, including the leadership.
If you have a gifted evangelist in your church, ask them how, based on your gifts, you could work with them to grow fully devoted followers of Christ.
If there is a new Christian in your church, ask how they are going and how you might help meet any needs they have.
In your small group, discuss the different ways people might experience God during the worship service.
Analyze how much of what you sing in church actually focuses your attention on God, teaching or reminding you about His nature and purposes.
Next time you hear a biblical principle in the sermon which you can readily take and apply in your life, let the preacher know what principle you learnt and how you intend to apply it.
Consider what "messages" your church leaders send about their belief in your church's future and speak to them about your observations in an encouraging way.
Ask the music team if they enjoy the music in the worship service and also what music most helps them encounter God and why.
Consider what can be done through a sermon in the context of a worship service that cannot be done equally well or better through another forum of church life.
Consider the advantages of a worship service over personal worship.
Ask the senior leader of your church to explain why attending the worship service is important. Discuss the answer with your friends and family. Provide the leader with feedback.
Ask anyone you come across in your church, who seems to have some longer-term tension with another person, to tell you one or more positive things about that person, then encourage them to communicate those to the other person in some way.
Make a list of ten reasons for celebration from your life this week (eg. from your work, church, ministry, family and friendships, the Bible, etc.) and share some of those points with at least three people from your church.
Share with someone why you believe they have a particular gift that is better developed in them than in yourself.
Share with your congregation or team about the most recent recreation time you enjoyed and why you found it renewing.
Ask your congregation/small group/team/family/friends what unique gift they personally brought to worship this week with which to bless God and encourage the church.
Allow more time than usual in an upcoming personal or group meeting when you will visibly put aside the agenda, your diary, your phone and all other distractions and purely focus your interest and attention on the person with whom you are meeting, as a person.
Proverbs 13:10 (NIV)
10 Where there is strife, there is pride, but wisdom is found in those who take advice.
Proverbs 13:10 (NLT)
10 Pride leads to conflict; those who take advice are wise.
Australian specific Empowering leadership page
Perhaps some of the following paraphrases expressed by pastors approaching NCD may resonate with you:
"I haven't thought about my expectations. NCD has some good ideas in it and I'm going to give it a go."
In my ministry as an NCD coach and national partner, I am regularly struck by the extent of God's grace. Mostly this relates to seeing churches move from a position of very poor health to a place where hope is rekindled and extinction is now completely out of the question. But also where average churches begin to experience abundantly more than they could ask or imagine.
Please notice that this quality characteristic is not called "empowered” but "empowering” leadership. Let me explain the difference. "Empowered leadership” could imply that there is one ingenious, multi-talented leader with great vision, who needs volunteers to help him turn his vision into reality... Having spent a bit of time being part of the local underground music scene, I must confess I have developed a bit of a bad habit.
The habit was challenged to its core last year, and I am pleased to say some pleasant changes have occurred as a result.
Lifting the Lid on Natural Church Development Pastors
What does Natural Church Development (NCD) say about church leaders in New Zealand?