At DeoWorks, our vision is to create wholistic servant leaders for God’s kingdom mission by providing programs that address both leadership formation and leadership development.
Leadership formation and leadership development may initially seem like they are the same thing. But the reality is that the formation of godly leaders and the development of effective leaders actually address two distinct spheres of Christian leadership. When we talk about leadership formation, we are primarily talking about issues of the heart, the formation of a leader’s soul and their affective relationship with God.
Leadership Formation
This is primarily talking about issues of the heart, the formation of a leader’s soul and their affective relationship with God.
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Leadership development
This is concerned with the external aspects of a leader’s life and practice.
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A Christian leader needs both leadership formation and leadership development in order to become wholistic servant leaders in God’s Kingdom mission.
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Leadership Formation
Leadership formation is concerned with addressing the inner life issues that may hinder authentic, intimate relationship with God.
Through the course of our development as humans, created in the image of God, but marred by the Fall, we all experience various events and traumas that wound us in unique ways, leaving us with insecurities, feelings of inadequacy and often a sense of guilt and/or shame, which create barriers to our full experience of God’s immeasurable and unconditional love for us in Christ. Unfortunately, many of these inner life issues remain unacknowledged and unidentified until they begin to surface as a result of the inevitable pressures and stress of leadership, often creating challenges in the life of the leader and in the organizations they lead.
Leadership formation helps leaders identify these issues and proactively deal with them so that they might continue to grow in their experience of, and response to, the love of God. One of the most helpful tools that can enable a Christian leader to process these inner life issues is the discipline of Spiritual Direction.
Spiritual direction is a key discipline for Christian leaders because the dynamics of the ministry world are complicated and, at times, lonely. Spiritual Direction is also a clarifying and transformative discipline for spiritual growth for all believers as we navigate the spiritual journey.
Through the course of our development as humans, created in the image of God, but marred by the Fall, we all experience various events and traumas that wound us in unique ways, leaving us with insecurities, feelings of inadequacy and often a sense of guilt and/or shame, which create barriers to our full experience of God’s immeasurable and unconditional love for us in Christ. Unfortunately, many of these inner life issues remain unacknowledged and unidentified until they begin to surface as a result of the inevitable pressures and stress of leadership, often creating challenges in the life of the leader and in the organizations they lead.
Leadership formation helps leaders identify these issues and proactively deal with them so that they might continue to grow in their experience of, and response to, the love of God. One of the most helpful tools that can enable a Christian leader to process these inner life issues is the discipline of Spiritual Direction.
Spiritual direction is a key discipline for Christian leaders because the dynamics of the ministry world are complicated and, at times, lonely. Spiritual Direction is also a clarifying and transformative discipline for spiritual growth for all believers as we navigate the spiritual journey.
Overcoming the Dark Side of Leadership
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Sam Rima is the Director of Leadership Formation.
Sam hosts a workshop, Overcoming the Dark Side of Leadership, which has been successfully conducted in hundreds of churches and non-profit organizations.
The workshop is designed to assist leaders in the process of identifying and processing inner life issues that are the most frequent cause of friction and dysfunction in their personal life, relationships and leadership. Click here to learn more Click to donate to Leadership Formation |
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Leadership Assessment
The Context:
National Indigenous Leadership Formation
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National indigenous leaders in countries that have the highest concentration of Unreached People Groups (UPG’s) in the world are catching the vision to reach the unreached people in their midst. They have the language and culture and have more influence than the western missionary. India, China and Pakistan are a few of the top ranking countries
On a positive note, we are seeing a rise of national (indigenous) leaders coming from countries which contain the largest numbers of unreached people groups. Within these shame based cultures, we are seeing that the capacity for ministry among these leaders is high… they have passion, they are skilled, they have a vision. However their capacity for ministry often outstrips their character capacity. The distortion of “godliness” and what is being modeled for the underground network of believers is not healthy. Systemic issues such as pornography, spousal abuse, neglect of children (in order to do ministry), lying, abusive power, control, manipulation are some examples that we are seeing. |
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What We Are Doing:
Relational Outreach and Building the Kingdom
National Leadership Formation Cohorts
We hosted online cohorts with over 70 indigenous leaders in India. We led them through six different modules and conducted many individual coaching meetings with these leaders. We have built meaningful relationships with these leaders and established the trust needed to move forward into the next phase of ministry.
The sessions cover the topics below:
Processing God’s Ongoing Work in Our Lives with Steve Unangast
Cohort members are being led in creating their own spiritual and leadership formation timeline with the purpose of exploring the major events, experiences, people and influences in their life. This process will allow participants to learn how God has used all of these to shape them and give them insight into how He will continue His shaping work in their lives.
Owning Our Influence with Bill Thrall
Bill is leading a module that follows-up on his initial module “The Process of Developing Leaders”. In this new module, Bill is taking leaders deeper into maximizing their spiritual influence by exploring issues such as personal identity, life issues, life lessons and life choices. Processing and understanding these issues will lead participants to better own and expand their influence for Christ.
Processing Our Dark Side: The Practice of Spiritual Composting with Sam Rima
This module is providing a review of the material we originally covered in “Overcoming the Dark Side of Leadership” and leading participants to reflectively begin processing their dark side. We are walking through six practical, life-long steps of the “Spiritual Composting” process that will enable us to better redeem and integrate our dark side issues into our lives. This module will guide participants in creating a personal plan that might guide them on this journey toward whole and holy leadership.
We hosted online cohorts with over 70 indigenous leaders in India. We led them through six different modules and conducted many individual coaching meetings with these leaders. We have built meaningful relationships with these leaders and established the trust needed to move forward into the next phase of ministry.
The sessions cover the topics below:
Processing God’s Ongoing Work in Our Lives with Steve Unangast
Cohort members are being led in creating their own spiritual and leadership formation timeline with the purpose of exploring the major events, experiences, people and influences in their life. This process will allow participants to learn how God has used all of these to shape them and give them insight into how He will continue His shaping work in their lives.
Owning Our Influence with Bill Thrall
Bill is leading a module that follows-up on his initial module “The Process of Developing Leaders”. In this new module, Bill is taking leaders deeper into maximizing their spiritual influence by exploring issues such as personal identity, life issues, life lessons and life choices. Processing and understanding these issues will lead participants to better own and expand their influence for Christ.
Processing Our Dark Side: The Practice of Spiritual Composting with Sam Rima
This module is providing a review of the material we originally covered in “Overcoming the Dark Side of Leadership” and leading participants to reflectively begin processing their dark side. We are walking through six practical, life-long steps of the “Spiritual Composting” process that will enable us to better redeem and integrate our dark side issues into our lives. This module will guide participants in creating a personal plan that might guide them on this journey toward whole and holy leadership.
SOUL Journey
The SOUL Journey is a two-year spiritual and leadership formation academy, which will provide two week-long retreats a year over a two-year period, for 30-40 key leaders.
Part 1 - Building Excitement & Interaction: Each of the retreats will be proceeded by a two-month "Ramp Up" period, preparing the leaders for the coming retreat and strengthening community.
Part 2 - Implement & Carry Out: After each retreat there will be a three-month "Ramp Down" period, where we assist participants in integrating and applying what they learned at the retreat.
This cycle will be repeated for each of the four retreats. Each of the retreats has a specific theme. Retreat 1: Waking, Retreat 2: Walking, Retreat 3: Wrestling, and Retreat 4: Working.
Our prayer is to launch additional cohorts of the SOUL Journey each year and ultimately develop it to be a self-sustaining, indigenous leadership movement.
If you are interested in learning more, please click here.
The SOUL Journey is a two-year spiritual and leadership formation academy, which will provide two week-long retreats a year over a two-year period, for 30-40 key leaders.
Part 1 - Building Excitement & Interaction: Each of the retreats will be proceeded by a two-month "Ramp Up" period, preparing the leaders for the coming retreat and strengthening community.
Part 2 - Implement & Carry Out: After each retreat there will be a three-month "Ramp Down" period, where we assist participants in integrating and applying what they learned at the retreat.
This cycle will be repeated for each of the four retreats. Each of the retreats has a specific theme. Retreat 1: Waking, Retreat 2: Walking, Retreat 3: Wrestling, and Retreat 4: Working.
Our prayer is to launch additional cohorts of the SOUL Journey each year and ultimately develop it to be a self-sustaining, indigenous leadership movement.
If you are interested in learning more, please click here.
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Our Vision
To see a movement of national leaders who can imitate Christ’s model of authenticity and transparency of the heart. As a result, Christ’s power and His authority are demonstrated through our dependence upon Christ and His body. |