A long-term ConneXions training program offers a practical example of how healthy leader development programs can be done. Leaders and churches who participate see how a program can be run in their own communities and bring it back with them, starting their own programs. It gives people a concrete example of a way forward in any context, showing what it would actually look like to follow the New Testament pattern of leader development.

This is our primary purpose in leading these programs – to ultimately nurture healthy leader development around the nation.

The following sections list some of the potential benefits:

• • To the participants themselves
  • To participants’ churches
  • To the local church that hosts the program
  • To our team that leads the program

Please note that the following are all potential benefits. Simply having a program does not guarantee any of this. What actually will happen depends on both program leaders and participants in their own unique contexts.

In addition, our purpose in listing these is not to create pressure for program leaders to have perfect programs, but rather to envision those leaders about what can potentially be achieved with God’s help. 

The Potential Benefits of ConneXions Programs – to the Participants

In every ConneXions program we lead, the benefits to the participants are obvious. Some of them are as follows:

• • We see immediate transformation in the lives of our participants – changed life after changed life. As we build their union with Christ over the course of the program and they submit to God more deeply, we see paradigm shifts that lead to repentance, and commitments that lead to real, practical changes in their own life and leadership. Even if a participant is not showing much change at first, more often than not we hear afterward that they are totally different people as a result!
  • Because prayer is so essential to LeaderSource, and because we practice it so regularly during the program, we see a marked improvement in each participant’s prayer life. As it takes greater priority, prayer becomes a way of life for them, instead of just one more thing they need to do during the day. They turn to God first and foremost and seek His ways instead of their own.
  • Because we dig deeply into God’s Word in our programs, relying on it as the Source for all of our models of leader development, participants come away with greater depth in the Word, greater ability to handle it faithfully, and a thirst to be in it regularly.
  • We often receive testimonies from the spouses of participants after they return home that they are seeing incredible change. Not only are participants leading in a healthier way in their church or ministry organization, they are applying the ConneXions Model to great effect and with great depth in their families, totally transforming their marriage and family life.
  • It is a huge encouragement for participants who attend these programs to realize that they are not alone. The strong relational context of personal mentors and intercessors, community building, and ongoing leader care lifts their spirits and reminds them of the power given to God’s Church to accomplish His purposes. This relational context does not end when they leave the program, as ongoing cohorts of lifelong spiritual friends are created for continuous fellowship, accountability, and encouragement in their callings.
  • Through a great variety of relational responsibility and activities, participants grow in their ability to work with others and to build teams.
  • Because of the ongoing cohort that participants build during the long-term program, they have an immediate relational network with other churches and organizations. Collaboration with this network, coupled with engaging other churches and ministries in their immediate community, helps participants work together toward a unified vision for blessing their nation.
  • Participants are challenged by the program to address deep character issues and grow in integrity as a result. In a supportive community many receive powerful deliverance and freedom from deeply-ingrained habits of sin. 
  • In particular, participants grow in servanthood as they learn to serve others in a variety of practical ways.
  • In surveys, 98% of participants in our programs come away with more clarity of the calling of God on their lives, as both leaders and disciples. They recognize God’s working in their lives as He has built them. Not only are they confirmed in their calling, they have greater passion for pursuing God’s highest! Emerging leaders gain confidence to chase after the purpose of God, and existing leaders gain fresh passion.
  • Participants come away from programs with greater capacity to build others in their own communities and ministries. They are equipped with greater ability to think and act well, and given essential tools to design learning experiences for others and growth plans for themselves. In particular, participants’ capacity to think as leaders grows significantly.
  • Graduates of our program can go anywhere and create holistic design for any kind of training. This flexibility expands the boundaries of what is normally thought possible, empowering participants to reach out into every sector of society.
  • Participants in our programs report immediate and sustained improvement in their ministries and in their capacity as leaders. In one survey of participants in our long-term programs in Asia since 2012, we found that 96% of them are still active in ministry today, and 90% of them received promotion to a significantly higher level of responsibility shortly after graduation. When they return from the program, their leaders and home churches would say, “What has happened to you? You’re doing so well, you can lead, you can build leaders!” As the most qualified people around, they often end up as top leaders within their networks.
  • Every participant comes away with greater hope, blessing, and confidence! 

The Potential Benefits of ConneXions Programs – to Participants’ Churches

We expect participants in our ConneXions programs to go back to their churches and ministry organizations and apply the model within them. This means that every participant’s church also potentially benefits from this program! Some of these benefits are as follows:

• • From the beginning of an emerging leader’s participation in our program, we come alongside their home church networks, working hard to maintain the close relationship they have so that it will not be broken or weakened. The participant’s own leaders know what we’re doing, why, and how – everything they need to interact with the models effectively. In this way, participants return to a strengthened relationship with their home churches, with the groundwork already laid to implement what they’ve learned.
  • Participants who have graduated from the ConneXions programs know how to intentionally and effectively build healthy leaders within their church network. We have nurtured their ability to do design throughout the program, so that when they return they can implement their designs in the context of their home church and make a real impact there.
  • Following long-term ConneXions programs, many churches, networks, and ministry organizations see greatly expanded impact. Not only do ConneXions graduates know how to build leaders, they have the tools and capacity needed to begin running their own program within their churches and communities, bringing the life transformation they have experienced home. In addition, they help to improve existing ministry designs, making them effective.
  • Because the ConneXions Model is holistic and flexible enough to apply in any context, graduates of our programs can build people in any ministry context needed within the church, from youth ministry to discipleship to family ministry.
  • As graduates build healthy leaders in their own church context, they nurture a culture of generational succession, offering honor and care to their spiritual fathers and mothers, receiving accountability and counsel well, and empowering younger leaders to do the actual work.
  • Graduates of our long-term programs experience and practice servanthood regularly, and return to their churches with a mindset of servant leadership. As they serve and build others in serving, the entire church is built up with an expanded capacity for serving each other and the community.
  • The rich relational context of our program inspires participants to build community in their own churches – and gives them the tools to do so and the vision for what it can look like practically. Mentoring, intercession, coaching, and accountability all become the foundation for a healthier, vibrant community.
  • With the ConneXions Model and the focus on evangelism inherent in our program comes renewed passion for evangelism and outreach in the community. Graduates gain courage themselves and know how to design learning experiences to embolden others to evangelize in their community. The church grows with new believers, and is equipped to disciple those new believers right away.
  • Graduates of the program have built relationships and worked in teams with many people of different backgrounds toward the same goals of returning to the New Testament pattern of leader development. When they return home, they bring with them greater empathy, listening and communication skills, and flexibility – ultimately leading to greater unity in the church as they seek God’s highest together.
  • Our emphasis on Scripture, prayer, and worship spills over into lives that are ignited with passion for God. Graduates of the ConneXions program communicate to their churches and ministry organizations this passion, inspiring deeper, more holistic worship that is rooted in greater anointing of the Holy Spirit.  

The Potential Benefits of ConneXions Programs – to the Local Host Church

Over many years, and in a variety of contexts and cultures, we have seen that when a local church commits itself to building emerging leaders using the ConneXions Model, there are, potentially, many wonderful benefits. Some of these are:

• • A stronger vision and capacity for personal ministry emerges among the members of the church. As many people become personally involved in the training work – through being Pastoral Coaches, Intercessors, Ministry Mentors, Host Homes, and other kinds of interaction – they are then personally impacted. There is an increase in their own vision for personal ministry. “If these young leaders can grow so much and can do such great things, then so can I!” This growth also happens because people are stretched by their responsibilities to the emerging leaders; they themselves must grow – in the Word, in prayer, in character and in faith – in order to be able to effectively help the emerging leaders grow. This also happens in the participants’ home churches.
  • There is deep personal growth in the members of the church. There is more accountability and a personal commitment to holiness and godly relationships within the church, as the lives and personal examples of the emerging leaders impact many. In particular, the youth of the local church will be greatly blessed by the examples and influence of the participants.
  • A stronger vision for the impact of the corporate ministry of the local church emerges. As the ConneXions participants do ministry work, serve the church and impact the lost, the church as a whole increases in corporate vision. There is a dramatic excitement! Moreover, the unity of the church’s vision increases. The church “builds itself up in love, as each part does its work” (Eph. 4:16).
  • The life of the church is strengthened. The ConneXions participants impact many lives through practical ministry assignments and responsibilities that are built into the program’s design. Many church members are directly served and blessed by the emerging leaders.
  • The local church leaders are helped by having many emerging leaders serving and doing ministry work in the church. The workload of the local leaders is reduced and yet the ministry impact of the church is increased.
  • The local church is blessed spiritually through the prayer and fasting of the ConneXions participants as they support the life and vision of the church.
  • A deeper practical capacity for discipleship, children’s work, youth ministry etc., develops. As people are involved hands-on in building the ConneXions participants, they learn the practical skills and habits of building people and are thus able to implement those easily in many other contexts of life transformation.
  • A greater vision for building the next generation of leaders results, as both their vision and their capacity to do this is nurtured.
  • A stronger vision for the nation(s) arises, as the local church has the privilege of being personally involved in building and releasing new leaders to their ministry fields.
  • The prayer life of the church grows as the people rise to meet the many challenges of leader development, by God’s grace.
  • The culture of the local church changes. Many church members shift their focus from what they can get from the church to what they can give and how they can serve.
  • Increased financial provision. Although there may be a challenging time initially as the local church embraces the vision for leader development, once it is embraced we have consistently seen that the people give more liberally, both to meet the needs of the ConneXions program and also to bless the other ministries of the church.
  • As the members of the local church personally engage in building the emerging leaders, the quality of the training is vastly improved over traditional approaches. The emerging leaders themselves are greatly blessed – in every aspect of their lives and ministry capacities.
  • The members of the local church who participate in this work will have the great blessing of ongoing relationships with their spiritual sons and daughters who will go forth afterwards to impact their communities and nations!
  • Through learning local church-integrated leader development, the local church is enabled to be a blessing to many other churches – both locally and in other regions – by helping them to establish their own leader development work.
  • The privilege of seeing many sons and daughters being raised in God and then sent out to their ministry fields is a cause for worship and rejoicing toward God! “The leader development work is not just being done by someone else, somewhere else. God is doing it through us!”
  • God is pleased when we return to the New Testament pattern of leader development and, in response to this obedience, He gives the local church a greater blessing and anointing of His Spirit. 

The Potential Benefits of ConneXions Programs – to Our Team

When a LeaderSource team leads a ConneXions program, they are not only impacting the participants – they are being transformed, in real time! Some of the benefits they receive are as follows:

• • A deep increase in dependence on God in the midst of the challenges of running the program. The pressure of building leaders drives them to their knees before God. Only through union with Christ and continual reliance on God can they hope to make any impact on those they are training!
  • Rooted in Christ this way, every builder is being powerfully built as well. This personal life transformation happens through their daily seeking of His face, through building other’s lives, and through deep, continuous time in the Word, in prayer, and in worship together.
  • As we rely on the Holy Spirit to guide us and look to God for everything we need to accomplish such a program, we receive the empowerment we need to lead the program in great measure. The power of God in our lives increases, and as we experience His power in us we rely even more on Him to bring transformation to those in our program!
  • Every team member encounters unforeseen challenges in a program. These challenges stretch their capacity and their character, in the context of a concrete learning experience. This increased capacity equips them to lead more programs and design more learning experiences for those around them.
  • Putting it into practice instills confidence and faith in God that He will accomplish His work through us!
  • Doing programs offers our team a concrete, immediate example of how the ConneXions Model works in practicality. It takes them from theory to reality, from good ideas to actual substantial working practices. It shows them what it looks like!
  • When we are personally involved in building leaders ourselves, and we have our own spiritual sons and daughters in whose lives we are deeply investing, we receive a great sense of fulfillment and inspiration! As we watch them grow and transform, and as we continue to interact with them in the years following, our own faith in God is strengthened. We are blessed and encouraged as we fulfill our own callings! Moreover, we have the great privilege of becoming pioneers in healthy leader development in our own nations.
  • The many decisions that need to be made in the program challenge and build our builders in flexibility, patience, and discernment. They build their capacities to think and act well in pressurized situations.
  • With each week in the program, we build our capacity to evaluate our own designs and execution of those designs. Evaluation becomes a constant mindset in both programs and in our own personal lives the more we practice it. This is how we know what to focus on. This is how we grow!