Leadership Network Celebrates 20 Years of Equipping Innovative Church Leaders

Leadership Network Celebrates 20 Years of Equipping Innovative Church Leaders

DALLAS, March 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Some organizations celebrating a milestone anniversary host a big party to reflect back on all the good work they have done. In recognition of its 20th year of service, Leadership Network decided to look forward -- with an even greater focus on helping innovative church leaders multiply their reach and impact.

Leadership Network (www.leadnet.org ) was launched in 1984 by social entrepreneur Bob Buford, who was then owner of a successful cable television company in Tyler, Texas. With the help of Harold Myra and Paul Robbins of Christianity Today, Buford gathered a group of 25 senior pastors of large churches around the country to ask a single question, "What can I do to be useful to you?" The pastors answered unanimously that they wanted a forum for peer-to-peer interaction and learning. Leadership Network became the vehicle to fill that need.

"From the very beginning," says Buford, who still serves as LN's chairman of the board, "we knew we had caught on to something. The pastors so appreciated the chance to gather together across denominational lines, learn from each other and step outside their comfort zones. What we did was create a structure to make that possible."

Before long, Leadership Network found that senior pastors weren't the only ministry professionals hungry for this kind of experience. Soon, Leadership Network was also sponsoring forums for executive pastors, worship leaders, youth leaders, and other pastoral and lay ministers in need of the same kind of peer-to-peer experiences."

Twenty years later, the Dallas-based organization has helped some of the biggest and most highly respected churches in the United States, as well as other innovative leaders who are beginning to build the next generation of churches.

Current CEO Tom Wilson says, "While Leadership Network's focus has always been on innovators, our methods have evolved over the years along with the needs of today's church. Today, much of our work is done through 'Leadership Communities,' in which the participants are all focused on similar ministry initiatives. For example, right now we're doing a lot of work with rapidly growing multi-site churches and other churches with a strong, externally focused ministry. Our experience is that the interaction, dialogue and sharing among Leadership Community participants inevitably accelerates the innovation process. And, as these innovators go back into their own worlds, their ministries grow farther and faster than they could ever have dreamed."

Another one of Leadership Network's groundbreaking initiatives -- Halftime -- grew out of Bob Buford's best-selling 1995 book by the same name. With over 450,000 copies now in print, Halftime has reoriented many high-achievers from a life of success to one focused on significance. Through self- assessment tools, books, events and other resources, Leadership Network's Halftime initiative (www.halftime.org ) takes this a step deeper by working directly with individuals who are looking to repurpose their lives, as well as churches that want to encourage such transformations in their congregations.

Since its inception, Leadership Network has also shown a strong commitment to capturing and distributing knowledge to the larger Christian community. Both the Leadership Network and Halftime Web sites offer free e-newsletters and downloadable concept papers for church leaders, as well as tapes, videos and other resources available for a nominal charge. And Leadership Network is spreading its innovative research and practical applications even further through a broadcast initiative with Church Communication Network and book publishing ventures with Zondervan and Jossey-Bass.

What's ahead in the next 20 years? According to Buford, "Leadership Network will continue to evolve along with the church itself. But there's also no question that the core of what we do will remain the same -- identifying, connecting and helping high-capacity Christian leaders multiply their impact."

And that's something to celebrate!

About Leadership Network: Based in Dallas, Texas, Leadership Network is a non-profit public charity that fosters church innovation and growth through a variety of programs, resources and strategies. For more on Leadership Network, see www.leadnet.org and www.halftime.org or contact Rick Long at 1.800.477.6698 x 102 or rlong@sourcepub.com .

Source: Leadership Network

CONTACT: Rick Long of Source Publications, Inc., +1-800-477-6698, ext. 102, or rlong@sourcepub.com , for Leadership Network

Web site: http://www.leadnet.org/ http://www.halftime.org/

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