Loading...

Training Lay Leaders

Dr. John Johnson views leadership as both science and art. Effective team management requires considering social and cultural contexts. Values shape mission and vision, guiding objective setting and strategy. Leadership is transformational, so knowing how to manage change is crucial.
Number of lessons: 12
Total length: 6 hours
format: Video and Audio
Take this Class

About This Class

Dr. John Johnson describes leadership as being both a science and an art. In creating and managing teams, it's important to take into account social and cultural contexts. Your values determine mission and vision so you can identify objectives and create strategies to accomplish them. Since leadership is transformational by nature, it's important to know how to initiate and manage change when it happens.

About the Professor

John Johnson

Dr. John Johnson, former Lead Pastor and current Interim Pastor at GracePointe, is an Associate Professor at Western Seminary. He's an author, global teacher, and avid kayaker.
John Johnson

Lessons

  • 1. The Difficulty of Defining Leadership
    Leadership is difficult to define because it is both a science and an art. Effective leaders often display styles that are markedly different because of their personalities, varying contexts and the expectations of those around them.
  • 2. Common Elements of Leadership
    This lesson teaches about the common elements of leadership and how to develop them in oneself and others.
  • 3. Cultural Contexts of Leadership
    This lesson will provide knowledge of cultural contexts of leadership in the Bible, including the role of leadership in the Ancient Near East, cultural expectations for leaders in biblical times, and challenges faced by leaders in the Bible.
  • 4. Social Contexts of Leadership
    This lesson provides an in-depth exploration of the social contexts of leadership and its impact on leadership practices.
  • 5. Creating Great Teams
    This lesson teaches the key principles and strategies for creating great teams in a ministry context, including enthusiasm, camaraderie, common vision, mutual support and communication.
  • 6. Managing Great Teams
    This lesson teaches more about the seven rules for creating good teams, including paying attention to follower readiness, treating people with dignity and respect, stewarding resources with wisdom, keeping everyone focused on the mission, and communicating with your team.
  • 7. The Importance of Values

    Character makes you a leader worth following. Some people have been great leaders without exhibiting moral values, but it is more difficult and often comes at great personal cost. Justice, integrity, loyalty, diligence, humility, compassion and courage are important core values.

  • 8. Mission and Vision
    Mission is the broad philosophical statement of why your organization exists. It states the purpose of your organization and defines your objectives. A vision is the ability to see into the future and articulate a mental picture of what you want your organization to do. The mission gives you the framework. The vision is changeable but always within the framework of the mission.
  • 9. Moving from Vision to Strategy
    Strategies are systematic choices about how to carry out the mission and vision, how to deploy resources, achieve goals, maximize strengths and reach the desired outcome.As you choose strategies to implement your vision, it's critical to submit them to the leading of the Spirit.
  • 10. Objectives
    Objectives tell us who is responsible for completing the strategy and when it will happen. While strategic planning is broad based, future oriented, giving direction, objectives are the tactical side of leadership. Objectives are the measurable statements that translate the strategy into operational terms. They get down to the day-to-day functioning of the organization, the daily details. They are the operational plan, and hence are more concrete.
  • 11. Change
    Leadership is transformational by nature. Leadership and change are like joint travelers on the same road. Fundamentally, people by nature do not like change. Moving from the known to the unknown may affect people’s competencies, worth, and coping abilities. Organizations get heavily invested in the status quo. It's important for us to value change and help people work through the process.
  • 12. Change Agents
    Some attributes that you can develop to help you become an effective change agent includes creating a clear vision, invoking passion, making clear decisions, inspiring people and becoming a person of character.

Class Resources

Downloads

Recommended Readings

About Biblical Training

BiblicalTraining wants every Christian to experience a deep and loving relationship with Jesus by understanding the life-changing truths of Scripture. To that end, we provide a high-quality Bible education at three academic levels taught by a wide range of distinguished professors, pastors, authors, and ministry leaders that moves from content to spiritual growth, all at no charge. We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit funded by gifts from our users. We currently have over 180 classes and seminars, 2,300 hours of instruction, registered users from every country in the world, and in the last two years 1.4 million people watched 257 terabytes of videos (11 million lectures).
Learn More