Small Group Study Leading Like Jesus

As part of our Daring Faith campaign, we are training 25% of our members to be global leaders in the church and ministry. To help meet that goal, our church has developed training materials and courses to equip members for ministry. Among them are Foundations—a course on core spiritual truths restarting on January 25, as well as Doable Discipleship, a podcast on spiritual disciplines that has received 57,000 downloads within six months of launching.

This month, our Spiritual Maturity team also completed Heart of Leadership—Part 2 of the small group series, Leading Like Jesus. Born out of Daring Faith, the study is designed for every member of our church and is considered the primary funnel for leadership development.

Set for official release on February 1st, Heart of Leadership was in part, designed for Workplace Small Groups, but is accessible to all leaders in some capacity.

According to Spiritual Maturity Pastor, Jason Wieland, when the idea first originated, his team connected with leaders from the Workplace Small Groups Ministry. “They were already looking for a study at the time, so we discussed developing one that catered to people in the workplace,” he says. “In the end, there’s a slight emphasis on workplace leadership, but everyone can get something out of it—from a stay-at-home mom to a CEO from a major corporation.”

Content was written by the Spiritual Maturity Team, based on Pastor Rick’s Leadership Lifters transcripts that were streamlined to be suitable for everyone, rather than just pastors. Key topics include how to lead as a servant, qualities of a respected leader, weaknesses in leadership, and vows of leadership.

In this four-week study, each session begins with discussion questions followed by video teaching from four Saddleback teachers—Julie Chung, Jeff Gonzalez, Kay Warren, and Rob Jacobs. Each session also includes application suggestions to help put leadership principles into practice.

While Part 1 of Leading Like Jesus  introduced what it means to be a leader, this follow-up study on the Heart of Leadership speaks into the character and integrity of leadership. The next study, Soul of Leadership, is schedule for release in summer 2018.

“The complete series examines the fullness of leadership through the four elements necessary to lead like Christ,” says Pastor Jason. “It’s about loving the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and integrating that mindset into leadership.”

Once small groups have completed the free digital study, they’ll gain a better understanding of how these four areas make up everything we have to offer, and ultimately how we live our lives. To learn more about Heart of Leadershipand how to live and lead by serving others, visit mysaddleback.com.