Leading Leaders

At some moment in the middle of life, we should find ourselves both leading and following, and this is true in most any sphere, especially in the area of the mission of God. This is exciting for those who understand God’s mission generationally, but it can also be a terror of insecurity for those who believe leadership is a top-down, “through me and by me” approach. Time is always running out for the latter, but seeing the mission through multiple generations of leadership makes time our ally.

Fortunately, Myra and I are in the former category, and we love to see the next generation surpass anything that we had ever dreamed was possible. Just last week we had the opportunity to minister “to and with” several generations of leaders in Ukraine.

This included a new missionary family, Keith and Cherry Gunther, who are just coming on the field. They will be working primarily with university students and young adults, and we are excited to see these ministries launch in the Lviv church.

Our next event was an extensive leadership equipping seminar that was developed by Myra and taught by both of us. Pastor Igor has a tremendous team in Lviv that includes worship, children’s ministry, a music outreach to schools, campus, and several more. We had a great interactive time with over thirty of these leaders that addressed the cultural barriers of leadership as well as how to build strong teams.
The final stop was our Ukraine pastors’ retreat in the Carpathian Mountains where we encouraged one another and considered ways to upgrade our own leadership with our churches and ministries.
In all that we do in the region, we lead and serve others, serve beside other leaders, and serve the leadership of others. To ignore all of these developmental areas would mean that no new missionaries would go to the field, churches would not grow, and new nations would not be reached.

Speaking of new things, our Romanian church planting strategy will accelerate at the end of February with multiple scouting and strategy trips, short-term missions team planning, and startups in the fall of this year. We ask you to pray for God’s endurance and provision that will allow us to take all of these key ministries and outreaches to the next level. Thanks for standing with us and God bless!

PRAY

1. New financial partners for our expanded ministry.
2. Strength and grace for our travels.
3. Team development for Romanian projects
4. Peace for Ukraine.

Mike and Myra

Contact
mike.watkins@everynation.org

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