Dr. Robert E. Logan has over 40 years of ministry experience, including church planting, pastoring, consulting, coaching and speaking. Bob has authored many books that have proven valuable to trainers. Among them are Coaching 101, The Discipleship Difference and Leading and Managing Your Church. Bob earned his DMin from Fuller Theological Seminary. He counts it a privilege to walk alongside ministry leaders and help catalyze their ministries toward fulfilling the call God has placed on them, and he thrives in developing holistic and transformative resources that can easily be implemented in any context. Bob enjoys cycling and volunteering in a recovery community.
Before listening to the Bob Logan podcast, take this simple self-assessment. Use the following scoring scale.
1 – Never.
3 – Rarely.
5 – Sometimes.
7 – Usually.
10 – Always.
___ I clearly communicate why training planters is an important part of my ministry.
___ I regularly facilitate “aha” moments in the lives and ministries of those I train.
___ Those who are trained by me often sense that the Holy Spirit is at work in them through me.
___ I can sense God’s agenda in people’s lives and help that agenda to become a reality.
___ I know how to stay fresh and current as a trainer.
___ Your total
What does this score tell you about your need to grow as a trainer?
For more information, visit www.loganleadership.com.
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- Now, listen to the podcast featuring Bob Logan.
- Bob told a story about a vision he received early in his ministry about training church planters. The vision involved swimming to Catalina successfully and coming back to tell others how they could do it, too. What stood out to you in his story? How might that story have been strengthened so that it impacted you more deeply? What could be a story or a visual that you could craft that would communicate more clearly to others why you are committed to training church planters?
- Bob was asked how we can stay fresh and current as a trainer. He gave three answers:
- Remember your call.
- Always be a learner.
- Take on challenging cases.
What are 4-5 more ways you can stay fresh and current?
Now, look at Bob’s list and yours. Which 2-3 of these ways do you need to leverage the most? How will you do that?
- Bob described his favorite moment as a trainer, “What I love most about training is facilitating an ‘aha moment’ – a significant God-moment that changes the trajectory of someone’s ministry.” Think back to a scenario, a time when you received an “aha” moment as you were trained in some aspect of ministry. What happened? Who helped to give you that “aha” moment? How did they do it? Why did that work? What could they have done better? How can that past scenario from your life be better leveraged by you as you train others?
- Bob made several challenging observations. Here are 3:
- “I’m not smart enough to be the Holy Spirit. The best I can do is to come alongside people and help them discover what God wants for their lives and to do what I can to help them cooperate with Him to see that become a reality.”
- “We can’t deliver curriculum in a linear kind of way. We have to see where God is working. We have to see what’s God’s agenda. We have to help people process that agenda and help it become a reality in their life. That changes everything in discipleship, in leadership development, and in training church planters.”
- Answering how to grow as a trainer… “Personal engagement in the harvest. Unless you are personally engaged in the harvest you are not going to experience the kind of transformation internally that empowers your effectiveness as a trainer. Pursue personal involvement in the harvest in which God transforms your own heart. This allows you to be the kind of person who… has the confidence to infuse into others that same adventure of discovery where God is at work.”
Which of these three statements was most challenging to you personally? Why? What will you do to make an application to your life as a trainer?
- In the podcast, Bob said that a trainer must make an effort to process an experience in order to learn from it. He said, “If you don’t, you won’t cultivate wisdom. Take time to reflect on your learnings.” So, let’s put this challenge to practice now.
- Take some time to reflect on the experience of listening to this interview with Bob. Ask yourself, “What have I learned from Bob? What am I seeing that needs to be different in my training? Where do I need to change to be a better trainer? How do I need to adjust or add to my Traits of a Great Trainer?”
Write down your answers. Tell someone – a team member, a fellow trainer, or your Regional Multiply Catalyst – about the changes you want to make. Ask them to pray with you and encourage you. Now, develop a strategy – next steps – to make those changes a reality.
J.D. Payne has written an excellent academic paper about the missiology of Bob Logan. You can find it here: https://northamericanmissions.org/files/Bob-Logan-Article.pdf .
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Published October 26, 2017