7 Ways to Help Your Team Find Rhythm and Energy

by: Rick Warren

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The quickest way to destroy a team is to burn them out. And you don’t have to look around the field of ministry very long to realize that the ministry is filled with burned out leaders. But it’s possible to find a healthy working rhythm and ultimately increase the effective energy with which your leaders serve without causing them to burn out.

Every minute of every day we are using up energy, and every person has a limited amount of energy. If we keep the pace high all the time, we use up the energy people have to give like the way a car with its lights left on will wind up with a dead battery.

This is especially true in times when your ministry is growing. Growth brings change, change brings problems, and problems consume a lot of emotional, physical, and spiritual energy from your leaders.

Here are seven ways to discover a good working rhythm and raise the energy level of your team.

1. Don’t expect every leader to work at the same energy level all the time.

We are all unique, and every leader serving in your ministry is wired differently. Some need more quiet and rest than others. Some work better in organized chaos while some need no chaos at all. At Saddleback, we try to hire workaholics and then force them to calm down and find a rhythm.

2. Be sensitive to external drains on energy and compensate appropriately.

Sometimes leaders have big issues and seasons of transition in their personal lives that affect the amount of energy they’re able to pour out. From health crises to marital crises to pregnancy and new babies, leaders often need time to concentrate on specific family issues.

3. Plan your year in energy cycles.

At Saddleback, we typically move through two major growth campaigns in a year. In the spring and in the fall, we set aside around eight weeks per year when we really focus on adding more small groups and really pushing people to invite their unchurched friends to some big days. Easter, Mother’s Day, and Christmas are all big days for us, as well as special events that surround some of the global issues we’re addressing.

Between campaigns and holidays, we regroup. Most years, we close our offices between Christmas and New Year. Newspring Church and Northpoint Church usually cancel their post-Christmas Sunday services to give their thousands of volunteers a breather. It’s okay that some weekends are intentionally designed to consume less energy than others.

4. Allow staff members to have flexible schedules.

We don’t watch the clock. We watch results. When staff members travel for church-related events, we want them to take a day of rest afterward. When they have evening meetings, we want them to come in later the next day. My mentor, Peter Drucker, said, “Empasize results, not activity.” Some of our pastors work four or more services per weekend, so we want them to have a day off during the week.

5. Work smarter, not harder.

Ecclesiastes 10:10 says, If the ax is dull, and one does not sharpen its edge, then one must exert more strength; however, the advantage of wisdom is that it brings success (HCSB). There are tools, techniques, and new technologies that streamline the way we do ministry. Use them. And learn from mistakes and failures to avoid wasting energy on what doesn’t work.

6. Focus on the long haul.

James Collins wrote a famous leadership book called Built to Last. Of the 12 values he articulated he found in companies that survived through three generations, 10 are found in Saddleback’s original vision statement which we have had since our first year of ministry. Your church can be a mushroom, which springs up overnight, or it can be an oak tree that grows larger and stronger over time with deep roots.

7. Make the work fun!

People rarely succeed at jobs they don’t enjoy, which explains the success of companies like Google, known for their fun and creative atmospheres. The most successful people get paid to do what they like to do anyway! Saddleback Church receives thousands of phone calls every day and hundreds of thousands of emails every year, and we try to give everyone an appropriate response if at all possible. So, we keep things light.

Over the years, we’ve done Taco Tuesdays as a staff. We’ve hiked around our property during a staff meeting. Once we closed the office and we all went surfing even though none of us knew how. We’ve purposely dressed tacky on the same day. We often send the staff home after a staff meeting just for the fun of it, and I’ve been known to start a food fight or two over the years.

The Kingdom of God is going to last, and your church needs to be built to last, which requires a healthy rhythm of hard work, proper rest, and a good energy consumption pattern for all the leaders involved.

As we head into the holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas will both be busy for your church, but between them and after them, ask yourself how you can lead your team to find rest and cultivate joy so that you can head into this next year of ministry stronger than ever.

Learn more about developing your leaders by connecting with an Auxano Navigator.

> Read more from Rick.

Tags: Leadership Energy, Rick Warren, effective leaders, leaders

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The Pastor’s Heart, Part 2: Simplicity as Personal Rejuvenation

by: VRcurator

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It’s time to get back to the basics in my inward spiritual practices

We live in a society that demands instant gratification. We are always connected with devices that bring the world to our fingertips. We know more, more quickly, than at any time in human history.

And yet we seem to be satisfied less, just as quickly. Leaders are in a quest for more, but the obtaining more seems to result in just wanting more. It is a vicious cycle not easily broken.

Church pastors and staff are not immune to this; in fact, in some ways they may even be more susceptible. Congregational leaders and promising opportunities pull pastors in multiple directions at once, resulting in almost constant feelings of being overwhelmed by ministry, and by life.

The true, deepest need for leaders today is not to be more intelligent, or more gifted, or even more successful, but to be more connected, more fully to God.

The classical disciplines (meditation, prayer, fasting, study, simplicity, solitude, submission, service, confession, worship, guidance, and celebration) of the spiritual life call us to move beyond surface living into the depths of communion with a Holy and Living God.

Solution – Simplicity as personal rejuvenation

THE QUICK SUMMARY – Living the Quaker Way, by Philip Gulley

Philip Gulley invites us into a bracing encounter with the rich truths of Quakerism—a centuries-old spiritual tradition that provides not only a foundation of faith but also vision for making the world more just, loving, and peaceable by our presence.

In Living the Quaker Way, Gulley shows how Quaker values provide real solutions to many of our most pressing contemporary challenges. We not only come to a deeper appreciation of simplicity, peace, integrity, community, and equality, we see how embracing these virtues will radically transform us and our world.

A SIMPLE SOLUTION

We live in a world that often measures success by the accumulation of things. As the character Tyler Durden (played by Edward Norton) says in the movie Fight Club, “We buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like.”

Even leaders in the Church are trapped in a maze of competition making spur of the moment decisions of programs or purchasing only to “fit in” or keep up with our friends. Did you REALLY need that new iPhone or were you trying to stay ahead of the youth minister?

The Christian discipline of simplicity is an inward decision toward focusing on the higher things of God that results in an outward lifestyle of impressing an audience of One.

While our journey toward a simpler life might well take different roads, it begins with the same step— the discernment between wants and needs.

Just as we cannot compel someone else to live simply, we cannot define simplicity for another, for our needs vary, as does our capacity for change. The life of simplicity is one of growing awareness, and each of us grows at different rates, in diverse ways. Not many decades had passed before early Quakers began judging one another’s commitment to simplicity, gauging another’s devotion to God by his or her clothing, home, and speech. They then enacted strict rules governing simplicity. It ended disastrously, creating a climate of judgment and self-righteousness that caused grave injury to our spiritual well-being.

Simplicity is not a universal fit. What is extravagance to one is necessity for another. My interpretation of wants and needs will not be yours, nor will yours be mine. The life of simplicity does not mean owning a bare minimum of goods. It is a commitment to live a liberated life, freed from constant distraction, devoted to our spiritual and emotional growth and the betterment of others. This can, and will, take many forms, depending upon our priorities, insights, needs, and life stages.

There are, the saying goes, two ways to be rich: one is to make more, the other is to want less. Most of us, when given that choice, have opted to make more. The idea of doing without, of denying ourselves the things we want, seems almost unfair. Advertisers tell us we “deserve” to drive a new car or “need” a larger television. It is easy to convince ourselves we merit these things, especially since we have worked so hard. But it is a vicious cycle, for we have worked much in order to buy the things we believe we need, often without stopping to consider whether they are essential.

Philip Gulley, Living the Quaker Way

A NEXT STEP

The pursuit of simplicity involves every facet of your life – spiritual, physical, emotional, relational, and vocational. The successful journey of a successful life will lead us from one area to the next.

Beginning with a focus on outward simplicity could be the best place to start. Richard Foster, author of one of the most compelling and readable expressions of Christian spirituality, suggests these 10 controlling principles for the outward expression of simplicity:

1. Buy things for their usefulness rather than their status.
2. Reject anything that is producing an addiction in you.
3. Develop a habit of giving things away.
4. Refuse to be propagandized by the custodians of modern gadgetry.
5. Learn to enjoy things without owning them.
6. Develop a deeper appreciation for the creation.
7. Look with a healthy skepticism at all “buy now, pay later” schemes.
8. Obey Jesus’ instructions about plain, honest speech.
9. Reject anything that breeds the oppression of others.
10. Shun anything that distracts you from seeking first the kingdom of God.

Simplicity should be leading us on a journey in which each month, each experience, and each encounter is a learning opportunity for us. A deeper level of understanding about simplicity should reorient our lives so that possessions can be “genuinely enjoyed without destroying us” (Foster).

Gather your staff and personally force-rank the 10 principles above. Once each of you have ordered them from most challenging to least challenging, compare your lists. Now pray together and become accountable when you share similar challenges and pray for others who might be weak in area in which you are strong. Allow others to pray for you in your weakness.

Leo Tolstoy said, “Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself.” The needed change within us is God’s work, not ours. The change demands an inside job, and only God can work from the inside. Following the spiritual disciplines prepares your inner being for the change that only God can bring.

Taken from SUMS Remix 34-2, published February 2016

This is part of a weekly series posting content from one of the most innovative content sources in the church world: SUMS Remix Book Summaries for church leaders. SUMS Remix takes a practical problem in the church and looks at it with three solutions; and each solution is taken from a different book. As a church leader you get to scan relevant books based on practical tools and solutions to real ministry problems, not just by the cover of the book. Each post will have the edition number which shows the year and what number it is in the overall sequence. (SUMS provides 26 issues per year, delivered every other week to your inbox). 

> Subscribe to SUMS Remix <<

Tags: Living the Quaker Way, Philip Gulley, Rejuvenation, SUMS Remix

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Two Common Hiring Mistakes to Avoid In Your Next Staffing Decision

by: Eric Geiger

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Tags: Eric Geiger, Hiring, Staff, Staff Development

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5 Reasons to Stop Imitating

by: Carey Nieuwhof

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If you’re like me, you like to track with people who are ahead of you in what they’ve accomplished, both in terms of their lives and in terms of their leadership.

Chance are you do this in real life (I hope you have mentors). But the online world has changed the imitation game.

Thanks to social media, our phones, and other devices, we have access to anything anywhere all the time. As a result, almost everyone tracks with more than one ‘celebrity’ type leader.

Please hear me. This is a great way of learning and growing.  I do it too.

But have you ever found yourself imitating others—in style, in content, and in strategy? I mean sometimes you can hear preachers who sound exactly like their ‘hero’. They’ve adopted the same style, same approach, and even the same cadence in their voice as the leader they admire.

Why do people do this? They might think, If I imitate a great leader, I’ll become a great leader. 

Well, yes and no. Learning from great leaders can make you a better leader.

Constantly imitating other leaders can actually do damage.

Imitate often enough and guess what happens?

You’ll kill something God-given inside.

Chances are the person you’re imitating didn’t become a great leader by mimicking someone else. Far more likely, they developed the gifts God gave them to their fullest potential.

Which leads us to the first problem with constant imitation of leaders: Envying someone else’s gift will cause you to neglect your own.

It will do other things that will permanently hamper your leadership if you’re not careful.

Is Imitation Always Bad? No…

Imitation isn’t all bad.  There are instances when imitation is just wise and expedient.  Here are a few:

When someone else has done something better than you could and you are free to use their material, strategy or approach.

When someone has figured out a smarter, faster way to get things done.

No one on your team has the creativity to create a better mouse trap.

In those cases, imitation can be a good thing. And, naturally, it’s good to adopt best practices from great leaders.

But persistent imitation goes deeper than that. And that’s why it’s deadly.

Here are 5 ways imitation hurts your leadership.

1. Constant Imitation Kills Innovation

Leaders who constantly imitate rarely innovate.

Imitate long enough, and imitate hard enough, and there won’t be much innovation left in you or your organization.

Constant imitation means you’ll rarely take risks. It means you will wait for someone else to blaze trails.

Imitators are always one, two or five steps behind. They have to wait for the next product, approach or strategy to be revealed. Then they madly copy.

If you are always imitating, your trajectory will never be greater than the person you’re copying. Ever. It will always be a shadow of theirs.

Remember too, that the last thing the innovator you’re copying thought about when creating what you’re looking at was “Now what should I imitate next?”

2. You’ll Never Really Be Creative

If your creative meetings essential consist of “what did so and so do?” and then adapting it to your service, you’re not very creative.

I totally believe wisdom has many counsellors, and I learn from a ton of people and a ton of organizations.

But there’s a world of difference between spring boarding off others and relying on others to think for you.

True creativity is risky. It means you don’t know how it will turn out. It means you have to trust God and trust your judgment.

If your creativity consists of copying what other people have done, you’re not that creative.

So we’re all a little insecure as leaders.

I am. You might be too.

True innovation forces you to stare down your insecurity for about 1000 reasons, not the least of which is that innovation almost always seems like a dumb move at the time.

When I look back on my life, many of the decisions I’ve made that turned out to be good ones looked dumb at the time.

I walked away from law to pursue ministry. I left a prestigious church in Toronto to come north of the city and start with three tiny, rural churches.

We left an almost paid-for new building to start over again as a portable, non-denominational church to reach unchurched people.

Even in starting my leadership podcast 2 years ago, most people thought a 1 hour, long-form interview format would never work in the church space. Attention spans were shrinking. Shorter was better. And nobody was doing an interview mix of well-known guests and completely unknown guests. Most people thought it wasn’t a great strategy. (It’s a little hard to believe now because there are many interview-based podcasts in the church space…but that was 2014.)

I wasn’t sure it would work either except for a feeling deep in my gut that it would. 2 million downloads later, I’m so thankful I pushed through the uncertainty.

Innovation is messy, uncertain, scary and fraught with failure. Which is why it’s so much easier to imitate. And so less rewarding.

Some of the best ideas you’ll ever have seem dumb—to you or to others—when you first have them. And sometimes they stay dumb. Then you discard them and start over again.

But often they don’t…what’s crazy to begin with can become powerfully effective.

Key insight? It’s way safer to imitate than to innovate, until you innovate.

4. You Won’t Discover Your True Voice

So here’s an obvious but often-missed truth: if you are always trying to be someone else, you will never be yourself.

And that’s a shame, because God actually created you.

Your voice always sounds worse to you than anyone else’s voice (unless you’re an egotist).  I get that.

But God created you. He knew what he was doing when he put you together.

There are two parts to using your own voice: discovering it, and developing it.

Neither happens when you are obsessed with imitation.

Can you be influenced by other voices? Of course. Should you imitate them? Nope.

Not if you want to develop yours.

The greatest communicators are influenced by other voices, but never imitate them.

5. You’ll Stifle Your Relationship With God

Not only does innovation often look dumb at the time, it can make you afraid.

Personally, fear moves me in one of two directions: I either back off on the idea, or I trust God.

Imitation never pushes you to trust. You just blindly adopt and strategy believing it will work.

I think there is a push-pull in listening to others versus listening to God.

If you listen mainly to others, you’ll eventually stop listening to God.

So…two questions for you personally: what (or who) are you imitating?  And what’s it costing you?

Imitating is also dangerous for your organization. Talk with an Auxano Navigator to learn how to discover your uniqueness.

> Read more from Carey

Tags: Carey Nieuwhof, Imitating

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Three Practices to Help Reframe the Heart of a Disciplemaker

by: Bryan Rose

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When asked, there are many reasons church leaders give for lack of effectiveness in making disciples. Here are a few common responses:

“We have uncommitted volunteers”

“We reach many distracted families”

“We suffer from ineffective curriculum”

“We find ourselves with unavailable leadership”

“We are experiencing diminishing giving”

“We need to get beyond our under-performing staff”

“We are stuck through over-complex processes”

While the above may be resonant, they are likely not the actual reason your church continues to struggle to make disciples. From observation of hundreds of churches over the past few years, disciples are not made for one singular, and strikingly simple, reason:  actual, biblical discipleship takes much more time than expected and produces very little immediate return on investment.

Herein lies the problem. Rather than thinking long-term process, and setting expectations five to ten years down the road, we lead through short-term programming. We lead by constantly changing the discipleship curriculum, schedule or structure every few months. We lead with the expectation that discipleship requires only a season, rather than years of nurture and growth.

The approach and practice of making disciples is more like running a tree farm than tending a backyard vegetable garden.

Vegetable gardens, while taking some time – maybe a few summer growing months – yield a rather immediate harvest and tangible results. Within weeks, seeds germinate, vines grow and blooms emerge. Soon after, windowsills and countertops are overflowing with vegetables and fruit, ready for eating, canning and freezing.  And as the cool mornings of fall consistently make their annual appearance, plants are removed, soil is turned and beds are prepared for a new, fresh season of production.

Tree farming requires a completely different process and outlook. Saplings take root – not with an expectation of months-long nurturing – but years of grooming, tending and shaping. The average 8-foot Christmas Tree takes seven to twelve years to mature and be ready to stand proudly as the centerpiece of holiday celebrations. Running a tree farm requires a commitment to think long-term and necessitates a patient discipline for measuring results in observable quality, through the health of the plant, rather than numeric quantity.

When we treat discipleship as a seasonal activity, expecting immediate results we produce undernourished and unprepared followers of Christ. We then blame volunteers, travel baseball, or ineffective systems for our own misunderstanding of the nature of discipleship.

Here are three practices for 2017 to help reframe the heart of the disciplemaker through the mind of a tree-farmer.

1. Mark time in seasons of a life, not seasons of the year… because discipleship takes more than two or three semesters of study. What would we develop in a young married husband if we pictured a healthy tenth anniversary? How would an incoming sixth grade girl be biblically prepared for the upcoming challenges of high school? What are the spiritual habits of a senior adult that develop a next generation of Christ-likeness?
2.  Measure health of each individual, not the number of individuals who appear healthy… because not all growth is spiritual growth. What are the marks of a growing disciple in your context? What are the daily habits and practices of growing followers that produce and reproduce dependence on Christ? What small indicators can be identified that build to big steps of growth
3. Celebrate annual multiplication of a few, not seasonal addition of the many…because what is celebrated gets replicated. How might you point beyond collective programs toward individual development? What rites of passage in your culture would mark significant progress in spiritual growth? What consistent language can you develop to encourage participation from every church member?

Want to learn more about developing disciplemakers? Connect with an Auxano Navigator.

> Read more from Bryan

Tags: Bryan Rose, Disciplemaker, Disciplemaking, Discipleship, Making Disciples

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Breaking the Generosity Conversation Barriers

by: VRcurator

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How do you connect with high-capacity givers in your church who are not yet giving without appearing greedy?

It’s right there in the Acts 2 account of the early church. As disciples are made, giving is a natural overflow. Generosity development in your church is really people development. Leaders need to look at the matter of generosity through the eyes of the giver instead of the staff, finance committee, or other leadership group. When you look through giver’s eyes, you will begin to see how you are actually discipling them by helping them grow their generosity and develop their giving.

Solution – Break down the barriers that prevent conversations about money

THE QUICK SUMMARY – Whose Offering Plate Is It? by J. Clif Christopher

In Whose Offering Plate Is It? author J. Clif Christopher argues for real change when it comes to understanding generosity in the church today. He believes that leaders must speak in a language the congregation understands and be prepared to defend the cause to which leaders are asking people to contribute.

Christopher believes that leaders must raise the bar of expectations and not make church “easier” than in days past. Effective communication in ways that today’s donors understand is a start. Accountability – so people will see how their money is being used – is the next step.

The offering plate of today may be an electronic draft, a website click, a kiosk set up outside the worship center, or an app on a phone. Any way you do it, though, it is still all to be done for the mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ.

A SIMPLE SOLUTION

One of the most powerful tools a leader possesses is language. Yet, it is one of the most commonly overlooked assets in communicating generosity.

Just think for a moment how influential language is in your ability to function on a day-to-day basis. Language directs, teaches, inspires, unifies, and instructs. When it comes to generosity language at church, it typically comes in a few different dialects. When pastors are uncomfortable with the topic there is silence and even light-heartedness. When there is a need it is usually communicated in terms of the budget, building, or crisis. However, you need to develop a generosity language of gratitude, vision and discipleship.

We can’t have two masters, money and God. It is one or the other. The job of every pastor is to help God come out on top and to do that he or she must work faithfully and tirelessly to remove money from that position.

Write Ten Thank You Notes Every Week – Start making it a weekly habit to thank ten people every week who genuinely deserve it. Thank people for faithfully teaching a class, taking kids on a mission trip, mowing the church lawn, and of course, giving generously.

Start Using Generosity Stories in Worship Every Week – Begin using stories just before the offering by individuals who can share how Christ or the church has changed or affected their lives.

Get Mission Focused – Push your church to define exactly what they understand the mission of your church is as stated by Scripture. 

Preach About Your Church’s Vision – Spend time in prayer and study on exactly what you feel God wants you to be doing to fulfill your mission. This sense of God’s call should become a sermon series where you seek to help your congregation understand the vision God has for your church.

J. Clif Christopher, Whose Offering Plate Is It?

A NEXT STEP

Language is a free and powerful tool. Don’t be caught sending the biblical generosity message via a fool.

Here are some ways you can begin to discover and introduce a healthy language related to generosity. Discuss these with your leadership team and begin to implement them.

• Tell a personal story about a money challenge you have faced. The process of how you worked through it should be human and identifiable by all.
• Provide an illustration from common culture about how people, companies, or organizations are living generous lives. It is easy to find stories today of unassuming people doing simple things to make a powerful impact. Remember, it is not about the size of the gift, but that it is relatable to life.
• Develop a series of messages based on the following top ten myths of a generous church.

1. Generous Churches are huge.

> False: They come in all sizes.

2. Generous Churches are filled with rich people.

> False: They are filled with growing people.

3. Generous Churches are in the Bible Belt.

> False: They are anywhere.

4. Generous Churches are older and more mature.

> False: They are changed, focused, and passionate.

5. Generous Churches are growing rapidly.

> False: They are consistently aligned.

6. Generous Churches are only about numbers.

> False: They are about impact.

7. Generous Churches have a charismatic leader.

> False: They are a led by a visionary leader.

8. Generous Churches are in big cities.

> False: They are where a generous leader is.

9. Generous Churches have a large staff and budget.

> False: They have a leadership pipeline and spend strategically.

10. Generous Churches have small visions.

> False: They pray and live boldly.

Congregations that practice effective generosity keep first things first: they focus some of their best creativity, leadership, and energies on advancing their vision.

Congregations with solid practices of generosity have a better chance of doing effective mission. The one advances the other.

When your church focuses on generosity, you are serving people. Understanding and developing generosity helps people develop their capacity and gift for giving.

Taken from SUMS Remix 33-3, published February 2016

This is part of a weekly series posting content from one of the most innovative content sources in the church world: SUMS Remix Book Summaries for church leaders. SUMS Remix takes a practical problem in the church and looks at it with three solutions; and each solution is taken from a different book. As a church leader you get to scan relevant books based on practical tools and solutions to real ministry problems, not just by the cover of the book. Each post will have the edition number which shows the year and what number it is in the overall sequence. (SUMS provides 26 issues per year, delivered every other week to your inbox). 

> Subscribe to SUMS Remix <<

Tags: Generosity, Giving, J. Clif Christopher, SUMS Remix, Whose Offering Plate Is It/

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The Marathon of Leading Yourself: 9 Areas for Constant Improvement

by: David Putman

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Recently I had the opportunity to host a younger friend that I’ve coached through the years, in my home. While we were on an afternoon run he asked me to share with him some of my life’s lessons that had impacted me the most.  More specifically the question my friend asked was, “Tell me about what you’ve learned that I need to know”.

As we begin a new year, I’ve found myself reflecting on his question.  I thought it might be helpful to share my list with you.  These simple practices are now hardwired in me.  I guess you could say they are what make me who I am.  I’m convinced that they have and continue to change the trajectory of my life for the better.

Starting each day with these practices makes my life and those around me better.  They motivate me to face each day as an exciting journey.  God is writing a story in each of our lives and he gives us the resolve and resources to influence that story for the better.

Here’s what you need to know!

Aim for 80%

This practice I’ve learned from my experience with fitness.  Over the last few years I have hit most of my fitness goals.  That hasn’t always been so.  There was a time when I was failing when it came to my own physical vitality.  I tried numerous diets and workout routines with no avail.  That has all changed.

I no longer diet.  Instead, I studied nutrition and developed a healthy lifestyle.  I’ve eliminated most sugar and gluten related products from my life.  I eat food rich in protein, healthy carbs I get from vegetables and fruits, and I include healthy fats.  I do this day-in and day-out or at least 80% of the time.

This doesn’t mean there aren’t times in my life that I aim for 100%.  As a lifestyle, I know that I’m not going to be 100% all the time.  However, as a discipline, in most things I can be 80%, and 80% has the potential for changing the trajectory of my life and putting a win in the win column.

Aiming at 80% can be applied to numerous areas of my life.  Hitting 80% of my savings goals is better than failing at 100%, and giving up all together.  The same is true in my consulting practices.  If I can get a 100% of a team of visionary leaders to agree at 80%, we can keep things moving until we get to 100%.

Perfectionism can lead to failure.  It tends to immobilize us and frustrates almost everyone around us.  Aiming at 80% allows us to extend a little grace to all.  Aiming at 80% may be actually what you need in your life to get unstuck and move forward toward achieving your goals.

Don’t Overthink

Overthinking is simply thinking about something too often for far too long.  This may not be your issue, but it certainly is mine.  It can be as innocent as planning a trip or making a simple purchase.  Other times it can be much more complex and leave us stuck in an unhealthy place.

A good example of my overthinking is my tendency to plan every detail of a trip when I travel with family and friends.   At times they love it, but other times it drives them over the edge.  They poke at me by suggesting that I don’t even need go, since I’ve already taken the trip – referring to my over planning.

While some overthinking is helpful, not all overthinking is created equal. Overthinking can have a negative effect on our lives and those around us.  If you are an over thinker, it is easy to obsess over decisions that need to be made, relationships that need to be healed, and experiences from which you need to move on.

Several years ago I became convinced that I needed to resign from my position as a pastor in a local church and invest my time helping other individuals, organizations, and churches succeed.  On a Tuesday morning, in my early morning reflection time, I finally reached a point of clarity that this was indeed what I needed to do.  That morning I shared with my wife my new insight and my resolve to make the change.  She quickly confirmed it and promised her support.  At 2pm that day I resigned.

Why did I resign so quickly?  Because I knew I would overthink my decision if I didn’t.  I knew I would spend the next days, weeks, months, and literally years thinking about making this change.  Instead I resigned that day.  I didn’t have all the answers, but I made the decision and this decision, I’m convinced, changed my life for the better.  It wasn’t easy.  I failed along the way.  I had doubts along the way, but, I acted and it made all the difference.

Express Gratitude Often

As I write this we are beginning a new year.  The previous year has been a difficult one.  As I scan through my Facebook feed I realize I’m not alone.  While I refrain from posting my personal life on Facebook, others I know feel the need to share.  I do appreciate my friends that do share because it helps give me perspective.  Life is difficult.  Jesus tells us that in this world we will have trouble.  He wasn’t kidding!  Yet in spite of whatever you and I have gone through, we have much for which to be grateful.

Practicing gratefulness by expressing those things we are grateful for unlocks our heart and creates a more generous and thankful me.  Most mornings, during my time of reflection, I send out a simple text to my spouse and grown children that simply states things for which I’m grateful.  I do this for myself and I do it for them.

During some really tough times I need perspective.  I need to see the good in the midst of the bad.  I need to be reminded that “all things do work together for the good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose” (Roman 8:28).  I also want my wife and children to share that perspective.

I’ve learned this practice from many sources, but specifically my son.  While he was in the army he spent 15 months deployed in eastern Afghanistan.  During that time he spent most of his time on patrol.  Most of those months he slept out in the open and ate one meal a day.  On several occasions he came close to losing his life.  When he returned home I noticed that he constantly expressed gratitude for just about everything.  He was so grateful.  What I learned was that gratefulness is not about our circumstances, but a condition of our soul.  Our greatest expressions of gratitude often flow out of our most painful experiences.  Our adversity gives birth to gratitude.

Pray With Your Spouse Daily

This is one of my favorite practices.  It is so simple, but I’m convinced that it has shaped my marriage and changed my relationship with my wife for the better.  Each morning Tami and I face each other, hold hands, and pray a brief prayer together.  Usually our prayers are less than a minute long and are fairly predictable.  Yet at the same time this is the one practice that I believe has changed our life together the most.

I think it has had this profound impact for several reasons.  For one, it’s hard to pray with someone when you are mad or have unresolved issues. This is true even for a brief prayer.  In 37 years of marriage I can think of only two or three times that we didn’t pray because of conflict.  Whenever we have had conflict where we didn’t pray, that conflict was resolved by noon.  Another benefit of our daily prayer time is whenever something was going on in our lives that required a more focused time of prayer we already had a space in our lives for it.

Always Lead With Truth

This one is a little harder for me.  I’m a truth teller.  I value telling the truth.  At the same time, I struggle to always lead with truth.  For me, I have to work on my truth telling; I don’t want to hurt your feelings.  Sometimes I want to withhold information or my opinion.  At the same time, I think if you asked my friends if I am a truth teller, they would tell you that is one of the things I do well.  You don’t have to be wired or like truth telling to be truthful.  Some of us simply have to work at it.

On the other hand, my wife is a natural truth teller and because of it I respect her opinion or input more than anyone else.  When I’m struggling with something, I will sometimes ask her to speak truth into a certain situation or me.  I trust and need her perspective.  I have affectionately nicknamed her ‘the judge’.  It’s not that she judges people.  She is a very gracious person toward others, but she sees black and white and is gifted in calling it out.

Truth telling is important for a number of reasons.  Some of these reasons are obvious, while others not.  Truth brings to light whatever is in the dark.  Even though this truth often hurts, it is also this painful truth that heals.  Truth is essential to healthy relationships and a healthy life.

Always leading with truth involves being truthful at every level.  If you have an issue with something or someone, be truthful about it in the right way.  If you are caught in mistruth or half-truths of other’s relationships, bring everyone together in the same room.  Invite others to speak truth into your life.  We all have blind spots in our lives where we could benefit from skilled truth tellers.

Lead With The Golden Rule

There are two ways to live our lives.  We can live in a way where it’s all about us or we can live it in such a way that it’s all about others.  The Golden Rule is about treating others the way we want to be treated.  What an incredible principle.  We all know how we want to be treated; therefore, treating others good is innate.  I didn’t say it was easy, but when it comes to how we treat others, we are without excuse.

I find myself living my life in both ways.  There are days that I move through life so fast, anything and everything in front of me is in my way.  Its those days that I just steamroll over everyone and leave a wake of brokenness behind me.  This is an ugly and narcissistic way of living life.

On the other hand, there are days that I am more aware and intentional about living out the Golden Rule.  It’s a beautiful thing when I find myself deferring to those around me.  Living out the Golden Rule can be as simple as letting incoming traffic merge into my lane ahead of me.  This isn’t a typical response in Atlanta where I live.

For me living out the Golden Rule mostly means being aware of people around me and treating them with honor and respect. I treat them with honor and respect because that’s the way I like to be treated.  Sometimes living the Golden Rule can be challenging and difficult.  We live in a messy world.  We live in a world where there is hurt and pain.  When I feel that I am violated or mistreated, I want to lash out.  When I am the one who violates or mistreats, I want to experience grace.  Living the Golden Rule is about extending the grace that I so much want to experience.

Living the Golden Rule is life giving.  I never feel more alive than when I am intentionally living the Golden Rule.  Not only that, but I see people all around me coming alive.

Work On You Daily

It’s been said many times, you can’t lead others until you lead yourself.  Several years ago I made a transition from a leadership role in large organization to a local church.  The first thing I did in my new role was sought out advice from those who were experiencing success.  It won’t surprise you that the advice I received was “grow the leader…grow the church.” For the next six years I spent my time doing everything I possibly could to see that our senior leader was growing.  At the end of that season our church grew from 500 to over 2000 in weekend attendance.

What we learned during that incredible run was that we had to work on us if we were to lead a growing organization of any kind.  It wasn’t enough to work in it all the time.  It was just as important or more so to work on it.  Our first responsibility as a leader is to work on us.  Whether you are a mother who is leading three little ones at home, a student leading a drama team, a chief executive leading a large company, or a pastor leading a church, it all begins with leading ourselves.

For me, this means working on nine areas within three different domains around which I’ve built my Life Plan. The following diagram represents these three domains and nine areas. I break them down like this:

• Spiritual Domain – I focus my life purpose.
• Personal Domain – I focus on my emotional, physical, intellectual, and financial life.
• Relational Domain – I focus on my family, friends, vocation, and adventures.

I set specific goals in all nine areas beginning with my Spiritual Domain and moving out.  I tend to focus on the mastery of one area at a time.  I focus on the area that needs the most work first.

I have also come to realize that winning in all these areas is a marathon, not a sprint.  Mastering all nine areas is a life long journey.  When I come to the end of my life, I think it would be appropriate to simply say, “At least he was working on it.”

Working on it involves working on me every single day of my life.  This is my most important responsibility.  I really don’t have anything to offer my family, friends, or those I coach and consult, until I work on me.

> Read more from David.

Tags: David Putman, Personal Development, Personal Improvement

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Five Tools to Develop a Strong Work Ethic

by: Ed Stetzer

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A church that breaks barriers needs a leader that breaks barriers.

Dealing with sin is of the utmost importance for a leader. But there is another issue that isn’t often discussed, and for those in ministry it goes hand in hand with confronting sin—the importance of a strong work ethic.

With sin, we cannot work hard enough to make God happy. Jesus did that for us. But when we experience joy in our forgiveness and salvation, God empowers us to work hard and accomplish things for His glory.

A barrier-breaking pastor is driven to do the work God has given that pastor. In the beginning of Genesis, God says a lot about our work. He has made us to do work, but sin has made it frustrating and difficult.

Sin can certainly lead us to be workaholics, and we burn ourselves or our people out. But it can also lead to the opposite, a poor work ethic.

As a church leader you often do a lot of the work outside of the view of your people, and that can be a temptation toward doing less and just trying to look busy.

Ministry is hard, but God empowers us for it. Leading churches that grow takes sacrifice, focus, and hard work. Here are a few tools you can use to stay focused on your work so that you will lead your church through growth barriers.

Work All Six

Places like America have a five-day work week with everybody working for the weekend—and there are even some trends moving toward a four-day work week. I want to encourage you to work during all six days and take one full day of rest, just like God designed it.

That doesn’t mean you work every moment of every day, ignore your marriage, and skip all of your kids’ events. But a six-day week in which you are working parts of those days engaged in your context helps keep your priorities centered on the world as God designed it to work.

Is your pursuit of rest idolizing God’s gift rather than using it to energize your God-given work? Work hard toward rest, and rest hard toward work.

Plan Your Work

It’s a lot easier to start your day focused on the task at hand when you planned your workday at the end of the previous day—or even your entire week at once. Maybe first thing Monday morning you set a general schedule of your week, then each evening you set a more detailed plan for the next day. How you use the blocks of unscheduled time will make the most difference.

It’s like a diet. If I plan the contents of my next meal, I’ll probably eat it. But if I go rummaging through the refrigerator I’ll too often end up being lazy and eating something not on my diet. Plan the productivity ahead of time, and then go for it.

Work In Segments

Think about working in segments of distraction-less environment. For example, the Pomodoro Technique uses a simple timer to break work segments into 25 minute periods. Once the 25 minutes are up, you have a five-minute break where you can do the things that typically distract you. You can read more about it here, but there are also many other tools that can help. Whatever you do, find tools that work for you to keep you focused.

Keep a Work Log

A great way to avoid distractions is to keep a work log. It can be paper or digital, whatever works for you. You may even want to share it with someone once a week to hold you accountable. But even when it’s not visible to others it’s a reminder to you, as you write down the time and a short description of what you did during that time, that you can be easily distracted and need to stay engaged.

What are the things that distract you most? Should you delete an app off your phone? Maybe your distraction is a good thing gone too far. Are you enjoying too many nights in front of the TV watching basketball? Be honest with what comes to mind first and take steps to keep it from ruling your schedule.

On the days where I have worked long, and done things of consequence, my rest is better and more sweet. My conscience is clearer. My joy in God’s grace is greater and I am more likely to trust Him with whatever comes next. If you struggle with a poor work ethic, try out some of these things and trust that God will do the same for you.

Trust God & Bear Fruit

If you are struggling with avoiding the hard work of ministry, God gives the grace to move through it toward a clear conscience and joy. But He will do so much more than that. He will prepare you from the inside out to be the kind of leader who breaks barriers and leads your church toward greater fruitfulness.

> Read more from Ed.

Tags: Ed Stetzer, pastor's work ethic, work, work ethic

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4 Distinctions of Telling Time for Church Leaders

by: Trevin Wax

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If influencing others is a key component of leadership, then Christian leadership will be about influencing people spiritually, leading them in a direction that helps them become more like Christ.

I’ve always liked Henry and Richard Blackaby’s definition of spiritual leadership:

“The spiritual leader’s task is to move people from where they are to where God wants them to be.”

Most leadership books focus more on principles than people, and this is one reason so many of these books seem out-of-date so quickly.

To think of leadership in terms of timeless principles is easy, but we do well to remember that the tasks of exercising leadership and exerting influence do not take place in a vacuum. They are by nature contextual; that is, they require the use of wisdom in applying principles to various and often-changing contexts.

In this sense, then, Christian leadership is never timeless. Instead, it is a timely application of God-given wisdom regarding specific decisions that must be made in particular moments in time.

Over the next few weeks, I want to return to this topic of Christian leadership. My particular focus is on an essential but sometimes neglected component of Christian leadership: the ability to know “what time it is,” in order to have a clear understanding of the times. There are four spheres in which Christian leaders should know “the time,” and I look forward to fleshing these out in subsequent posts.

1. Biblically

The Christian leader will stand apart from conceptions of leadership that are worldly. How? By the way he or she inhabits the world of the Bible.

Since Christians are called to live within the framework of a biblical worldview that takes one from creation to new creation, Christian leaders must influence others from within this grand narrative.

The Old Testament offers us several examples of leaders who “understood the times” in which they lived and knew “what time it was” biblically. The New Testament adds the element of living in the “time between the times,” in the already / not yet of God’s kingdom. Knowing where we are in the grand sweep of history, according to Scripture, impacts our ethical decisions.

2. Personally

While it is of the utmost importance for a leader to understand biblical teaching on history and the future, one must not lose sight of how important it is to understand one’s own personal story within that overarching narrative.

The Christian leader must be a student not only of world history from a biblical perspective, but also of his or her personal journey. In this way, the leader is best equipped to make good decisions about how to serve God in a particular time, utilizing specific gifts.

Knowing “what time it is” personally is essential for making wise decisions, and these decisions require a deep understanding of one’s personal life circumstances, personal gifting, and personal calling.

3. Organizationally

Once we know ”what time it is” from a biblical and personal standpoint, we must consider the organization and the people we are leading.

Understanding the life and times of an organization is essential for wise decisions; it involves understanding the current state of the organization, how best to communicate the present challenges to others, and envisioning and promoting the future.

Until we understand the particular moment one’s organization is in, whether it be a church or other ministry, we will not know what to do.

4. Culturally

A fourth element of Christian leadership concerns understanding the current context in which one lives. It means one knows “what time it is” culturally and how one’s culture has arrived at its current moment.

The impetus for understanding one’s cultural moment arises from the Great Commission itself, which has an eschatological dimension that must not be ignored. After all, the Great Commission involves making the announcement of King Jesus and leading disciples to obey everything he has commanded. Only within the grand narrative of Scripture does this command make sense, and only in a current cultural context can this command be obeyed.

Not only does the Great Commission challenge cultural views of world history that do not align with a biblical worldview, the Gospel itself is historical to the core, a record of historical events that impinge upon one’s current cultural setting. A biblically formed view of the world, often described as a “biblical worldview,” is vital to fulfilling the Great Commission.

>> Conclusion

• Knowing the time biblically places believers within the overarching story of their world as described by Scripture.
• Knowing the time personally helps individuals to view their strengths and weaknesses and, in answer to God’s call, maximize their potential by matching their gifts to the needs of God’s people.
• Knowing the time organizationally involves a realistic diagnosis of where an organization is and how it got there, as well as healthy communication of the leader’s vision for the future.
• Knowing the time culturally is essential for effective contextualization and the ability to discern the positives and negatives of a particular cultural moment in time.

The Christian leader who knows what time it is in all four of these spheres will be better positioned to make a major impact for God’s kingdom.

>> Read more from Trevin.

Tags: 4 spheres of time, Time, Trevin Wax

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The Pastor’s Heart, Part 1: Prayer as Personal Examination

by: VRcurator

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It’s time to get back to the basics in your inward spiritual practices

We live in a society that demands instant gratification. We are always connected with devices that bring the world to our fingertips. We know more, more quickly, than at any time in human history.

And yet we seem to be satisfied less, just as quickly. Leaders are in a quest for more, but the obtaining more seems to result in just wanting more. It is a vicious cycle not easily broken.

Church pastors and staff are not immune to this; in fact, in some ways they may even be more susceptible. Congregational leaders and promising opportunities pull pastors in multiple directions at once, resulting in almost constant feelings of being overwhelmed by ministry, and by life.

The true, deepest need for leaders today is not to be more intelligent, or more gifted, or even more successful, but to be more connected, more fully to God.

The classical disciplines (meditation, prayer, fasting, study, simplicity, solitude, submission, service, confession, worship, guidance, and celebration) of the spiritual life call us to move beyond surface living into the depths of communion with a Holy and Living God.

Solution – Understand the inward discipline of prayer as an avenue of personal examination and change

THE QUICK SUMMARY – Everything Belongs, by Richard Rohr

This popular and bestselling book of the renowned Franciscan challenges people to move beyond the comfort of a settled life toward an understanding of themselves that is rooted in their connection to God. Only when they rest in God can they find the certainty and the freedom to become all that they can be. Contemplation has its place at the heart of Christianity, a place that allows people to experience how “everything belongs.”

A SIMPLE SOLUTION

Most of us live on the edges of life. We are happily (for the most part) busy with family, friends, work, and life as we know it. And that is not of itself a bad thing – it is a temporal thing without true acknowledgement of the centering presence of God.

Life is often lived as an escape to avoid reality. We remain happily content to live on the edges of our life for a long time – so long that it starts feeling like the only life available.

The danger is that we live life on the edges and never experience Life in the center.

We cannot attain the presence of God because we’re already totally in the presence of God. What’s absent is awareness.

 Little do we realize that God is maintaining us in existence with every breath we take. As we take another it means that God is choosing us now and now and now. We have nothing to attain or even learn. We do, however, need to unlearn some things.

Prayer is not primarily saying words or thinking thoughts. It is, rather, a stance. It’s a way of living in the Presence, living in awareness of the Presence, and even of enjoying the Presence. The full contemplative is not just aware of the Presence, but trusts, allows, and delights in it.

I believe that we have no real access to who we really are except in God. Only when we rest in God can we find the safety, the spaciousness, and the scary freedom to be who we are, all that we are, more than we are, and less than we are. Only when we live and see through God can “everything belong.” All other systems exclude, expel, punish, and protect to find identity for their members in ideological perfection or some kind of “purity.” The contaminating element always has to be searched out and scolded. Apart from taking up so much useless time and energy, this effort keeps us from the one and only task of love and union.

The purpose of prayer and religious seeking is to see the truth about reality, is to see what is. And at the bottom of what is is always goodness. The foundation is always love.

Richard Rohr, Everything Belongs

A NEXT STEP

Using these seven contemplative thoughts and corresponding prayers, seek to be centered in God today.

The religion of man has lost sight of the presence of God. We create a system and a people who think they have God in their pockets, ready with a quick and easy answer to life’s problems.

Prayer 1: Lord, reveal to me where I have lost sight of your nature…

Deep inside, though, as created beings of God, we know the mysteries of life cannot be that simple. A longing for awareness should lead us into paradox, into darkness, and on journeys that never cease.

Prayer 2: Lord, deepen my longing and awareness of your presence in this area…

And that is what prayer is about. Real prayer is something we learn. The disciples spent their entire lives praying, but something about the presence of Jesus made them see how little they knew about prayer. So they asked Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1).

Prayer 3: Lord, reteach me to pray, starting with this next step…

Your learning process of prayer should start with getting into contact with God so that His life and power can flow through you into others. You must first quiet all the activity around you and within you, and listen for the breathing of God.

Prayer 4: Lord, show me what needs to be stilled in my life in order to hear Your voice…

Understanding that we must learn the process of prayer often means we make it too complicated. Jesus taught us to come like children to a father. Children talk to their parents without difficulty or embarrassment – they trust their parents. Is there a greater lesson in trusting our Father while praying?

Children can also teach us the value of the imagination, which is another powerful tool in prayer. Don’t lightly dismiss the amazing imagination of a child who expects that wonderful things can happen if they believe them.

Prayer 5: Lord, inspire me to imagine how You desire for greatness through this audacious dream…

Prayer is work, and like any form of work, you may not feel like it, but once you are doing your work, you begin to feel like working.

Prayer 6: Lord, show me the obstacles that could potentially slow progress in prayer…

Prayer and life are not separate, but exist simultaneously. Prayer “takes no time, but it occupies all our time” (Thomas Kelly). We must learn to live our life on the edges, but always seek the center, a constant awareness of God.

Prayer 7: Lord, center me in awareness of You today.

Leo Tolstoy said, “Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself.” The needed change within us is God’s work, not ours. The change demands an inside job, and only God can work from the inside. Following the spiritual disciplines prepares your inner being for the change that only God can bring.

Taken from SUMS Remix 34-1, published February 2016

This is part of a weekly series posting content from one of the most innovative content sources in the church world: SUMS Remix Book Summaries for church leaders. SUMS Remix takes a practical problem in the church and looks at it with three solutions; and each solution is taken from a different book. As a church leader you get to scan relevant books based on practical tools and solutions to real ministry problems, not just by the cover of the book. Each post will have the edition number which shows the year and what number it is in the overall sequence. (SUMS provides 26 issues per year, delivered every other week to your inbox). 

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Tags: Everything Belongs, Prayer, Richard Rohr, SUMS Remix

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