Turning Disciples into Loving Leaders

Nov. 5, 2008 –Several years ago, Michael Johnson was starting a church in Texas with Christian Reformed Home Missions. Things were going pretty smoothly. The church was growing, but after a while different people started leaving for different reasons.

Watching them move on, he began to wonder if there was more he could have done to have kept them in the congregation. The issue of "seepage" – that is, people drifting away from church – was on his mind.

 "I began to see that it was an issue of leadership development. If you can develop strong disciples you will have strong leaders," and your church can thrive, whether it has 400 or 4000 members, said Johnson, who spoke on Tuesday at a lunch presentation about his ministry Ascending Leaders, to CRHM personnel, pastors and others at the Grand Rapids, Mich., office of the Christian Reformed Church.

In hopes of finding a way to develop a type of life-changing, Christ-centered leadership that keeps people in the church, he went to Fuller Theological Seminary to work on a PhD. In the process, he said, he began to see that there are methods and materials, developed by a wide range of people that can help people can grow pretty deep in their faith very quickly.

"Part of this is based on self-awareness. I'm not talking about getting stuck on yourself," he said. "But the better you know yourself the better you can help others."

Johnson says he came up with the concept of Ascending Leaders', for which small groups meet for 10 weeks, 20 weeks, or 10 months. "It is very flexible. It is up to the group to determine its schedule."

The idea, he said, is to gather small groups of men and of women from a church and have them go through a curriculum on spiritual formation. There are people who help facilitate, but not really lead the groups. If there is no other goal, it is for the people in the groups to form intimate bonds.

"The program is very missional in tone," said Johnson. "We have condensed the ideas of the best books on this topic into our material. But the main thing is for people in the groups to speak from their own experiences."

Rev. Brian Bosscher, pastor of Hillcrest CRC in Hudsonville, Mich., said at the meeting that his church has gotten involved with the program and that it offers "the best tool for long-range, life-long discipleship-making" that he has ever used.

"The material is engaging, simple but profound," said Bosscher, "You learn spiritual practices that can help even mature Christians get closer to Christ."

Nearly 50 members of First CRC in Denver have taken part in the program and, among other things, many of the members of the church council have gone through the small-group process laid out by Ascending Leaders. "First CRC in Denver has found leaders who are strong disciples," said Johnson.

Johnson pointed to other success stories that he has seen over the last few years as he has brought this program to churches of many denominations. There is Olive, for instance, who went through the sessions and came out with the confidence to do something she's wanted to do all of her life – lead a Bible study.

Then there was the man whom Johnson came across a few years ago as he volunteered at a Houston church to hand out clothes to victims of Hurricane Katrina. That man had been in one of the first groups in Texas and today "eats, breathes, and dreams outreach," said Johnson.

"The whole idea of this program is to help you ascend in Christ's likeness and influence others to do the same," said Johnson.

Johnson also works in leadership and discipleship formation for the Home Missions West Central U.S. Ministry Team. "Each group takes responsibility for its own life," he said. "Members talk about the challenges they face as we follow Jesus."

—Chris Meehan, CRC Communications