Finding Leaders for Tomorrow’s Church: A Discernment Guide for Leaders and Teams by Mark Wessner

Description

Finding Leaders for Tomorrow’s Churches is a practical and theologically grounded discernment guide for churches seeking to faithfully identify, call, and form leaders in a time of deep cultural disruption.

Written by Mark Wessner, PhD, President of MB Seminary, this updated and rewritten guide addresses the growing leadership challenges facing churches today. Rather than relying on recruitment, charisma, or crisis-driven hiring, the book calls congregations back to a biblical vision of leadership that is Spirit-led, Scripture-anchored, and formed within community.

At the heart of this guide is a clear conviction: the local church has both the privilege and responsibility to discern and nurture the leaders God is already raising up among them. Leadership in the way of Jesus is not imported or manufactured. It is cultivated through prayer, relational investment, mentoring, and shared mission.

This resource helps churches move from theory to practice by offering a five-stage framework for church-based leadership discernment. Readers are guided through cultivating a culture of calling, affirming and inviting potential leaders, discerning together in community, equipping leaders through exploration and formation, and commissioning them with ongoing care and support. Throughout, the emphasis remains on obedience, character, and communal discernment rather than credentials or polish.

The book also provides practical tools to help churches recognize emerging leadership across life stages, including youth, young adults, and second-career individuals. With pastoral wisdom and realism, it addresses common barriers and biases that often prevent gifted leaders from being seen or affirmed, while encouraging churches to create inclusive and courageous pathways for leadership development.

Designed for pastors, elders, ministry teams, and congregations, Finding Leaders for Tomorrow’s Churches is not a checklist or formula. It is an invitation to become a prayerful, listening community that walks faithfully with people as they discern God’s call.

The Spirit is still calling. The harvest is still ready. And the church, when it listens well, still has the privilege of helping leaders say yes.