Hi, I'm Dan White
Objective: Serve with a team to build thriving discipleship pathways and leadership pipelines in a local church.
Let's get to know each other. Here are five words that describe me.
LISTEN / LOVE / DISCIPLE
PASTOR
With a passion and track record of helping people listen to God and do what He says.
PREACH / TEACH / TRAIN
TEACHER
Wholehearted Bible guy. Clear and effective communicator across small, medium, and large contexts.
MODEL / VISION / BUILD
LEADER
Does ministry to and through others. An experienced and engaging leader of leaders to staff and volunteers.
DISCOVER / DEVELOP / DEPLOY
EQUIPPER
Always equipping others to do what God has made them to do for His glory (Ephesians 2:10).
vision / systems / action
MANAGER
Motivates teams toward big goals with radical clarity and effective systems.
Now that you know about me...
If who God has wired me to be fits who you need... let's talk.
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PASTOR
overview
I make every effort to listen, love, and lead people to follow Jesus step-by-step through direct one-on-one conversations and clear, compelling discipleship pathways.You will see more of how I pastor when you explore the teach, lead, equip, and organize sections of this website.
discipleship conversations
I was a new student pastor and someone I didn't know was in the hospital. The Senior Pastor was out and the person in the hospital was not a student or the relative of a student. I didn't know if I should go. What would I say? Would I make it worse if I said something stupid or unhelpful? The worship pastor gave me a powerful lesson that day, "When in doubt, show up." That's the essence of being a pastor. A pastor is someone who willingly steps up and points up to Christ over and over again (1 Peter 5:1-4). That has been my privilege for over a decade.
discipleship pathways
I've also seen the power of creating clear pathways for people to take steps of obedience as they respond to God's leading. I served as a discipleship pastor at a multi-site church. We created a discipleship pathway. Over and over again we asked, "If someone wanted to obey God in this area, what would they need to succeed?" And then we trained people and created resources to help them follow Jesus. I got to watch hundreds of people cross the line of faith, get baptized, develop the habit of Bible reading, start serving based on their gifts, become generous givers, and so much more. I wasn't the one having the direct conversation with them. But I got to be part of the team that inspired them from the platform or created the pathway for them to follow God's leading. It was awesome!
summary
Whether on platforms on in private hospital rooms, I am there, by God's grace, as "a nobody trying to tell everybody about Somebody." My life verse is Colossians 1:28, "He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ."
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TEACHER
overview
I've been given the privilege of teaching hundreds of messages. From youth group to conferences, Sunday gatherings to training nights, and small groups to leadership cohorts. Through it all, the goal remained the same--teach for life change (see Colossians 1:28). Watch Teaching SamplesI am a wholehearted "Bible-guy" with a commitment to helping people know God's Word and follow the God of the Word. You'll often hear me saying, "We're not done until they can do" (see Matthew 28:19-20, Ephesians 4:11-13). This has led me to teach from a heart of compassion with an aim toward helping people learn the fundamental skills of walking closely with God.
Example: Bible Study Class
GOAL
Biblical illiteracy is a major roadblock to following God. If you don't know the Bible, how do you discern what is deception and what is direction? If you don't know the Bible, how do you know God? The Bible is central to Christian maturity (2 Timothy 3:16-17).The goal was to equip people to connect with God through His Word by learning the fundamental skills of Bible study and prayer.
PROBLEMS & SOLUTIONS
Problem One: If you haven't been to church for awhile or if you have been in church for a long while... you feel stupid walking into a "Bible study" context. People are tempted to fake it or avoid it altogether.
Solution One: Create an environment where everyone comes as a humble learner because "You have to be willing to look stupid to learn a new skill."
Problem Two: Though people hunger to know God, they don't desire to be back in school (especially men).
Solution Two: Use Project Based Learning to create a fun context where learning becomes a side effect of having fun.
Problem Three: Bible study can be overwhelming.
Solution Three: Train on a simple process of inductive Bible study. I developed the 4S Method (Slow, Study, Summarize, Synchronize).
Problem Four: People don't know if they are "doing it right."
Solution Four: If we want people to know something, they need great teaching. If we want them to do something, they need great coaching. Provide well-trained Table Coaches to guide participants.
OUTCOMES
Hundreds of participants are now connecting to God through His Word using the skills taught in this class.Kyle is one of them, "I want to send a note directly to thank you for the intentionality and work on the Bible study class, both in the content and the companion site. This is the first class l've done that actually gave me practical tools to use in my own way, but more importantly, diffused the myth that other folks are just better at studying the Bible than me. When you said it's about time, it clicked. I'm looking forward to using what I've learned on my own."
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LEADER
overview
By God's grace, I have a proven track record of leading multi-generational teams of staff and volunteers. I identify those who are faithful, available, and teachable and help them discover, develop, and deploy their gifts (see 1 Corinthians 12:1-26, 1 Peter 4:10, Ephesians 4:11-16).Two words always come up when I ask my teams to describe what I bring to a team? Clarity and coaching.
Example: Church-Wide Leadership Development Pipeline
GOAL
Our rapidly growing church needed leaders at all levels. We had over 2,000 people attending every weekend at one of our three locations. When we looked around, we saw many excited new believers who were not yet ready to lead. With a spirit of prayer and faith we stepped up to address the problem (see 1 Corinthians 12:18).
PROBLEMS & SOLUTIONS
Problem One: Our staff was full of high-quality and high-capacity "doers" and we needed leaders (people who could train others to do what they do with the same skill and heart).
Solution One: Vision and instruction. We taught our staff about the importance of developing others, no matter what their role (see Exodus 18:1-27, Acts 6:1-7). "Delegation is discipleship, and we are all disciple-makers."
Problem Two: Everyone can walk out of an inspiring meeting about leadership development without knowing what to do.
Solution Two: We established a written and functional Leadership Pipeline and Pathway Process.
Problem Three: Culture eats strategy for breakfast. Talking about shifting from "doers" to "leaders" wasn't going to change anything. Left unchecked, the urgent would take over the important. Training others has an upfront cost that is easy to put off to "just get the work done."
Solution Three: We followed the 4DX management solution. We established a clear, wildly important goal (x number of new leaders by x date), leaned into the lead measures over the lag measures (x number of "ICNU" conversations each week and gave away one responsibility each quarter), checked in weekly (stand-up meeting), and celebrated each new leader publicly.
OUTCOMES
We saw 104 volunteers coached up into new leadership positions. We also saw scores of new volunteers join our serving teams. Our staff enjoyed the thrill of discipling others while leading teams without so many open positions. Note: While I did not enact the above process alone, I was a primary or point leader for throughout.
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EQUIPPER
overview
This is at the heart of everything I do. This is how I pastor, teach, and lead. The reason is simple, I know what it is like to feel stale, stuck, or searching for more. Each time, by God's grace, I found answers I want others to have so they can breakthrough and move forward in their own lives. I don't just teach "what" or "why," I am committed to training others "how."
Example: Wayfinding Your Calling
GOAL
Every Christian was rescued on purpose, for a purpose (Ephesians 2:8-10). But many people go through life without purpose or meaning. Telling people God has a purpose for their life is not the same as teaching them how to discern God's leading. I designed a workshop called Wayfinding Your Calling to equip people to find and fulfill their calling.
PROBLEMS & SOLUTIONS
Problem One: Calling is often misunderstood. All the confusion around calling makes the conversation impossible.
Solution One: "Clear the deck" by dispelling the six most common myths around calling and replacing them with six foundational biblical truths.
Problem Two: Your calling is not one thing, at one time, for all time. It is not something you discover once and then never revisit.
Solution Two: Teach people the skill of discerning their calling in each season of life through fun and engaging exercises that bring clarity and confirmation to their calling.
Problem Three: Trying to discern your calling on your own is dangerous (Proverbs 11:14). Often, the person hardest to see clearly is the one in the mirror.
Solution Three: Build the workshop experience around tables instead of rows. Both the in-room and post-workshop exercises are built around discovering God's calling in community.
OUTCOMES
God has used this workshop in church settings, one-on-one, and in a college gap-year program (for over ten years) to help others walk boldly in obedience to His call on their lives.Like Taryn who said, "This was such a pivotal day for me, and I will never forget it! God used you that day to affirm my decision to quit my 'career' to become a foster parent. Nearly 2 years into this journey, and I am so thankful for you & this workshop for helping to lead me here!"
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MANAGER
overview
Like equipping, my organizational strength is an aspect of how I pastor, teach, and lead. For a great example of this organization skill in action across a multi-site church, look at the case study under the Leader section of this website. Below is an example of how I organized a team of staff and volunteers to pull off Night to Shine (an "all-out" prom-night event for people with special needs).
Example: Greenlight Team
GOAL
Night to Shine required hundreds of community volunteers to pull off each year. These volunteers needed to be background-checked and trained to serve at NTS. If you have ever worked with volunteers, you know processing paperwork can be next to impossible when you see them every week at church, how were we going to get hundreds of people from the community to jump through the required hurdles to serve? This event would be a catastrophe without all the volunteers!
PROBLEMS & SOLUTIONS
Problem One: Paperwork, hounding people to turn in forms, and keeping meticulous records? Who wants to do this?
Solution One: I had the conviction that God had given us people to do what He had called us to do (1 Corinthians 12:18). So we prayed, created a plan, and approached people who loved to do what many of us would hate to do!
Problem Two: Making sure our volunteers were vetted to serve would take hundreds of hours. Our staff already went above and beyond to provide our guests with an unforgettable evening that communicated God's love. They didn't have more to give.
Solution Two: Bring together a team of volunteers who believed in the mission. We built a detail-oriented team.
Problem Three: A volunteer could only serve if they were "Greenlit" (meaning: they have completed all the required background checks and we have them in hand). That process involved multiple forms, organizations, counties, drop off locations, and more. How could we do this without more bureaucracy and without messing something up?
Solution Three: We built a robust system to track each step in the process. We designed the process so multiple volunteers could jump in and out of things without stepping on each other's toes.
Problem Four: People in background roles like this are the real heroes but they rarely feel like what they do matters.
Solution Four: I shared stories with them throughout the process of how Night to Shine made an impact on our community and held a big celebration at the end.
OUTCOMES
In one year, the Night to Shine "Greenlight" Team saved our staff 250 hours, vetted 736 volunteers, freed up 440 caregivers for a night to relax and recharge, and made it possible for us to show the love of Jesus to 273 guests of honor!
MEET DAN WHITE
Husband to Robyn for 18 years. Dad to three amazing kids. Dan is an ordained pastor with over a decade of experience serving in medium and large churches at the highest levels of leadership. Dan has a B.S. in Bible from Clarks Summit University (formerly Baptist Bible College) and an M.A. in Christian Ministry & Leadership from Biola University.
