GlocalNet

We’ve changed the way we are training interns and planting churches.  You don’t have to move here to be trained, mentored and sponsored.  You can still move here - and some do, but that’s not possible for everyone.  So if you want, come on and join us.  You can click on “Turbo” above and find out more information.  We are doing two cohorts a year, and this is the first.  Now is the time to begin to sign up for the second cohort. 
As I was observing the church planters, I was so proud of Kevin Cox - he has planted his church, planted other churches, is working in the inner-city and overseas as well.  There are some other guys following suit.  I saw several guys that will be doing the same thing - they remind me of myself, in many ways, a few years ago.  I decided to give an impromptu lecture on Apostolic leadership because they are all going to do some great things and church planters are more prone in this leadership mode than most. I believe this is crucial to young church planters because it is in the DNA of multiplication.  Here are some things I shared with them:
  Apostolic is not: 
        The original 12
        A Spiritual gift
        A position in the church
        Not necessarily a large church pastor
        Not necessarily a high profile pastor or church leader
  Apostolic is:   
        Big Picture Perspective
        Future Oriented
        Entrepreneurial leadership
        Pioneering
        Multiplying
        Connecting
        Releasing
        Leadership that calls to action and inspires
        Modeling
        A Leadership model & role in the church, recognized or not
  Apostolic Challenges: 
          Communicating what you sense and where you see God leading - Because it’s fresh and intuitive and you’re not even sure where all it will take you, getting words and vocabulary around it can be hard, BUT, you must communicate immediately the stories.  Stories communicate and drive more than processes and systems.  To keep your people with you and moving forward - tell the story again and again and again.  You can move forward without a system - albeit slowly - you cannot move forward without the story of God calling and working.  The Old Testament is living proof of that. 
      Keeping people up to speed with you.  You’re not an engineer, a programmer, a systems person - which is really easy for people to follow, but not necessarily as impactful.  Apostolic leaders tend to submerge themselves in what they begin to see and learn so books, relationships, ideas all start flowing really fast.  There will always be tension at moving forward and keeping people up to speed with you.  Visionary leadership at its core is calling people to a future. 
      Building a staff and partners that see the direction, are excited about it, then can build the systems and processes to help you move forward.  I’m convinced, for an apostolic pastor - not only is that pastor uniquely gifted - but the staff surrounding them must also be uniquely gifted.  If not, they’ll grind things to a halt because they have to have all the answers - and that’s simply not the way an apostolic leader operates and sees, neither is it the way movements happen.  Apostolic leaders are not driven by a book, concept, or process - but a vision, an idea, an impression with a sense this is going somewhere. 
      Keeping the big idea in front of and not traveling down all the different streams of a big undiscovered area.  Stay in the main stream of this uncharted river you’ve found.  There’s time to come back later and hit some of the tributaries, or send others back to discover.  Some of the best stuff is down those tributaries, but if you don’t map the main thing first, along with where the tributaries are, you’ll never get to the core of the idea.