LEAD Cohorts

We are excited to announce the new line-up of 12 LEAD Cohorts starting in mid-January – including one cohort in Spanish and one in Amharic.

LEAD Cohorts are online meeting places for small groups of MB pastors and leaders – or anyone interested in learning more about a specific topic or gathering with like-minded people.

LEAD Cohorts are FREE to all participants. The only cost is for books or materials, if recommended by the cohort leader. LEAD Cohorts typically last three months and meet online every two weeks for about an hour.

See the list of cohorts below. To register or for more information, contact Lori Taylor.

Becoming a Good and Faithful Steward – Jon Wiebe and Dennis Fast
Money is often a difficult topic for pastors to address. This cohort will help leaders become familiar with Biblical instruction on money and stewardship, develop tips for faithful stewardship and provide resources to help your congregation take hold of real life!

This cohort is led by Jon Wiebe, MB Foundation president and CEO, and Dennis Fast, MB Foundation church relations director. 

Coffee Shop Talk – Patrick Coyle
Grab a cup of coffee and sit down with some of your ministry peers to talk about common issues and challenges in ministry.  Each gathering will be focused on a specific topic such as “balancing ministry and family”, “personal spiritual growth” or “dealing with conflict.”

This cohort is led by Pat Coyle who has been the Senior Pastor of Shafter MB in Shafter, California, since 2001.

Contemplative Conversations - Ongoing Spiritual Transformation – Chandelle Claassen
Are you ready for an ongoing spiritual transformation accountability group? In this experiential cohort, we will explore the importance of soul care practices with the intent to embrace who we are uniquely created in Christ to be. Participants will be equipped with and experience application of various tools and spiritual exercises, take a deeper dive into the Enneagram, and spend time in Scripture together. The cohort focus will be contemplative in nature. Group sharing will be an enriching component of our time together.
Recommended Books: The Holy Bible by God;  The Gift of Being Yourself: The Sacred Call to Self- Discovery  by David Benner, and The Sacred Enneagram: Finding Your Unique Path to Spiritual Growth by Christopher Heuertz

This cohort is led by Chandelle Claassen, a trained spiritual director and certified life coach and member of the USMB LEAD Coaching team. Chandelle lives in North Newton, Kansas.

Discipulado en la Iglesia (Discipleship and Evangelism) – Daniel Rodriguez
Estaremos discutiendo la importancia del Discipulado en la Iglesia y como los hermanos pueden crecer y equiparlos para ser lideres de la Iglesia. Los pastores y otros lideres pueden tomarse la tarea de equipar a los nueveos creyentes y miembros de la iglesia para que puedan llegar a ser lideres y discipulos que hacen discipulos de Jesus. Tienes un plan para asegurarte que los nuevos creyentes estan creciendo? Tienes un plan para desarroyar mas lideres que puedan ayudar a crecer el ministerio? Tienes una cultura de discipulos que hacen discipulos? Estan seran algunas de las preguntas que estaremos contestando juntos.

La cohorte está dirigida por Daniel Rodriguez, pastor de la Iglesia Agua Viva en Omaha, Nebraska.

(This cohort, led by Daniel Rodriguez, pastor of Iglesia Agua Viva in Omaha, Nebraska, will discuss the importance of discipleship in the church. Pastors and key leaders will be challenged to learn how to grow and equip new believers and other members of the church to become leaders who make disciples of Jesus.)

The Emotionally Healthy Leader:  How Transforming Your Inner Life Will Deeply Transform Your Church, Team, and the World – Brian Allen

Do you ever feel like leadership is sucking the life and joy out of you?  Do you feel like you work long hours with little impact?  Have you ever felt like you keep the machine running but nothing really changes? Most leaders can relate!  In The Emotionally Healthy Leader, Peter Scazzero shows leaders how to develop a deeper inner life with Jesus and how that inner life will help them survive stress, grow in their planning and decision making, build teams, create a healthy culture and truly influence others for Jesus.
Recommended book: The Emotionally Healthy Leader by Peter Scazzero

This cohort will be led by Brian Allen, Leader Pastor of Hillsboro Mennonite Brethren Church in Hillsboro, KS.

Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery – Chandelle Claassen
Cohort participants will embark on a personal journey of self-discovery using a personality assessment tool called the Enneagram (a study of nine interconnected personality types that help us understand ourselves and others.) This tool is helpful as we learn to recognize and respond to God in our life stories. Participants will better understand how they respond under stress and learn how to make choices that lead to a healthier and authentic life.
Recommended Book: The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery by Ian Cron and Suzanne Stabile

This cohort is led by Chandelle Claassen, a trained spiritual director and certified life coach and member of the USMB LEAD Coaching team. Chandelle lives in North Newton, Kansas.

Gospel Priorities for a Healthy Church – Jared Pulliam
The aim of this cohort is to study the scriptures and encourage one another, with regard to living as disciples of Christ in community together. We will seek to accomplish this by considering three significant topics that impact our ministry in the local church. The first topic will be "Understanding our Identity," and we will work through what it means that we are part of Christ's church, both globally and locally. For the second topic, "Defining our Purpose," careful thought will be given to the kinds of things we are called to pursue as local churches. Then in the final section, "Implementing Healthy Leadership," we will examine what scripture says about those who are called to shepherd the people of Christ.

This cohort is led by Jared Pulliam, lead pastor of Christ Church Sellwood in Portland, Oregon.

Monkey on Your Back: Creating Margins in the Lives of Leaders – Chris Douglas

Designed for pastors and leaders who oversee churches and ministries, this is a facilitated, peer led learning experience based on the book The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More and Change the Way You Lead Forever. We will discuss seven essential coaching/leadership questions that will help you discern how to empower parishioners to champion their own passionate causes instead of tossing the monkey from their back to yours. This cohort will provide essential support to employees, volunteers, leaders and congregation members as they look to you for leadership and guidance in the ministries and areas in which they are serving.
Recommended book: The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More and Change the Way You Lead Forever by Michael Bungay Stanier

This cohort is led by Chris Douglas. Chris serves as U.S. Church Planting Mobilizer with Multiply (formerly C2C).

Practical Disciple-making – Stephen Humber and Kimberlee Jost
Jesus commands us to make disciples as we go, so we want to have a cohort where we do that very thing. Each participant will have someone along the discipleship pathway (from not yet a believer to moving into community, service or leadership) who they are intentionally discipling. We’ll support each other, share, learn and pray together for these 9 sessions. It’s going to be creative, stretching and a lot of fun.

This cohort is led by Stephen Humber and Kimberlee Jost. Stephen serves on the mobilization team of MB Mission. Kimberlee  

Refreshing Your Pastoral Counseling – John Oelze
This cohort model and example will provide a great context and guide for working with others through everyday struggles of life by focusing specifically on the heart of the counselor. Through personal counseling interactions from within the cohort, we will be reminded and refreshed as the Holy Spirit guides us in examining our own hearts to bring about change in others.

This cohort is led by John Oelze, the executive pastor at First MB Church in Wichita, Kansas.

ራስን መጠበቅ በፓስተር ሄኖክ ፀጋዬ   (Self Care) – Henock Tsegaye

በዘመናችን ብዙ ፓስተሮች የራሳቸውን መንፈሳዊ፣ አካላዊ፣ አእምሮአዊና ስሜታዊ ጤንነታቸውን አይጠብቁም፡፡ አብዛኛዎቻችን የምናገለግለውን መንጋ ከመጠበቅ አንፃር ብቻ ትኩረት እናደርጋለን፡፡ የእረኝነት አገልግሎት ምን ያህል ከባድ እንደሆነ ሁላችንም እናውቃለን፡፡ ይህ አገልግሎት ማስተማርን፣ መስበክን፣ የታመሙትን መጎብኝትንና የጠፉትንና የተቸገሩትን ማበረታታት የሚጠይቅ ነው፡፡ አንዳንድ ጊዜ እነዚህን ሁሉ ማድረግ የግል ህይወትን እስከማስረሳት ይደርሳል ስለዚህ በዚህ የቡድን ውይይት እንዴት አድርገን ራሳችንን በመጠበቅ አገልግሎት መስጠት እንደምንችል እንወያያለን፡፡

ይህ የጉርፕ ውይይት የሚመራው በፓስተር ሄኖክ ፀጋዬ የኢትዮጵያ ክርስቲያኖች ህብረት ቤተክርስትያን ኦሌታ ካንሳስ ነው!

(This cohort, led by Henock Tsegaye, pastor of Ethiopian Christian Fellowship Church in Olathe, Kansas, will discuss the importance of spiritual, physical, emotional and mental health self-care for pastors – without neglecting their ministries.)

Youth Ministry Realities – Russ Claassen
Get to know other youth workers as we engage in passionate discussion focused on the realities we face as youth workers. We will explore topics relevant to the group. Potential sessions may include anything youth ministry--from personal leadership development and spiritual growth, to recruiting and training volunteers, to talking about Jesus with teens in the iculture. The possibilities are endless. This cohort is for anyone who works with youth in your local church--volunteers, small group leaders, youth pastors, etc.

This cohort is led by Russ Claassen, SDC district youth minister. Russ lives in North Newton, Kansas.