Templates & Tools

Let’s take a step-by-step approach to developing the Leadership Profile.

1. Step One

   Identify the following elements of the ministry:

   • Its vision and/or purpose
   • Its supernatural work environment (“SWE”)
   • Its spiritual DNA, and
   • Its culture.

   Compile these elements into a collective view of the apostolic center as a Kingdom enterprise.

2. Step Two

   Identify the characteristics/gifts that enable a person to align with, establish and further the elements we just identified.

3. Step Three

   Identify the skills/competencies that enable a person to align with, establish and perform the elements we just identified.

4. Step Four

   Identify the job experiences that demonstrate a person’s ability to align with, establish and further the elements we just identified.

5. Step Five

   Identify the education/training/development that increases a person’s ability to align with, establish, and perform the elements we just identified.

6. Step Six

   Use information from the previous steps to populate the Leadership Profile.

A worked example: the apostolic administrator

What the completed profile is used for

Once the profile is completed, it can be used to:

1. 1.Develop job postings
2. 2.Create job selection criteria
3. 3.Build assessment tools such as those used to evaluate performance and develop training
4. 4.Recognize and reward performance

For example, based on the Leadership Profile for an apostolic administrator, a part of the job description for the role might read this way:

Select, equip, serve, and release a management team of Spirit-filled people who are operating within their God-given gifts and callings. Critical activities to be performed by the team include supporting the activities of the senior leader and associated ministries, caring for the team and volunteers of the ministry, managing the operations of the ministry, and stewarding the finances of the ministry.

1. Step One

   Find a book, video, podcast, etc., that describes to a large extent the culture you would like to create. For clarity in describing the rest of the plan, let’s assume it’s a book titled “Releasing The Blueprint Of Heaven: A Leader’s Guide For Cultivating An Apostolic People Who Expand The Kingdom Of Heaven” (hereinafter, “Releasing The Blueprint”).

2. Step Two

   Distribute Releasing The Blueprint to the leadership team.

3. Step Three

   Discuss key chapters of Releasing The Blueprint with the leadership team. These discussions should include gaining consensus about:

   • The most relevant concepts discussed in Releasing The Blueprint,
   • The definition of those concepts,
   • How to apply the concepts to your workplace, and
   • The role of leaders in creating and maintaining a culture in which these concepts are prominent.

4. Step Four

   Distribute Releasing The Blueprint to the rest of the team (employees, volunteers, key partners).

5. Step Five

   Discuss key chapters of the book during team meetings.

6. Step Six

   After the team has read, discussed, and understood key chapters of the book, use follow-on team meetings, facilitated by the leaders, to:

   • Gain consensus as to what a healthy ministry culture would look like, e.g., identifying and defining values;
   • Discuss what the current work environment looks like relative to the desired work environment;
   • Identify actions that hinder the development of a healthy ministry culture and agree on a plan to discontinue those actions; and
   • Identify actions that foster a healthy ministry culture and agree on ways to increase or support those actions.

7. Step Seven

   Check on the progress of action items; revise if necessary and report out when completed.

8. Step Eight

   Reinforce the desired attributes of the culture by, among other things, recognizing and rewarding people who display those attributes; making room for testimonies that reflect their positive display; and, importantly, where appropriate, incorporating them into people practices. For example, if working as a team is viewed as a vital part of displaying honor, then teamwork should be incorporated into job descriptions, job selection criteria, performance evaluations, compensation, development plans, etc.

Meanwhile, the Apostolic Administrator should work with the leadership team to (1) identify things in the organizational infrastructure that impact the desired culture (e.g., policies, formal and informal) and (2) ensure that those things support, rather than hinder, the creation of the desired culture.

The book referenced in Step One is Dr. Greg’s own: Releasing The Blueprint Of Heaven: A Leader’s Guide For Cultivating An Apostolic People Who Expand The Kingdom Of Heaven. Greg Wallace (The Wallace Group: San Dimas, CA 2023)

In other words, change is hard. Yet, change is part of our spiritual landscape.

1. Step One

   Earn Trust

   Before engaging in any type of change, trust must be established. People follow only leaders they trust; they trust only leaders they know.

   • Allow yourself to be known. It’s good to get to know others on a personal level, but don’t forget to allow others to get to know you.
   • Be relational; invest in relationships; avoid being transactional when possible.
   • Take the time to earn trust. And it will take time. Be patient.

2. Step Two

   Engage Key Leadership

   Engage both formal and informal leaders in the change efforts. Engage in even deeper back-and-forth conversations with the leaders about the change.

   • Lay a spiritual as well as scriptural foundation for the change.
   • Gain a common understanding of the outcomes expected by changing mindsets and behaviors.
   • Answer the why question regarding the change in mindsets and behaviors.
   • Facilitate a process in which the leaders define their role in the change efforts.
   • Ask key leaders to help develop the steps to make the vision plain and bring it to pass.

3. Step Three

   Share the Vision with the People, Make it Plain

   People can only run with a vision if they understand the vision. To cultivate an apostolic people, leaders should also make the calling, the purpose of the calling, and the legacy of the ministry plain as well.

   • Lay a scriptural foundation for the calling, purpose, vision, and legacy of the ministry.
   • Gain a common understanding of the vision, etc., as well as key terms, e.g., apostolic, that bring the vision to life.
   • Answer the why questions (why a new vision? why change? why now? etc.)
   • Explain the change by being clear about what we’re moving from and what we’re moving to.
   • Explain the change in mindsets.
   • Explain the change in behaviors.
   • Tailor communications for different types of audiences, e.g., new believers as opposed to mature believers; recent members as opposed to long-time members.
   • DO NOT build the new by bad-mouthing the old.
   • Honor the old as the precursor to the new.

4. Step Four

   Engage The People Who Serve In The Ministry

   Pursuing the calling, purpose, vision, and legacy of a ministry is an all-hands-on-deck proposition. Steps should be taken to communicate the vision to everyone who serves in the ministry, including volunteers, and ensure everyone understands it.

   • Enlist key leaders in communicating the vision.
   • Communicate for information.
   • Communicate for buy-in.
   • Create opportunities for two-way communication.

5. Step Five

   Consolidate New Behaviors and Produce Even More Change

   As people display the new mindsets and new behaviors requested of them, they should be recognized and rewarded; in addition, make room for testimonies. Then do the following:

   • Incorporate the changes into how we relate to one another and get things done.
   • Incorporate the changes into each area of the ministry.

6. Step Six

   Involve the People

   As the people display new mindsets and new behaviors, empower them to be change agents, not just the beneficiaries of change.

   • “Deputize” others to communicate / teach the vision.
   • Empower others to act on the vision.
   • Make room for people to recognize peers who are displaying new behaviors.

7. Step Seven

   Institutionalize New Approaches

   Initially, the new mindsets and behaviors will be seen as something to recognize, if not celebrate; but as they are displayed more often, they should be treated as the norm, not as outside the norm.

   • The “new” becomes standard operating procedure.
   • Incorporate the new mindsets and new behaviors into people practices.

While we have set forth seven steps we suggest leaders take to implement change, we are not crazy enough to believe that implementing change can be reduced to a step-by-step procedure. These steps are more like Ephesians 6 anchors, i.e., having done all to stand, stand. From this foundation, apostolic leaders can help people navigate change based on:

• How the Spirit of the Lord is leading them (after seeking His counsel through prayer and fasting);
• Wisdom and insight gained from the multitude of counsel;
• Aligning change activities with the calling and purpose of the ministry;
• Displaying the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control), and
• Being motivated by unconditional love for the people and serving them without an agenda.

Radical changes won’t make a difference, no matter how radical they are, if they cannot be implemented. We pray these templates will help you to implement the radical changes you have purposed in your heart to make.