Ropewalk: 7 Strands for Creating leaders

This is a great article written by my friend Rick Bartlett, it is well worth the read.

While living in the UK, my wife, Karen, and I saw many new sights. One was an extremely long, narrow alley behind a shop in the village where we lived. When we asked about it, we were told, “It’s the ropewalk.” I did a bit of research and discovered that the ropewalk was the name of the place where rope was braided for industrial and nautical uses. The ropesmith would place the long cords into a frame, which would rotate, thereby twisting the strands into a rope.

I see these following seven strands of leadership development practices like the fibers of a rope. On their own, they’re easily broken. But when they are brought together, they’re difficult to break. My dream is that every church would create a “ropewalk” in their context.

Seven strands

Based on biblical, historical, and developmental issues, these are seven key practices for training young people to become leaders in the church:

1. discernment,
   
2. calling,
   
3. rite of passage events,
   
4. mentoring,
   
5. spiritual formation,
   
6. service/leadership opportunities,
7. and commissioning.

Read the whole article for greater detail on the 7 strands.