More Time Given for Discussion, Discernment

In a special sitting March 3, General Conference 2023 delegates voted 161-59 for the Free Methodist Church USA’s next General Conference to be held in July 2029. The two-year delay from the normal four-year cycle gained the approval of 73% of the delegates. The approved resolution also states that, “as a consequence, the term of the Board of Bishops elected in July 2023 will be a six-year term.”

In response to a recommendation from the Unleashing Missional Momentum (UMM) group, the FMCUSA Board of Administration (BOA) introduced the resolution last October to allow more time for discussion and prayerful discernment regarding anticipated structural and organizational changes in the denomination.

After the resolution’s approval in the special sitting held online via Zoom, BOA Chair Eric Logan told the delegates, “Thank you so much for your diligence and your sensitivity to the Holy Spirit and for your discernment. I personally — and I know all of us — appreciate all of the arguments, both for and against, and we appreciate the heart of the church and the discernment of what we’re doing.” At the beginning of the meeting, Logan noted, “Our standing rules call for three people to speak for and three people to speak against” the resolution. He invited BOA member Al Sones — the senior pastor of Good News Church in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania — to begin the discussion. “Our priority always is to see that the church is led by what happens in the prayer room, not as a result of what happens in the committee room,” Sones said. “It became very apparent to us at our last Board of Administration meeting that one of the key results of the concerted season of prayer and fasting that swept across the church was that the Holy Spirit was calling us to a sense of urgency, so the urgency for change to be made now does not come out of a sense of fear or crisis, but simply a prompting of the Holy Spirit.”

Sones said the BOA members saw the need “to create time and create a space for the servant leaders of the Free Methodist Church and the frontline Free Methodists … to work together to create a kingdom culture. ”

Wendy Seyfert, a lay delegate from the Free Methodist Church in Southern California, said that despite being “very grateful for our bishops’ desires to address the opportunities within the North American church and to bring a new, fresh spirit to the work,” she spoke “against the resolution, though after much prayer and inner turmoil, because I do not believe that the work undertaken by the UMM is of the highest caliber level possible for success. The UMM is comprised of and was selected by a small group of elders whose vocation is ministry. … The lack of representation by laity — a key pillar of our polity in almost every area of leadership — as well as the lack of diversity of women and young leaders — does not fill me with enough confidence in the ideas and execution that need to be generated to take us into the future. ”

UMM member and Pacific Northwest Conference Superintendent Cathy Tastad described the resolution as being “about stepping back, taking time to prayerfully discern what needs to change in our institution so that the Holy Spirit can be free to move among us. The superintendents, the bishops, the delegates, the pastors and boards, and others need space to do the necessary work to process the needed changes thoroughly, to have open dialogue in our conferences, to hear other voices, and to position the Free Methodist Church for long-term health and mission. … We have elected leaders, elected again by equal balance of lay and clergy. These people love Jesus. They love the church, and, if we do believe in our system, we also need to trust those we’ve chosen to lead us.”

Isaac Wilson — the families pastor at River City Church in Lawrence, Kansas — questioned whether extending General Conference to 2029 would ensure continuity because some leaders may not intend to stay in their positions until then. He said holding General Conference two years from now would increase “our opportunity for accountability and a structure that we operate well within to say, ‘We are midway through a plan, so let’s elect these leaders again to lead us for, in fact, another four years.’”

BOA member Cindi Newman, a lay delegate from the Genesis Conference, said, “The single purpose of this resolution is to provide undistracted time for our bishops to pray over and discern a path towards increased fruitfulness for the FMCUSA. Extending the current term by two years gives our leaders time to discern and articulate a vision for returning the FMCUSA to abundant fruitfulness, which is the heart cry of our desire to be a Spirit-fueled movement, and when we begin preparations for the next General Conference, passing this resolution would also give the delegates more time to pray and to consider the vision and the resolutions needed to walk out that vision.”

In speaking against the resolution, Central Region Conference Superintendent Bruce Cromwell emphasized, “In no way am I against the necessary changes that may help us better align with how the Holy Spirit is moving and what God is calling us to do and to be. … The reason I’m speaking against the resolution is because I have not heard sufficient reason to delay a General Conference. There are challenges facing our churches, to be sure, and most are due to the rapidly changing culture in which we serve. To delay four years from now puts us even further behind the adjustments we need to make to minister to women and men today.”

After the resolution’s approval, Logan asked BOA member Alex Soto, a lay delegate from the Acts 12:24 Churches, to close the special sitting in prayer. “Dear Heavenly Father, we thank You for including us, with clarity, in the matters that have to do with the business of Your church. Lord, I pray that we can come together as a Board of Administration, as a Board of Bishops, as delegates to support these leaders that are going to be working towards kingdom expansion and leaning on us as a body as well to hear Your will, Father. Be with us tonight as we join our families and go about our business, and I thank You for the team in Indianapolis that orchestrated this. Thank You for each and every one of them for their willingness to serve and for the willingness to everyone on this call that is obedient to Your call, and we’re all here to help expand Your kingdom, Father. En el nombre de Cristo Jesús te presentamos estas peticiones. Amen. ”

Expect big changes to the Free Methodist Church USA in the coming years. These changes are needed to unleash missional momentum so the church can become a movement again, the FMCUSA Board of Bishops explained in a conversation with Brett Heintzman on a recent episode of “The Light + Life Podcast.”

Bishop Keith Cowart said that Free Methodists in different parts of the country have caught “this idea of being a Spirit-fueled movement. We’re not just treading water. We are moving forward with great vision and conviction that we have the incredible privilege of working alongside God to expand His kingdom, so this is growing more out of a desire to see us thriving, not just surviving. ”

Bishop Kaye Kolde said denominational leaders understand that “some of what we do and how we do it might actually be more of an impediment than a benefit to the local churches where the disciples are being made.” The bishops “were reminding ourselves what’s going to outlast us for the benefit of the church when none of us are in these roles, so that it’s not about a personal preference for how things might work, but really seeking the Lord for how His church might flourish.”

FMCUSA leaders created the Unleashing Missional Momentum (UMM) group, which has met several times in person for periods of two or three days with Zoom sessions in between. The group has recommended significant changes to the denominational structure.

“This is a major shift,” Bishop Kenny Martin said. “This has never been done before on this level.”

The bishops emphasized that prayer and listening to the Holy Spirit are key aspects of the process.

“We sense through prayer that this is what the Lord wants us to do,” Martin said. “And so it’s about unity, trust, obedience to what the Holy Spirit is calling us to do — the direction of the Holy Spirit. ”

In assembling the UMM group, the bishops asked superintendents “to choose among themselves six of their number that would work with us, because the Book of Discipline gives us the responsibility of vision and direction,” Cowart said. “We recognize that we humbly accept that responsibility, but we don’t believe that means that we have to operate in isolation. Vision is best created in collaboration, and so we wanted to get clarity about where we need to be going. ”

The bishops also asked Free Methodist World Missions area directors to select “one of their own” to join UMM, Cowart said, “in order to make sure that the things we do here are both informed by the global church and don’t create obstacles for the global church. ”

Instead of the UMM’s recommendations just being another concept that’s discussed and set aside, Cowart said denominational leaders are “actually deeply committed to making these changes. ”

Churches and Conferences

Kolde said the bishops are aware that human and financial resources need to be aligned with the work being done at the local church level to make disciples.

“Some of the things that we’re talking about like a new network of U.S. annual conferences, that vision is really driven by this desire to better equip and resource local churches,” Kolde said. “One of the things that I am very excited about is saying, let’s take some of the resources that currentlyare split between 21 annual conferences in the U.S. and instead bring them together and use them to equip local church pastors through teams in our conferences. ”

Kolde said some of the conferences do not currently have the people and financial resources for a team approach.

“We recognize that the church is designed for each of us to function in our gifting and work together as a body,” she said. “We keep using the word teams, but it’s really about being the body of Christ, and so part of what we’ve been doing is reenvisioning how we work together as a body, even at the conference level. ”

UMM recommendations include reducing the number of conferences and reconfiguring boundaries.

“People are looking very closely at the whole creating a new network of new conferences, and what that’s going to mean,” Cowart said. “Creating new annual conferences is not the vision. It’s the means to a vision. ”

The bishops understand that some Free Methodists may question how reducing or changing conferences would benefit the denomination.

“We recognize profoundly that just changing the boundaries of our conferences is not going to create movement,” said Cowart, who noted that reducing the number of annual conferences from 21 to 10 or 12 may seem like a step backward. “But what we want to emphasize is what we’re truly after is developing a healthy culture throughout our church family, where we are moving together in agreement around our core sense of our identity in The Free Methodist Way.”

Although denominational leaders are concerned with significant differences in how conferences operate, Cowart stressed that “we’re not looking for 10 to 12 conferences that look exactly the same, but what we are saying is we cannot be a movement if we are not all committed to a core mission, core values and a core identity.”

Apostolic Leaders

Martin compared the reconfiguration discussion to going to our Great Physician and asking for the Lord’s help in determining areas that aren’t healthy. He noted that health includes vision.

“We need visionary leaders, right? What we call apostolic leaders. We need to be pioneers for taking new territory,” Martin said. “We can’t be happy just where we are because there are lost people out there. For this to happen, we have to come together in unity.”

Martin said the change must be Spirit-led, and the heartbeat behind the effort is “about the lost and

raising up visionary leaders.” He added that apostolic leaders are visionary thinkers who can discern: “What is God saying to the Free Methodist Church? What is the vision that God has for us?”

Being an apostolic leader is “a calling from God that changes cultures” with “a passion to bring the body of Christ together,” Martin said. These leaders understand “the heart of God where He wants us to be the body of Christ, and an apostolic leader sees that and can communicate that to the church at large. ”

Kolde said the Free Methodist Church has already looked at Ephesians 4 to determine whether a person is an apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd or teacher.

“With the apostolic leader, they have the ability to see the new thing, or to see the thing that needs to be brought to good health and then equip a team and unleash them, and then sometimes move on to the next thing,” Kolde said. “You have leaders who are able to see, cast vision, bring others around them, and those people are the ones who actually continue doing those things well.”

Cowart said that our conferences need people with a variety of gifts.

“Those who work out of an apostolic gifting understand the power of building culture — culture around kingdom values, culture around a kingdom mission,” Cowart said. “It’s more than just putting out a mission statement. It’s more than just stating, ‘This is what we want to be.’ It’s building the kind of culture that actually results in that reality, and those are the kind of leaders that we want to see in every single annual conference.”

Delaying GC?

The UMM proposed to the denominational Board of Administration that the next general conference be delayed two years from 2027 to 2029. General Conference 2023 delegates will meet online March 3 for a “special sitting” to discuss and vote on a resolution that would change the date.

“The idea of extending two years was not ours as bishops,” Cowart said. “That did not come from us, and quite frankly, initially, we were pretty resistant to that idea, but the word that came so strong from our superintendents was: ‘We believe this is the right direction, and we don’t want to see it fall short of full implementation.’”

The special sitting is not intended as a discussion of annual conference changes or other UMM recommendations.

“What is being proposed for the vote on March 3 is not about these specific changes. It is about time,” Kolde said. “It’s about having the opportunity to have many more conversations, to actually be with our leaders in different areas of the country, to look for the best way to move toward this preferred future where we have really vibrant networks, equipping local churches and then working together with the Board of Bishops.”

A general conference is typically held every four years, and planning the event requires a considerable mount of planning and resources.

“A big chunk of our leadership is working toward the next general conference within a year of the last one,” Cowart said. “We need more time to actually implement the things that happen at general conference. So many things don’t ever get implemented because we’re already getting ready for the next general conference.”

Some of the UMM’s recommendations can be implemented without going before general conference delegates.

“There are some things that we have already done that the UMM discussed, and we’re not bringing them before the church for a vote,” Kolde said. “That’s not our polity or the practice.”

Other matters would require a vote, such as a proposal to simplify the Book of Discipline by separating portions that need to change frequently.

Leadership Pipeline

One of the bishops’ priorities is developing a pipeline of new leaders who are equipped to serve in ministry.

“We have to think and prepare at a young age,” Martin said. “We have to prepare this next generation of leaders by mentoring them, preparing them, training them.”

Kolde said that in one area where leaders are exploring the creation of a new conference, “they feel encouraged and hopeful that a new conference with a greater critical mass of different types of ministries and different types of leaders will help them attract more leaders into the conference.”

New conferences could include “the creation of conference teams — a structure where more people are invited into the leadership of the conference,” Kolde said. “There would be regional structures. There would be people who could have positions working on coaching and pastoral formation for instance, or multiplication, and so that would allow a leadership pipeline where many of our gifted pastors could have opportunity to serve at the conference level in addition to pastoring or instead of pastoring a local church.”

Cowart said the bishops are having “deep discussions” about the leadership pipeline, because “we must find ways to connect better with our emerging generation.” He added that we need to recognize God is working in a unique way, “and rather than constantly trying to force them into old models, let’s find ways of unleashing what God’s put in them that might lead us into brand new territory.”

Click here to listen to the full conversation on “The Light + Life Podcast.”

What do you do when you’re actively walking in what God called you to do, and His still small voice disrupts what you thought was His way for this calling?

That is the question myself and a few key leaders wrestled with two and a half years ago. At that point, we had been following God’s call to plant Hope Springs Community Church in an urban area of Columbus, Georgia. By God’s grace, we had witnessed a couple of salvations, had seen the start of outreach initiatives to our community, received a good amount of property to use for a low cost, and saw a church plant project grow into an attendance of about 30 people. 

A Different Way?

Yet something started to feel oJ. This grew day by day. The call to make disciples who make disciples and reach those who won’t go to church had started to fade into an attractional model, a concern about “how to pay the bills, ” and a pastor who was juggling the weekly worship service, working full-time as an educator while leading a family. Burnout was knocking on the door.

In comes the Lord’s voice: “What if my way is different?”

It didn’t take long for us to realize that we should heed this call and this question. After days in prayer, it became clear: What if we stripped the church of the focus on a building, of the focus on programs and initiatives, and truly leaned into discipleship? What if we poured into the “few” to allow the Holy Spirit and everyday people to reach the many? This is exactly the journey we have been on.

Missional Multiplication

Two and a half years later, we are seeing the early glimpses of a missional multiplication network. We have been blessed to learn from NewBreed through the Southeast Region Conference, and to connect with the Church Development Network, which has been a great partnership and resource to activate people.

Since then, we have witnessed six of our people say “yes, Lord” to being sent out into the harvest. One has established a missional church in one of the hard-to-reach areas of our city.

A woman — who once said, “Who am I to do this?” — now leads a growing weekly missional gathering of 10+ people whose lives are being changed.

A young man who never heard of discipleship or evangelism beyond what he saw in the Scriptures now prayer-walks a park weekly, serves the teens of a local recreation center, and has started a weekly discovery Bible study at this rec center.

My wife and I host a weekly gathering in our home — pouring into a group of 13 adults and six children to seek growth and transformation in the Lord and to send them out. Two older adults are starting a community at a local Starbucks that is seeking to reach and grow people. Funds are freed to pour into a local school, a summer camp ministry for kids at risk, and into missionaries who are doing missional work in Argentina. Salvations and baptisms are happening, everyday people are saying “yes, Lord, ” and transformations are plenty.

I, for one, am beyond grateful to have listened to the still small voice and to serve a God who lovingly disrupts. Whatever the call, we still say “yes, Lord.”

A patient is in their hospital bed. Their family is around. The machines have all been turned off. A soul is about to pass from this world to the next.

A senior military leader is about to make a decision that will determine if the mission succeeds and if the leader’s troops will perish. The pure weight of this decision will follow the leader for the rest of the leader’s life.

A prisoner has been incarcerated for several years. They have recently started to attend church services at the prison and are on the verge of making a decision about faith.

Closed communities. Sacred spaces. Places where a select few are allowed to go. Moments where life and death, past and future are all hanging in the present. These are the spaces where chaplains exist and are needed.

While these spaces and places are vitally important, they are often overlooked by the greater church body.

“Since this specialty ministry takes place beyond the structure and eyes of the church, little is written about it in church publications,” E. Dean Cook explained. “Chaplains, out of respect for confidentiality and the institutions they serve, traditionally have not written a great deal about their work, except in professional magazines. All of this has led to a serious gap in the church’s understanding and awareness of this ministry.”[1]

Think of your conference. How many chaplains are elders within that conference? Do you know? Did you have to look it up in the Yearbook? Have you talked with those chaplains about the unique community they serve?

In most of Matthew 24 and 25, Jesus is addressing the disciples on the Mount of Olives. He provides a few parables and lessons about the coming days. Then, in Chapter 25, he starts to describe the Judgment:

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’” (v.34–40 NIV)

This passage is one of the primary scriptural references for the basis of chaplain ministry. People in need often do not seek out help, requiring those who serve Christ to go to them. Chaplains go where there is need, standing in the gap with those who would not otherwise receive help from the church. In my personal experience, many of the warriors I serve would never walk through the doors of a church. In fact, coming to talk to the chaplain is their answer when everything else has failed. They know that they need something: confidential counseling, sound advice, a person to listen to their struggles, but they don’t know what that need is. Chaplaincy is truly an incarnational ministry, where you often live, work with, rub shoulders with, and eat with those you serve.

“The roots of Free Methodist Chaplaincy can be traced back to World War II and the nation’s urgent call for chaplains to minister to our troops.”[2] There were several young clergy members from our denomination who served during the Second World War, having impacts across multiple continents and aspects of that war. Since that time, Free Methodist chaplains have served in a variety of positions and ministry spaces. Hospital, hospice, law enforcement, prisons and jails, the military, retirement communities, sports teams, colleges and universities. Chaplains in all of these different places have three primary things in common.

 Calling

Calling is one of the most, if not the most, pivotal parts of chaplaincy. Serving in these closed communities is seldom easy and requires a special type of calling. Os Guinness tells us, “Our passion is to know that we are fulfilling the purpose for which we are here on earth.”[3]

No one person’s calling to chaplaincy looks exactly like another’s. My call to chaplaincy came, to paraphrase J.R.R. Tolkien, from the most unlikely of people. I was working nights at UPS after graduating from college. I had graduated with a degree in ministry focused on worship arts. Unfortunately, I graduated in 2009, right in the middle of a recession.

To help provide for my family, I was a stay-at-home dad during the day, and loaded trucks at UPS in the evenings. After working there for a few months, and getting to know my co-workers, one who had previously served in the Marine Corps asked me if I had ever thought about being a military chaplain. I politely told him, “No,” that I had just finished my bachelor’s degree and didn’t want to go back to school and that I was happy to work with youth or lead worship but didn’t think that being in charge of what I perceived to be a bigger responsibility was something I aspired to. However, as I thought, prayed, and asked my mentors about this, it became apparent that God was calling me to this unique ministry.

“To be called by God is to be one who has heard and answered the call that God makes,” according to Carey H. Cash. “In the end, not all men respond to that call. But for those who do, nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate them from God’s providential plan working out in their lives.”^[4]

Like Jonah, I was being called to what was to me a foreign land. Within a few months, I had enrolled in seminary and started the process of joining the U.S. Army Reserve as a chaplain candidate.

 Preparation

The next important step in becoming a chaplain is preparation. The requirements for every type of chaplaincy vary to some degree. Almost all require an endorsement from a denominational endorsing agent (for Free Methodists, this is currently Tim Porter). Candidates for this are often presented to whichever current bishop oversees our chaplain ministries (currently Bishop Keith Cowart). Both also usually require ordination as an elder within your current conference. According to Richard M. Budd, “Traditionally the triumvirate of occupations accorded professional status in America has included ministry, which is the eldest, plus law and medicine.”[5]

Some forms of chaplaincy require an M.Div. or equivalent seminary degree, the military being one of these. Many hospital and hospice chaplain settings require Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE), which can be earned either through a residency or through individual credits. Other chaplain settings may require still other accreditations or trainings to serve that community.

 Opportunity

Once a person has discerned a calling and done the necessary preparation, that person is able to seize the opportunities provided by all the work they have put in. Very few ministry settings have opened opportunities to see large change happen like chaplaincy. In my current assignment of working with basic trainees, I have been able to work with multiple trainees who have accepted Christ, baptized over 200 of them, and worked with many drill sergeants and other cadre members as they struggle through difficult life situations. 

If you think that exploring a call into chaplaincy could be a part of your future, reach out to FMCUSA Co-Directors of Chaplain Ministries Tim (timothy.porter@myfmconnect.org) or Patricia (patricia.porter@myfmconnect.org) Porter.

Chaplain Captain Andy Baird is an ordained elder in the North Michigan Conference of the Free Methodist Church and is currently stationed at Fort Moore, Georgia. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in ministry from Central Christian College of Kansas and a Master of Divinity degree from George Fox Evangelical Seminary, and he is currently working on his Doctor of Ministry degree from Wesley Theological Seminary. He and Allison have four children, who constantly keep life moving. They enjoy spending time with their family, and (when able) doing things without kids.

[1] E. Dean Cook, Chaplaincy: Being God’s Presence in Close Communities (Bloomington, IN, AuthorHouse, 2010), xi-xii.

[2] Ibid, 9.

[3] Os Guinness, The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life (Nashville, TN, Thomas Nelson, 2003), 1.

[4] Carey H. Cash, Table in the Presence: The Dramatic Account of How a U.S. Marine Battalion Experienced God’s Presence Amidst the Chaos of The War in Iraq (Nashville, TN, Thomas Nelson, 2009), 41.

[5] Richard M. Budd, Serving Two Masters: The Development of American Military Chaplaincy, 1860-1920, (Lincoln, NE, University of Nebraska, 2002), 3.

Nearly 300 churches applied this year for a Kingdom Advancing Grant, which the Brotherhood Mutual Foundation awards to church programs that impact their communities and spread the gospel in unconventional and creative ways. When the foundation recently announced the nine recipients of the 2024 grants, Crosspoint Free Methodist Church in Hilton, New York, made the list with a $5,000 grant for its Aslan’s Explorers program. 

Crosspoint Pastor Darlene Simpson described the program as “an incredible journey through Narnia and imagination to equip children with real life skills. Aslan’s Explorers exists to teach boys and girls that their true identity  is found in Jesus.” 

Students from kindergarten through sixth grade can enroll in Aslan’s Explorers, and each year of the program is based on one of the books in “The Chronicles of Narnia” series by beloved author C.S. Lewis. Students learn the four Narnian virtues: Be brave. Be faithful. Be humble. Be kind. They also learn these core truths: I am known. I am forgiven. I am made for community. I am never alone. I am set apart. I am here to share Jesus. I am uniquely designed. I am designed for a purpose.  

“The grant will help us to further develop curriculum, create the environment of Narnia, and allow us to provide an experience that can be multiplied to children everywhere,” Simpson said. “On a personal note, my 6-year-old and 4-year-old grandchildren have already memorized Scripture verses, which will be held in their hearts for their lifetime. My granddaughter loves to tell others what she has learned at Aslan’s. We are excited to see thousands of little ones discover and live the virtues they learn in Aslan’s Explorers.” 

Simpson launched the program with Rob Dickerson, the pastor of LifeQuest Community Church that meets at Crosspoint’s building and cooperates in ministry with the motto “2 Churches – 1 Location: Better Together.” Dickerson said the program launched in January with original curriculum, but it is now an October to May discipleship ministry. 

Dickerson applied for the grant after receiving an email about the program and then discussed it with his Brotherhood Mutual insurance agent who is also an artist creating illustrations for Aslan’s Explorers.  

“The application for it was not difficult at all. The website that they created was fairly straightforward to navigate,” Dickerson said. “The hardest part was figuring out what information they wanted from us so that we could give it to them.” 

Innovative, Evangelistic, Replicable 

Kathy Bruce, director of the Brotherhood Mutual Foundation, said the foundation is funded by a percentage of Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Co. premiums that are paid by churches and related ministries, “and so through our foundation, we’re focused on giving back to Christian churches. … There are many grants available to nonprofit and faith-based nonprofits, but this particular grant is limited to churches.”  

Bruce emphasized that the grant program has three key pillars.  

“No. 1, it needs to be very innovative. It’s not something that others are doing down the street. It’s a very new and different idea,” Bruce said. “The second pillar is that it has a well-defined path to lead people to Jesus.” 

The final “pillar is replicability, because our whole goal in this is to see if we can give these initiatives visibility so that others might consider trying them in their ministries.” 

Ministry Mentoring 

Bruce noted that the program includes a granting council with ministry leaders from across the country. 

“The beauty of this grant is those council members commit to mentoring, coaching, encouraging, and praying for the grant recipients, and they meet with them once a month on a Zoom call for just about a year,” Bruce said. “Somewhere in that year, they go to visit that site personally and try to build that relationship. The follow-up after that year becomes more of a friendship.” 

Dickerson said a large church in Kansas City is partnering with Aslan’s Explorers to provide guidance in curriculum development and wise use of the grant money.  

The Kingdom Advancing Grant is awarded annually. The 2025 grant application cycle begins Jan. 6 and ends March 31. More information is available at brotherhoodmutual.com/kingdom-advancing-grant. 

I have a love-hate relationship with cooking. It’s so much easier to make an order and wait for someone else to cook it up and serve me, because cooking takes time, work, and practice. Raising up Spirit-fueled leaders is the same way. It is so much easier to tell people what I want and wait for them to do it. But developing leaders requires preparation — time, work, and practice. If we want a new generation of leaders, we are going to have to start cooking more and ordering less.  

First of all, let me give you the ingredients for church leadership. One of my favorite meals is a rice bowl from Qdoba, and, in my world, we have a meal from there at least once a week. Here are the must-haves of a good rice bowl and great churches: 

First a protein. This is like discipleship. Discipling someone provides the means to strengthen the leader in whom you are investing. Second is rice or starch or grain. I like to compare this to outreach where just as starch fuels our energy and ability to keep going, outreach continues to fuel our movement. Third is a liquid (oil, broth, water, or milk). This seeps into every corner of the dish and also provides refreshment. I liken this to community. Fellowship and community connections are refreshing and permeate us with positive influences like liquid.  

Next are the veggies. I compare this to administration. Veggies provide necessary vitamins and roughage to keep things moving, and so does administration. (Yes, I said that.) And fifth and finally, we need some spice. This ingredient is like prayer and worship in the development of leaders. Now some of you only use salt and pepper — but I’ve discovered that the Holy Spirit likes to provide secret sauces from time to time. This makes a complete dish and complete leaders. We need leaders gifted in these different areas and leaders valuing and participating in these areas.  

Now let’s move to the recipe and actions, because you don’t just set the ingredients on the counter in your kitchen and expect them to magically come together to make a tasty meal. Some of you have been ordering your meals all your life and are just now having an aha moment: “I have to do something with those groceries I paid for?” Yes, you do! Good cooking and good leadership development require us to get in the kitchen and start working.  

Meal prep include recipes, chopping, dicing, shredding, and then the actual cooking, which involves knowing what ingredients to add when and how to cook them well. Of course, there is taste-testing along the way! In leadership development, the preparation skills include example, explanation, and experimenting or exploring.  

Example 

First, you must resolve to be the example to the up-and-coming leader. And you do that both in your character and your actions. “Follow me as I follow Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1 MEV). You need to make space for the person to have a relationship with you so they can see up close who you are and what you do. You’ve got to provide the new leader time with you. Do you have time built into your schedule to be with new leaders? That together time follows a pattern:  

• I do; you watch.  

• I do; you help. 

• You do; I help. 

• You do; I watch. 

Asking questions along the way is essential. Do they understand what you’re doing and why? Are they able to apply the principles to their own voice, approach, and leadership style? Are you checking in with them to evaluate their progress? Take time to reflect together and really listen to them. Ask, “How did that go? How are you feeling? Where was that tricky? Could that have gone a different way?” Also don’t forget to celebrate together all the ways your disciple is growing and leading!  

Being an example is all about being face-to-face. When my kids were young, one of my pet peeves was when one of the kids would yell at me from another room. We sat down one day, and I said, “New family rule: We don’t yell from room to room. We talk face-to-face.” And from that time on, if one of them would yell, I’d yell back, “Face-to-face.” It slowed them down, eliminated my frustration, and reminded us to see each other as people not things to be ordered around. Relationships happen face-to-face. Remember, Jesus spent a lot of face-to-face time with His 12 disciples.  

Explanation 

The second part of preparing Spirit-fueled leaders is explanation. Jesus taught many principles over and over again, and Paul wrote follow-up letters of explanation to the churches. We also need to explain what we are doing and why we are doing it. Never assume that people know and understand what you know and understand. Don’t assume that people practice what they know and understand. Or know how to practice. If we only explain what we are doing, we develop followers. When we explain why we are doing it, we are training leaders. When we know why it is important to have all the elements, we can take responsibility for making our own recipe. We are also more careful to include all of the components of a great recipe, not leaving anything out — no shortcuts.  

Explanation is clear, intentional, and educational. Explanation can come from many sources: directly from you, someone else who’s good at that particular part of their development, or basic education from books or classes. As you walk through the process of the up-and-coming leader watching, helping, and leading, it is important to have conversations for feedback.  

Those conversations should include: 

• Affirmation. “Wow, you did that really well.” “I appreciate the way you…” “I love how you said…” “That was so powerful, so well said.” “I never would have thought of that!”  

• Corrective. “Another way to do that could be…” “It seems like you lost people at this point; let’s brainstorm different ways to do that.” “Here’s a resource to help with this.” 

• Confirmation. “You love God and others so well. I see it.” “You have a natural way of connecting with young people.” “I see the ways God is working through you.”  

Don’t forget to model this learning. Are you still being trained? Are you still growing? What have you read this year? What training have you attended? If you are “past learning,” then you must be perfect. And I’m going to be the one to break it to you: You are not perfect. Don’t expect others to be open to growing and training if you’re not modeling it. 

Experiment/Explore 

I learned to experiment and explore most clearly during COVID lockdowns. It didn’t take me long to realize that we as a church were stuck in one way of doing things, and yet we weren’t allowed to do things in that way. So as a staff team, we put on our thinking hats and said, “We still think these ingredients are the most important, so is there any other way we could do them?” And guess what? There were! And we found things that worked for us!  

Let a new leader experiment with how they do their one part, their one event, their one ministry. Don’t insist that they do it the way you would do it. And, by the way, this is another way for you to set the example. When’s the last time you experimented? Because let’s face it, even the very best dish gets old if you are eating it three times a day, seven days a week. Here’s how you can set leaders free to experiment and explore:  

• Give them the guidelines to help them dream. 

• Be open to change — they might think of something you’ve never thought about! 

• Assure them that you are fine with taking the risk. That includes being fine when it doesn’t work. Clearly explain that you expect some things not to work. The important thing is reflecting on what didn’t work and why, and being willing to get back up and try something new.  

Another thing that may help is to set an ending date or deadline for an experiment. “Let’s try this for eight weeks and then check back.” Or, “You will be in charge of this for three months, and if you get done and realize it is not for you, that’s fine.” This is how we find what works and what works for who.  

Which leads to my last point in preparing new leaders: 

Expectations 

Clearly define your expectations because clarity is kindness. Discuss and agree upon goals and objectives, and then hold each other accountable to those goals and objectives. Remember that people are human and will make mistakes. People will excel at some things and struggle with others. People will, at times, sin. Jesus dealt with sin in the development of His disciples and so will you. Even if people walk away from the development process, don’t give up. Pray for the next person to develop and pour into.  

There will also be differences of opinion along the way. Some ideas will not work, and some people will not work out. There are some recipes we like while others we dislike. Our church is multicultural, so I remind our congregation that being multicultural means that there will likely be at least one thing in the service you will not like. Can we have grace for that?  

Finally, be prepared for happy surprises. You never know when something new will sprout up from your development with a new leader. Enjoy the journey and celebrate unexpected good.  

Preparing new leaders is what we’re called to and is essential for us to ignite a Spirit-fueled movement. The big question is: Who are you pouring into? If the answer is “no one at this time,” then begin to pray for God to bring you a person to invest in. Then open your eyes, and prepare to start cooking.  

Joanna DeWolf is a superintendent of the East Michigan Conference and the lead pastor of Lansing Central Free Methodist Church. She’s particularly good at baking chocolate chip cookies.