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How You REALLY Know How You’re Doing As A Leader

September 13, 2011 in Leading yourself, Management and Leadership, Serving and Leadership with 3 Comments

Have you ever been on a boat cruising a smooth lake. It’s awesome! One of my favorite things to do for sure.

I love sitting and looking out the back of the boat. You can see our trail weaving through the calm water. Waves emanating from each side of the boat…further and further out from their original position. There is no mistaking where we have been as we cruise through the calm water. You can see every turn, and, if you know what you’re looking at, you can also tell how fast or slow the boat was going at different points. You can tell a lot about the trip of the boat simply from it’s wake.

The same is true of us.

We can tell a ton about our journey as a leader by our wake.

Before you read on…stop and think about it.

Who is in your wake?

What would people say about you who are in your wake?

This is a concept that I was introduced to in the book Integrityby Henry Cloud.  In it, Cloud says there are two sides of the wake.

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How To Be A Great Leader

May 17, 2011 in Leading yourself, Management and Leadership, Serving and Leadership, Vision and Leadership with 0 Comments

Recently, we asked the middle schoolers in our program for their big questions. One common response in particular drove me crazy.

They asked “How do I know God’s will for my life?”

I couldn’t believe that they asked that…but I saw it over and over again. Some said, “I know I should follow God’s will…but how do I know it?”

I couldn’t believe it – because we talk about this all the time. What I learned, though, is that we talked about the “bricks” so much we forgot to tell them that we’re talking about the “bricks” in a big “wall.” We just needed to talk about building the “wall” a bit more.

So we did.

That got me thinking about what we talk about here, on this blog. I talk about the “bricks” all the time. We talk about vision, mission, strategy, leading yourself, and we talk about culture. But, I’m not sure I ever stepped back and said, “Now, see how these “bricks” make a big “wall.”

So today…we’re going to quickly talk about the “wall”…we’re going to talk about being a good leader of a great team.

Here we go!

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Archives: Killing Sunday School

February 22, 2011 in Serving and Leadership, Vision and Leadership with 1 Comment

From the Archives:  This is the fourth most read blog of 2010…and the one that got me into most trouble.

Let me not beat around the bush here.  Let me be direct.  If you can’t handle it..stop reading.  If you can, you have to promise to keep reading till the end!

Here it is…ready?

I believe one of the most destructive ideas for for ministry in church history is the idea of adult Sunday School.

There…I said it.  Make you mad?

I have gotten into more arguments than you can imagine about this topic.  I have also run into more road blocks to progress for student and children’s ministry because of this than any other.

I’m tired of arguing about it.  So, if you’ll bear with me…let me go about my reasoning in a different way.

But…in order to do this…you have to put that last statement behind you and clear your mind.

You ready?  No?…Go get a cup of coffee and walk this off.

Ready now?  OK…here we go.

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Multiple Personalities

January 18, 2011 in Leading yourself, Management and Leadership, Serving and Leadership, Vision and Leadership with 8 Comments

I’ve recently been re-reading one of my favorite must-read ministry books.

Strangely enough…It’s a business book.  The book is The E Myth: Revisited. If you haven’t…Buy it! The ministry applications will be clear right away if you’re a bit tired and overworked.

There are so many things to point out in this book and I have 3 or 4 partially written blogs on these topics that will make their way to the front page one of these days…but for now…I wanted to focus on one aspect discussed in this book that I think is completely relevant and important to those of use trying to run a ministry.

Michael Gerber, the writer, makes the point that every leader of a small business needs three personalities.

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A Letter to Myself

September 21, 2010 in Serving and Leadership with 1 Comment

So I got squashed the other day…Squashed creatively.

I was extraverting some ideas….and the guy I was talking to told me why it wouldn’t work.

He asked me “How?”

All I wanted to hear at that point was “Wow!”

The train of thought came to a nasty end before it ever left the station.  It’s not like I was going to end there…I was seven or eight iterations from it being a good idea.  I was on my way to “How?”…I just wasn’t ready.   It never got there though.  It never got anywhere.

I was mad..bummed…and deflated. I didn’t feel trusted (the worst feeling for me).  When I feel like this is one of the best times to think about your own leadership.

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