Category: Church Leadership

  • St. Patrick’s Day Prayer for Church Leaders

    St. Patrick's Day Prayer for Church LeadersWith St. Patrick’s Day this Sunday, I’ve been reflecting on Patrick’s life and deeds.

    While all manner of silliness is now done in Patrick’s name as Americans pretends to be Irish enough to live out a drunken stereotype and wear colors they’ve not thought about for a second– Patrick really did live an incredible life of faithfulness.

    Enslaved as a child, he escaped Ireland only to be called back to the land of his captivity where he spent a lifetime building the Christian church. Legend has it that Patrick planted 1,000 churches. Take that church plant gurus! 

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  • The Baton

     

    The Baton: Are you waiting for it to be handed to you or are you grabbing it?
    Are you waiting for someone to hand you a baton? Or are you training to grab it?

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  • Restraint

    I sat my jetlagged, cold-suffering self down in front of the television on Monday. My heart swelled with civic pride as I prepared to watch Barack Obama, a man whose skin color long prevented individuals like him from having a serious shot at the nations highest office, be sworn in for his second term as President of the United States… on Martin Luther King, Jr Day. 

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  • Adding Discernment to Your Decision-Making

    You Need Discernment

    When I watched this video my mind recalled many bad decisions I’ve made on teams. Too often, I’ve relied on the decisions of a group and skipped the all-important process of discernment. Then, before I knew it, my teams were working hard on something that’s not a good idea.

    When that happens, it’s a waste and you know it… but you’ve suspended those emotions in an endless cycle of trying to turn a bad idea into a good one.

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  • Mark Riddle on Discipleship & Leadership in the Church

    Pastors often confuse leadership with discipleship.  Our infatuation with leaders has stunted the development of disciples in our churches.

    ~ Mark Riddle

    Rinse. Repeat. Discuss.

  • 7 Ways to Build a Sustainable Movement

    A flywheel is needed to build a sustainable movement.
    A flywheel is a rotating mechanical device that is used to store rotational energy.

    Want to see change? Don’t start a church. Don’t start a business. Don’t hire a bunch of experts.

    Those things are great. But they are a bit finite in their ability to affect macro-level-change in society.

    Instead, start a movement of people.

    And if you really want to see change, start a sustainable movement. As in, something that’ll go beyond you, outpace you, and grow bigger than you can imagine.

    A sustainable movement starts with you and grows a life of its own.

    It is possible. It is within your skill set. And it just might be what God wants you to do. 

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  • 3 Tips for Dealing with Ministry Frustration

    3 Tips for Dealing with Ministry Frustration

    I have several friends for who have used the word “frustrated” in response to the question, “How are things going in your ministry?”

    Why Am I Frustrated?

    If your ministry is a job, you will be frustrated for a few reasons.

    1. God promises in Genesis 3 that our work will be frustrated as a result of sin in the world.
    2. I’m convinced that Satan has a special department for ministers. He knows our weaknesses and he takes great joy in frustrating us.
    3. People tend to transfer things they can’t control into their lives onto you, because they think that since you are a minister, you work for them.
    4. Ministers have a tendency to transfer frustration from other areas of their lives into pressure/expectations on their ministry.

  • 3 Mini-Rants for a Wednesday

    Mmmm... nothing like hormone-induced gigantic turkey for your families pre-Black Friday festivities.
    Mmmm… nothing like hormone-induced gigantic turkey for your families pre-Black Friday festivities.
    1. Don’t shop on Thanksgiving! – This year, in a sign of pure greed, many retailers will open up their stores for pre-Black Friday sales. Target stores nationwide will open at 9:00 PM on Thanksgiving, basically destroying the holiday for their employees. Their employees started a petition to keep Black Friday on Friday. Last week I got several emails inviting me to “secret sales” where I could get Black Friday deals right now. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Making low-level employees work on a holiday so you can make extra money is wrong.
    2. We all pay taxes! It is true that lots and lots of Americans don’t pay federal income taxes directly. But I’ve had it up to my eyeballs with people saying that most people don’t pay taxes. We all pay taxes, lots and lots of them. And while most of the readers of this blog won’t write a check for federal income taxes we pay taxes in lots of seen and unseen places that our more affluent neighbors don’t. We all pay sales tax, property tax, payroll tax, state income tax, tariffs we don’t see, taxes added into the goods we buy like gasoline. Then there are the taxes we pay not in money, but in situations beyond our control. Can someone in the working poor pay to send their kids to an elite school? Nope… so that’s a tax on them. Can the working poor afford the best access to healthcare? Nope… so that’s a tax on them. What about the best nutrition? Or social access to powerful people. On and on and on. My point is simply that we all pay taxes!
    3. There’s more to church leadership than preaching! No, really. The more I get to know folks in a lot of contexts the more I realize that what you do off the platform is what makes you a leader in the church. And if you look away from the org chart and walk around seeing who is actually leading, almost all leadership (People leading others where they wouldn’t go by themselves) is happening outside of the preaching person and outside of the paid staff. I’m not talking about redefining what leadership is in the church… I’m talking about recognizing who are the leaders in your church. How can you go to a church, see all that goes on, and say… “Oh, this is ____’s church.” Gimme a break.

    OK, I got those off my chest. Time for a second cup of coffee.

  • Pushing Past the Pain of Change

    This weekend, at Open, I heard a few things. Some were from attendees, some speakers, and others from the Holy Spirit.

    Most of the thoughts that stuck are along the lines of change. People are ready for change. They are hungry for it. And the pain of continuing this cycle of depreciating returns is too depressing– finally overcoming the reality that making some levels of foundation shifting change is worth the cost.

    Thoughts like this…

    • how we as a tribe gathers needs to change
    • how we gather teenagers needs to change
    • how we disciple teenagers needs to change.
    • how we think of ourselves needs to change.
    • how we fund the movement of ministering to adolescents needs to change.

    With declining numbers in all of the categories that seem to matter, the reality is that there are so few winners and far too many losers.

    We all need things in our life and vocation to change. And we are in the position to do something about it.

    People, like you and me, are beginning to realize that it is up to us to make these changes instead of waiting for someone else. (Cough, be a leader. Cough, cough. Entropy. Cough, cough. I KNOW! Cough, cough.)

    The Pain of Change

    Actually changing things will cost you something. It might make people hate you. It will be messy. It might lead to your organization losing money or even closing. There’s a pretty good chance that you could get fired.

    But I want to encourage you as you think about change. When you lead towards what you feel God is calling you to move towards… it’s always scary. It’s always full of fear. It’s always brought with some pain.

    Sometimes in Scripture we need to read between the lines a little bit. I think of people like Noah going home and telling his wife he needed to build an ark and gather animals. I’m guessing he and his wife didn’t see eye to eye on that at first blush, something tells me he slept on the coach, and maybe it was a little while until she accepted the lunacy of her husbands vision. Rest assured… building an ark isn’t good for your sex life. Or I think about the Centurion in Acts… I’m sure it went well when his boss in Rome found out he and his entire house converted to the religion he was paid to squelch. I don’t think that guy got a raise. Or I think about the Peter on the day of Pentecost… I’m sure that his message of Jesus as the Christ went over like a pile of bricks. Remember, most of the people in the audience walked away saying he was drunk.

    So this is what I know. Not just from the Bible but from my own life: Until you suck it up, accept that the changes you know you need to make will involve some pain, you’re just going to keep doing nothing.

    No sir. Not for me. I want to sleep at night. The word regret will not be on my tombstone.

    Things will change because they must. Pain will be overcome because its just pain. And the vision and dreams God has laid on our hearts should scare the hell out of us.

    But fear of pain preventing me or you from the leaders we can be?

    May we never sink so far.

  • 5 Hallmarks of New Leadership

    Yoda spins his leadership mantras like a DJThe balance of power has shifted. Whether you recognize it or not there is a big gap between perceived leadership and actual leadership.

    • Old (perceived) leadership: These are the people with the titles, position, and authority of traditional leadership. These people are called “leaders” by vocation. In actuality, they have much power of big things but little power over your moment-by-moment interactions.
    • New (actual) leadership: These are people you are shaping your mind/heart/life around. They influence your thought life, they help shape your aspirations, they inspire you to be the you you really want to be.

    These things have shifted in your mind. Heck, maybe you are frustrated because your own leadership has changed and you can’t figure out quite why?

    Some examples… Your boss isn’t likely the boss you have on your job description. Your pastor isn’t likely the pastor you sit under. Your teacher might just be a fallback teacher compared to your guru.

    It’s almost cute that traditional, old-style leaders, still think they have great influence with the people technically under their leadership.

    That’s why one is perceived and the other actual.

    In years past things like an organizational chart really mattered. Even if you didn’t have one, you respected a hierarchy that now baffles you with it’s out-of-datedness. If people were truly honest and asked themselves, “Who is actually leading and influencing me today”  their life org chart now looks more like a bowl of spaghetti than a pyramid.

    So, these new leaders, how are they doing it? Because it’s not just an age thing. Plenty of old leaders are retaining leadership in this new age.

    5 Hallmarks of New Leadership

    1. New leaders collaborate instinctively Old leadership looked at collaboration as a sign of weakness, something they did when they needed help. New leaders assume they need help and know that working together leads to a better end results. New leaders know that when great minds work together the result is always something awesome. Old leaders worry too much about protecting their territory/brand/knowledge base/customer base.
    2. New leaders begat thinkers Old leadership is intimidated by people who are smarter than them or better leaders than them. They build structures where they are the chief and people who work for them are followers. New leaders want the very best ideas and aren’t intimidated that the best idea came from an intern, new hire, or the janitor. They love it and celebrate when their employees leave to start something new. (Anathema to an old leader)
    3. New leaders lead from the the front lines, not the board room Old leaders love meetings, hold secrets from subordinates, and rarely do the work their organization is best known for. But new leaders are front liners, those who get dirty, those who avoid meetings so they can hang with the engineers, they are hands on and know their presence inspires those working alongside them. Old leaders spend a lot of time hiding while new leaders spend a lot of time on site, working their butts off.
    4. New leaders hate vacuums Decisions don’t come down from on high from today’s best leaders. They are group efforts, made in the best interest of all interested parties, because these leaders know they are in the trust business more than they are in business. Old leaders have a tendency to only look outside of their organizations for validation of their decisions as most of their decisions are made in a vacuum of the “top leaders.” New leaders look outside of their organizations all the time, they want to do what makes sense even if it defies logic.
    5. New leaders create environments Old leaders create structures, efficiencies, set priorities, and worry a lot about tasks & todo lists. New leaders care much more about the ecosystem of their environment, bring on the best possible people, and cultivate a place where the best stuff is celebrated, toxic people are fired, and space is creative.