About
PLI is devoted to empowering leaders for wider influence for the sake of the gospel in their communities and effective leadership in their ministries. Learn more about our vision and process here.
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Life is better connected. Connect with others to experience life-giving community and build authentic relationships. We have several learning communities. Find the best fit for you.
Resources
We provide a number of resources and materials to educate both our participants and the general public on effective leadership principles.
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Interested in how PLI can impact your ministry? We'd love to get to know you and learn how we can empower your ministry.
Blog
A Christmas Miracle in Indonesia that You Probably Didn’t Hear About and 3 Simple but Profound Actions
By: Jock Ficken
Gail and I would like to wish you a very blessed Christmas and to express our thanks for your partnership in the Gospel. We thought you might be encouraged by this report. You may remember the deadly tsunami that struck Indonesia the day after Christmas in 2004. You heard that hundreds and hundreds and hundreds … Continue reading
Malcolm Gladwell’s 12 Reasons to “Pull the Goalie” at Your Church
By: Jock Ficken
Malcolm Gladwell’s 12 Rules of Life center around a simple edict: Pull the Goalie! I listened to Gladwell’s podcast. Entertaining, circuitous, provocative. When a hockey team is trailing by a goal with a minute left in the game, all the fans expect the goalie to be pulled. Swapped for extra offense. To even the score. … Continue reading
Giving Thanks for Your Generosity
By: Jock Ficken
We’d like to share with you a few of the comments that were included with gifts on #GivingTuesday. The work PLI is doing is important and meaningful. What is taking place here is something that will have everlasting impact. -Tanner Olson We totally love and support the work of PLI in equipping the saints and … Continue reading
Thank You!
By: Jock Ficken
Thank you! We finished the last learning communities of the season shortly before Thanksgiving. Liberia and Denver! Gail and I are incredibly encouraged by the women and men who are eager to grow and develop as leaders. We’re incredibly encouraged by their willingness to do the hard work of investing for a vibrant future for … Continue reading
Urgent or Important?
By: Jock Ficken
Parish ministry for me was always punctuated with the urgent and the important. An easy call for me. It was the so called “tyranny of the urgent” that was also unimportant that was a perpetual discipline. BUT…my ability to make the important but not urgent a priority was always critical! I did it well, and, sometimes not so well. … Continue reading
Celebrate with Us!
By: Jock Ficken
Celebrate with us! We have been blessed with an overwhelming response for the first cohort of 1,000 Young Leaders. So much so, in fact, that the first cohort is overflowing! We expect the Spring 2019 Cohort to fill quickly. With only 35 spots available and over a dozen people already on the waiting list, it … Continue reading
What is the quickest way to the greatest mission impact?
By: Jock Ficken
What’s the quickest way to the greatest impact? For the sake of the Mission? Every church leader I know these days is asking that question in light of pressures of sustaining budgets and buildings and programs…against the backdrop of a changing world. So, what IS the quickest way to the greatest mission impact? Maybe “quickest” … Continue reading
Overcoming the Hesitater in You
By: Jock Ficken
… the spirit told me to have no hesitation—Peter (Acts 11:12) It was part of Peter’s explanation/defense of the landmark visit to Cornelius, equally buttressed by… So if God gave them the same gift he gave us…who was I to think that I could stand in God’s way? (v. 17) No doubt that Peter’s vision … Continue reading
Dealing with Disappointment
By: Jock Ficken
Every congregational leader I know deals with disappointment. Most of us have endured seasons where disappointment has been heaped upon crushing disappointment and where a resiliency of faith in the face of disappointment is difficult to sustain. Here’s a disappointment short list: People you thought you could “count on” suddenly count themselves unreliable. The system… … Continue reading
3 Benefits of Pride and Arrogance
By: Jock Ficken
Hmmm! 3 Benefits? In seasons when it’s really hard, OR I’m not well, OR our church is not well, OR the tick, tick, tick of postponing actions or hard decisions is waiting to detonate…pride and arrogance gets crushed in me…needs to get crushed in me! But it doesn’t seem to go anywhere if I don’t have … Continue reading
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