LeadershipConneXtions

John Hilliard Teaching in Asuncion, Paraguay

John Hilliard will be doing the mentoring course for Leadership ConneXtions and REG in Asuncion, Paraguay. This is the same course John has taught before in Argentina. Here are a few thoughts and prayer requests from John about his upcoming trip.

You are reading this on the first day that John begins teaching in Asuncion.  

Blessings my friend.  Brian

**********************************

I appreciate the opportunity to meet with the group of leaders from Paraguay this next week.  A couple of things that stand out most significantly: the Latinos are very comfortable with relationships, it is a strength of the culture that I am learning more about each time I minister there.  What I hope to share with them is to be more intentional in those relationships. There is no word in Spanish that accurately defines ‘mentoring’.  We will spend time understanding that mentoring is more than just being a teacher but also includes things like coach, discipler, counselor, encourager, and  trainer.  I have learned so much from the previous sessions I have facilitated and hope that I can connect with everyone at the session in Asunción. 

My prayer requests for this trip would involve health, safe travels, sensing God’s leading in each session, connecting with the participants in spite of the language barrier and that God would use me in the process at a transformational level.

Looking forward to reporting on where God was present…

John Hilliard  
Leadership ConneXtions International

Update from Cordoba, Argentina (October 13)

We had a great day today.

First, I am super impressed with the quality of leaders who are in this program. My good friend and colleague, Omar Gava, (in the red shirt) has been working for years to train leaders, and especially missional leaders... and it is so obvious that his labors are bearing much fruit.

We did a devotional this morning and one of the verses that we pondered was 1 Corinthians 15:10.

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them - yet not I, but the grace of  God that was with me.

This verse perfectly describes the heart, the humility and the hard work of Omar. He is one of the hardest workers I know and he is the first to declare it is all by the grace of God.  It is no wonder that top shelf leaders are attracted to Omar. They respect who he is and they value the resources Omar brings to their lives.

 

 

Second, the first three days are focused on training methodologies. They are working through a new (and much needed) paradigm to become Course Designers who can develop leadership training modules, write curriculum, prepare lessons and then use facilitative methodologies that lead to transformation. This is intense stuff.

This is hard work to move into a new paradigm when you have spent a life time working in an older one. And, they are having to get all of this through an interpreter! They are so patient with this learning process and so full of great questions.  There are going to be some great leadership development trainers that will come out of this group. Maybe every single one of them.
 
Third... dedication, commitment, devotion, discipline...  They are willing to pay the price to move up in their capacity and competency. I don't have to do much to motivate this group. They have it. It is a joy to work with them.

Finally, LCI partner John Hilliard was in Argentina sometime back and he did the graduate course on mentoring and then he taught on mentoring at the training center. One of the students that John had told me that what John taught him about mentoring, has fundamentally shaped how he is now working with leaders. Wow... great stuff.  

Thank you for your prayers. They are felt, they are appreciated, they are making a difference. One more day on the Training Methodologies and then we begin the course on Emerging Paradigms of Leadership.

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

Update From John Hilliard in Argentina

John Hilliard has finished teaching at the missions training center in Rosario and has begun teaching the graduate course in Cordoba.

John sent a picture of the participants who were with him at the Rosario training. John is in the center of the back row and Omar Gava is on the left side in the front row.

Omar  Gava is the founder of Global Strategic Resources, an organization that seeks to resource the emerging and growing Latin American Misisons Movement. Leaderhsip ConneXtions works alongside Omar to provide leadership training in a variety of contexts. The missionary training centers are one of those areas.

Pray for John as he is working with the graduate students. By the way, they are all in full time ministry. The graduate program is set up in modules. Students come for four intensive courses a year.

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

Update from Tim Adour in Paraguay

Tim has been having a phenomenal time helping the leaders explore what it means to have intimacy with God in a way that both sustains them for the long haul of ministry and which overflows into the very way they lead, which then means it overflows into the lives of those they lead.

Tim was telling me how hungry these leaders were for this kind of focused teaching.

Here are two pictures of Tim.

Tim flys out this afternoon to wing his way back to the States. 

Pray for him as he wraps up a week of teaching.

The first picture is Tim working with Walter Pelegrina, who is one of the partner's with Omar Gava, responsible for coordinating the Master's Program in Asuncion. Walter is a great guy has a wonderful family. Walter is also involved in mobilizing the church of Paraguay for world missions.

I forget the brother's name who is with Tim in this picture, but I do remember that the two times I was there teaching, he had great insights and a deep love for Christ and the work of God.

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

Trips to Paraguay and Argentina by LCI Partners Tim and John

In a few days, two LCI partners are headed to Latin America to do teaching and training.

Tim Adour is the senior pastor of Church of the Revelation. Tim has a passion for evangelism, reaching the poor, impacting the city (his church is in The Bronx), training leaders and furthering the work of Global Missions. Tim travels several times a year for leadership conferences and seminars, both with LCI and with his denomination - Assemblies of God.

Tim will be teaching a graduate course, Spiritual Leadership, in Asuncion, Paraguay. The group of leaders who are enrolled in the master's programs in Asuncion are an awesome group of leaders. I've been there twice working with them and I am a little envious of Tim going there. While he is there, Tim will be connecting with an old friend of his (Phil) who pastors in Asuncion.

And my good friend and colleague (both at LWCC and via LCI) John Hilliard is headed to Argentina about the same time.  John is going to teach a graduate course on Mentoring in Cordoba.  He is also going to travel to a missionary training center in another city (Mendoza) and teach on the subject of mentoring.

One of the key methodologies for LCI is training the trainers, or mentoring the mentor. A core part of our vision is to empower leaders to become developers of leaders. Latin America tends to have a more directive and often authoritative leadership model in place. That approach does not easily train, empower, and release others for leadership. We work to help leaders become a new kind of leader.

You can see on each map where Tim and John will be teaching. Just look a little, click on the map for a larger picture to come up.

• Please pray for both Tim and John's work of teaching. Pray especially for the work of contextualization that is always taking place as we teach.

• They each have connecting flights, so pray for good connections, safe travel, and good health.

• Finally, pray they will be an encouragement to wonderful groups of Latin American leaders.

Tim and John - thanks for your partnership in the work of leadership development.

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

LCI Leadership Training with Paul and Hildi

Paul and Hildi are friends from Paraguay. I met Paul on my first trip to Paraguay teaching a grad course on leadership at the extension site in Asuncion. Paul came in to do some translating. While I didn't get to spend much time with him, we chatted. I also realized that Paul was one of the VERY BEST translators I had ever worked with (and I have had many very good translators in many countries over the years!).

The next time I was back in Paraguay teaching, Paul was there once again to do translation and this time Hildi also came in to work as a translator. We also spent more time talking about the content of course and I found out that they were both involved in working to develop leaders in Paraguay. We connected even more and Paul and Hildi invited me down to do a workshop on mentoring leaders for a group of about 12 senior leaders who were all involved in the work of mentoring and coaching. And to top everything off, they were wonderful hosts.

We have continued to develop our relationship at a distance with SKYPEing. Paul and Hildi were moving into a transition season of ministry and were looking for some retooling for their next season of life. They had a furlough scheduled and so we planned for them to come to the York-Lancaster area for three weeks.

Hildi is pursuing training in spiritual direction. Marcus Smucker is a long-time seminary teacher in this field as well as a practicing spiritual director who lives in Lancaster. He is resourcing HIldi in this. And Deb Turnow, Spiritual Director and trainer, is resourcing Hildi in this as well.

Paul is focusing on the area of leadership mentoring/coaching and I and a few of the LCI partners are walking him through the Focused Life model as a foundation for developing leaders.

It will be a great three weeks with them. I believe Paul and Hildi are a strategic couple for leadership development in Paraguay and it is privilege to be partnering with them and involved in developing them for their new season of training leaders. 

Thanks for your prayers for our time together.

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

Spiritual Friends and a Leadership Community

Once a month on a Sunday evening, a group of eight of us (just about everyone is associated with Leadership ConneXtions very closely) get together for leadership conversations. We met this past week and I was moved by a number of things.

First, I was moved by the energy and commitment these leaders have to live well and lead well. They really want to honor God and serve others in the best ways possible.

Then I was struck by the honesty and integrity in sharing their stories and their journey. 

I also noticed several themes re-appearing.  Our need to be immersed in the Scriptures, to be full of God's Spirit, to create sustainable rhythms in our lives, make the time for life-long learning, and connect deeply with companions for the long haul.  God is up to something in all of our lives that involves these themes.

It was good to pray for one another after our conversations.

And when our time was over, we were all refreshed and grateful.

 

I am also in a spiritual friendship group (we met a few days ago) and at one point, when I was in the role of the observer, I found myself thinking two things. First - Jesus, thank you for this opportunity to have these kinds of conversations with these kinds of friends. Second - I wish everyone had a similar group to help one another pay attention to what Jesus is doing on our journey.

If you don't have a group of friends and partners with whom you can do life together - you are missing out on something very important.

May God provide those people for your life in the very near future. And may you have eyes to see what God is providing.

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

Tim Adour in Russia for Pastor's Conference with Assembly of God

LCI partner and my good friend Tim Adour and his wife Diana are in Russia for about a week of leadership training and evening preaching at a conference.

Tim is the senior pastor of Church of the Revelation in the Bronx. During the day he will be teaching leadership seminars to Russian pastors. In the evening he will be preaching at special services for the Assembly of God churches. Diana will be doing a conference for pastor's wives.

This is not an LCI training event, but rather an Assembly of God avenue for Tim. Tim has lots of opportunities to do leadership development in a variety of contexts.

Please pray for Tim and Diana as they begin the leadership conferences and evening sessions today. This is their first time in Russia.

Blessings,

Brian Rice

Connecting With Tim Adour in Allentown

Tim has been a friend since 1997 when I was the senior pastor at First Baptist Church in Homer, New York and he was the senior pastor of Church of the Resurrection (Assembly of God) in Syracuse, New York.

We hit it off, became good friends and have really enjoyed being on the journey together. We don't see each other as much as we use to. I am now in York, working at Living Word Community Church and Tim is the senior pastor of Church of the Revelation (Assembly of God) in the Bronx, New York.

It was great to connect with Tim again and to hear all that is going on in his new ministry. I got together with Tim (one of our LCI Partners) because Tim will be doing a week course for LCI on Spiritual Leadership in Chile in November. We met to talk about that course and also look at other possibilities for Tim's involvement with LCI.

Tim is also going to Moscow late summer to do a pastor's conference and will be speaking on leadership issues at that conference. (That is not an LCI trip, but is one through his denominational connections.)

Anyway, it was a good time being with a good friend. It makes me realize that there are good friends I have who live great distances away and we just don't connect too often. That is one of the "sadnesses" of life on this planet. And it makes the times of being together even more important.

I hope you'll each have some good times in the near future with good friends and good conversation with those friends.

Brian Rice

Preparing for Chile Training With My Friend Tim Adour

Last Friday I drove up to Scranton, Exit 191a to meet with my good friend Tim Adour. Tim is the senior pastor of Church of the Resurrection (Church of the Rez) in  Syrcause. We met in 1996 when I moved to New York and became good friends. We have walked a leadership journey together for many years.

Tim is currently working on a master's degree in leadership. He has a real interest, not only in being the best leader he can, but in developing other leaders. Plus, Tim loves global missions, has a heart for cross-cultural ministry, and has traveled and ministered in a variety of countries.

We spent about two hours sitting in a Border's Cafe (a very nice one, by the way) and talked about leadership, caught up on life and ministry and family, and made plans for the November training in Chile.

Tim will be going with me to Santiago, Chile in November to teach the LCI course, Multiplying and Developing Leaders. I am real excited to do this in partnership with him. Not only will I have a week to spend with a good friend, but we'll have lots of iron-sharpening-iron conversations about leadership. And the course participants will have the benefit of learning from a very authentic leader.

What happens when you put a Pentecostal, Assembly of God pastor/leader (Tim) together with a former Baptist and for the most part pretty generic evangelical (me)  [note I said generic, not geriatric!] to do leadership training in South America?

I'll let you know in about two months. I anticipate very good things.

Brian Rice

Teaching on Mentoring

The mentoring workshop John taught was a combination of the best insights on mentoring from contemporary studies on that subject AND a biblical examination of mentoring models in the Scriptures. (John teaching in the classroom.)

John said the participation and contribution from the attendees was excellent and that the participants had engaging dialogue along with insightful questions. John saw a real desire on the part of the leaders to grow in their effectiveness as leaders.

That is something that we find everywhere we go. There is a real hunger and desire on the part of these "under-resourced" leaders to learn and grow in their ability to lead. It is a great privilege every time we are able to resource these dedicated leaders.

Below is John with two of the staff who work at Puerta al Mundo.

Brian Rice

John Hilliard Coaching in Honduras

John Hilliard just returned from Tejucigalpa, Honduras where he worked at the missions training center for Puerta al Mundo. He did workshops on mentoring for 30 participants. These participants ranged from the youngest in their teenage years to veteran, senior leaders.

John says he was humbled by the dedication of the participants. For many of them, it was a financial sacrifice on their part to attend the training workshop.

John says he was also struck by the lack of resources for leadership develoment. His ministry as a partner with Leadership ConneXtions was exactly what our vision and strategy is all about:  Leaders resourcing leaders who work in some of the "least resourced" areas of the world.

Brian Rice

John Hilliard to Lead Mentoring Workshop in Honduras

John Hilliard is a board member for Leadership ConneXtions as well as a presenter, facilitator and mentor for LWCC's Leading Edge ministry.

John will be heading to Honduras in July to work with missions leaders to equip them in the area of mentoring. John will be doing three workshops on mentoring:

1. Introduction to Mentoring Leaders
2. Self-Assessment and Preparing to Mentor
3. The Heart of Mentoring

Part of the vision and strategy of LCI is to partner with and equip leaders like John to travel to the least resourced places and work with leaders who want to grow in their leadership.

John will also be visiting Guatemala next weekend to attend the dedication of one of the largest churches in Latin America - Mega Frater. I think the new sanctuary seats 12,000 people!

Keep John in your prayers.

Brian Rice

Gava Wedding Picture

Our dear friend Omar Gava recently had the great privelege of escorting his daughter Ailin for her wedding to Diego.

We are very happy for the entire family.

I thought Omar looked quite "dashing" in his tuxedo!

Brian Rice

Life Long Learning

I was in upstate New York for three days. I went up to connect with a number of friends I hadn't seen for some time. It was great seeing these friends, catching up on what God has been up to in our lives and looking ahead to the future.

One of my best friends during the seven years in New York was Tim Adour. Tim is the senior pastor of Church of the Rez. Tim is a visionary, passionate, high energy, get the job done leader. We've had a lot of great leadership conversations over the years.

Tim had a vision (that he nurtured for about six years) to start a new church in a struggling, blue collar area (East Syracuse). They have been up and running for the last four months and they are already making an impact on that community.

Tim is a great example of life long learning that the very best leaders commit to doing. About a year ago, Tim launched into a "personal re-engineering process." He was already a good leader. He wanted to become a better leader. Part of Tim's vision was for him to become a developer and empower of other leaders. He is well into this process.

Tim (although he is much younger) reminds me a bit of Pablo Casals who was still practicing cello several hours a day when he was in his 80's. When asked why, he simply said, because I am still improving! That's the mindset of a leader committed to life long learning.

-BR