A Forbes web article entitled “Great leadership starts with self-awareness” says, “Self-awareness has been cited as the most important capability for leaders to develop.” As disciples of Jesus, we would probably say that knowing God is even more important than knowing yourself. But we would readily agree that understanding our own strengths and weaknesses is vital to being a good steward of the gifts God has given us. We can play our part in the Body of Christ or on our team more effectively when we fully embrace how God has designed us and use the gifts he has given us to serve others. Furthermore, we are only motivated to learn and change as we understand in what areas we still need to grow and change.

A few months ago, I talked about how valuable the Working Genius assessment is in identifying your unique contribution in accomplishing the work the Lord has given your team to do. The SEND U staff have all completed the assessment and it has helped us to see both why we do some things really well as a team, and what parts of projects we find more difficult. FYI - SEND U is looking for someone with the genius of “Galvanizing”! The Working Genius assessment is particularly adept at identifying how each member of the team contributes to any group projects that the team is working on collaboratively. If your team or working group does not work on projects collaboratively, then the Working Genius is not going to be as helpful.

In the last month, our Alliance partner, TEAM, introduced me to another self-assessment tool that I have also found very insightful. It is called the “5 Voices” and it seeks to identify one's leadership voice in a meeting or in a setting where decisions need to be made. The assessment is free and a couple of us who have taken it have found the results are amazingly accurate in describing our tendencies as well as very helpful in guiding our participation in decision-making processes. I learned that I need to resist the temptation to speak first and let the other “voices” give their opinions before I speak up. Those of you who know me well probably are wondering why it has taken so long for me to figure this out.
To better understand our leadership voice, TEAM is inviting us to participate in a free 2-hour “5 Voices Workshop” on July 22 or August 5. This workshop will help you better understand how to use your voice effectively in communicating with others on your team. You can sign up for the workshop on this website.

SEND U would like to add some additional training resources to our SEND U wiki on these topics. Do you have any good books, training materials or online training courses that you would like to recommend to your fellow SEND missionaries on these two topics? Please send your recommendations to Ken at mailto:kguenther@send.org

During the past two years, SEND U staff have started a number of learning communities with SEND missionaries. These learning communities are groups of three to five SEND workers of the same gender who meet on Teams or Skype each week to talk about what they are learning as a disciple of Jesus and as one who wants to make disciples. The groups meet once a week for an hour over a period of 3 months. In a sense, they are discipleship or accountability groups, but they are more than that. We are finding that these groups provide encouragement, prayer support, and friendship as well as challenging us to keep growing in our relationship with the Lord and as cross-cultural disciple-makers. If you would like to join one of these learning communities, please let one of the SEND U staff know.

If you are serving as or soon will become a team leader or department head, SEND U has two online leadership courses designed to help you in your leadership role. I will be facilitating the Team Leader Orientation course from August 16 - September 18, and the Team Leader as Supervisor course from January 10 - February 12, 2022. Our Alliance partners are also invited to sign up for these courses. Both courses require about 6 hours of work each week.

The TLO course seeks to identify the key responsibilities of a team leader and leads each participant in developing an outcome-based job description for themselves. The TLAS course looks at several helpful tools and strategies to equip the team leader to provide oversight for those that are on their team. Both courses are designed to be very practical. Participants work on assignments that they can use right away on their team. The Team Leader as Supervisor course builds on the Team Leader Orientation course, but TLO is not required as a prerequisite. You can sign up for both courses at this link.

• July 8-10 - Safety & Security training - Two and a half days of pre-field training in safety and security led by SEND's Director of Corporate Security, Rich Ramirez. This training will be hosted at Ward Church in Michigan.
• July 11-23 - MOP 202 - A 2-week onsite Member Orientation Program for appointees going long-term with SEND, have been cleared by their coach, and have completed MOP 201. This training will be hosted at Ward Church in Michigan. Mid-term members are welcome to attend, but not required.
• July 19- Sept. 10 - TESOL Part 1 - This is an 8-week online training. This class will teach you how to teach English as a platform for ministry. Part 1 is the “light” version of the certificate course. Go to www.actesol.com for more information and links to apply. Facilitated by Melody Kuka and Darlene Jovellanos.
• July 22 or August 5 - 5 Voices Workshop: How to Communicate Effectively with Everyone You Lead - This free 2-hour long online training is offered by our Alliance partner, TEAM. Sign up on this website.
• Aug 16 - Sept 18 - Team Leader Orientation - This 5-week online training course (6 hours/week) explores what it means to be an effective team leader in a mission organization. The training is led by Ken Guenther. The price for SEND missionaries is $30 (please ask Ken for a coupon).
• Aug 18-25 - Learning Culture through Purposeful Observation - a one-week online course designed to help new missionaries begin to put into practice their culture-learning skills. Requires 4-6 hours of learning time. All SEND long-term members are asked to take this course as part of MOP (MOP 301) about 6 months after arriving on the field.
• Sept 13-20 - Learning Culture through Purposeful Observation - a one-week online course designed to help new missionaries begin to put into practice their culture-learning skills. Requires 4-6 hours of learning time. All SEND long-term members are asked to take this course as part of MOP (MOP 301) about 6 months after arriving on the field.
• Sept 22-24 - Mission Leaders Conference - The Missio Nexus Mission Leaders Conference provides leaders from the North American missions community a place to network and catalyze relationships in global missions. The 2021 conference is entitled “Innovate” and is hosted in Dallas, Texas.
• Sept 29-Oct 6 - Contextualization and Culture Study - an 8-day online course that addresses foundational concepts of contextualization and its importance for effective ministry.

All these can be found on the SEND U Training Events page on the SEND U wiki.