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Orientation Please read the article on Getting Started before you plan your first session. Overview: The goal of this session is to introduce your Incubator to L3 Leadership Incubator. Be sure to read through the Introduction in your guidebook, which gives you a complete picture of the L3 Leadership Incubator. Also look at the all the slides to get familiar with the session.
Session Setup:
L1: Love: Incubate Your Heart & Formation Que Every session begins with Incubate Your Heart. This devotional time will typically take about thirty minutes. These sessions contain scripture, ideas for discussion or reflection, and music. Some songs encourage reflection on the meaning of the song, while others are designed for group singing. In this lesson The Real Me is more of a reflection song and Be Thou My Vision is for group singing. The Formation Que (question) will be used starting in Session Two.
Principle: Many people in ministry (lay & clergy) feel isolated. They find themselves either trying to do it all or just getting by. For ministry to be effective, people need to be connected to God and to others. Facilitate: Group people in pairs and have them talk through each word. First, have them talk about a time they felt isolated. Second, what does being in community mean to them? Third, what does it mean to be in relationships with others? How is this different from isolation? After the discussion (no more than ten minutes) play the song The Real Me and ask participants to reflect on the meaning of the song.
Principle: As much as you try, you can't hide the real me for long. How you feel about yourself, your relationship to God, and to others affects your ability to lead. Facilitate: Quickly go through the next series of slides as you highlight different ways people may feel about themselves. When you come to the scripture on slides 8 to 11, either have the whole group read, or ask individuals to take turns. Finish by singing Be Thou My Vision. L2: Learn: Reflection & Key Concept As this is the first session, it is filled with more content than is typical of the rest of the sessions. As a result, pace the session with opportunities for people to reflect and share. Have people open to Session One in their L3 Leadership Guidebooks so they can follow the material for this session. There are four topics you will cover:
Principle: Some people are hemmed in by a problem mentality while others see problems as opportunities to overcome. They see the possibilities that are based on Godís purpose in their lives. They believe God is capable of doing so much more than they are able do on their own. The Incubator is based on the idea that each of us has untapped potential to lead that is unleashed when we give ourselves totally to God. Share: Talk about a person you know who overcame a great obstacle. Or share a personal experience where your faith in God gave you a new insight into a tough situation. Facilitate: Scroll through slides 14 to 21, paying particular attention to slide 16 that talks about the difference between Problem and Possibility. Share your illustrations from above.
Principle: Every person has the capacity to lead. While there are formal leadership structures at work or church, there also are informal leadership opportunities where a person has influence beyond his or her position. Share: Talk about how you find yourself with opportunities to lead throughout the day. It might be in a conversation as a parent to a child, it might be at an exercise class, or it might be at work. Facilitate: Talk about this slideís implications for everyday life.
Principle: There are five basics aspects of leadership.
Facilitate: Go through slides 22 to 27 as you share these ideas.
Principle: Transformation is fueled by three key ingredients: - Leadership that is willing to change and understands that before we expect others to change, we must do so as well. For example, if you were to say to your teenager, You should read the Bible everyday, but you do not do so, then your request will fall on deaf ears. The same is true in congregational life. If you are leading a small group on prayer, but you do not pray, your leadership will ring hallow. The Incubator has at its heart the belief that before we expect a church to change, we as leaders have to change and be willing to look at the way we use our time, our ingrained patterns of work, our connection to God and others, and be open to the work of the Holy Spirit during this season of our life. - Being in an environment of trust and love is critical to having the room to grow. Like a greenhouse provides all the nourishment and protection a plant needs to develop, a healthy Incubator gives people an opportunity to see themselves through loving eyes and are challenged to dig deep in the soil of their lives. The L1 time of the each Incubator Session (Incubator your Heart & Formation Que) is designed to create this environment. - To move forward, you must have a process. The Incubator Ministry Action Plan (I-MAP) is designed to allow an Incubator to follow a process for developing a strategic plan for their ministry. Share: Talk about how these three elements have helped shape who you are as a leader. Facilitate: Engage the group in a ten minute conversation about these three aspects of transformation. What are the implications for the Incubator experience?
Principle: These three aspects of Leadership, Environment, and Process work together. The rest of this presentation is built around these three. Facilitate: As you show this slide, let people know that this gives a framework for how all the elements of the L3 Leadership Incubator work together.
Principle: Leaders who are able to inspire and cast a vision have three characteristics: - Motivation: They have an inner purpose and drive. - Competence: Beyond raw talent and ability, they are constant learners who work to develop their skills and capabilities. - Blessing/Calling/Anointing: Because of their faith, they live out of an attitude of abundance, obedience, and grace. Share: Think of characters from the Bible who represent these aspects of leadership. Facilitate: Have a couple of people share in response to this question. Do not spend too much time here, as the next slide is for reflection.
Principle: Every session has a Reflection slide. Typically the time of reflection is used to report progress from the previous session. As this is your first session, this time you will allow people to reflect on the material about leadership. Groups of four allow for maximum sharing. Larger numbers will keep some out of the process; smaller numbers tend to let one person dominate. Use groups of four, when possible, as the typical way you share during the reflection time. Facilitate: Divide into groups of four and let people share. Give them twenty minutes to wrestle with this question. Point them to Session One in the Guidebook and the reflection page where they can take notes. After sharing, bring the group back together and let one person from each group tell about some of the basic ideas they covered. This is also a good time to take a break.
Principle: As we move from leadership to environment in the Transformation Triangle, focus the group on the nuts & bolts of how the L3 Leadership Incubator works. The key is found on this slide, an L3 Incubator creates an environment in which spiritual leaders and ideas are born, nurtured, and developed. Developing this environment takes time, so participants are asked to make this a high commitment for this season of their lives. There are no short cuts. Change takes time. This is seen in two ways in the Incubator. First, each session lasts for four hours. Some groups meet twice a month for four hours, and some do two sessions during one eight-hour day a month. Second, the Incubator will meet for eighteen months. Facilitate: Move through slides 35 to 43 as you share the different components of the Incubator. By now you should have already decided if you are meeting twice a month for four hours at a time or once of month for eight hours at a time (slide 40). If you have not decided on this, you will need to make a decision about this before you leave so people can make this a high priority and plan accordingly.
Principle: To create the Incubator environment, people must be held accountable to the group. Starting with Session Two, the Incubator will spend ninety minutes just on The Formation Que (Que stands for question). Each person in the Incubator will be invited to share with the whole group how he or she wants to be held accountable until next meeting. This person will also share how he or she did since the last session. What kinds of things do people ask to be held accountable for? - Spiritual Life for example, saying they will have a daily devotion every morning before work - Physical health for example, saying they will go to the gym three times a week - Relationships for example, saying they will spend one evening a week with their spouse away from kids and work - Work for example, a pastor committing to spending fifteen hours a week on the sermon. Each person will share his or her own issues, ideas, and thoughts with the group. In loving support, everyone will have a chance to report on progress, to add or subtract or to change completely what he or she wants to be held accountable for. The Formation Que is at the heart of the Incubator experience. Take some time to explain its purpose and to help participants prepare for the next session, when they will do this for the first time. Facilitate: Talk about the importance of the Formation Que. Allow discussion bout the importance of accountability and for people to share other experiences where they have been in an accountability group.
Principle: It takes more than accountability to change. For a person to change, he or she also needs a strategy. The L3 Leadership Incubator has a strategy called the Incubator Ministry Action Plan (I-MAP) that will allow an Incubator to learn together as it develops a plan for ministry. Facilitate: Quickly go through slide 45 to 50 as you explain the components of the I-MAP.
Principle: The material in the L3 Leadership Incubator is designed so it can be used by a wide variety of groups. It can be used on a judicatory level, a regional level, in local congregation, and for specific ministry areas in a local church. Incubators have been started with the following:
Multiplication happens when each participant in one Incubator in turn each starts his or her own Incubator. For example, a group of pastors in a city could start an L3 Incubator. About six to twelve months into the process each pastor will start an L3 Incubator in his or her church with a leadership team from the congregation. So important is this principle, that when a person agrees to be in an Incubator they are expected to start and lead an Incubator. Facilitate: Share with the group the expectations of multiplying its efforts by starting Incubators. Share examples of how this has happened with other Incubators.
Principle: The third aspect of transformation is a process that moves a team from one place to another. Each part of the L3 Incubator process has specific tools that will allow participants to put their plan into action. Facilitate: Scroll through slides 52 to 60 as you give a brief overview of how all thirty sessions fit into the Incubator process
Principle: Before you can develop a strategy and build a team, you first must know who you are as a person of God. Most people want to jump right in to planning and decide something. The L3 Incubator starts by taking the leaderís spiritual life seriously. As a result, session two through six focuses on the Personal Vitality of the leader. During these sessions each person in the Incubator will fill out a template as his or her answer questions related to Covenant, Core, Call, Competencies, and Character. Facilitate: Do a quick overview of these five components of the PVI (Personal Vitality Indicator) letting participants know that during the next session, they will start by talking about Covenant.
Principle: For a church to change, it must do an assessment of its current reality. While there are many tools available, the L3 Incubator comes with a free, one-year subscription to the Church Vitality Indicator (CVI). This one-year subscription starts when participants sign-up their church or ministry on the www.L3incubator.com site. The CVI has been designed as a companion tool for the L3 Incubator. Also, let people know that if they are already using a tool like Natural Church Development or Gallup, they will be able to use it instead of the CVI during Session 14 when they report their assessment results. Facilitate: Take a couple of minutes to share about the CVI and the tools they can use for assessment.
Principle: This slide summarizes what is expected of those who choose to be in an L3 Leadership Incubator. At the beginning of every session, this slide will appear as a reminder of the commitment people are making. Share: Share your expectations of what you hope will happen because this group of people is committing to be in an Incubator. Facilitate: Go over these three points as way to summarize and reflect upon the great opportunity that awaits everyone as they begin this process together.
Principle: Have them read the PVI material that is found in the L3 Guidebook. Have them think about a leader in the Bible and how these aspects are seen in their life story. Facilitate: Ask people to do this assignment before the next session. Also, check the web site for recommended reading. Many Incubators develop a culture of learning and commit to reading a number of books during the eighteen months they are together. Close the session in prayer. |
