Transformational Relationship Mentoring: An Analysis and Augmentation of New Life Community Church's Urban, Multi-site, Next Generation Leadership Model

How does the Church train 1,000 Next Generation Leaders by the year 2020? I did not ask this question; Mark Jobe, senior pastor of New Life Community Church in Chicago, did. To answer this question, New Life reached deep into her 25-year existence, summarized her best practices, listened to a representative sample of Next Generation Leaders, and presented these findings to senior leadership. As these findings were placed into a dialogical context; the senior pastor's ideas and vision interacted with both mentors and mentees.

This project had a two-fold objective. The research objective was to gather information to define the attitudes and expectations of Next Generation Leaders and mentors within New Life Community Church. A survey was used to gather this information.

This project also sought to expand the paradigm of Next Generation Leadership development and placement within the context of New Life Community Church. Literature reviews provided the basis for proposing solutions to meet the need of leadership development within New Life Community Church.  The main thesis of the project was intended to analyze and augment New Life's NGL process by identifying optimal New Life leader DNA, NGL and mentor expectations and, in the aggregate, offers six terms to measure progress within Next Generation Leadership relationships. The project used both qualitative and quantitative research to find intentional expression within New Life's mentoring methodology.

Chapter 1 describes the unique background and perspective from which this project was written. Although Next Generation Leadership has a new emphasis at New Life Community Church, it has always been practiced in its history. Chapter 2 addresses several contributions from the extant literature that offer critical alternate methodologies of Next Generation Leadership development applicable to New Life Community Church. The literary reviews address three options that could make a significant difference in the current Next Generation Leadership training process at New Life. These alternatives aren't suggested as replacements but as additions or options to take the process to another level. Chapter 3 speaks to the historical background and context of this project. Chapter 4 develops the biblical and theological underpinnings of Next Generation Leadership development. The biblical theology of Next Generation Leadership in this project is written with the practitioner in mind; therefore, the biblical basis of this project is written in sermon format. Refer to appendix F for the sermon outlines. A video training component can be viewed on our NGL website: http://NGLmentoring.com/category/content/videos/. The video training piece was a direct result of the Biblical Theology of Next Generation training in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 reveals the research methodology of this project. Both surveys and a key interview were used to gather information for this project. Chapter 6 reveals the findings of the research for this project as well as recommendations based upon the findings. At a critical juncture in the development of the New Life Community Church NGL process the results of our extensive Next Generation survey were given at our first NGL Leadership planning retreat in October of 2010. The results of the NGL survey gave voice into the training program booklet form. The booklet portion of the NGL Training can be viewed on our NGL website: http://NGLmentoring.com/2012/nglmanual/. Chapter 7 offers a review of the project as well as overall conclusions of the project based on all aspects thereof.