• Our hope-filled future is bound up in sharing the story of Jesus, in discipling others, in bringing those disciples together into communities of believers, and in developing and releasing those believers to create other communities... till Jesus the King comes again!

Core Skills and LL3

Posted on April 13, 2012 by wtdavid

Each worker/leader partnering with World Team Global will be able to give voice to ‘who we are’ and ‘what we do’

This is one of our global priorities which we will be working towards in the coming months.

Several steps will move us in this direction.  First, we will draft the “WT Core”, a common covenant that will delineate who we are as members of the WT community and what we do.  All workers will be asked to affirm this covenant, giving voice to what unites us together as a WT community.

Next, we will select 4-5 key skills of the CPM Roadmap in which every worker within WT will be trained.  Some may feel that they have already grasped these skills, but in order to build a common body of knowledge and skills everyone must go through the same training.  Sharing the story of the Gospel will be the first key skill we will address.

Finally, every worker will assess their competency needs on an annual basis and will be asked to further develop themselves over the course of that coming year.  Training, mentoring, online courses and other delivery options will be offered to assist each one to grow in their competencies.  We will call this “LL3” or lifelong learning.  This cannot be optional as all of us need to grow further in our skills and abilities.

None of this is to the neglect of character development.  However, I am sure that if you stepped onto a plane and the pilot announced that he was a person of moral integrity and fiber, but knew nothing about flying airplanes, you would quickly step off that plane.  Yes, a balance is needed.  Let us apply as great an energy to our competency development as we do to our character development.

Next post: So what about character development?

Filed under: Core competencies, Training | 3 Comments »

Raising our level of competence

Posted on April 12, 2012 by wtdavid

Many of us simply do not know how to respond to workers who do not have the necessary knowledge, skills and abilities to do their ministry. When this kind of situation is allowed to go on, the agency suffers and often responds by working around the inadequately trained worker, the worker who lacks the needed competencies.

This is what is called the “frustration approach”.  We become annoyed with the inability of the worker to do their ministry, and choose not to address their developmental needs.  We work around them by carrying out their work or having others carry out their work.

There is another approach though.  We could call it the “redemptive approach”.  Our ministry focus becomes the development of the worker needing competency training.  In this approach, we come alongside the worker and choose to honestly address their competency needs and bring the resources to them which would raise their level of competency.  Rather than working around them, we work with them.  If the worker does not demonstrate the skills needed to carry out the ministry task after this training, then we need to look at other ministry options which might be better suited for their current gifts and skills.

Raising our level of competency means allowing the community to honestly assess our knowledge, skills and abilities and bring training to us that will cause us to grow in our ability to more fruitfully carry out our task.

Next post: Core skills and LL3.

Filed under: Community, Core competencies, Development | Leave a comment »

Character and competence

Posted on April 10, 2012 by wtdavid

During a recent visit to Hong Kong, Mark invited me to attend a short seminar with him.  Each speaker was given fifteen minutes to talk about the topic they had been assigned.  One of the speakers spoke on character and competence. Fifteen minutes was not a long time to discuss such a deep issue, but it was fifteen minutes well worth my time.

Most nonprofit agencies do a good job of training their people in the character skills needed to serve in such a ministry. We, in World Team, have been traditionally strong on the area of character.  We have worked through our smaller communities as well as large gatherings to demonstrate how the Gospel works its way deep into our hearts to change the way we relate to and work with others.

However, most agencies are weak in the area of competence.  In other words, most agencies do not have a well defined body of knowledge and skills that need to be called upon by a worker to be able to do his/her job.  This is the developmental piece – knowledge, skills and abilities – that is often neglected.  So, in the case of World Team, we may send out a worker to start new communities of believers, but he/she does not have the skills or capacity to do what we are asking them to do.  They lack the competence needed.

In the coming months, we will be working towards this goal: Each worker/leader partnering with World Team Global will be able to give voice to ‘who we are’ and ‘what we do’

Next post: Raising our level of competency.

Filed under: Core competencies, Skills toolbox | 5 Comments »

Good Friday

Posted on April 6, 2012 by wtdavid

In the Book of Common Prayer, we read for today:

“Almighty God, we beseech thee graciously to behold this thy family, for which our Lord Jesus Christ was contented to be betrayed, and given up into the hands of wicked men, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost ever, one God, world without end.  Amen.”

In 2 Corinthians 5:21, we read: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Filed under: Cross of Christ | Leave a comment »

What’s really essential?

Posted on April 5, 2012 by wtdavid

It seems like weeks since I last posted.  In fact, it has been a number of weeks.  Part of it stemmed from the struggles of fighting back from a bad case of the flu or some kind of bug after our last trip.  Part of it was the result of my honest attempt to try and sort out ‘what’s really essential’, what should be my priorities.

Setting priorities is not a task that many of us enjoy, nor one that is easy.  I often hear others say and I often say it myself: “I have so much to do.”  We feel overwhelmed by the amount of work there is to do, and rightly so given that we are concerned with the spiritual and eternal needs of others.   However, we can dissipate our energies by trying to do too many tasks that do not help us to focus on what is really essential.

We actually prioritize more than we realize.  We do it with our budget, our home, and our activities.  We cannot tackle five to six house projects at one time.  We choose to focus on one project in order to see it to completion (funds needed, materials and time). This may mean that we will have to stop doing something in order to give the time needed to this project.  Once the project is completed, then we can move to another one.

This process of setting priorities, of deciding what is really essential in life and ministry, calls for interaction with others.  It’s a journey, it’s a process we engage in together, but it’s meant to help us focus the gifts God has given us towards what is most essential.

“For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?”  (Luke 14:28)

Filed under: Priorities | 2 Comments »

Side Roads

Posted on February 29, 2012 by wtdavid

Taking the ‘autoroute’ (interstate motorways in France) is quite an expensive proposition given the tolls.  So when we take a trip, we will often take non toll roads to get to our destination.  This is always a fun way to explore the countryside.  However, sometimes despite the best efforts of our trusty map or even a GPS, we find ourselves on a road that doesn’t appear anywhere on the map, or at least the road as it is marked.  Eventually, we find ourselves back on the ‘right road’.  The ‘side road’ or detour doesn’t frustrate us because we know the ultimate destination.  The ‘side road’ can actually lead us to something we might otherwise not have seen.

Fluid planning works in a similar way.  Plans are ‘maps’ showing us where we want to go.  They are not concrete structures incapable of being changed.  The Spirit may lead us to take a ‘side road’ and we need to have the wisdom and discernment to see what He might be showing us as we search to find our way back to the main road.  Perhaps it is a new ministry opportunity we need to consider.  Perhaps it is a divine appointment to bring the message of Christ to someone we might not have met otherwise.  Perhaps it is a way of reconfirming our current focus and priority.

Knowing where we are going serves as ‘rails’ for our life and ministry, but that does not keep us from exploring ‘side roads’ by the Spirit’s direction.  As my friend Chris put it: “A plan is a map for a journey into the future.  It’s essential that I begin that journey knowing how to tell that I have arrived at the future I want.  Sometimes I will arrive early, sometimes late.  But, I can’t know if I’m there yet if I don’t know what “there” looks like.”

This is why the community is important as our brothers and sisters journey with us, and can help us as we together discern how God wants us to serve Him on the road that we are on.

 

Filed under: Community, Planning | 8 Comments »

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