The vision of the Emerging Leaders team is to cultivate a thriving emerging leader ecosystem in the NAB Conference that discovers calling, develops character and competence, and deploys leaders for faithful, fruitful, enduring ministry – and helps make the mentoring and development of younger leaders a normal part of life in every local church.
Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. (Ephesians 4:11–13 NLT)
We have designed the following pathway to help cultivate this kind of growth among younger leaders across the conference:
Discover > Discern > Develop > Deploy > Disciple.
Discover
We begin by noticing who is emerging. We must ask ourselves as current leaders, where do we see flames we fan fan? This requires that we pay attention in broad-access environments, looking for those expressing interest, watching for those showing initiative and hunger, and seeking out those who have an openness to grow.
The initiatives within this area include Gen Z research, The Gathering, camp ministries, and local church youth groups.
Discern
Following Discover, the next step is clarifying who is ready for deeper investment by asking who is hungry for more. This is accomplished in more focused spaces where calling starts to get named, tested, and affirmed.
The initiatives within this area include discipleship programs, gap year programs, camp discipleship components, mentoring, and The Landing Youth Worker training/engagement.
Develop
Once a calling is discerned, we must build up emerging leaders in depth, capacity, theology, and ministry strength. This is all about preparing them for steadfast and impactful, what could be considered the formation and preparation zone in the ecosystem. The goal is to develop emerging leaders to be fruitful and faithful as NAB ministers.
The initiatives within this area include Year of Equipping, Kairos, Kairos-adjacent regional discipleship schools, camp leadership development components, residency programs, internship programs, mentoring, VantagePoint3 offerings, and emerging leader development initiatives.
Deploy
The Deploy phase can overlap with Develop. This phase involves moving leaders into ministry responsibility, helping them find their best ministry fit and working to get them in the place God has prepared them for. In Deploy, training becomes embodied in real ministry settings, the penultimate goal of the ecosystem. This phase also includes connections to NAB ministries and programs that are first steps to NAB ministries.
The initiatives within this area include residency programs, internship programs, mentoring, and NAB and camp deployment networks).
Disciple
The ultimate end goal is sustaining leaders in maturity, health, and long-term fruitfulness with ongoing support. This is all about helping them serve faithfully for the long haul.
Faithful and fruitful for the long haul, we want to sustain leaders in maturity and health, with ongoing support. We seek to come alongside them for ongoing encouragement and training and to elevate their voices as impactful ministry leaders in our conference of churches.
The initiatives within this area include peer-to-peer mentoring networks (TBD), mentoring, and Missional Initiatives programs like Blue Ocean.