Unpacking Our Top 10 InFocus Blogs
Every click tells a story! Last year, your interest guided us, and now we’re revealing the destinations: The Top 10 InFocus Blogs of 2025!
The Lobiko Initiative took my team to the Democratic Republic of Congo this past July to transition from our virtual leadership training into an intensive, in-person Christian coaching workshop. The mission focuses on “training the trainers” using a biblically grounded and culturally adapted framework to empower local leaders to equip future leaders for community transformation. Alongside the training, we toured the important work the Lobiko team is doing in Gemena, including a medical center, college, and an orphanage.
We learn from St. Ignatius that soul care is an essential, intentional practice for ministry leaders to combat the “fast-paced” cultural narrative. Leaders must actively nurture their spiritual well-being because an untended soul naturally slides toward negativity and burnout. To help leaders model what they believe, we have provided seven practical habits—ranging from nature and creativity to service and gratitude—encouraging you to take one specific action to live a truly vibrant life.
Lent is a spiritual reset, encouraging leaders to hit pause on life’s “busyness” to focus on deep devotion and growth as a disciple of Jesus. Starting with the mortality and penitence emphasized on Ash Wednesday, the journey combines practical action—like fasting or adopting new habits—with the ancient wisdom of St. Ignatius’s Spiritual Exercises. Readers are invited to engage in weekly reflections, Scripture readings, and the “Prayer of Examen” to cultivate interior suffering with Christ and build more meaningful spiritual rhythms. Ultimately, by intentionally slowing down and seeking “grace,” believers can foster a deeper love for Jesus and a more effective leadership style.
In this blog, we explore the Ignatian “grace” of sorrowing with Christ, arguing that intentionally sitting with Jesus’ suffering prevents us from over-focusing on His divinity at the expense of His relatable humanity. By slowing down during Lent rather than rushing to the celebration of Easter, believers can better appreciate the depth of Christ’s sacrifice and His permanent connection to our own human struggles. Ultimately, engaging with Christ’s anguish expands our capacity for empathy, helps us navigate personal overwhelm, and deepens our intimate relationship with a Savior who understands suffering firsthand.
There is a perceived void in the modern church by shifting the focus from simply telling people what God said to equipping them to hear and discern His voice for themselves. Drawing on the “APEST” framework and Ephesians 4, the prophetic leader is highlighted as a “disturber” who challenges the status quo and acts as a coach to help others develop their own spiritual discernment. This equipping function is essential for moving a congregation from a state of dependency on a single leader to a vibrant, multiplying community of mature disciples.
Reflecting on the Lausanne 4th Congress, the “business” of the Church is people transformation and Kingdom expansion through disciple-making movements. Tracking metrics like spiritual generations and leadership development is essential because we naturally prioritize what we measure, yet many leaders are distracted by finances, facilities, and ministry busyness. To keep the Great Commission as the primary focus, we recommend a relational five-step framework and a set of practical metrics to shift from an event-based ministry model to one of exponential spiritual multiplication.
The essential habits of a growing disciple are—Bible study, confession, making disciples, service, and fellowship. While these biblical principles are universal, their execution must be “contextualized” for the American culture, such as using relational spiritual formation language rather than direct calls for confession. By prioritizing creative and culturally sensitive expressions of these habits, leaders are encouraged to move beyond rigid methodologies toward authentic, life-giving transformation.
A successful church plant is often the result of a rigorous assessment process that identifies a leader’s unique strengths and growth areas before they launch. By combining behavioral interviews, which analyze past performance, with trait assessments like the Harrison Assessment, church planting movements can significantly increase a leader’s long-term sustainability and productivity. These tools serve as a “personal compass” for the planter, ensuring they not only build a thriving church but also maintain their personal health and family relationships. Ultimately, such data-driven investments are vital for good stewardship of the resources dedicated to eternal Kingdom work.
The ancient Ignatian Exercises serve as a practical and powerful framework for spiritual discernment in modern decision-making. While we must acknowledge potential hurdles like its military origins or Catholic roots, the structure and use of “sanctified imagination” help leaders engage both the mind and soul rather than relying on logic alone. By intentionally slowing down to sorrow with Christ, practitioners can experience benefits such as increased humility, curiosity, and a deeper ability to listen to the Holy Spirit.
The “Breakthrough Circle” framework can be used to navigate personal change and establish lasting spiritual habits. Using his own journey into spiritual formation as an example, the author explains how an inflection point of dissatisfaction and curiosity leads to a cycle of discovery (observation, reflection, discussion) and intentional action (planning and accountability). This tool is a versatile resource for leaders to use in their own lives, within their ministries to equip disciples, and even with family and friends to process significant life shifts. It’s time to move beyond mere desire for growth by adopting a structured, relational process that turns new insights into sustained realities.
This list is more than just a ranking—it’s a snapshot of our collective curiosity. We’d love to hear your insights:
- Do you see a pattern? Is there a central theme running through the top 10 that reflects our focus this year?
- What made them must-read material? Why do you think these posts were the ones everyone had to see?
- Which one was your favorite? Tell us which post resonated with you personally.
Thank you, as always, for your prayers and continued support this year. Get ready; 2026 is going to be amazing!
Photo by George Pisarevsky on Unsplash
