Mission Possible: 2026-2028 Edition, Simplifying Church Leadership

Mission Possible, the bestselling guide to simplified accountable leadership, has been taken to an all-new level!

If your church is stuck in endless committee meetings, struggling to move from discussion to action, Mission Possible 4 provides an updated resource for church leaders to move from maintenance to missional effectiveness with the simplified accountable structure, often called the one-board model.

Simplified accountable leadership is not about doing less. It is about focusing more clearly on what matters most: aligning people, structure, and resources for real missional impact. In this fourth edition, Kay Kotan and Blake Bradford provide practical, field-tested steps to simplify your church structure, practice accountable leadership, and unleash more people into ministry.

Too often, churches try to simplify their structures by just having fewer meetings and fewer people around the table. But real simplification is not just about fewer meetings. It is about making those meetings really matter. Kay and Blake walk you through four distinct phases to implement this model and transform your church:

1) Discerning the right path for your congregation
2) Designing the right leadership structure for your context (a new phase in this edition)
3) Equipping participants for accountable, missional leadership
4) Implementing both technical and adaptive changes to align your resources for the church's mission

Each phase includes right-sizing guidance for large, medium, and small congregations, along with tips for navigating common obstacles leaders are likely to encounter.

This edition also includes significant new content on the nuances of the adaptive changes needed to shift to a new leadership culture. Technical changes are not enough. Churches must also change how leaders organize, make decisions, and lead together. Practical tools, including worksheets, charts, samples, checklists, and a detailed index, help leaders implement the model with clarity and confidence.

With 300 pages, Mission Possible 4 draws on best practices from hundreds of congregations and thousands of leaders across the country. It is designed for board members, pastors, nominations committee members, and judicatory leaders, particularly United Methodists, who want a field guide they can actually use. The structure is simpler. The leadership is accountable.

The mission is possible!