Personal Development?

‘Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel’ 

1 Corinthians 4:15

In the inimitable words of Eugene Peterson, leaders who have managed to sustain a long obedience in the same direction are mostly those that have learned to ask for help when they needed it. And God knows we all need it. 

In an ideal church environment each of us will have been blessed to have mentors and leaders that took a personal interest in us and invested in us in a way that left us forever grateful. This is leadership discipleship and it is precious beyond measure. Spiritual leaders need other spiritual leaders who have ‘gone before’ and modelled what is required of them. However creative, missional and self motivated we may consider ourselves to be, we each need accountable relationships with people who have already done what we are seeking to do. 

One of the things we have been keen to generate through REACH is a relational network of people and ministries able to offer the kind of personal development help that we all need as leaders at different times and stages of our lives, whether it is Spiritual Direction, Personal Counselling, Pastoral Supervision or Missional Coaching. 

There are several tremendously helpful resources that we can recommend, such as the Association for Pastoral Supervision and Education, (https://www.pastoralsupervision.org.uk APSE), the Kiaros Connexion Network of missional coaches across the UK (https://kairosconnexion.org/training/coaching-huddles-2/), and of course Spiritual Direction and Christian Counselling can be sourced through a number of agencies. 

Personal Development’ is an expected part of life in the marketplace but can often be either assumed or neglected in the church. Let’s strengthen a culture of personal investment by sharing our resources and building a leadership discipling movement across London.