June 29, 2025

Leadership Development

Immerse Series Introduction

This Summer, during Sunday Service, we are offering space to reimagine and apply the key components of life and ministry within a framework of Christian Community Development. These Sunday gatherings will offer space for worship, conversation, insight, and practical skills for engaging in the renewal of all things.

This Sunday, we will be leaning into the key component of Leadership Development

Introduction to Immerse Component: Leadership Development

For CCD, the goal of leadership development has historically been to embolden and develop local leaders where CCD practitioners are present and working with residents to build a thriving community.

Our role as CCD practitioners is to create a safe space for people to be inspired, reach their full potential, and recognize their God-given purposes. The point is to identify and encourage existing leaders. We must also find potential leaders who might need guidance or resources to build their capacity and confidence. CCD emphasizes the importance of building into budding leaders, especially youth. Leadership development in CCD is not about a hierarchy of power. It is not about title, position, or credit. It is about building up those around us and letting others build into us as we all seek to become who God created us to be. Developing leaders and being developed as a leader are not short-term programs, but are built on long-term mutual relationships.

Opening Prayer

May today there be peace within.

May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.

May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.

May you use those gifts that you have received and pass on the love that has been given to you.

May you be content knowing that you are a child of God.

Let this presence settle into your bones and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise, and love. It is there for each and every one of us. Amen.

-Therese of Lisieux

Worship

We, Us, Ours by Lovar Davis Kidd

Not just “you.” Not just “them.” Not just “those people over there.” We. Us. Ours. That’s the shift. That’s the gospel. That’s the ground shaking under the weight of real community.

See, charity is easy. You can do it from a distance, drop a dollar, say a prayer, keep your hands clean. But mutuality? That’s proximity. That’s skin in the game. That’s “your pain is tied to my peace, so I can’t look away.”

We don’t build community with good intentions. We build it brick by honest brick, with awkward conversations, borrowed sugar, shared grief, and the holy art of listening without fixing. It’s not a savior complex. It’s a solidarity call. Because justice isn’t a project. It’s a posture. And love, real love, doesn’t trickle down. It roots deep and grows up and busts through concrete.

So, no more tables where one side gives and the other receives. We flip that table. Build a circle. Bring folding chairs for everyone who was told they didn’t belong. This isn’t about being nice. This is about being near, near enough to hear what breaks your neighbor’s heart before it becomes a headline.

Because our liberation is tangled together. Your joy is my inheritance. My struggle is your business. So say it with your chest. We. Us. Ours. Not charity. Community. Not pity. Partnership. Not distance. Presence.

This is the slow work. The real work. The Spirit-breath, dust-and-sweat kind of work. And we don’t do it because it looks good on a grant report. We do it because the Kingdom of God will not be built on handouts and hierarchy. It will rise on the backs of people who choose to stay. To show up. To break bread and build something that lasts.

So we don’t wait for the world to get it right. We start here, with dirt under our fingernails and a song in our lungs that says: We. Us. Ours. Let it echo. Let it ring. Let it wreck us until love is not a project, but a place we all call home.

Share on Leadership Development

Kyrah Nitz
Briana Clymer

Prayer of Confession

God, who so graciously speaks to us and is present to us,

Help us to be present to you and your people.

We confess that we have avoided quieting ourselves before you.

We confess that we are distracted and noisy people.

We confess that we are often so busy speaking that all we hear is our own opinions.

We confess that leadership development for our culture often means making people more like us.

We confess that we quickly name those who are different from us as an enemy.

We confess that we have not made time and space to hear their stories.

We confess that we allow differences to separate us.

We confess that by not engaging we have stifled love.

We need gentle correction and guidance now.

Show us how to receive and extend mutual love and care.

May we make space in our lives to hear your voice and do your good work.

May we follow the promptings of your Spirit without hesitation.

Amen

Scripture Reading - Exodus 18: 5-27, CEB

5 Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought Moses’ sons and wife back to him in the desert where he had set up camp at God’s mountain. 6 He sent word to Moses: “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you along with your wife and her two sons.” 7 Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, and he bowed down and kissed him. They asked each other how they were doing, and then they went into the tent. 8 Moses then told his father-in-law everything that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians on Israel’s behalf, all the difficulty they had on their journey, and how the Lord had rescued them. 9 Jethro was glad about all the good things that the Lord had done for Israel in saving them from the Egyptians’ power.

10 Jethro said, “Bless the Lord who rescued you from the Egyptians’ power and from Pharaoh’s power, who rescued the people from Egypt’s oppressive power. 11 Now I know that the Lord is greater than all the gods, because of what happened when the Egyptians plotted against them.” 12 Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought an entirely burned offering and sacrifices to God. Aaron came with all of Israel’s elders to eat a meal with Moses’ father-in-law in God’s presence.

13 The next day Moses sat as a judge for the people, while the people stood around Moses from morning until evening. 14 When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What’s this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, while all the people are standing around you from morning until evening?”

15 Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God. 16 When a conflict arises between them, they come to me and I judge between the two of them. I also teach them God’s regulations and instructions.”

17 Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing isn’t good. 18 You will end up totally wearing yourself out, both you and these people who are with you. The work is too difficult for you. You can’t do it alone. 19 Now listen to me and let me give you some advice. And may God be with you! Your role should be to represent the people before God. You should bring their disputes before God yourself. 20 Explain the regulations and instructions to them. Let them know the way they are supposed to go and the things they are supposed to do. 21 But you should also look among all the people for capable persons who respect God. They should be trustworthy and not corrupt. Set these persons over the people as officers of groups of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens. 22 Let them sit as judges for the people at all times. They should bring every major dispute to you, but they should decide all of the minor cases themselves. This will be much easier for you, and they will share your load. 23 If you do this and God directs you, then you will be able to endure. And all these people will be able to go back to their homes much happier.”

24 Moses listened to his father-in-law’s suggestions and did everything that he had said. 25 Moses chose capable persons from all Israel and set them as leaders over the people, as officers over groups of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens. 26 They acted as judges for the people at all times. They would refer the hard cases to Moses, but all of the minor cases they decided themselves. 27 Then Moses said good-bye to his father-in-law, and Jethro went back to his own country.

Sarah Helleso

Sarah Helleso leads the nonprofit social enterprise, Try Pie Bakery, located in Downtown Waterloo, Iowa. Since graduating from the University of Northern Iowa in 2015, she’s called Waterloo home. Passionate about the overlap between business and community, Sarah is thrilled to be where she can connect with people, work together through creative strategy, and realize deep impact. Sarah lives less than a mile from the program’s storefront in Waterloo with her husband and two daughters.

Leadership Development && Q & A

Sarah Helleso

Closing Call & Response

May we continue to point one another to the upside-down kingdom of God,

where the first are last, the weak are strong,

and our persistent prayers can break through a mindset of 

individualism, consumerism, and empire. 

We turn it back toward the wholeness God intended, full of beauty, full of life, full of peace, for all people.

May we keep gathering,

May we keep creating,

May we keep looking God,

May we keep tending to our souls,

May we keep removing our bias and judgment,

May we keep sharing our time and resources,

May we keep going onward together.

Amen.

Worship

Love Thy Neighborhood by Nora Heaton

Benediction

May the call of Leadership Development within a framework of Christian Community Development nourish our faith and inspire us to work together for the flourishing of ourselves and one another.