Healthy Leaders

Reaching the lost through building leaders

LeaderSource — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 11:31:51 GMT

Welcome to The Connection, a round-up of fresh stories of transformation and resources for spiritual growth and healthy leader development. Visit our website to learn more about our work at LeaderSource. Thanks for reading!

A Word from Malcolm

“When the Cross comes, we often cannot see its purpose. We search for a reason and find none. Many believers say, “If I could see why God is allowing this, I think I could endure. But it just looks chaotic and unfair.” Dear brother, dear sister, bearing the Cross includes seasons when its purpose is hidden. We cling to Him and surrender to the God Who knows what we do not.
Faith trusts Him when suffering makes no sense and human understanding cannot explain it. In that darkness, faith looks to God alone.”

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Building Indigenous Tribal Leaders in India

Alongside Pastor H and his team, around 20 of those who attended these trainings directly are tribal leaders from this unreached people group. Despite a low level of literacy, they took firm hold of the models and were eager to learn more. Since they started, they have gained confidence that they can do great things for God’s Kingdom, and have grown steadily into mature, capable leaders.
These trainings continued over the course of three years, during which Pastor H’s ministry expanded far beyond what it once was. Instead of Pastor H and his small team doing all the work, the number of local leaders stepping up to share the Gospel in their villages has grown to 45 leaders. These leaders have become trusted figures in their communities and they are boldly standing for their faith as they reach people for Christ and build leaders.

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Healthy Prophetic Ministry

God is present among His people and He speaks to them. The prophetic gifts are part of how He builds His church, encouraging the discouraged and strengthening the weary.

In Healthy Prophetic Ministry, Malcolm Webber shows that a healthy church is a prophetic church, where God is transforming His people into the image of His Son. Drawing on decades of experience and close study of Scripture, he works through the various prophetic gifts of the Holy Spirit and shows how each one grows in a loving community under wise leadership.

Prophetic ministry that grows this way is humble and accountable, submitted to Scripture and to the Church. It is full of love for the people it serves. It nourishes the whole Body and points every eye to Jesus.

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The Latest from Malcolm:

Malcolm’s Musings

“Leave Yourself in My Hands”

This article is written by a wonderful woman of God from the Arabian Peninsula. God has moved greatly in her life to bring her out of darkness and into His light. She is being built now as a leader and church planter. (AI was used to translate this document from Arabic into English…

2 days ago · 12 likes · 3 comments · Malcolm Webber

If You Want to Change Your Ministry Culture, Build Leaders

LeaderSource — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 11:32:14 GMT

Did you know we have a podcast featuring solid biblical teaching? It’s called In the Word with Malcolm Webber, and we release it weekly, along with doctrinal teaching that goes beyond information into transformation. Check it out!

In the Word with Malcolm Webber

Hello friends,

We walked through what a healthy Christian organization looks like last time:

Centered on Union with Christ
Every Member Functioning
Growing in God
Serving Each Other
Building Others
Working with Purpose

So now we have our goal. But knowing the destination is the beginning of getting there. We have a lot of road to travel to get there — and some of us may be feeling the distance between pretty heavily. If you’ve used our evaluation tool, you might have found a number of areas that your church or organization needs to work on. If you want help identifying those areas, here it is:

Tool Evaluating A Local Church According To The Healthy Church Model

586KB ∙ PDF file

Download

So we’re armed now with two key pieces of knowledge — where we need to go (healthy organizational culture), and where we are now (our current organizational culture).

Before we move on, take some time to celebrate the healthy areas in your current culture. Rarely is one organization’s culture wholly bad or wholly good. Every church and ministry has areas of weakness and growth areas, just like every Christian leader. We’re not looking for perfection, but growth.

So let’s dig into how we get from where we are to where we want to go — the process of building healthy culture.

“Everyone can and should participate in building leaders!”

Who Are You Building?

Aside from the Four Dynamic model we use at LeaderSource (and have talked about many, many times), there are two key points here to keep in mind as you approach your organizational culture:

Personally build a few leaders, who will then build leaders.
Nurture a culture of people-building across the life of your organization.

Applying the Four Dynamics within these two roles is how you get to be an expert at using them.

When he encountered this paradigm shift from leading an organization to building leaders within it, one of the pastors we worked with in India had some profound insights.

“The training compelled me to see myself very clearly as I assessed the growth of my church. It helped me realize that the growth of a church depends heavily on the faithfulness, diligence, sincerity, and scriptural depth of its leaders. I recognized my shortcomings in many areas, and it motivated me to deepen my ministry.

… As a pastor, I often find myself focusing too much on programs, events, and outreach missions, neglecting the essential task of building up church members. We tend to be program-oriented, driven by annual events. While these activities are for the benefit of church members, we often miss the most crucial aspect. … Church ministry needs balance, and in everything we do, we must evaluate how effectively we are building and molding the saints in the Lord and equipping them.
The training also helped me realize that very few members are actively functioning within the church. It is not the members’ fault, but rather my own failure as a leader to recognize and develop their potential. This training opened my eyes to the fact that many members possess diverse gifts. My task in ministry is to identify these gifts, build up the members, and enable them to function as God intended.”

It’s notable that this pastor realized his responsibility — and failure as a leader — to build the culture of his church. The tendency in us as leaders is to fix things outside of us instead of our own selves. Often, we have the power to do so and can go on avoiding the real problem in us. But even just a slight willingness to listen and humble ourselves can lead to deep change.

We must step outside the events and programs long enough to see ourselves and our organization as we really are. Then we must step back into the fray, with an eye not to maintaining our own control over things, but to building the next generation of leaders. This will release the latent giftings and innovations and willpower we long to see from our young leaders.

What About You?

We’re getting at building emerging leaders here, so of course the question comes up: who are you building?

Name two or three leaders you are personally building right now. If you don’t have any names, whose name can you add within a month?
Look at how you allocate your time this week. How much time are you spending with people vs. on ministry work?
Who does your organization build, and how? Keep in mind that this doesn’t just involve knowledge flow, but relational depth, challenging assignments, and fellowship with God.

Let us know what you plan to do next in the comments, or any ways you’ve been building people in your organization that have been especially effective.

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Recommended Resources

Story: A Conversation with Three Generations about Succession
Video Training: Succession Means Passing on the Treasure
Video Course: Shaping a Culture of Generational Succession
Model Brief: LeaderStream
Article: God’s Vision for the Generations
For more resources, visit our website.

We’re so grateful to our friends at Fifty-Four Collective for helping us create these videos and for providing top-notch leader development online training. Check out what they’re doing!

The Four Facets of a Healthy Christian Organization

LeaderSource — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 11:30:53 GMT

Welcome back to Healthy Leaders! In this issue, we open up the hood to see what makes a healthy Christian organization tick.

Hello friends,

In our last post, we talked about the one characteristic of a healthy leader, that they rely fully and totally on Christ as both Center and Source.

It’s a humbling and convicting truth that as the leaders go, so goes the organization. If we really want our ministries and churches to be the light of Christ to the world, it requires that we get on our knees before God, in dependence on Christ.

From that foundation, then, we can begin to build a culture in our Christian organizations that mirrors the unity, love and power of the Godhead.

Remember the Ephesians 3 passage from last week? Here it is in context:

“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith – that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:14-21)

Paul is praying for this healthy culture in the Ephesian church. Note the firm foundation of love, the power to know the love of Christ in a way that passes beyond knowledge itself, and the utter experience of God available to us. This is quite the vision for a healthy organization! And it all starts with union with Christ.

Here’s Malcolm, expanding out from that union into the practical outworking of it.

“If you lead a Christian ministry organization, Christ must be at the center. Not just in name or in theory, but as a daily practical reality in the lives and the work of all your people.”

To recap, flowing out from union with Christ and every member functioning, we have four facets of a healthy organization:

Growing in God
Serving Each Other
Building Others
Working with Purpose

As you nurture these facets — exemplifying them in yourselves to start — your organizations will grow healthier and become more effective in the work that God has called them to do.

A friend of ours, an East Asian sister who coaches sports as a way to mentor emerging Christian leaders, has been nurturing leaders this way for the past six years. And still, to her, every sports camp she runs feels like a fresh encounter with God.

“Every time I prepare for training — during the design phase and while praying — the Holy Spirit always strongly reminds me: This is God’s vision. It’s His work. And every time, it’s something new! He will reign and lead; we are simply hidden in Him, co-working with God. As we think proactively, offer ourselves, and stay sensitive to His guidance throughout the process, beautiful things are bound to happen — and indeed, they always do!

Time and again, things have happened that far exceed what we asked or imagined. This has especially built up my heart in knowing God, relying on Him and fearing Him. God is truly among us. It has greatly strengthened my courage and confidence in Christ. I don’t need to fear, because this is God’s work!

Every time I witness God’s wonders firsthand — the gains people experience, the transformations in their lives — it leaves me in awe. I’m also so thankful that during each training session, I feel all my cells are alive, I’m full of energy, and my thinking becomes especially sharp. I often get ideas or revelations that surprise even myself. I know this isn’t from me — it’s God’s care for the entire group, and a personal strengthening for me.

… I’ve gone from believing sports ministry had nothing to do with me to knowing that this is God’s calling for me. I want to fully devote myself to it and continue to discover and witness God’s power.

In every preparation phase, our co-workers are always filled with eager anticipation – excited and energized. The overall culture of service is uplifting and positive. Never once have I felt they were just fulfilling a duty out of obligation. Instead, they step in with a deep desire to journey with God and with their spiritual family. Because everyone embraces the vision so wholeheartedly and truly experiences God’s power, we walk together in a healthy serving culture. The relationships among co-workers are beautiful, sincere, loving, and full of mutual encouragement and appreciation. We speak the truth in love. This community is a great encouragement to me.

During each training, the participants, through those few days of intense training, shared life, and listening to each other’s stories, became wonderful companions on the journey.

Notice how this is not something she musters up within herself, but a connection to God which overflows into the culture of her team. We see all Four Facets in action here: growth in every person, a desire to serve one another, building new team members and participants, and a deeper sense of calling and purpose available to everyone.

This is what our organizations, ministries and churches can look like if we turn away from our own plans and depend on God.

What About You?

So we know what a healthy Christian organization should look like. Now what?

Your church or ministry will undoubtedly be healthy in some areas and not so healthy in others. Even if every leader were to take the challenge we’re offering here and refocus their hearts and minds on Christ and the life He brings, there would still be work to do to align the people to that life — to convince them that being a healthy organization, centered on Christ and with everyone functioning in all four facets, is actually possible.

That alignment requires some serious evaluation of where you are now. We’ve created a free tool, specifically for churches but usable by organizations too, to help you in this evaluative process. Check it out, and let us know what you discover in the comments.

Tool Evaluating A Local Church According To The Healthy Church Model

586KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Subscribe now

Leave a comment

Recommended Resources

Read the latest from Malcolm!
Video Course: Building Healthy Churches
Model Brief: Summary of the ConneXions Model of Leader Development
For more resources, visit our website.

As always, we’re so grateful to our friends at Fifty-Four Collective for helping us create these videos and for providing top-notch leader development online training. Check out what they’re doing!

"No, bro, it’s not a course. It’s a lifestyle."

LeaderSource — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 11:31:03 GMT

A Word from Malcolm

“If you knew a great battle was coming, what would you do? You would prepare, build yourself up, eat and rest and gather strength. The last thing you would do is starve yourself for 40 days right before the fight!
But God did the opposite with His Son. He led Him into the wilderness, had Him fast for 40 days and let the devil come at Him at His moment of greatest physical weakness.
This is because, in the Kingdom of God, the path of strength is the path of weakness – dependence, looking to the Father for what we cannot do ourselves. Our own strength keeps us depending on ourselves; weakness drives us to depend on Him. The Holy Spirit led the Lord Jesus into a place of profound weakness because that is where the Father, not His own human strength, would be the Source of His victory.”

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Brother Zoe: Trailblazing in the Philippines

“People need more… They need more training and leadership and leader development than what we have for them.” While Zoe could work with larger church networks (he is in a major denomination that has churches all over Southeast Asia), he prefers to build emerging leaders from the beginning in life-on-life leader development. This grassroots mindset mirrors how Jesus built leaders – holistically, with a few people, in the midst of real life.
When he shares with pastors he knows, they often ask what course he has used with the people he ministers to. He just smiles and says,
“No, bro, it’s not a course. It’s a lifestyle. I invite them into the journey. It’s life discipleship. It’s not just people going to listen, sitting and going home. In the past we have idolized Western church role models, discipleship methods, and leader development. But this is what we really need.”

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Creation: Transformational Theology 7

For centuries, the world and even parts of the Church have debated the origins of the universe. Many today attempt to accommodate the shifting theories of modern science, suggesting that the early chapters of Genesis are merely symbolic stories, extended metaphors, allegories or myths borrowed from ancient pagan cultures.

They are none of these things. They are the true, historical, eyewitness account of how our loving, personal and sovereign God prepared the earth to be a home for humanity and a theater for the display of His glory.

God formed you, He knows you and He has designed you to know Him and to live in joyful and eternal union with Himself.

In this volume of Transformational Theology, Creation, we embrace the magnificent truth of God as Creator, so we may rest in His sovereign care, trust His infallible Word and be transformed by His glory.

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The Latest from Malcolm:

Malcolm’s Musings

Remon's Prayer

Whenever someone in our LeaderSource team has a birthday we ask them to share a little and then we all bless them. Recently, it was the birthday of Remon from Egypt. His sharing was so deep I wanted to share it with you all so you can pray this prayer too…

a month ago · 11 likes · Malcolm Webber

Is Your Organization Actually Working?

LeaderSource — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 11:30:57 GMT

Welcome back to Healthy Leaders! In this issue, there’s one characteristic of a healthy organization that you need to focus on.

Hello friends,

Organizations rely on a lot of different metrics to determine whether things things are going well — busy calendars, quantitative reports, effective programs, good turn-out. But there’s always going to be an underlying problem with this mode of evaluation, because it’s only measuring what you do, not whether you’re actually healthy.

Perhaps your organization, ministry or church operates like this. You’ve got scores of programs targeted to different demographics, great online presence, a burgeoning bank account… but the life has seeped out of your people.

One of the pastors we served in Nigeria identified this problem in his own ministry. He and his team were running things the way they thought they should be run, out of their own understanding and strength. What they got from doing this was struggle, worry, stress, and frustration.

“If your life is not right with God, whatever you are doing, you are simply going through the motions. Therefore, you cannot produce what you are not. As far as God and His work is concerned, I cannot do anything for Him of eternal value without experiencing Him. This calls for total dependency.”

Most of us can spot — or at least feel — the brokenness and burnout in an organization that has lost its spark. But how do you go about bringing the life back?

Here’s Malcolm with more:

Christ Is the Center and Source

Malcolm mentions this important passage in the video above:

… from Him the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Ephesians 4:16)

Where does true life come from here? It’s not from ourselves, or our infrastructure, or even the people, despite the fact that they are who we need to focus on when we’re thinking about nurturing our culture.

It comes from Jesus! Let’s back up the passage and check out the context:

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Ephesians 4:11-16)

For Christian leaders, the center and source for all of our leadership is Christ Himself. And Christ Himself is not in it for what we do, but who we are.

This means that the important questions facing you in your organization are not ultimately, “which programs are most attended?” or “how do our numbers look?” These questions misunderstand the real goal of a healthy organization: that each member is functioning the way God intends them to function. Instead, we should ask questions like:

Are we right with God?
Are we depending on Him instead of ourselves?
Are we seeking His face or doing the work in our own strength?
Are we moving toward His purposes or maintaining the status quo at the expense of our people?

A Case Study: Going from Burnout to Abiding in Christ

One of our beloved sisters in East Asia, before she came to one of our long-term training program, was hitting all the external ministry markers you would expect to see in a high-capacity leader. But inside she was burned out.

Our team leader shared this observation of the change she experienced in the program:

We were startled at how lifeless this sister seemed. There was not much response to whatever we were saying or doing. We were concerned at how big a challenge it might be to build her.

The program began with strong focus on union with Christ, taking extended time to soak in His presence. This sister became deeply engaged in these times. One day, as we were telling stories of how Jesus served each one of us as a servant leader, the overwhelming presence of Jesus came to us. We were all quiet, with deep emotion. Then, she spontaneously and tearfully began to speak from her heart to Jesus, like talking to a friend who used to be so close and dear, then long lost, and re-found.

She and her siblings were sent away from their parents at a young age, to be raised by their grandparents. She faced intense emotional starvation and rejection during her early childhood, eventually developing a hard and strong personality just to survive. When she came to know Christ in her twenties, she immediately began to experience God in very dramatic ways: miraculous healings in her and through her, unusual hunger for the word of God, long hours and seasons of fasting and prayer, and very close fellowship with the Holy Spirit. She lived in this state of God’s presence and anointing for 7 years!

By then she had grown to be a well-recognized leader in the movement. Then a huge spiritual confusion came upon the church movement she was in, and she was hurled into a great spiritual darkness. For the next 15 years, she still faithfully served in the church, but mostly out of the spiritual stores of her early years. These gradually ran dry. She was a member of an extremely ministry-driven leadership team, so she never stopped to take care of herself. She lived and served like this year after year, until she reached the point of extreme burnout and physical illness for three years. After so many years of following God, she despaired.

Then she joined our five-month program.

Here, she met her Lord again! Not once or twice, but every day, in everything we did, learned, and talked about. She abides in Jesus every day now, in a much deeper way than even her early years as a believer. Her mind has been opened and renewed through life-giving biblical principles for life and ministry, through Christ-centered, holistic models, and through the example of our staff living out the words we say. She has been resurrected!

What About You?

If you are a leader in your organization at any level, one of your goals must be to build your people so that they are not just surviving, but thriving. They should be pursuing God’s purposes fully, in dependency on God.

But if you’re not depending on God, it’s going to be nearly impossible to help them do it.

Leave a comment below — what are the primary obstacles that stop you from depending on God in your organization?

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Recommended Resources

Read the latest from Malcolm!
Video Course: Building Healthy Churches
Model Brief: Summary of the ConneXions Model of Leader Development
For more resources, visit our website.

Subscribe now

The Two Things Your Organization Learns From You Every Day

LeaderSource — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 11:31:06 GMT

Welcome back to Healthy Leaders! In this issue, what you do when no one is watching the clock is the most revealing thing about you.

Hello friends,

In our last issue, we established that leaders are always shaping their organization’s culture whether they realize it or not, particularly through their prayer and their lives. The leader who intercedes for his followers and lives what he claims to value is already doing the most fundamental culture-shaping work there is.

But eventually, a leader has to make decisions. He has to assign finances to a project, respond to a crisis, choose who to reward, etc. In every one of those moments, the culture of the organization is written out for those watching.

A leader can maintain a convincing prayer life and a pretty consistent example, and still contradict both of those things with his practical decisions. The work tells the truth that words sometimes conceal.

Here’s Malcolm with more:

Every leader communicates values through two channels simultaneously: what he says, and what he does. When those channels conflict, your followers believe the work.

Consider what Malcolm describes as the most quietly powerful of these: how leaders deal with people. The clearest cultural signals in any church or organization are who gets promoted, who gets held accountable and for what, who is rewarded and why. If you as a leader say that you value collaboration but then reward someone who achieved good results through self-serving behavior, your people draw their own conclusions: results are what matter, and how you treat others on the way to them is irrelevant. No talk about teamwork will undo that lesson.

The same principle applies to how you respond to crisis. When pressure is high and things go wrong, your people are watching you. Crisis reveals character, and your character in that moment will become your culture’s character.

We could go on. Budget decisions, time investments, what gets funded and what gets cut — stewardship of your resources also tells your organization what is actually valued. This is exactly what one older sister responsible for church finances in East Asia discovered about herself. She was known for tightly controlling expenses, with goals to purchase property and prioritize building wealth instead of people. Her coworkers had long struggled to approach her with financial requests. But through years of engagement with our team, her perspective shifted.

“The value of building people has taken root in my heart. Now, if something is beneficial to people’s lives, I gladly release the funds.”

This shift from preserving resources to investing in people is emblematic of the broader transformation across their church.

This sister enacted culture change in her church by what she did, not by what she said. The culture of her church shifted not because someone gave a talk about generosity, but because the person controlling the resources began to use them differently.

Of course, our words still matter in a big way. As Malcolm said — the stories a leader tells and re-tells over time have a direct impact on an organization’s culture.

A leader who regularly shares accounts of how God came through in moments of need is shaping a culture of faith. His people take on that story, and it becomes the lens through which they interpret their own lives. They begin to expect God to move. They begin to look for His faithfulness rather than defaulting to panic or self-reliance. So choose your stories and heroes carefully, because they will have a deep impact on your culture.

What About You?

Leaders shape organizational culture through their prayer, their lives, their work, and their words. All four, all the time, deliberately or unintentionally.

Think about the last significant decision you made in your church, ministry, or organization (a budget call, a personnel decision, a structural change, etc.) What cultural message did it send? Was that the message you intended?
When did you last tell a story to your team, your congregation, or your co-workers about God’s faithfulness in a moment of difficulty? Who are the heroes in the stories you tell most often?

We’d love to hear your reflections in the comments.

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Read the latest from Malcolm!
Video Course: Shaping a Culture of Generational Succession
Video Course: Building Healthy Churches
For more resources, visit our website.

"Everything was His doing, rooted in His presence!"

LeaderSource — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 11:32:04 GMT

A Word from Malcolm

David could have responded to the desert in many ways. He could have cried in self-pity. “Why is this happening to me? Why are people treating me like this? It is not fair.” He could have given in to anger at his enemies, blame toward those around him, demands that God fix everyone else and rescue him from the heat. He does some of that elsewhere in the Psalms. But here, his heart goes straight to God.
“O God, You are my God.” This is purification of vision. Nothing else matters now but God. “Earnestly I seek You.” This is pursuit, not casual interest or occasional prayer, but the seeking of a man whose body cries for water. “My soul thirsts for You. My flesh faints for You.” This is deep dependence. He needs God the way the body in the desert desperately needs water.
This is the right response to the wilderness. Pursue God! Seek Him as you have never sought Him before. Let the cry of your heart become a cry for God Himself, for the living water — for His Presence, His face. Do not waste the desert pursuing any of the smaller things that you might have pursued in better times. Pursue Him. The wilderness was given to you for this, and it will work in you what nothing else can.

Read More from Malcolm

How Isolated Hearts Found Community

“The transformation from start to finish was remarkable. These changes deeply encouraged every participant and left us once again marveling at God's work. Everything was His doing, rooted in His presence! On the final day, as coaches reflected together, we all agreed that God's Presence surpasses everything: all experience, all limitations and all of our plans. With His presence, we have our greatest confidence!”

Read the Rest

The Nature of Man

Humanity is in crisis. We have more information than ever before, yet less clarity about who we are, why we are here, and what it actually means to be human. In a world that is loudly redefining identity, gender, sexuality, purpose, and even what “life” is, followers of Jesus often feel confused, pressured or simply weary.

The Nature of Man is deeply personal, practical and transformational. Every part of our lives flows out of our understanding (or misunderstanding) of what Scripture says about who we are as human beings before God.

The nature of man is not just an academic topic. It is a doorway into a deeper experience of the God who formed you, redeemed you, and is daily transforming you into the image of His Son.

These are not dry doctrines but living truths that, when embraced, will reorient your entire life around God’s presence and design. This book isn’t intended to arm you for arguments. Instead, it invites you into fellowship with God Himself!

Buy the Book

The Latest Series from Malcolm:

Malcolm’s Musings

How Did the Early Church Gather?

How did the early believers meet together…

4 months ago · 2 likes · 7 comments · Malcolm Webber

Your Organizational Culture Has Your Fingerprints on It

LeaderSource — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 13:04:11 GMT

Welcome back to Healthy Leaders! In this issue, we ask an uncomfortable question: what is your organization’s culture actually learning from you?

Hello friends,

It has become popular to claim any number of things about the culture of your church or organization, whether it’s trumpeting your values or talking incessantly about your identity.

The trouble is that what you say your culture is actually has very little to do with what your culture actually is. The actual culture of your organization isn’t posted on the wall or written in a document. It’s defined by a thousand small moments, like the way you as the leader respond when things go wrong, what you laugh at, what you ignore, what you pray about (or never pray about). Your people watch all of it. Over time, without a word being spoken about “culture,” they know exactly what is valued and what is not.

You’re always shaping your culture. What kind of culture are you shaping?

Here’s Malcolm with more on this:

In almost every organization, there’s a gap between the values a leader announces and the values that he or she lives.

The official statement may say, “We value prayer.” But does the leader pray? Visibly, fervently, and not as a last resort? People are not reading some statement, they are reading you, their leader.

As Malcolm says, the leader himself is the vision statement, and the leader’s life is the values statement. A leader who says one thing and does another produces a very clear culture that believes that words are cheap and that the real values are what you see in the room.

This sobering reality cuts both ways. It means that a leader who is genuinely growing, praying, and putting people before programs can shift an entire organization’s culture simply by being consistently, visibly, different. Culture will follow the leader!

One of our leaders in Nigeria discovered this when he looked honestly at the shape of his ministry:

“I now know where we have missed it. This training is an eye-opener. The problem is the ‘mold’ that gave the ministry the shape we were running and building with. Once the mold is defective, every other thing that comes after it takes on the faulty shape, with all its defects. We need to return to the way of the Lord! … This is a call to re-tune the mold of our ministry, for it to be more effective.”

This brother’s ministry had taken on the shape it had because he had given it that shape — not through deliberate design, but through the assumptions, habits, and blind spots he carried into the work. The culture of his organization was, in the deepest sense, a portrait of its leader.

If a leader’s life is the primary instrument through which culture is shaped, then what a leader does in secret matters enormously. This is why prayer is not merely one item among many in a leader’s toolkit. As we see in the lives of Jesus and the apostles throughout the New Testament, prayer is the foundation.

Active prayer requires coming before God, being honest about ourselves and our organizations, listening attentively to the voice of the Spirit, and asking urgently to see God work in power. Prayer gives us a realistic picture of reality, and it expands our vision of what could be.

A leader who does not pray is a leader who is shaping culture entirely from his or her own resources. But a leader who prays looks to God, who can transform both leader and organization into His image.

Sister W, one of the church leaders we worked with in East Asia, found this to be true in her own experience. First, she turned to God in dependence on Him to make the culture changes her church desperately needed. Then, leading up to a pivotal training on how to build healthy churches, she mobilized the whole body to pray every day for four months. With this as the foundation, she turned to shaping culture, starting with herself. She began to intentionally love and serve her brothers and sisters in Christ, seeking to support and equip others, and practicing affirmation and encouragement.

“Over time, what started as a conscious effort turned into an unconscious habit. The atmosphere became lively, passionate and sincere! … Participants later said, ‘What we see most here is prayer — everything is soaked in prayer.’”

This is the trajectory of genuine culture change — from intentional, to practiced, to lived. Sister W became the new culture, and her church followed.

What about you?

Your organization has a culture. You gave it that culture — through your prayer life and your lack of it, through your example and your inconsistencies, through what you celebrated and what you let slide.

But the fact that your culture starts with you as the leader means you have an opportunity. If the culture came through you, it can be changed through you. You can become the leader God is calling you to be, and it will transform your organization.

Reflect on these questions:

If the people you lead were asked to describe the culture of your organization, what would they say?
What would it look like to begin shaping your organization’s culture more intentionally, starting with your own prayer life?

We’d love to hear your reflections in the comments.

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Read the latest from Malcolm!
Video Course: How Leaders Shape Organizational Culture
Tool: The Four Perspectives Model of Organizational Capacity Building
Teaching: Building a Healthy Organization
For more resources, visit our website.

You Might Be the Problem with Your Culture

LeaderSource — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 11:30:36 GMT

Welcome to Issue 67 of Healthy Leaders. In this issue, culture change begins where you least expect it — with you.

Hello friends,

Every leader has a culture problem. The question is whether they know it.

Walk into almost any struggling organization — a church that has grown stagnant, a ministry where people have quietly stopped trusting one another, a team where initiative has dried up — and you will find a leader who is deeply concerned about the culture and has tried many things to fix it. They have drafted vision/mission/values statements, gathered their team to cast their vision, rallied the troops as best they can… And the culture has not changed.

Culture is not a program you can install. It is a living thing that grows out of the people in the organization, and above all out of its leaders. Every decision you make, every priority you set, every conversation you allow or avoid, every behavior you tolerate or confront — all of it is constantly shaping and reinforcing the culture around you. You have been doing this for years. So has every leader beneath you. The culture you have today is the sum of all of that.

Which means the only real lever you have on culture is yourself.

Here’s Malcolm with more:

This is uncomfortable for most leaders to hear, not because it is complicated, but because it is so close to home.

We tend to think of organizational problems as being “out there” somewhere. The culture is the problem. The people are the problem. The systems are the problem. And so we reach for external solutions: a better strategy, a clearer vision statement, stronger policies and processes. These things are not useless, but they cannot do what we are hoping they will do. A vision statement describes the kind of culture you want, but it won’t produce it.

Culture is always a reflection of who the leaders are, not just what they wish everyone else would be.

Jesus drove this point home when He rebuked the Pharisees:

… first clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. (Matthew 23:26)

The Pharisees were meticulous about external appearances. They knew exactly what the culture of a godly community was supposed to look like, and they worked tirelessly to produce it through rules, rituals and enforcement. And it was hollow. Jesus told them why: the problem was never the outside of the cup. The outside will take care of itself when the inside is clean.

The same principle holds in every organization you lead.

We see this pattern again and again in our work around the world. A pastor in Egypt who came to one of our long-term trainings had been dedicating all of his efforts to evangelism and saving souls. During the conference — especially when he heard about the centrality of Christ — he realized that he had focusing solely on outreach to the point that he viewed his followers as tools for achieving his mission. This created a culture of frustration and discouragement in his team.

Through the training he was able to realize that this unhealthy culture was not the fault of his followers, but of himself. It was if he was seeing himself in a mirror for the first time. He came to understand that he had not truly been serving his people but using them. They didn’t have a lack of love for God, or a lack of commitment. They needed a leader who cared for them personally, before they could effectively serve others.

Faced with this revelation, the pastor asked us to help him on his journey of transformation, and we began regular follow-ups to support him as we continued with the training. He immediately put his plan into action before we even finished the training.

Most of his team were farmers, so he began to go to them personally, spending time with them where they lived and worked, demonstrating care for them and serving them as a true shepherd.

On the final day of the training, there was a special time of worship and prayer after the sermon. The pastor knelt before the Lord, weeping bitterly and praying with true repentance for the Lord to help him change. He asked for prayer, that the Holy Spirit would lead, guide, strengthen and support him on the new path he had chosen, to correct the mistakes of the past.

This moment became a turning point. The pastor began to lead in a different way, one that reflected the heart of Christ more closely. His work to change himself was reflected in his leadership, and brought about a profound change in the lives of his followers and in the culture of his ministry.

By saying that you as the leader are the primary cultivator of culture in your organization, we don’t mean that the structural work of leadership is unimportant. Structures, expectations, how you communicate, how you handle conflict, how you make decisions — all of this matters, and all of it can be done well or poorly. But the reason those things produce life or drain it always comes back to the person behind them.

A leader who is fearful will build a fearful culture, no matter how courageous his vision statement.

A leader who is defensive about being questioned will build a culture where people stop thinking out loud, regardless of how many times the term “open communication” is proclaimed to be a core value.

A leader who quietly tolerates sin in his own life will find that sin spreading through the organization, usually in forms he doesn’t recognize as related to his own.

What you are is what your organization will become, over time and in one form or another.

So our first question as we get into organizational culture is not “how do we change the culture?” The question must be “what needs to change in me?”

This is a much harder question to answer. It requires taking a hard look at your beliefs and values, your habits and attitudes, and the assumptions that you carry into every meeting and every relationship. It requires asking God to show you what is actually shaping the people around you, and being willing to hear the answer.

The good news — and it is genuinely good news — is that this kind of change is possible, by God’s grace. The leader who is willing to be changed by God is the leader whose organization can be transformed.

As Paul wrote to the Corinthians:

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord Who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:17-18)

The transformation flows from beholding Him. When it is received by the leader, it begins to move through the culture he shapes.

The desire for change is universal, but the willingness to be changed personally, at the level of belief and character and ingrained habit, is rare. The leaders who get to the other side of a genuine culture transformation are almost always the ones who were willing to go first, to let God work in them before they tried to manage what was happening around them.

This is what healthy leadership looks like from the inside: honesty about what needs to change in our own hearts, and willingness to keep bringing those things to God.

What about you?

Take a moment to consider the culture of your organization — your church, your ministry, your team. What are one or two cultural problems you have been trying to address through external means?
What might those problems reveal about something in you that God wants to change?

You don’t have to answer these questions publicly. But we’d encourage you to sit with them honestly before God, and to share what He shows you with a trusted friend, a mentor, or in the comments below.

Leave a comment

Read the latest from Malcolm!
Video Course: How Leaders Shape Organizational Culture
Tool: The Four Perspectives Model of Organizational Capacity Building
Teaching: Building a Healthy Organization
For more resources, visit our website.

"I was amazed by the transformation!"

LeaderSource — Fri, 08 May 2026 11:31:06 GMT

A Word from Malcolm

“By offering glimpses of Himself to our mind’s comprehension, God intends to inspire in us a seeking after the experience of the same things we understand. The knowledge is meant to be a doorway, not a destination. It is meant to provoke us, to goad us, to drive us out of a purely theoretical Christianity and into a real one.
But here is the danger. When we receive the knowledge without also yielding to the Divine impulse to seek — when we substitute the intellectual theory for the life-experience — our knowledge turns on us and harms us. It robs us of the very experience it was given to lead us into. Because we mistakenly believe we already possess the reality, we find in our hearts no inspiration to seek for it. We become lovers of doctrines more than lovers of God, all under the guise of “Truth.”
The Word of God was given to bring us to Jesus — to bring us to know Jesus — to bring us to a fellowship of love with Jesus. We think we are “staying with the Word,” but we are not staying with the Word, because the Word points us to God — to the reality of Christian experience of God.”

Read More from Malcolm

How to Build a Healthy Church

“Even when I didn’t fully understand everything, I found that as long as I was willing to love God and serve others, He would open doors for me. When I devoted myself to building up others, I experienced great joy, freedom and release. It was truly a process of continuous renewal and transformation. I feel immensely blessed and in awe. I am deeply grateful that God brought me back to the simple, original heart of serving Him.”

Read the Rest

Portrait of a Healthy Church: An Exposition of 1 Thessalonians

The Thessalonian church was a healthy church.

“... you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For not only has the Word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything.” (1 Thess. 1:7-8)

Moreover, it was healthy a short time after being planted.

How did this happen? What were the key elements that went into this?

A Portrait of a Healthy Church is a practical roadmap for church leaders and planters, focusing not on techniques but on the life of the leaders and the churches they lead.

If we can get the life right, then, by God’s grace, the right structure will follow and the Church will be the beautiful Bride, the glorious Temple and the mature Body that Jesus died for and will soon return for!

Buy the Book

The Latest from Malcolm:

Malcolm’s Musings

If You Ask Me Anything in My Name, I Will Do It

Whatever you ask in My Name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My Name, I will do it. (John 14:13-14…

5 months ago · 5 likes · Malcolm Webber

Why Christian Leaders Fall, and What It Takes to Finish Well

LeaderSource — Fri, 01 May 2026 11:31:42 GMT

Welcome back to Healthy Leaders! In this issue, we interrupt our normal programming to bring you a fresh podcast from our friends at Lausanne.

Hello friends,

We’ve been deep into what it takes to identify and commission high-potential leaders in recent issues of Healthy Leaders. Our last issue dealt specifically with the leaders who were appointed by men or by themselves, rather than called by God and confirmed in an accountable community. You can check it out here:

Healthy Leaders

Why Many Leaders Are Promoted Too Soon

Welcome back to Healthy Leaders! In this issue, we look past man’s ambition to a divine calling to lead God’s people…

5 months ago · 3 likes · LeaderSource

Too often, however, even leaders who have been called and commissioned into key leadership positions ultimately end up failing in their leadership instead of finishing well.

Why is this?

This is what Jason Watson (one of our friends at Lausanne) and Malcolm Webber get into in their latest podcast episode. The answer isn’t in better information, longer experience, or greater gifting — as you might be able to guess if you have been with us for very long. Rather, it’s about turning back to how Christ built leaders.

Check it out here:

Thanks to the Lausanne Movement for making this conversation possible.

Until next time, we’re with you!

— Chris

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Why Many Leaders Are Promoted Too Soon

LeaderSource — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 11:31:31 GMT

Welcome back to Healthy Leaders! In this issue, we look past man’s ambition to a divine calling to lead God’s people.

Hello friends,

In our last issue, we quoted Malcolm’s words from his book, Healthy Leaders:

“It is only as the leader is genuinely accountable to his community and allows them to help mold and clarify his calling that he is assured of purity of vision. Thus, the calling of the leader must be birthed in Christ, purified in community and built upon fire-tested character.”

This understanding of the true calling of a leader is vital to our topic today — the commissioning of that leader. You’ve identified a high-potential leader in your midst. You have observed his or her life, and see strong indications of thinking and acting abilities. Your community has also observed it, and God has confirmed it.

Now what?

Here’s Malcolm with more:

Throughout the Bible, there are examples of leaders who weren’t commissioned in this way. Instead, they tried to meet their community’s need for a leader without an actual call from God, or worse — they went ahead and commissioned themselves!

Saul is a good example of the man-appointed leader.

The Lord told Samuel to give them what they wanted — a man to rule over them (1 Sam. 8–10). Then Samuel warned the people that their new leader was destined to rob and spoil them (1 Sam. 8:11-17). It was significant that Samuel anointed Saul with oil poured from a man-made flask (1 Sam. 10:1), whereas he anointed David (God’s choice) with the horn of an animal (1 Sam. 16:13) that was not made by man.

Today, man-appointed leaders look upon Christian leadership as a profession or a career. They are more concerned with the medical benefits or retirement accounts that come with the “job” than they are for the sheep of God. They are the “hired hands” (John 10:12-13). They are religious professionals who do not further the life of God’s people. And generally, if they really count the cost of leadership, they won’t stick around for long.

In the other category we have leaders like Korah, who appointed himself to be a leader (Num. 16–17). The following characterized his leadership:

He caused others to rise up against existing spiritual authority (Num. 16:2).
He publicly criticized and questioned the existing leadership (Num. 16:3).
He accused the leadership of what he himself was guilty (Num. 16:3).
He was not satisfied with the position he was given. He wanted more authority and a higher position (Num. 16:10).
He continually murmured against the Divinely-appointed leadership (Num. 16:11).
He ended under the judgment of God (Num. 16:31-35).

Not a pretty picture! And unfortunately it’s one we are very familiar with in our current celebrity culture of Christian leadership.

Malcolm’s Musings

Fallen Leaders and Our Current Church Culture

Subscribe for free to receive Malcolm’s new posts…

2 years ago · 3 likes · 2 comments

In contrast to both self-appointed and man-appointed leadership, true leadership will be appointed by God.

“Paul, an apostle — sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead.” (Gal. 1:1)

True spiritual leadership does not come from loyalty to one’s denomination, or from some personal vested interest in leading — it comes from God.

Marks of the Divine Call

Leaders will be aware of the call of God on their lives. They may fight or deny the call for a while, but they will still know God has called them:

For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel! For if I do this willingly, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have been entrusted with a stewardship. (1 Cor. 9:16-17)

After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe.” (Acts 15:7)

Another way we can discern a true divine call to leadership upon a leader’s life is by seeing if people are actually experiencing personal transformation through their interaction with the leader. That is proof of his or her calling from God.

You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. (2 Cor. 3:2-3)

For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy. (1 Thess. 2:19-20)

In short, getting to the point of commissioning a leader involves much more than just a need, or a passion, or an ambition. It involves:

An emerging leader who thinks and acts.
A community who observes and affirms that leader’s ability to lead — generally observed through transformation.
An emerging leader who understands his or her calling to lead God’s people.
Deep dependence on God all around.

May God raise up more and more healthy leaders to lead His people forward in His purposes!

What about you?

Think of the leaders you’re currently training, or have trained in the past.

Are all of them the “right” people?
If not, how could you have made a better choice?

Think of emerging leaders you know who do think and act well.

Which of them should you be investing in more deeply?
How will you do this?

Until next time, we’re with you!

— Chris

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Read the latest from Malcolm!
Article: True Spiritual Leadership
Model Brief: LeaderID
Book: Spiritbuilt Leadership 2: Healthy Leaders
Video Course: Transformational Thinking
For more resources, visit our website.

"God Himself was working!"

LeaderSource — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 11:31:05 GMT

A Word from Malcolm

Maintaining the present is not leadership. It is stewardship, administration, and care – all important, all necessary, but not leadership.
Leadership asks a different question. Not “How do we keep this working?” but “Where must we move?” When leadership is present, people do not simply feel cared for; they are being led forward. There is direction, momentum and transformation in the purposes of God.
Jesus did not deny the importance of caring for people. He was the most compassionate leader who ever lived. But His compassion always moved people somewhere — toward repentance, faith, obedience, maturity, vision and the Kingdom of God.

Read More from Malcolm

From Pressure to Profound Impact

“I was moved to tears nearly every day. It helped me reflect on my life and actions: Am I fully obeying God’s call? I want to be in deep communion with Him, put Him first, submit, and commit, to be a healthy leader aligned with God’s heart. …”
“This training brought people out of tradition and beyond denominational boundaries into pure understanding. The entire process was filled with God’s presence, our perspective was broadened, and we loved and cared for one another like heaven on earth. Everyone’s life was built up — truly a life-transforming miracle!”

Read the Rest

The Word of God: Transformational Theology 6

God desires to be known. Yet, because He is eternal and perfect — and we are finite and fallen — we could never know Him unless He revealed Himself to us.

And this is exactly what He has done! In His great love and grace, God has spoken. He has made Himself known through creation, through His mighty works, through His Son, and by His Spirit. But uniquely and authoritatively, He has revealed Himself through His Word.

The Word of God is not merely a religious text. It is God-breathed. It is His self-revelation, given so that we might know Him, be made wise for salvation, and be transformed into His likeness. Without His Word, we remain in darkness. Through His Word, we see His glory.

In this volume of Transformation Theology, The Word of God, we return to the central foundation of the Church: the authority, sufficiency, power, and beauty of Scripture. More to be desired than gold and sweeter than honey, the Word of God is our life.

Come and rediscover the great treasure God has placed in your hands. Through His Word, you can know Him — and be changed forever!

Buy the Book Now!

The Latest from Malcolm:

Malcolm’s Musings

When God Seems Absent

Behold, I go forward, but he is not there, and backward, but I do not perceive him; on the left hand when he is working, I do not behold him; he turns to the right hand, but I do not see him. But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold. (Job 23:8-10…

6 months ago · 2 likes · Malcolm Webber

How to Motivate Emerging Leaders to Grow

LeaderSource — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 11:32:43 GMT

Welcome back to Healthy Leaders! In this issue, we get motivated.

Hello friends,

In our last issue, we looked at key characteristics of thinking and acting that will help us identify high-potential emerging leaders.

Let’s say that you’ve found the right ones. Now what?

The first thing to look for when you are building leaders is opportunities to do it. It won’t happen in the classroom or the library. It will happen on the job, on the road, at home, and in the thick of suffering. It will happen throughout a life lived with the leaders you are building — just like it did when Jesus built His disciples. He looked for challenging assignments to give them, offered them opportunities, and gave them room to try and fail and try again.

But making use of the opportunities that present themselves is one side of the coin. How do we motivate the leaders we have identified to actually take those opportunities?

Here’s Malcolm with more:

It’s important at this stage, as we are seeking to motivate your emerging leaders toward growth, that we recognize the danger of zealous human ambition, and it’s power especially over gifted leaders.

Thomas Merton said this of such ambition:

We must be on our guard against a kind of blind and immature zeal — the zeal of the enthusiast or the zealot — which represents precisely a frantic compensation for the deeply personal qualities which are lacking to us. The zealot is man who “loses himself” in his cause in such a way that he can no longer “find himself” at all. Yet paradoxically this “loss” of himself is not the salutary self-forgetfulness commanded by Christ. It is rather an immersion in his own willfulness conceived of as the will of an abstract, non-personal force: the force of a project or program. (Seasons of Celebration)

A leader’s calling to lead must be tested, whatever their passion, gifting or abilities. It must be observed by and submitted to their community.

“It is only as the leader is genuinely accountable to his community and allows them to help mold and clarify his calling that he is assured of purity of vision. The calling of the leader must be birthed in Christ, purified in community and built upon fire-tested character.” (Malcolm Webber, from Healthy Leaders)

As you think about the emerging leaders that God has given you to build, please remember several important things.

1. Potential is not performance.

“Potential” is, by definition, “what you’re not … yet.”

If the emerging leader is already performing at a high level of thinking and acting, he or she doesn’t need any training, but should be put in charge of everything right now!

You must look for indicators of leadership calling — not perfection.

2. Potential is not willingness.

Someone may have a clear and profound calling as a leader but not be willing to embrace the cost of leadership. Pray for them that God will open their heart to His calling.

3. Potential is not readiness.

Someone may have both the calling and the willingness to be a leader, but is not currently ready to do it. There can be a variety of reasons for this. Don’t give up on them. Keep them involved at whatever level is currently possible and wait for a better time to call them to a higher commitment.

4. It will never be perfect!

Our goal is not perfection. Life and people are very complicated and messy. Remember that one of those that Jesus called did not work out well! This model gives us a clear path but it does not guarantee 100% success. Be willing to take a risk and then be prepared to adapt as you go.

What about you?

As you reflect on what we’ve talked about here, what is God saying to you now?

For those of you who are established leaders, considering who you are building now or identifying who you should build: what can you do to motivate your emerging leaders?

For those of you who are young leaders, seeking to follow the call that God has laid on your life: are you serving and submitting to your leaders and your community?

And if you aren’t building a leader yet… what’s stopping you?

We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Until next time, we’re with you!

— Chris

Leave a comment

Subscribe now

Read the latest from Malcolm!
Model Brief: LeaderID
Book: Spiritbuilt Leadership 2: Healthy Leaders
Video Course: Transformational Thinking
For more resources, visit our website.

Free Online Training Available on Outdoor Ministry!

LeaderSource — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 11:30:50 GMT

Join Brent Hoover for an inspiring training on how outdoor environments can become powerful settings for discipleship and leader development.

Drawing from years of experience leading wilderness retreats and outdoor leadership programs, Brent will share stories, insights and practical design principles you can apply in your own ministry context.

There is something uniquely powerful about stepping outside of everyday routines and into a new environment. In those spaces, distractions fade, hearts often become more open to God’s work, relationships grow deeper, character is shaped and emerging leaders begin to see their calling with greater clarity.

Whether you serve youth, students, church leaders or emerging leaders, this training will offer practical ideas to help you use outdoor experiences more intentionally to cultivate spiritual growth and develop healthy, lasting leaders.

Join us!

Date: March 26, 2026

Time:
Eastern Time (US and Canada): 9:00 AM
GMT / UTC: 1:00 PM
West Africa Time (WAT – Nigeria, Angola): 2:00 PM
India Standard Time (IST): 6:30 PM
Indonesia Western Time (WIB – Jakarta): 8:00 PM
China Standard Time (CST – Beijing): 9:00 PM

Zoom Meeting Link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84758983431?pwd=HhUMAXru60Gk9cMWYt7rSscWX0qQdo.1

Meeting ID: 847 5898 3431
Passcode: 200400

Facilitator: Brent Hoover
For the past 17 years, Brent has helped develop leaders through wilderness retreats and the LeaderTrek ministry. His experience in outdoor leadership development has helped many leaders grow in character, faith, and calling through intentional outdoor experiences.

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"These truths became alive in us..."

LeaderSource — Sat, 07 Mar 2026 12:30:55 GMT

A Word from Malcolm

The gifts God gives us are not for personal platform, self-expression or personal identity but for strengthening others. A healthy church is a community in which everything we do is for the edification, healing, encouragement and the formation of Christ in one another. Nothing is wasted; everything contributes to growth in Him.
… The purpose of everything we do is the glory of God. When the Church lives this way, God is honored, Christ is exalted and the world sees the beauty of His people walking in His grace, truth and love.
This should be the vision of every local church: to be a Spirit-filled community where every believer participates, every gift is stewarded, every act of service builds up the Body, and all of it results in glory to God through Jesus Christ.

Read More from Malcolm

Transformational Theology in East Asia

“These truths became alive in us, bringing freedom and release, allowing us to walk freely before God and others, and live in the light. [Transformational Theology] taught us to pay attention to God in all aspects of life and to be led by Him right now, in our current environment.
We learned to serve God and love others in the here and now. When we completed the assignments designed for each lesson, our lives were truly transformed. Many saw their faith grow and developed a deeper hunger for God!”

Read the Rest

Who Jesus Christ Is: Transformational Theology 4

Because of the centrality of the Lord Jesus to everything, the doctrine of the Person of Jesus—particularly the deity of Christ—has been attacked throughout Church history. However, God has provided an immense amount of evidence throughout the Scriptures for both the deity and humanity of Christ. Amazingly, Jesus is both God and Man!

Because He is God, Jesus created all things. All things exist by Him, through Him, and for Him. Moment by moment, He sustains all things, and all things are ultimately for His glory. Apart from Him, we can accomplish nothing of any value. Truly, everything revolves around Jesus.

But He is also Man! And as a Man, Jesus knows what we are going through and welcomes us into a deep relationship with Himself. Jesus has called us to be His friends!

In this fourth volume of Transformational Theology, Who Jesus Christ Is, we unfold the beauty and truth of one of the most important doctrines in the whole Bible. The Christian life, from start to finish, is union and friendship with Jesus—the One who is fully God and fully Man.

Let us come to Him, and He will give us life!

Buy the Book Now!

The Latest from Malcolm:

Malcolm’s Musings

True Spiritual Leadership

7 months ago · 6 likes · 2 comments · Malcolm Webber

How to Identify Those Who Have Strong Leadership Potential

LeaderSource — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 12:31:18 GMT

Welcome back to Healthy Leaders! In this issue, we look at the characteristics of high-potential leaders.

Hello friends,

In our last issue, we waded into the LeaderID model, which starts with two primary factors for identification of high-potential in a leader: the ability to think, and the ability to act.

It’s no coincidence that these qualities are contained in the Great Commandment that Jesus Himself identifies:

And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27)

Jesus is talking here about not only thinking capacities, but motivation and will — the things necessary for acting on our faith. Thinking and acting aren’t just relegated to Christian leaders, but they are definitely necessary for those leaders to be healthy and effective!

The Apostle Paul also talks about these qualities in this passage from his letter to the Philippians:

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me — practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:8)

The sort of thinking that God desires leads to practice — it leads to action.

So, besides seeking to think and act in our own lives, what about our emerging leaders? What are the specific characteristics of thinking and acting that we should be looking for in them?

Here’s Malcolm with more:

The LeaderID Model is based on the principle that high-potential emerging leaders are already thinking and acting.

Here are some key indicators of both thinking and acting.

We’ve seen these characteristics in leaders we train.

When we first met Brother E, he was serving as a volunteer during a youth leadership conference our team led. His passion for leading the youth in his church quickly became evident, despite his young age. He was already putting together his own personal designs long before he led 34 members of his youth group through a design workshop with us, while our team only occasionally contributed ideas.

He later reported:

“I can’t be lazy anymore with my own growth and with the group’s growth because most of the youth are looking up to me. I am so grateful to God for the excitement and passion shown by so many youth leaders just a few weeks after the training. I praise God that for the first time after many years, more than 100 of the youth from our church and her daughter church attended our first retreat to fast, pray, learn, and talk about their spiritual growth. Their commitment is quite encouraging.”

Brother E was thinking and acting as a leader in his own context before we connected with him, and his church leadership saw that fire in him. Because of this, his impact has expanded far beyond its initial scope!

What about you?

Let’s take another look at those thinking and acting characteristics:

Now think about the potential emerging leaders you are currently working with in your church or ministry.

Which of these indicators are already present in their lives and leadership?

We shouldn’t think that all of them must be present for the young leader to have high potential. And of course this isn’t meant to be a checklist for creating a “score” for your young leaders. These are simply the kinds of things to look for.

As you consider the emerging leaders in your organization, which of them can you now see as having truly high potential?

What will your next steps be to give them the learning opportunities they need to grow and excel?

Until next time, we’re with you!

— Chris

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Model Brief: LeaderID
Video Course: Shaping a Culture of Generational Succession
Video Course: Transformational Thinking
For more resources, visit our website.

Choosing the Right Leaders to Build

LeaderSource — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 12:31:16 GMT

Welcome back to Healthy Leaders! In this issue, we introduce the LeaderID model.

Hello friends,

We’ve been addressing an issue of particular importance recently: that of identifying the right leaders to build. Doing this well is incredibly strategic, but the process of identification is not as complicated as you might think.

In fact, it can be broken down into four factors:

Looking for those who think
Looking for those who act
Observing their lives within real community
Depending on God through prayer and spiritual discernment

Here’s Malcolm with more on this.1

As we see in this video, the LeaderID Model is based on the principle that high-potential emerging leaders are already thinking and acting.

So what are some real-life examples of this?

Like all of our models, LeaderID is rooted in Scripture, and the New Testament contains several examples that are helpful here.

The first is that of Timothy, an emerging leader who eventually came to be Paul’s right-hand man. Luke records this in Acts 16:

Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him … (Acts 16:1-3)

Timothy was apparently already functioning well in ministry responsibility in both Lystra and Iconium. He was thinking and acting, and his community recognized his high leadership potential and recommended him to Paul.

Then, there’s the example of the Thessalonian church:

We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work…. (1 Thessalonians 5:12-13)

The Thessalonian church is only months old at this point, so they didn’t have appointed leaders yet (such as in Acts 14:23 or Titus 1:5). Even so, at this early stage there are some members of the church who are informally doing the work. Paul would have seen this beginning when he was there, and Timothy would have seen it in a little more advanced state and told Paul about them.

In 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul points them out to the people, but not by title or even by name. The people know who they are — they are serving the people, equipping the people, protecting the people, guiding the people. They are doing the work, not because they have a pastoral job or title but because they love the people and take responsibility and initiative. It is natural and organic.

Moreover, what qualified these leaders was not a formal degree but their lives in Christ, their character, servanthood and vision, and their initiative in guiding and equipping the people.

See, this is how Paul understands “leaders.” Leaders are those who fulfill the functions of leadership — meaning that they are actually doing the hard daily “labor” of leading the people — rather than people with positions and titles.

The leaders here do not have formal titles, positions or religious jobs, and Paul tells the people to know them, recognize them and respect them. True leaders will do the work of leadership, with or without the recognition, but it’s easier and better for everyone if they are “known” by the people (Hebrews 13:17).

Moreover, this shows us how leaders are established in the Body of Christ. They are the ones who are actually doing the work. They take responsibility and initiative. They think and act in a way that serves and builds the life of the church. They do the work first and are identified and recognized later.This is probably what happened in Acts 14:23 and Titus 1:5. Those whom Paul appointed as the new elders in the churches were the ones who had already been doing the work and were recognized by the people.

We should also notice that these leaders are “among you.” Like Paul, who lived and served “in the middle of” the people (1 Thessalonians 2:7), these leaders did not show up once a week to stand on a stage and give a brief public performance to an “audience.”

They lived among the people, deeply engaged with them in the midst of their daily lives, serving them, working hard to equip them and guide them. They weren’t religious professionals running organizational programs. They equipped the people. It was close work, personal work, intense work. They did not function from an office; they labored in the homes of the people and in the marketplace. They were “among” them. Consequently they were well-known by the people.

The same thing happens in 1 Corinthians 16:

Now I urge you, brothers — you know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints — be subject to such as these, and to every fellow worker and laborer. (1 Corinthians 16:15-16)

In Corinth, as in Thessalonica, Paul tells the people to recognize those who are already doing the work of leadership.

We’ll get deeper into the characteristics of high-potential emerging leaders next time.

What about you?

All of us should be asking, before we get to identifying emerging leaders in our ministries or churches — would this model identify me?

Do you think?
Do you act?
Would your community affirm your potential as a leader?
Would God affirm your potential as a leader?

This isn’t about shame or regret — we’ve all made mistakes as leaders and have room for growth! This is about an honest assessment of your potential.

When you look closely at yourself in light of this model, what do you see? If you’d like, share what you find in the comments.

Until next time, we’re with you!

— Chris

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Read the latest from Malcolm!
Model Brief: LeaderID
Video Course: Shaping a Culture of Generational Succession
Video Course: LeaderID: Identifying High-Potential Emerging Leaders
For more resources, visit our website.

Personal Transformation in the Lives of Sports Camp Coaches

LeaderSource — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 12:31:44 GMT

A Word from Malcolm

“Jesus did not run seminars. He walked on roads with His disciples and ate meals with them. He invited His disciples to watch Him pray, confront opposition, show compassion, be rejected and suffer, and submit to the Father. They learned leadership by living with Him.
Programs are useful. Tools are helpful. But only true disciples will become healthy Christian leaders who walk deeply with God and remain faithful to Him whatever the cost.
The future of the Church does not depend on how many leaders we train. It depends on whether we build the right ones – leaders who have heard Jesus’ call, surrendered their right to independence and given themselves to Jesus for life.
This is where true spiritual leadership begins.”

Read More from Malcolm

Personal Transformation in the Lives of Sports Camp Coaches

“Every time I prepare for training — during the design phase and while praying — the Holy Spirit always strongly reminds me: This is God’s vision. It’s His work. And every time, it’s something new! He will reign and lead; we are simply hidden in Him, co-working with God. As we think proactively, offer ourselves, and stay sensitive to His guidance throughout the process, beautiful things are bound to happen — and indeed, they always do!
Time and again, things have happened that far exceed what we asked or imagined. This has especially built up my heart in knowing God, relying on Him and fearing Him. God is truly among us. It has greatly strengthened my courage and confidence in Christ – I don’t need to fear, because this is God’s work!”

Read the Rest

New Designs for God Is Sovereign

The doctrine of the sovereignty of God has been an issue of great confusion for many centuries in the Church. Around the world, Christians have been split into two camps, one proclaiming that God is sovereign, the other responding that man is responsible for his actions.

Biblically, both positions are true. The Bible teaches both the sovereignty of God and the genuine responsibility of man. God does not ask us to figure out how this is possible. He simply tells us that both are true, and He expects us to believe and to act on that knowledge, whether or not we can reconcile it.

When we simply believe what God said in His Word – we receive extraordinary treasure. We live in the profound benefits of both positions!

Based on the third volume of Transformational Theology, God Is Sovereign, this companion book is packed full of practical ways to apply this doctrine in your everyday life. The goal of doctrine in Scripture is never just to gain knowledge, but to be transformed by God’s truth!

Buy the Book Now!

Get the Teaching

The Latest from Malcolm:

Malcolm’s Musings

Effective Coaching

8 months ago · 5 likes · 1 comment · Malcolm Webber

Don't Miss this Video Training!

LeaderSource — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 20:56:38 GMT

Hello friends,

Last week we shared a free training opportunity with Dr. Malcolm Webber with you, hosted by Fifty Four.

If you weren’t able to join us live last week, here’s the full conversation with Malcolm!

We’ll be zeroing in on various aspects of what Malcolm talks about in this training throughout the first part of 2026, here on Healthy Leaders, together with great teaching like this, stories, and practical ways to apply what you learn in your daily life. Consider this a sneak peek of what’s ahead.

Until next time, we’re with you!

— Chris

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