Leadership

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23
Mar 11

Catalyst Takeaways: Part 4

Some more takeaways from this year’s Catalyst West conference.  (Comments in italics are my insights.)

Matt Chandler

  • For Paul, everything was bringing people back to the gospel.  The gospel saves, sustains, and sanctifies us.
  • In his writings, Paul always addresses the gospel before he addresses behaviors. (We can’t tackle the issues of morality until transformed by grace.)
  • If you’re using God to get something (peace, a job, security, etc.) that thing is actually your God.  These things make crappy gods. (Matt’s word choice, not mine.)

Britt Merrick

  • Our first calling is to know Christ.  When Jesus called leaders, they were first and foremost to be with him–only after would they do other stuff.
  • When Jesus is our source of joy (and the center of our heart) all of the losses in life only push us closer to him. (Bam.  Like a ton of bricks.)
  • The Apostle John had the most intimate relationship with Jesus… he also had the longest ministry and received the most revelation (he even wrote a book by that name…)
  • Stop trying to lead and start loving.

That’s all.  Awesome conference.  I want to go again.

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22
Mar 11

Catalyst Takeaways: Part 3

Some more takeaways from this year’s Catalyst West conference.  (Comments in italics are my insights.)

Christine Cane

  • God is an infinite god who puts his life in finite beings.  The very act of being alive is risky.
  • “The goal of life isn’t to arrive safely at death.”
  • “The God of Christianity hasn’t called us to a safe life, but a free life.”

Nancy Ortberg

  • One of the primary ways we develop other leaders is through conflict.  If we shy away from it, we never give opportunities to grow.
  • We often confuse spirituality with nicety–upholding the status quo.  The example we see in the gospels is quite different: Jesus was constantly challenging those around him with difficult conversations.

Jack Dorsey

  • “Technology is only great when it makes us more human”
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17
Mar 11

Catalyst Takeaways: Part 2

Some more takeaways from this year’s Catalyst West conference.  (Comments in italics are my insights.)

Eugene Peterson

  • Pastoring is a context-specific calling. You can’t define yourself by what others are doing.
  • We don’t use people to accomplish a mission. They ARE the mission.” I’ll remember this whenever I have a volunteer bail!
  • Most leadership models focus on accomplishing great goals. The pastor holds the unique job of identifying what God is doing in his church and encouraging and guiding it. This is slow work and unique to every congregation.

Judah Smith

  • I can’t really distill his sermon into a few bullet points… It was excellent bible teaching. He shared from 2 Kings 4:8-37 and Hebrews 11:13 on what happens when we feel that God has only partially fulfilled his promises to us.
  • “Hope deferred makes the heart sick” (Proverbs 11:12) That sinking feeling is real. We will all face times when we’ve held on to hope and seen nothing materialize from it.
  • Don’t stop embracing the promises that are “afar off” (Hebrews 11:13) because you embraced something near that didn’t materialize.
  • We have the sum of all God’s promises in Jesus. Any disappointment we face in life pales in comparison to Him.
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16
Mar 11

Catalyst Takeaways: Part 1

A few weeks ago I attended my first Catalyst conference with the staff at RVC. Matt, Gordon, and I were all looking forward to the opportunity to get out of town and spend some time refreshing our perspectives towards ministry and casting some dreams and vision for the future of the church. None of us had attended a conference in over 5 years (it’s been since 2003 for me) so we were excited to hear some fresh teaching.

The theme of this year’s conference was Take Courage–a timely topic in a time when many church leaders feel uncertain about the future. Most speakers focused on the fact that ministry and leadership are difficult callings and that we need to hold onto the convictions that first called us to serve, trusting God for the rest.

I was incredibly encouraged by the two day event and am just now getting time to unpack and personalize much of what I heard. Here are some of the highlights.  (Comments in italics are my own insights):

Andy Stanley

  • There are singular “tipping points” in your life and ministry. These may be large, dramatic moments or relatively small decisions.
  • Living courageously in the mundane details of our lives prepares us to face the decisions we make in these “tipping point moments.”
  • Above all else, we ought to fear living outside of God’s will for us. There is nothing worse than living without the confidence that God has us where we should be.

John Acuff

  • “If you’re not a leader at home–if you only lead on stage–you’re not a leader. You’re an actor.”

Dave Ramsey

  • People matter. This includes people on our teams, people we’re trying to serve and (in the business world) even our competition. The decisions we make as leads have a direct affect on all these people.
  • When your house (finances) are in order it frees you to live courageously. (I know this is nothing new from Dave, but it packed a particularly powerful punch this time. So many Christians are held back from pursuing God because debt, materialism, and financial mismanagement hold them back. I know it’s true in my life and I’d like to take steps to change it.)

John Perkins

  • Plan and work alongside the people you serve. Give them the dignity to own their problems and the joy to work towards a solution together. Otherwise you end up patronizing them and become frustrated and burnt out. (His comments were given in the context of urban ministry, but I feel they apply in any service context.)
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18
Jul 09

Restless, Ambitious And Discontented

I’ve posted a lot of nonsense this week, so here’s something a little more serious.  It’s some words from Bishop Stephen Neill as quoted in J. Oswald Sanders’ classic Spiritual Leadership (which I finished reading–again–this morning):

If we set out to produce a race of leaders, what we shall succeed in doing is probably to produce a race of restless, ambitious and discontented intellectuals.  To tell a man he is called to be a leader is the best way of ensuring his spiritual ruin, since in the Christian world ambition is more deadly than any other sin, and if yielded to, makes a man unprofitable in the ministry. The most important thing today is the spiritual, rather than the intellectual, quality of those indigenous [Neill's life work was training national missionaries] Christians who are called to bear responsibility in the younger churches.

While I think his statement on ambition being the deadliest sin warrants some clarification (ambition humbly submitted to God is a powerful force) I couldn’t help but think that churches are in danger of this today.  I know that in my own life there have been times I’ve rushed forward into leadership while lacking the spiritual depth necessary for the task.

What do you think?  Does this describe leaders today?  Does it describe a danger we face?

Leadership — 3 Comments
13
Mar 08

Who Is This Guy?

I like keeping a journal because every once in awhile I inspire myself…

09.10.2007

You’ll never build something bigger than yourself when you’re focused on yourself.

Vision is outward-seeking.  It builds for the glory of God and for the benefit of others.  It builds for a legacy of changed lives rather than a legacy of remembered deeds.

Vision like this requires sacrifice and selflessness.  Vision like this requires the character of Christ.

I wish that guy wrote in my journal more often…

Church / Leadership / Youth Ministry — No Comments
8
Sep 07

Reflections on my first youth event…

Whew!  Tonight was my first event with the RVC Youth Group.  We had a digital scavenger hunt and then meet at Fresno State for some intense blacklight bowling.  It’s obvious I’ve got alot to learn about working with Jr. and Sr. Highers, but here’s what I’m taking home from tonight:

  1. Pray.  Cover every meeting, event, devotional, and moment with prayer.  Pray during the planning, pray with your leaders, pray with the entire group.  Even a fun hangout event can become a spiritually important moment when saturated in prayer.  Honestly, I was totally unprepared in this department tonight and there were a couple of situations that found me thinking, I wish I would’ve prayed for that earlier…
  2. Delegate.  Your leadership is there to do more than lead a discussion or drive a car.  They’re an adult mind, voice, hands, and pair of eyes ready to support you and your ministry.  Put them to work!  I was blessed tonight to have help available to watch over students and keep them focused on where they needed to be.  In the future I’d like to be even more intentional about assigning tasks.  I’d like to think through the event, what needs will arise that my leaders can meet?
  3. Believe.  Give your kids the benefit of the doubt.  You don’t need to jump into every conversation with the right answer… you’d be amazed at some of the insights they can learn from their peers.  There were a couple of conversations in my car tonight where the students were definitely ministering to one another and setting things straight.  Sometimes kids know what they’re talking about.  Of course, there were other moments where they were screaming eat low-fat fudgecicles! and passing pedestrians.
  4. Relax.  Recognize where structure is needed and where it can get in the way.  I like to plan everything.  Tonight I had some structures in place for picking teams, etc. and… they just didn’t work.  Jr. Highers don’t like being told what team they could be on and they won’t settle down to listen to your “team draft” anyway.  The answer?  Let them pick their own teams.  No biggie!
  5. Jr. High Boys Stink!Stinky
Church / Leadership — 3 Comments
23
Aug 07

On vision…

Since I’m in the middle of setting down a vision statement for the youth group at RVC, I was happy to stumble across these thoughts from pastor and blogger Tony Morgan:

  • Vision is easy when you launch.
  • Vision is what distinguishes one organization from the next. Both may be great organizations. They just have unique visions.
  • If you grow, eventually, someone will try to shift the vision in a different direction. That’s a guarantee.
  • People need to be reminded frequently of what the vision is and where you’re going next.
  • Sometimes you have to confront people and their agenda when it’s not in line with the vision. Doesn’t necessarily mean their agenda is wrong. Just means it’s not your vision.
  • Sometimes you have to ask a leader to step down if they can’t fully support the vision. Doesn’t mean they’re not a good leader. Just means they’re not your leader.
  • Vision challenges can rock smaller organizations and go almost unnoticed in larger organizations.
  • There’s more vision stability in a larger organization, but also more opportunity for complacency.
  • The vision needs to be big enough to capture the hearts of leaders.
  • The vision rarely changes, but the immediate objectives for accomplishing the vision must constantly be defined.
  • The top positional leader has to be the loudest voice and the most passionate champion for the vision. That role can’t be delegated.
  • Vision unifies.

I was also impressed by the vision of NewSpring (Tony’s church). Their website includes these three points as things that they strive to define themselves by:

  • Creativity: Make the church the most creative place of worship on the planet.
  • Excellence: Do everything with 110 percent effort, quality and effectiveness.
  • Relevance: Teach people how God and the Bible are relevant to their lives today.