Behind the Scenes of Our Leadership Gatherings
What we focus on when leaders from every campus come together.
It’s been a whirlwind few weeks as we’ve settled into the rhythm of our normal annual ministry calendar. Between major events and the launch of a new semester, I wanted to pull back the curtain and share what’s happening behind the scenes for one of our recent all-campus leader gatherings.
It’s a lot of work to bring everyone together, but these are always some of my favourite days of the year. The way we spend the time varies, but there are four things we’re intentional about, including every time we gather.
Relationship Building
Our first priority is always relationship building. Everything we do rises and falls on the strength of our relationships. Our leaders are scattered across different cities, often heads-down in the work of making disciples where they serve. Gathering them together, especially those carrying similar responsibilities and burdens, gives us space to encourage one another.
We spend a lot of time eating together; usually, food prepared by our Senior Leadership Team. We think it’s important to model wherever possible that as leaders, we are there to serve.
We worship, pray, and simply hang out. We try not to make it overly agenda-driven, trusting that there’s deep value in just being together.
Naturally, our conversations circle around our shared values: disciple-making, evangelism, generosity, church family, sending, and reliance on the Holy Spirit.
Vision Reminding
Vision always leaks, so we keep filling it up. Every time we gather, we remind ourselves of the core vision to make disciples, especially on university campuses. We revisit the key values and the means by which we pursue them. And we keep painting the picture of where we believe God is leading us.
It’s so easy to lose sight of why we’re doing what we do. In our current cultural moment, there’s constant pressure to take on political themes or jump into the latest social issue. While those can be important, they are not our primary focus. Our first mission is to make disciples. So we recalibrate and refocus, ensuring that amid all the noise, we hear clearly again what matters most: making disciples.
Every significant leadership gathering that I have run for the last 15 years has always involved a substantial time spent reviewing vision. Time spent reviewing vision isn’t really a review; it’s giving a framework to shape all of the conversations that come afterwards.
Discipleship Systems Analysis
Discipleship systems in a church are never a set-it-and-forget-it situation. We’re always assessing, tweaking, and hopefully improving them. In our early years, we made major changes almost annually. More recently, it’s more about small, strategic adjustments.
When we gather, we usually assess a few key areas:
How effectively are we engaging non-believers in discipleship rhythms?
How healthy and effective is our early-stage leadership development?
Where are the blockers preventing leaders from continued growth and responsibility?
How well are we raising leaders who can reproduce themselves into the third and fourth generations of disciples?
Essentially, we’re evaluating both the “front” (evangelism) and the “end” (reproduction and maturity) of the discipleship journey.
If you’re wondering, “What’s a discipleship system? Isn’t it just relationships?”, that’s a fair question. Yes, discipleship is relational at its core. But when you’re leading at scale, clarity becomes essential. Disciples need to know where and how we, as a church family, are intentionally making disciples.
(If you want to go deeper into discipleship systems, I’d recommend my book, Everyone Sent.)
If you’re developing a discipleship system, assess effectiveness often and make small adjustments quickly, but don’t expect major fruit right away. For us, it took about five years of consistent work before we saw a cultural shift where leaders were faithfully reproducing healthy disciples.
Aligning on Near-Term Priorities
We also spend a short time reviewing next steps and upcoming priorities. We provide direction for small shifts, listen for feedback, and ensure alignment for what’s ahead.
It’s tempting to fill the gathering with tactical items, especially since those take up so much of our energy day to day. But in the long run, leaders who feel loved, are reminded of the most important things, and are working to excel at our first priority, making disciples, will inevitably produce great fruit.
A Question for You
If you could gather leaders from across your context, how would you spend your time together?