My Re:Train buddy P.J. Tibayan posted ideas for a Los Angeles Pastor’s Fellowship along with questions to ask during their time together. These are very helpful and something I hope to use someday when gathering for fellowship with pastors in Ann Arbor.

What are barriers to the gospel that you’ve identified in our city?

How do you personally develop relationships with gospel intentionality?

How do you cultivate romance and a mutually edifying relationship with your spouse?  (for single pastors attending: what issues do you face as a single pastor when it comes to the area of romance and marriage?)

How have you developed leaders and shared leadership?

Do you practice membership?  If so, how do you do it?

How do you lead your church to be an encouragement to other churches and Christians outside of your church?

How do you equip your members to evangelize?

What is your personal Bible reading plan and how do you cultivate joy in Christ and holiness in your life?

What are some challenges you face in preaching/teaching?

What would an ideal pastors’ fellowship look like?  What would they do?  How often would they meet?

What does personal accountability look like for you?  To whom are you accountable?  Is it structured or organic?  To what degree?

1. Know God

• Cultivate a steady devotional and prayer life.
• Participate in gospel-centered accountability, like a Fight Club.
• Serve with the strength God supplies (2 Peter 4:11).

2. Know Your People

• Pastor your Missional Community. Don’t just lead discussions.
• Take notice when somebody disappears and make sure they are loved well.

3. Know Your Neighborhood

• Know the culture and relate to it well.
• Know your neighbors and invite them into your community.

4. Don’t Go Alone

• Share leadership by appointing leaders for hosting, meals, prayer, and mission.
• Participate in monthly leaders’ meetings.
• Participate in monthly coaching meetings.

5. Say Who You Are (And Who You Aren’t) Every Week

• Graciously deconstruct the small group/Bible study/social group approach and reconstruct your Missional Community.
• Reaffirm your Missional Community practices each week.

6. Get Out of the Living Room

• Be on mission every month as a community.
• Celebrate life and good culture.

7. Live the Missionally

• Read and apply the 8 ways to be missional.
• Live out loud. Let gospel talk be ordinary talk, not obnoxious but genuine.

8. Eat, Laugh, Pray, and Serve Together

• A healthy group does all four.

9. Share Your Stories

• In the living room.
• On the blog.
• In social media. Use Twitter or Facebook to facilitate community (not replace it).

10. Come to Serve (Not Just Be Served) on Sundays

• Missional community doesn’t stop on Sundays.
• Always be the church.

From Jonathan Dodson with Nate Navarro on TheResurgence.com

• Men need to see a vision. They need a mental image of the final outcome.
• Men need social time, not just meeting times. Social time on the golf course, at the pool hall, on the ball field, etc… is what will make the meeting time come to life.
• Men are warriors and need an enemy to fight and a battle to win. This is just the heart of a man. Be certain they know who the enemy is, Satan.
• Men need a bar raised high. Boredom sets in quickly when a goal is easily attainable.
• Men don’t read. Many men are not going to pick up a book and read it. You may be a book junky, they may junk the book.
• Men will dodge real life issues by deflecting and talking about facts. For instance, you might ask a guy what God is teaching him during his daily time with God. His response might be to tell you he had his quiet time three times this week. You’ll need to dig deeper.
• Men need a safe place and a safe person to tell real life stuff to but they need time to know they can trust you. You’ll need to open the door to this kind of transparency by revealing your stuff first.
• Men will lie to you. Every accountability list I’ve ever seen had as the last question something like this… “Were any of your responses misleading or all out lies?” Don’t declare a man the enemy because of this, he’s been taught by society to protect his influence in this way. Simply help him step into the light of honesty so God can redeem his heart.
• Men need MODELS, not INFORMATION.

Helpful list from Rick Howerton, although I disagree with the one about reading. Men need to be about the Book but they also need to be willing to read other materials as well.

Ask yourself

• Is there someone to pray for?
• Is there someone needing counsel?
• Is there someone to encourage?
• Is there someone to hold accountable?
• Is there something to celebrate with someone?
• Is there a need to be met?
• Is there a leadership call to make?
• Is there a conflict to be resolved?

From Rick Howerton at Small Group World

1. view themselves as fellow and equal journiers longing to know God really and are committed to building a micro-Christian community together
2. will utilize the spiritual gifts, learned abilities, and resources they have been given on behalf of one another
3. are committed to the weekly small group meeting where we learn from one another, pray for one another, and see God work miracles when “two or three are gathered.” (Matt. 18:20)
4. will hold them accountable to do the spiritual disciplines as they birth spiritual maturity in us
5. purposefully and passionately direct one another to God and His Words found in the Bible when concluding how to deal with a difficult life issue, make a major decision, or determine the rightness or wrongness of a moral dilemma

1. loves the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love’s their neighbor as they love themselves (Mark 12:30 – 31)
2. understands that life is messy and that the leader will leverage the synergy of the group to help carry the load and remind the struggling group member of the hope that is in them in the messy times
3. is espousing and instilling a biblical world-view
4. is available as a sounding board and willing to give wise counsel when requested
5. will make sure that no known financial, emotional, or spiritual need will be glossed over but that the group leader will coalesce the spiritual gifts, abilities, and resources of the group members to meet those needs

From Rick Howerton

1. is their confidant, co-laborer, and friend
2. is available and honored to answer practical questions about small group leadership
3. is praying for them daily and proves so by connecting with the small group leader periodically via phone or face-to-face so they can hear that prayer
4. understands that the small group leaders they are responsible for one another, can learn from one another, and become better by being together, so they welcome them into their home from time to time to discuss group life, encourage one another, and celebrate what God is doing in each of their groups
5. is willing to come to the group meeting and speak into the conversation when the small group leader has been unable to resolve conflict, a doctrinal discussion has become a foolish and divisive debate, when the group is in rebellion and unwilling to consider multiplication, etc…

From Rick Howerton

That quote is from a recent interview on Joe Thorn’s blog with Jonathan Dodson. The whole interview is fabulous. Here are some highlights

In chapter one of 1 Timothy Paul shows us that sound doctrine is “in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God.” Literally, the good news of the glory of the happy God. Sound doctrine shows us the something about God, namely that he is glorious and blessed! Sound doctrine isn’t merely getting your beliefs right; it is getting your heart happy in a right view of God. …

This deep heart change happens through doctrine, God-centered teaching …

If we’re to make progress in godliness, we must be continually taught and trained in Jesus …

Practically speaking, how would you encourage churches to make disciples?

Recover the centrality of the gospel in producing Jesus-shaped godliness, a godliness that is missional and God-centered. Apply the gospel everyday.

Recover a practice of discipleship that is communal not individualistic. Jesus make disciples in community, sent them by two, make them by threes and a dozen. Be a disciple with other disciples.

Recover a discipleship that is missional not comfort or knowledge based. Sound doctrine sends disciples that imitate Jesus. The incarnation is the paradigm of mission. Be a disciples that makes disciples, not on your turf but on their turf.

Follow the biblical distinctives of discipleship in the Gospels. Ask yourself where you are 1) relying on the Spirit 2) embracing suffering 3) dying to yourself 4) living in the hope of resurrection. If our lives aren’t risky enough to force us to rely on the Spirit, to suffer the reproach of others or loss of comfort, to surrender our rights, and demonstrate hope in a much greater world to come, then we have very little to point to as Christian discipleship. Take these 4 areas, plucked from the Gospels and Acts, and ask a group of disciples to provoke you to live this kind of life, one that puts Jesus at the center of your failures and your successes.

1. Mentoring – This generation has great respect for those older than they are. Most of them have good relationships with their parents. They have learned from older people all their lives, and they don’t want to stop now. They want to be led and taught in their places of work, in their churches, and in their families. They particularly want to learn from couples who have had long and successful marriages. Many Millennials see such examples as heroes to emulate.
2. Gentle spirit – This category is easier to describe by what Millennials do not want in leaders. Divisive, loud, and acrimonious persons turn them off. They loathe politicians and political pundits who scream at each other. They are leaving churches to some extent because they see many Christian leaders as negative and prone to divisiveness. They are repulsed by business leaders with harsh and autocratic spirits.
3. Transparency and authenticity – I wish Jess and I had counted the number of times that Millennials used the word “real” to describe leaders they want to follow. As one Millennial told us, her generation “can smell phony and pretentiousness a mile away.” They don’t want phony; they want authentic. They don’t want pretentious; they want transparent.
4. Integrity – The Millennials are weary of politicians who don’t keep promises. They are tired of Christian leaders who fail basic moral standards. They are fed up with business leaders who are more concerned about personal gain than serving others. They want leaders with integrity.

From Thom Rainer, president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources, and culled from research in his upcoming book The Millennials.

Every Small Group Pastor needs to know that their Senior Pastor…

1. believes so strongly that small groups are vital to the church’s goal of transformed lives that small groups is included as one of the church’s core values
2. will be her/his advocate to the Finance Team so that there is adequate budget monies for the training and equipping of the small group coaches, leaders, and all other players on the small group team
3. requires every staff member to be in a small group and is encouraging those in the ministry they lead to be in one too
4. is in or leading a small group and talking about it when teaching and preaching
5. will consistently (at least every 30 days) remind those who are attending the worship gathering that it is vital that they join a small group and how to do so

From Rick Howerton