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Protégé: Developing Your Next Generation of Church Leaders
Have you as a leader ever wished for more hands-on development and mentoring from a ministry veteran? Wouldn't that kind of investment accelerate, deepen and intensify your leadership skills and impact? God is raising up a generation of young ministry leaders―protégés―who need guidance in their calling to serve and lead people in the pursuit of God. These protégés need our help. Steve Saccone has a history of being part of this calling to help the called. With over a decade of leadership development experience, he has, through God's help, catalyzed the growth and character of protégés around the globe. In this book Saccone shows how you can raise up leaders from within your own community and develop them into passionate, faithful servants of God. You will be personally challenged to grow as you discover how to cultivate a culture of leadership development in your ministry. In a sense we are all protégés who have much to learn and much to teach―and we can either help those who are behind us or seek help from those who are ahead of us. Along the way, we'll watch the kingdom grow in our midst.
- GenresLeadership
251 pages, Paperback
First published May 18, 2012
11 people are currently reading
42 people want to read
About the author
Steve Saccone
10 books1 followerSteve Saccone is a director of leadership development at The Highway Community in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he trains and develops emerging leaders, staff and volunteers. A specialist in leadership development and inner life formation, he also founded and directed The Protégé Program, a global leadership experience for future entrepreneurs, church planters and spiritual leaders.
He was on staff at Mosaic in Los Angeles, served at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, and has been a consultant with the Leadership Connection, Monvee and the Gallup Organization. He is the author of Relational Intelligence, and he and his wife, Cheri, are the parents of two boys.
He was on staff at Mosaic in Los Angeles, served at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, and has been a consultant with the Leadership Connection, Monvee and the Gallup Organization. He is the author of Relational Intelligence, and he and his wife, Cheri, are the parents of two boys.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 2, 2015
It would be an understatement to say that there is a super-abundance of leadership books in both Christian and general publishing. One wonders if it reflects a perception that there is a dearth of the real thing in our churches and culture, or that if it exists, it is often done very badly. So the question is, what separates Steve Saccone’s book (co-authored with his wife Cheri Saccone) from all the rest?
Very briefly, it is that it is more description, than prescription, of the work Saccone has done in developing leadership through his Protege’ Program, a two year leadership development program. This book is an attempt, without being a program manual, to distill the basic contours of his work.
Saccone begins with the question of what kind of culture leaders are to embody and establish. For him, these are kingdom cultures, cultures that reflect the character of Jesus lived out in churches, organizations, and entrepreneurial efforts. This leads him to focus on five critical elements in his work:
1. Character. What is most striking here is that Saccone identifies four deadly sins that can bring down emerging leaders: envy expressed in imitating others rather than embracing one’s own unique call, self-reliance that emphasizes performance over a life of prayer producing fruit from the inside out, foolishness expressed in over-confidence rather than the seeking of wisdom, and greed which reveals itself in a spirit of entitlement. It is good that Saccone begins here, I think. I’ve seen few leaders really fail for lack of skill. For most, it comes down to questions of character.
2. Relationships. Here Saccone focuses on three tensions in relational leadership: overcommitment versus underdelivering on commitments, avoiding or evoking conflict, and overattaching versus detaching. There was much that was helpful here concerning learning to say no versus letting your yes be yes. His diagnostics for each of these tensions are very helpful to see where one falls.
3. Communication. This was a section that had some intriguing ideas of learning through everything from TED talks to poetry slams about effective communication in 21st century culture. He describes Learning Labs where he challenges people to give five minute talks (Five Good Minutes) and to practice improvisation.
4. Mission. To start, he sees mission not as something we do but something that flows from our relationship with Christ expressed through the uniqueness of each person in the context of local communities of believers in mission. He calls for several shifts in evangelism: 1) From inattentiveness to attentiveness, 2) From monologue to dialogue, 3) From invasion to invitation, 4) From individual conversion to communal conversion, and 5) From temporal understanding to eternal awakening. These last two call for a bit more explanation. Communal conversion is not whole communities coming to faith but the recognition that the community in which one comes to faith crucially shapes one’s life. Eternal awakenings happen when converts connect their lives to the big eternal questions addressed by the gospel–how the gospel lastingly changes everything.
5. Entrepreneurial leadership. His last section focuses on the quality of risk-taking and developing cultures where there is a freedom to fail, where the ultimate value isn’t control and where they develop new structures to unleash the gifts and creativity of those they lead.
Throughout, Saccone provides numerous examples and personal stories of how he works these ideas out in practice. At the conclusion of each chapter are ideas for mentors, and a mentor tip (not always directly related to the chapter content).
The only thing I might make more explicit in this book is that a crucial work of mentors is to help proteges become protege’ developers themselves. Young leaders need to be coached to reflect on their own developmental process and to learn from it how they might in turn develop the next generation of proteges.
What Saccone has given us is a kingdom-oriented, character shaped, and missionally driven account of leadership development that offers, not a program, but a vision for the essential elements of any serious effort at protege’ development.
Very briefly, it is that it is more description, than prescription, of the work Saccone has done in developing leadership through his Protege’ Program, a two year leadership development program. This book is an attempt, without being a program manual, to distill the basic contours of his work.
Saccone begins with the question of what kind of culture leaders are to embody and establish. For him, these are kingdom cultures, cultures that reflect the character of Jesus lived out in churches, organizations, and entrepreneurial efforts. This leads him to focus on five critical elements in his work:
1. Character. What is most striking here is that Saccone identifies four deadly sins that can bring down emerging leaders: envy expressed in imitating others rather than embracing one’s own unique call, self-reliance that emphasizes performance over a life of prayer producing fruit from the inside out, foolishness expressed in over-confidence rather than the seeking of wisdom, and greed which reveals itself in a spirit of entitlement. It is good that Saccone begins here, I think. I’ve seen few leaders really fail for lack of skill. For most, it comes down to questions of character.
2. Relationships. Here Saccone focuses on three tensions in relational leadership: overcommitment versus underdelivering on commitments, avoiding or evoking conflict, and overattaching versus detaching. There was much that was helpful here concerning learning to say no versus letting your yes be yes. His diagnostics for each of these tensions are very helpful to see where one falls.
3. Communication. This was a section that had some intriguing ideas of learning through everything from TED talks to poetry slams about effective communication in 21st century culture. He describes Learning Labs where he challenges people to give five minute talks (Five Good Minutes) and to practice improvisation.
4. Mission. To start, he sees mission not as something we do but something that flows from our relationship with Christ expressed through the uniqueness of each person in the context of local communities of believers in mission. He calls for several shifts in evangelism: 1) From inattentiveness to attentiveness, 2) From monologue to dialogue, 3) From invasion to invitation, 4) From individual conversion to communal conversion, and 5) From temporal understanding to eternal awakening. These last two call for a bit more explanation. Communal conversion is not whole communities coming to faith but the recognition that the community in which one comes to faith crucially shapes one’s life. Eternal awakenings happen when converts connect their lives to the big eternal questions addressed by the gospel–how the gospel lastingly changes everything.
5. Entrepreneurial leadership. His last section focuses on the quality of risk-taking and developing cultures where there is a freedom to fail, where the ultimate value isn’t control and where they develop new structures to unleash the gifts and creativity of those they lead.
Throughout, Saccone provides numerous examples and personal stories of how he works these ideas out in practice. At the conclusion of each chapter are ideas for mentors, and a mentor tip (not always directly related to the chapter content).
The only thing I might make more explicit in this book is that a crucial work of mentors is to help proteges become protege’ developers themselves. Young leaders need to be coached to reflect on their own developmental process and to learn from it how they might in turn develop the next generation of proteges.
What Saccone has given us is a kingdom-oriented, character shaped, and missionally driven account of leadership development that offers, not a program, but a vision for the essential elements of any serious effort at protege’ development.
August 18, 2012
Steve Saccone, along with his wife, Cheri, have given a good work to help church leaders to lead and develop the next generation of leaders. My expectation coming into Protégé: Developing Your Next Generation of Church Leaders is that it was going to be more or less a manual on how to develop church leaders (based on the title), however, I came away feeling that it was more of a framework to help a church create their own program to develop leaders.
To be real honest with you I came into this book with some pretty low expectations. The book is endorsed by Dan Kimball who is/was on the front edge of the emerging church movement. I don’t have a great affinity or love for that movement so it lowered my expectation of the book (ironically, exactly the opposite effect a publisher would want you to have in seeing an endorsement). The other reason contributing to my expectations is that I simply hadn’t heard of Steve Saccone. That doesn’t mean that I know of everyone who has something great to contribute in writing, however, I tend to stay in a safe bubble of authors that I know and already respect in my reading. Going into a dissertation on church leadership though is going to force me out of that bubble and I’m glad this book was one of the first ones to push me out.
There are five parts to Protégé with multiple chapters in each section, sort of like the five areas you want to work with and develop leaders—Character, Relationships, Communication, Mission, & Entrepreneurial Leadership.
There are highlights in each of these parts that have been helpful for me. The sections on character and relationships were likely the most helpful because they helped me see some ways in which I need to grow if I am to be an effective leader in the church, especially in the area of over-commitment as addressed in chapter 6.
If I had any criticism of the book it would be that mission was not addressed until section 4. I’m not sure that the order of these parts of the book are in the order of importance to the author, in fact I would be shocked if they were. But I feel like addressing mission and gospel first would of set a better foundation for the rest of the book. It seemed out of place after dealing with very practical areas of character, relationships, and communication. That being said, that would not preclude me from recommending this book to pastors and those seeking to be mentored into church leadership.
FTC Rhetoric: I do not receive payment for my book reviews. I do sometimes receive free review and giveaway copies from authors, publishers, and publicists. My first responsibility is to my readers, therefore, I am committed to honest reviews.
To be real honest with you I came into this book with some pretty low expectations. The book is endorsed by Dan Kimball who is/was on the front edge of the emerging church movement. I don’t have a great affinity or love for that movement so it lowered my expectation of the book (ironically, exactly the opposite effect a publisher would want you to have in seeing an endorsement). The other reason contributing to my expectations is that I simply hadn’t heard of Steve Saccone. That doesn’t mean that I know of everyone who has something great to contribute in writing, however, I tend to stay in a safe bubble of authors that I know and already respect in my reading. Going into a dissertation on church leadership though is going to force me out of that bubble and I’m glad this book was one of the first ones to push me out.
There are five parts to Protégé with multiple chapters in each section, sort of like the five areas you want to work with and develop leaders—Character, Relationships, Communication, Mission, & Entrepreneurial Leadership.
There are highlights in each of these parts that have been helpful for me. The sections on character and relationships were likely the most helpful because they helped me see some ways in which I need to grow if I am to be an effective leader in the church, especially in the area of over-commitment as addressed in chapter 6.
If I had any criticism of the book it would be that mission was not addressed until section 4. I’m not sure that the order of these parts of the book are in the order of importance to the author, in fact I would be shocked if they were. But I feel like addressing mission and gospel first would of set a better foundation for the rest of the book. It seemed out of place after dealing with very practical areas of character, relationships, and communication. That being said, that would not preclude me from recommending this book to pastors and those seeking to be mentored into church leadership.
FTC Rhetoric: I do not receive payment for my book reviews. I do sometimes receive free review and giveaway copies from authors, publishers, and publicists. My first responsibility is to my readers, therefore, I am committed to honest reviews.
December 11, 2012
This is a book abount developing church leadership. Many of the principles could be applicable ot leadership development in any type of organization. This is really not a topic I have great interest at this point in time and is reflected inmy overall rating og only two stars.
Currently reading
July 11, 2012I am currently reading a sample section of this book. It looks promising.
March 27, 2013
One of the best books on training leaders I've read. Very organic, but challenging.
July 5, 2013
Very useful guide for mentoring the next generation of leaders in the church
December 23, 2013
Get through the first part, which is foundational, and there is a treasure of information, perspective and encouragement in living out the work of mission.
August 24, 2012
Reading it now.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews