Leadership: What? Part 1

What is leadership? What are the characteristics of one who leads? How does one lead well? What does it feel like when you are under the leadership of one who leads well? 

These are questions, and many more,  that have rolling around in my head for a few months now. I haven't really had time to dive deep into it, although in many ways I've been studying leadership going way back to my undergrad days at ACU. I like to watch how leaders act, how they react, how they lead through the hard times, how they stay with it long enough to make it work out.

I'm currently reading a book called "Leaders Eat Last" by Simon Sinek. This book is pulling out some of these thoughts from my head. But the reality is, I've been collecting posts on leadership for a while now. Most of these articles are from a church or christian perspective, but good leadership principles are applicable across many mediums and formats. So here are a couple to kick things off.

1. Great leaders have clear vision. Without vision we can not see where the organization is going. Vision gives people a picture of a dream. Proverbs says "Where there is no vision the people parish." Vision must be clear, concise and actionable. The vision must be clearly stated and stated often. Everything within the organization must be viewed through the lens of this vision. Until the vision invades every aspect of the organization it is nothing more than a dream or words on a wall. Vision must permeate everything you say and do.

2. Great leaders communicate vision clearly. The clarity by which the vision is communicated is directly proportionate to the energy, enthusiasm, and incentive of every member of the team. When a vision is clearly communicated, it is hard not to be excited about it. I can have no connection to an organization, but if the leader communicates vision clearly, I get excited. It is inspiring. On the other hand when a "vision" is cast, and there is little clarity it breeds confusion. You can't pull energy out of confusion. So when a vision is communicated clearly, it looks as if the path is laid out before you. There is no question about when or how it will be accomplished, because it is directly built in to the vision and it is clearly expressed.

3. Great leaders communicate vision via an action plan. It is not enough to only see the vision, for that is a dream. It is not enough to see it and tell others about it, any extrovert can speak about what they see. However, a great leader is able to communicate the vision in actionable items. The next step and future steps are visible from the current state of the organization toward where they want it to go. Without these action steps, the vision becomes simply a pipe dream. A great leader is not only able to see these next steps, but is able to rally everyone around them and move them toward the future.

With out vision clearly communicated in action steps an organization at best is stuck in a perpetual mode of grasping at straws for what the future may hold. Great leaders are able to see vision. Great leaders are able to communicate vision. Great leaders propel people into action based on vision.

Where are you as a leader? Where is your organization? Are there great leaders who's potential is untapped around you? Are you called to lead? How are you doing with that calling?

Culture is Everything: : Discipleship #3

I subscribe to a number of "newsletters" via email. It helps me to keep up with the growing world around me that I might not be aware of otherwise. Fairly often I come across articles that really speak to where I am or where my church and the leadership is at currently. This was one of those kind of articles. As a leader we must create culture in order to reinforce what ever is the main goal of the organization.

Here is an excerpt from an article on the Exponential website (a church planting group). Brian Zehr does a great job of capturing the importance of creating culture in our churches (and subsequently in our lives or businesses, I might add). Below is the list that really spoke to me with a link to the entire article after that:

Values:

• What needs to be most important NOW? In other words, what is God saying to us in this season of the church?
• What priorities must we have to multiply leaders and our congregation?

Narrative:

• How will we talk about what is most important?
• How do we engage our people in these values?
• What is the verbiage that leads our people to the intersection of faith and wisdom?

Behaviors:

• What will we do to live out our most important values?
• What are the actions our leaders must consistently take?
• What programs or processes will equip our people to live out the values of multiplication?

Exponential: Culture is Everything 

How do you create culture in your church or business? What would others say about the culture of your organization? How would your employees describe the culture? What is your main value/goal?

10 Reasons

Every church leader has to spend time evaluating where you are as a church. For that matter every leader has to evaluate from time to time where their organization is and where it is not. I came across this article a couple of months ago. As usual it hit me pretty good then, but I didn't know what to do with it.

Now I have come back to it in order to evaluate where we are as a church body and how I am doing as a minister.  So here is an article that will challenge the status quo, and for better or worse we always must start by looking inward before we can look outward.

Is your church growing: 10 gut checks

Which one of these items hit you the hardest? Which one is your greatest challenge? How are you working through them as a leadership team? These are all "gut-checks" and questions we must regularly ask.

How are you growing?

Meditating On It Day and Night

What do you think of when I say "meditation"?  Do you think of some esoteric eastern mystical hum-drum? Or do you think of a Hebrew/Christian Discipline that has been practiced for thousands of years? 

Richard Foster in Celebration of Discipline explained it this way, "Eastern meditation is an attempt to empty the mind; Christian meditation is an attempt to fill the mind. The two ideas are quite different."  I don't know about you but I need my mind renewed (Romans 12:2) daily. I need my mind filled by the Spirit in order that it might push out all that is not of Him. But that's just me...

Meditation is one way that we can do this simple but important act of keeping the main things the main thing.  Though not the earliest record of meditation the book of Psalms is a great place to start while exploring this spiritual discipline.  Psalm 1:1-2 states,
"Oh, the joys of those who do not
    follow the advice of the wicked,
    or stand around with sinners,
    or join in with mockers. 
 But they delight in the law of the Lord,
    meditating on it day and night."

 The Psalmist knew of the importance of meditating on the Law of the Lord, as a way to make sure they were in line with how God wanted them to live.  But here the psalmist takes it a step further in saying that he "delights" in the law.  Wow- there is actually delight and freedom when one is following closely to the path that God has laid out for them.  Easy no. But is there joy and delight there? You bet!

Here are some quotes about Christian Meditation: 
"Meditation is really very simple and there is not much need of elaborate techniques to teach us how to go about it." Thomas Merton

"That is why meditation is so threatening to us. It boldly calls us to enter into the living presence of God for ourselves." Richard Foster

"To pray is to descend with the mind into the heart, and there to stand before the face of the Lord, ever-present, all seeing, within you." Theophan the Recluse

When asked why he practiced meditation Dietrich Bonhoeffer replied, "Because I am a Christian." 

"...a familiar friendship with Jesus." Thomas a Kempis

"True contemplation is not a psychological trick but a theological grace." Thomas Merton

"No detachment is not enough, we must move on to attachment." Richard Foster

Scriptures: 
Psalm 1:2; 19:97,101,102, 148; 63:6, 17:12
Gen 24:63
Joshua 1:8
1 Samuel 3:1-18
1 Kings 19:9-18

Jesus often when out on his own to pray and spend time with God...How are you spending your time with the Lord? Is it renewing your mind? Ar you allowing Him to transform you? May your words and the meditation of your heart be pleasing to Him.


Psalm 19:14
May the words of my mouth
    and the meditation of my heart
be pleasing to you,
    O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

7 Attributes of a Disciple

After 8 weeks or so of going through the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew chapters 5-7, we are left with lingering questions: What is a disciple? What does living that life look like? 

Last fall for one of my graduate courses I read a book by Kathleen A. Cahalan called "Introducing the Practice of Ministry." I really enjoyed her writing style and brevity, as well as some nuggets like these 7 features of discipleship. She defines discipleship like this:  "To be a disciple means learning a way of life that embodies particular dispositions, attitudes, and practices that place the disciple in relationship to, and as a participant in, God's mission to serve and transform the world." 

Now this is not an end all list...but I like some of the elements & if you're like me, I need an idea from which to work. I've also attached some scripture to them, but there are many more that support them. 

1. Follower  “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” (Matthew 4:19 NIV), "a person enters into a lifelong process of learning from Jesus, to come to know who and what Jesus is and what Jesus is claiming about God's call to relationship, communion, and mission. (p. 5) ...it entails learning, growing, changing, and converting, as well as turning away, failing, doubting and at times rejecting the summons. It means taking up with a community of friends, brothers and sisters, a new family and household that includes the unclean and sinners."

2. Worshiper "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” (John 4:23, 24 NIV) "Jesus recognizes God as the source of all that is in creation, the source of healing power and authority in his teaching, preaching, and healing ministries. Prayer is an opening of his heart, mind, and soul to this source of divine love and mercy and a willingness to be transformed into the servant that God is calling him to be...Christians are "most fully human when we praise God" and giving Glory to God is not only in prayer and liturgy but also in our whole lives. (with additional quote by Cathrine Mowry LaCugna)

3. Witness "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8 NIV) "...one who gives voice to the claim that Christ has made on their life. Witness: to give testimony to the truth about what they know. Martyr comes from the same Greek root for "witness" and is for those who's life comes to a violent end because of their testimony but are prepared to suffer gladly "for the name.""

4. Neighbor "The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” (Mark 12:31-33 NIV) "In the Old Testament a neighbor is understood to be a person who was a fellow member of the covenant community, similar to a brother or kinsman. Neighbor quite literally refers to those who dwell next to or nearby, people who share land, resources, and traditions." Jesus expands the definition with the parable of The Good Samaritan, and Levi or Matthew parties.

5. Forgiver "For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Matthew 6:14, 15 NIV)  "Practicing forgiveness and reconciliation bring a disciple face-to-face with their wrongdoings as well as the hurts and wounds born from others' actions, emotional as well as physical. Forgiveness (OT) wiping away, sending away, removing, covering (Matthew 6:14-15, Luke 6:37) Forgiveness also invites a disciple to see the wrongdoer as God sees them, as a child of God who needs healing and forgiveness."

6. Prophet (Luke 4:18-19“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18, 19 NIV) "Prophets are a witness with a keen perception for what harms a neighbor: scorn, hatred, disobedience, hubris, unbelief, greed, and selfishness...Jesus calls people to repentance, invites them into a relationship with a loving and merciful God, and warns them against false religious practices and injustice toward the poor and outcast." Prophecy is proclaiming truth. (Matt. 22:1-4)

7. Steward “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ (Matthew 25:34-36, 40 NIV) "God creates and is the first steward of creation, extending the responsibility for stewardship to humanity. Jesus uses the image of the steward to demonstrate generosity, wisdom, and prudence, as well as shrewdness. Disciples are also stewards of a vocation, the gifts received for service in the community (1 Peter 4:10)."

If you look at these 7 characteristics or attributes, how does your life stack up? Or maybe like me, you can pick out a couple of them that you do fairly well at on a day to day basis. And then there is the other side, are there some that you do poorly? How does God want you to grow and expand? What does he want you to work on today?  Take these 7 in, chew them up, see how they set.  Then let God transform you as you submit new areas of your life to Him.

Christian or Disciple: whats the difference?

We have had the pleasure of spending each week in the Sermon on the Mount for the last few months. I'm sure we could spend a lot more time, but it was enjoyable to go through it all, bit by bit, piece by piece.

I'm left with a nagging question though. Why don't Christian adhere more closely to the kind of life described by Jesus in what may be the most important sermon ever given? 

Today's Christianity seems like a muddled mess of what Jesus intended it to be when he was here on the earth. Gandhi is famously quoted as saying, "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." Ouch. That hurts. That should hurt for all who associate themselves with the bride of Christ, his church.

So it leaves me wondering, why do some choose a sort of nominal Christianity, while others choose to become Christ followers or disciples? I suppose it is a matter of ease and comfort. It's not easy to take up your cross daily, or to live as salt & light, or to love your neighbor, much less your enemy.

Perhaps there are no words spoken by Jesus that haunt me more as someone who calls on the name of the Lord.

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’  Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’" Matthew 7:21-23

Are you religious? A Christian? A Disciple? I pray that he may say to me one day: "I know you, come close to me faithful child." 

Living Jesus Sermon Series

Life an Adventure...

The year is now 2013. I have no idea what God has in store for me this year. I do know this however: this year will be unlike last year, or the year before. I think my word for the year is Adventure. I know that is the main theme of my life it seems, but this year more than others before. Here are a couple of reasons why. First, I have gone back to school. Grad School work is difficult and challenges me to think on a different level, from different angles, about different subjects than I would usually think of or study on my own. This is good: but it's hard. Secondly, I will be climbing a mountain (literally) that I have never been on before, with a group that I have never met, during a time of year that most would shy away. And I have to find time to train. This is good: but it's hard. Thirdly, my kids are growing up and changing right before my eyes. Claire is already reading (in Kindergarden) and Eliam is right behind her. Sometimes I'm thankful they are growing up, other times I want them to slow down. This is good: but it's hard. Finally, church life is unlike I have ever seen it before. People are unsettled, there is a desire for something different, something more. Change is tough. Discipleship is tough. This is good: but it's hard. Maybe my theme should be life is good, but it's hard... What part of life is good for you? What do you see as your upcoming challenges?

Colossians

We start a new series this Sunday that is based on Colossians. The first time I remember studying the book of the Bible was back in college at ACU. I helped lead a Bible study group at someone's house every week. Weekly all the Bible study "leaders" would gather to go over the material. At the beginning of this study the leaders in charge brought everyone together and read through the entire book of Colossians front to back. It's only 4 chapters but man did Paul pack a lot in. I even remember what they called the study: Christ is Enough.

That pretty much sums it up for Christians "Christ is Enough" or at least it should some it up. It seems too many times it's Christ and this, or Christ and that, or if only you do this, or you do this right/wrong. We are too often going outside of what Jesus called us to: letting Him being everything, our all in all, everyday, in every situation. Yeah I know that on the surface this appears easy, but in reality it is very difficult to make him "all" or "enough."

What complicates it? We do. Or more specifically: I do. I complicate it. I try to look outside of Him to fill my needs. I try to look outside of Him for answers. I try to look outside of Him for hope. But it is all fruitless and frivolous.

Christ is enough...Christ is enough...He is...

Disillusionment

Here's the thing...most people that are in church are unhappy with their church. Why would I make such a preposterous statement? Because I hear people complain about church (their church, that church, our church...you get the picture)!

So here is what I propose: step back and take a look at yourself.

Opps, I said it. Now I don't mean to crush anyone's toes, just step on them a bit. We all need a good toe stomping on occasion. It reminds us that they are still there!

All change or lack of change starts with us. The reality is: everything changes. Everything. The problem is we believe that everything around us changes but we stay the same. "I'm exactly the same person I was when..." you can fill in the blank. I still see my self as the young scholar athlete with lots of hair.

Churches change because people change. Let's face it; we were ok with the change of having interior plumbing and electricity in church. We were ok when we stopped meeting in someone's living room or garage or barn.

Or were we? Were we ok when someone introduce the "new" song "Amazing Grace"? Were we ok when we had to build a bigger building because God was adding to our number daily? Were we ok when we had to put in a PA system so everyone could hear the preacher? Were we ok when someone said we could seat more people if we had pews? Were we ok when...well you get the idea.

At some point everything is new. At some point things must change. They must otherwise we would still be meeting in the catacombs by candle light.

So when was the last time you looked at yourself and realized that you had changed? Yes the church has changed: it is always changing & has been for the last 2,000 yrs. Yes you have changed: and have been since the day you were born. Is all change good: no. Will everything except God himself change: yes. If you're not changing, your probably dead (at least spiritually).

Is your church changing whether you like it or not? Are you changing whether you like it or not? Are you grumbling and complaining about it or are you looking to God to find your strength and foundation? Are you modeling Philippians 4:8 "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."

We'll it's been interesting...

To say that the last few month have been interesting would be an understatement. Life has moved at warped speed, with so much going on that I almost don't know where to start...but here we go.

1) We purchased season passes to Splashtown for the family- I never thought I would enjoy it so much! The kids have gained confidence in the water and are learning to swim. As a bonus I have the best tan I've had since High School Track...

2) I have lost two former students this summer. One to suicide and one to a car accident. It always hurts, but these two have been particularly tough to grasp and recover from.

3) I now have a number of friends that are homeless. Yes they were homeless before we were friends, and yes they are changing my out look on life. More on the ups and downs, triumphs and struggles later.

4) My wife is still awesome & my kids are getting big!

5) I have only been on one hiking trip this year (to Big Bend National Park). My friend Matthew and I did 12 miles in one day- yes it hurt.

6) Await The Day (the band I have been a part of for the last 5 yrs) is "officially" done. Amiable for sure, just too much going on in life & time to move on. More on this later too.

7) I have not been reading as much as I would like. I know everything goes in seasons, I'm ready for a new season.

8) Church is awesome. We have a tight community of friends. God is challenging us and growing us often.

9) I had someone hack my accounts & I lost all of my old posts to this blog. I don't even know the dates of my hiking trips that I had logged here. Oh well, there are more important things in life.

10) I'm back. It's time to start writing again.

So here is the question: What would you like me two write, blog, rant, or talk about? Let me know!