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Personal Leadership Plan Part One In order to understand my unique ability to be an effective leader, I must first have a better understanding of myself. I have been blessed with many wonderful gifts, blessings, and opportunities it is unreal to realize the grace of God. I have also been exposed to many areas of weakness. In this paper, I will take an honest look at myself to identify who I am and how I can best lead others. We are all functioning as a body so it is important to identify spiritual gifts. I have most blessed with the gift of teaching and the gift of wisdom. I have always had a passion to take what I learned and tell it to someone else. When I first started studying scripture regularly, I could not wait to share what I had learned. When I am taught, I am able to explain it to myself in a simple understandable way while still getting all the truths, so when I teach it to other it usually communicates well. Leading small groups and studying scriptures with believers has allowed me to see the most fruit in my ministry, and really inspired me to go into full time ministry in the first place. God has blessed me with a passion and ability to study and process information in a way to use it to build others up in Christ. I also believe I have been gifted with wisdom. Even when I was a kid I was able to see the benefits I received from discipline, the value of saving for the future, and proper ways to handle relationships. God has blessed me with an uncanny ability to consistently make good decisions, even though I did nothing on my own to really gain this knowledge. This has also helped me realize the truths of scripture and apply this as a priority in my decision making. God has given me other gifts, but I believe these two stand out and will really assist me in my future leadership.

2 Along with spiritual gifts, I have also been given specific abilities, skills, and strengths. I personally value consistency and stability a lot in others, which in turn means that I have the ability to provide consistency and stability for others. I am able to build great trust in relationships, even though they take some time to develop. However, in the long run people usually respect me and see me as someone they are willing to follow. I also like to cast vision and move toward that vision. I have developed skills in motivating others and pushing them towards specific goals in an encouraging way. Basically, I have always been able to be patient and communicate well with people. Then, circumstances I have had have shown me the value in being a servant and encourager to others. I have been given the strength of relating well to others and building credibility through serving them. When I build those types of relationships, people tend to listen when I speak. The Lord has blessed me with so many relationships that I cant even explain how they came together. I know it is for a reason and it is my passion to sow those relationships and build people up in Christ. These are my biggest assets in my abilities to lead, and the Lord has definitely been gracious to me in allowing me to sow loving relationships. Along with strengths and abilities, I also have many weaknesses. One in particular is that I tend to doubt my ability to make a difference. In a backwards way of selfishness and pride, I take my eyes off Christ and look at my inabilities and begin thinking that I cannot make a difference. Although I am inadequate, I am squandering the power of the Holy Spirit that is within me. When I teach, preach, serve, or do anything to lead others I know I need to have the utmost confidence and faith in our God to use me as a vessel to bring glory to His name. I often get caught up in my own insecurities then. This leads me to be timid and passive, which will greatly hinder my ability to lead. I must have the

3 utmost confidence in the message I teach so that others will be inspired with belief. Another weakness I have is that I dont deal with conflict very well. There have been times where people need tough love in order to overcome a struggle, and I remained silent because of the conflict to follow. I need to work on putting the important things of God above the feelings of people, trusting that confronting brothers and sister with the Word of God will lead people to repentance. These are two major areas of weakness that I readily recognize, and consistently work on to become a stronger, more effective leader. Lastly, my calling will have a great impact on my leadership. I have a calling to disciple others and build them up into maturity in Christ. This is my passion and what drives me to do ministry. I love reminding people of the promises of God and to make them believe in what they read in the scriptures. I love taking each step with young believers and watching them grow in their passion for the Lord. I see the impact that was made in my life when someone took the time to help me grow in my faith. I believe God has called me to take what has been entrusted to me and pour it into others so that they may grow deeper and more satisfied in their relationship with God. In conclusion, I have been showered with blessings by God. I have a natural love to teach and have been given great wisdom by God. I have been given skills to build relationships with people that I may make an impact in their life. I have been exposed to my weaknesses of personal insecurity and desire to please people. I believe all this has been entrusted to me by God in order that I might work to the end to build up believers in the body of Christ.

4 Part Two My ideal ministry position would involve me being a pastor of a church. I love the idea of shepherding others. My ministry vision would be to love and build up the members of the congregation that they may go out and make an impact on this world. I would preach the truths of scripture and trust the Holy Spirit to convict hearts. I would lead small groups to engage further in the scriptures, and set up leadership committees to help delegate and build disciples within the church. I would prefer to work mainly with young to middle age adults who are struggling with how to live out their personal faith in the midst of a world that is pulling them away from the Gospel. I would like to do this in a smaller community where the needs are evident and close relationships could be built throughout the town. Specifically I would like to work where people are exposed to going to church and believing, but do so culturally rather than have a commitment to their faith. My purpose for doing this would be to show others the deep riches and cost of a relationship with Christ. Our country, especially the Bible belt, has a high percentage of those that attend church, yet there is very little impact on the community that surrounds them. People are not being challenged to be true disciples of Christ, but rather enjoy the comforts given by being a Christian. There is an abundance of Christians who cannot explain the Gospel, have no conviction of sinful action, and no heart for the things of Christ. People need someone to walk beside them and see the power that comes from reading the Holy Scriptures. They need to see how God answers faithful prayer. They need to see the power of a life changed by the Holy Spirit. Our Lord calls us to humility and to serve others and people need to believe in the glorious inheritance of abundant life we will receive when we give it all to Christ. If people have someone show them through

5 scripture the call to follow Christ, they will truly be able to share their faith and build disciples throughout the community. A leadership culture is needed of someone who walks the walk and patiently works with others to help them dive into the truths about God and watch them take root. It will take a leadership culture where others will see me living not for this world but for future hope, and them believing that they should strive for that same hope. The leadership culture needs to be one of constant and challenging others to go beyond what is status quo and truly dive into the call to follow Jesus Christ. Certain team leadership opportunities would be to train leaders to train leaders. In this type of development individual time and attention is necessary to help people truly grow deeper in their devotion to Christ. Leaders who have a heart to build disciples need to be intimately working with a small number of others in order that they may grow in their relationship to Christ. Each leader on the team would need to embody the character and personal devotion to serve others and live like Christ, while also addressing specific need in order to help the young believer grow in their faith. In conclusion, I envision myself working and motivating a small number of individuals to truly grow deeper in their relationship to God. I would like to challenge and teach others to get out of the cultural view of what Christianity should look like, and really commit to the teachings that are found in Scripture. I believe that this would lead in multiplication of leaders and could really make a wide impact.

6 Part 3 Based on my personal vision statement, I recognize that I have much to learn in preparation for my future ministry. In light of this, I will list goals and means to fulfill these goals in order to become the leader I need to be to fulfill my ministry vision. The first glaring need I have to fulfill my vision is ministry experience. I came straight from college to seminary and never have officially worked in the church. I feel that I have grown and learned so much during my time at DTS, but I realize that there is much to be learned from getting exposed to the real thing. A basketball player may perfect his jump shot in an empty gym at practice, but it becomes a whole different story in a game situation. I just started my internship this summer and have already been challenged and had tremendous growth opportunity. I dont believe there is a specific time frame on when this experience needs to be done, but I am looking forward to completing my internship and I also hope to get a job training under a pastor after I graduate. I believe some of the biggest things I have to learn is how to deal and respond with people in various situations. Granted, there is no way to be prepared for everything, but I think it would be very valuable for my own leadership development to see a pastor communicate a vision to the staff and congregation and then make decisions to implement it. Specifically in this regard I would like to learn more about administration, pastoral care, and counseling. I want to learn how to exemplify leadership in the way the church is ran and organized. I would also like more training on how to respond to people that are hurting, as well as any other significant phase of life. The role of pastor involves great personal skills and I would like continually learn how to be a better communicator and guide relationships to the Lord.

7 Another discipline I want to continually develop is that of consistent prayer. Life change is born out of prayer and the faithful invitation for Gods mighty power to come into someones life. This may seem obvious for every believer, but I have been challenged as my schedule got even busier to spend the time needed in prayer. The obligations and responsibilities will only increase, so my commitment to prayer must continue to increase as well. My ministry will be meaningless without complete submission and commitment to the Lords power, so I must become a leader to all that are around in constantly seeking the Lord in prayer. The time frame for accomplishing this starts today. I plan on studying prayer in scripture to have a better understanding of the power and importance of prayer, especially what was demonstrated by our Lord Jesus Christ. I also plan to continually try to make prayer a priority by starting off each morning in prayer to set my mind and attitude right to live my life as a living sacrifice. One skill I have currently been developing and need much more help is communicating my vision to those that I am leading. I have the opportunity to lead a young adults ministry this summer and was quickly challenged by people trying to give suggestions to help the ministry. At first I didnt realize what the problem was, but then later it dawned on me that even though I knew my clear vision for the ministry I hadnt communicated it very well with those involved. I showed them the purpose and goals of everything we were doing and it became very clear for everyone involved. It is not always easy to help people see the direction of the vision and takes great skills in communication. One way to specifically grow in this area is to specifically write out the vision, mission, and goals for each ministry I participate in. In order to better communicate my vision to others I must completely embrace it myself and always

8 looking to improve my goals for the vision in order to more effectively make disciples of Christ. If I better familiarize with the exact wording of my vision, then it will more easily flow out into conversation and allow those I minister with to see the direction and focus of our body. I also need to print it and post it where others can clearly see it and visualize the vision so that they will constantly have a picture of what the ministry is all about. Prof Hendricks always emphasizes passion, and I know that the better able I am to communicate my passion to others the more willing they will be to follow the direction of my leadership. One thing I need to do immediately in my development as a leader is to pick the brains of the great leaders around me while I am in seminary. I attend a church in Dallas that is just full of visionary leaders that I have the utmost respect. One of the things I am most excited for during my fall internship is getting to sit in on the staff meetings. I also have had the opportunity to get to know some of the professors who have done ministry for a long time, as well as other students who have a lot of field experience. I dont foresee another situation where there will be such a dense population of Godly servant leaders. I want to ask them what strategies have been successful, what were the reasons behind thriving times in their ministries, what challenges they have faced, and what were the biggest lessons learned during those challenges. Jeff Warren, the senior pastor at my church, has a clear vision and does a great job of leading the church to bring the gospel across our city. He is one person I really want to learn from during the course of the next year. My vision involves a close-knit congregation being built up in order to make an impact on the surrounding community. In order for me to be an effective leader, I need to

9 consistently learn how to adapt to the changing culture while always sticking to the timeless doctrinal truths presented in the scripture. I am a believer that the power of the Word will transform any culture. Yet, as a leader I am aware that knowing the values of society becomes very effective in figuring out ways to communicate and motivate those in the community. An old pastor of mine always used the quote, Know the Word and know the world, so you know what in the world to do with the Word. The Word of God will transform lives, but as a leader I realize I must constantly be thinking of ways of getting Gods Gospel to those we are around. I will be working with college students at SMU in the next year, and I really hope to learn a lot about what they value and what drives them in life. By doing so, I will learn what is important in their lives and have a better understanding of how to get them to Gospel that their lives may be transformed by it. Lastly, in order to be better prepared to fulfill my ministry vision, I want to further develop my gifts of preaching and teaching. I have had increased opportunities to do so and even though I am learning every opportunity I get, I realize more and more that this is a great passion of mine. God has gifted me in these areas, but I want to continually develop in my ability to exegete Gods word and communicate it in a clear way to all those that hear. I have an opportunity to lead Sunday school over the next year as well as have some preaching opportunities. I want to become more diligent in my study and have a greater reliance on the power of the Holy Spirit moving through the Word of God. I dont really know how to develop these skills other than continually do it, take constructive criticism well, and just continually to trust in the Lord in every opportunity I get.

10 In conclusion, there are many areas where I desperately need work in order to learn what ministry is all about. I am excited about the journey and cant wait to see what God has in store. I just hope that I am able to be a humble student and learn from all circumstances, and just to make the most of the great opportunity I have in Dallas. I am already so encouraged and grateful for what the Lord has shown me, but I also realize that there is infinite room to grow. Thank God for His grace and guidance in our lives.