Leadership Pipeline has been created to assist in identifying, inspiring and investing in up-and-coming leaders by giving them real-world ministry experience and training. The overall goal of the pipeline is to provide many more young leaders for our USMB churches and organizations.
“We want to create a pool of dedicated and equipped leaders that our MB churches can draw from—almost instantly increasing their kingdom impact when they hire them,” says Kyle Goings, chair of USMB Youth and youth pastor at Ridgepoint Church, Wichita, Kansas. “We want to develop more young leaders so that churches don’t feel they have to look outside USMB to fill their leadership positions.”
How does this new Leadership Pipeline work? Churches and organizations create internship opportunities and then undergraduate students apply for those openings. The internship, whether short-term or longer-term, provides training and experience in a desired ministry area.
USMB Youth is putting the finishing touches on the brand-new Leadership Pipeline website that will serve as the main hub for this exchange, allowing those offering internships to easily post their available positions, creating a candidate profile and job description and then matching that with interns looking for opportunities.
“When USMB Youth brought this idea to the USMB Leadership Board, it didn’t take long for us to realize that this could be a strong catalyst for developing much-needed new leadership for our churches, organizations and even for church planting,” says Don Morris, USMB national director. “USMB, along with other MB organizations, will invest in this not only financially but for promoting it and making sure our constituency knows how to use it. This is a very significant initiative for our MB family.”
Leadership Pipeline will provide a one-stop portal for internship opportunities. It is expected that these paid internships will be offered for a variety of ministry fields including youth, worship, kid’s ministry, education, arts, finance, tech and church planting. USMB Youth hope that the first internships will begin summer 2022. All internships will be paid positions with funds made available through the hiring church or agency or through partnering organizations.
Over the past several years, USMB churches have often had to look outside the U.S. Conference for leaders as there has been a lack of existing “in-house” leaders. One of USMB’s three core commitments is to enhance leadership development.
Morris says, “Providing job opportunities for the purpose of testing and refining giftedness, increasing knowledge and experience and for allowing God to reveal next steps in a young leader’s ministry development is not just a good idea, it’s crucial for the future of our USMB conference.
“We’ll witness greater impact by our churches through the development of new leaders, especially ones who already have an understanding of what it means to be Mennonite Brethren,” Morris says.
“We want to become a conference of churches that is known for our next-generation leadership development, one that produces God-honoring and capable leaders who make a kingdom impact for decades to come,” Goings says. “If God is the foundation of a building, leadership development is the framework. Without those two things there is nothing on which to build.”
For more information or to get started in the pipeline process, email Goings or other USMB Youth leaders at info@usmbyouth.com or visit the usmbyouth.com website.
