Leadership Tips

I thought these were some great tips on leadership from Dan Cathy, President and COO of Chick-fil-a.

Influences in my life

Writing my spiritual autobiography for a class and thinking about so many people who have helped make me who I am.

Thinking of a few right now:
Ruth Brown, Dr. David Warren, David Woodier. So many others. I will write more about each of these in the coming days.

Glory to God for such a cloud of witnesses.

Reading the Gospel of John

This past week, I spent time reading through the Gospel of John with a group of people in one sitting. It took about two and half hours. Here are a few observations:

There is something good about hearing the scriptures read out loud.
There is something good about reading the scriptures with others.
There are a lot of things you notice when you read a whole book at a time.
There is something priceless about hearing your kids want to read the scriptures with you.
I spend too much time reading other books in comparison to THE book.
Too often, I find things that are trivial to do when I could be redeeming the time.
I highly recommend having a Bible reading party.

Thanks Lisa, Shayna, Joshua, Matthew, James, Marcus, and Lamar for sharing this experience with me.

Heeding your inner life

"[We must] enter ourselves first of all into the center of our existence and become familiar with the complexities of our inner lives. As soon as we feel home in our own house, discover the dark corners as well as the light spots, the closed doors as well as the drafty rooms, our confusion will evaporate, our anxiety will diminish, and we will become capable of creative work. The key word here is articulation. Those who can articulate the movements of their inner life, who can give names to their varied experiences, need no longer be victims of themselves, but are able slowly and consistently to remove the obstacles that prevent the spirit from entering. They are able to create space for Him whose heart is greater than theirs, whose eyes see more than theirs, and whose hands can heal more than theirs. This articulation, I believe,is the basis for spiritual leadership of the future, because only they who are able to articulate their own experiences can offer themselves to others as a source of clarification."

Henri Nouwen - The Wounded Healer

What do you think of this quote? Is knowing yourself well a key to effective spiritual leadership?

The Next Evangelicalism

I dare you to read this book! It attacks many sacred cows and challenges us to rethink what is going on in the church in America.

I am not yet finished with Soong-Chan Rah's book "The Next Evangelicalism", but to this point it has been engaging, convicting, enlightening, confusing, and many other things. This book is prophetic and bold. It is a needed voice to the evangelical world which often ignores some of its most powerful and needed voices.

Rah confronts the false gods of materialism and consumersism, racism, white privilege and the pride that goes with it, and offers a starting point to understanding a more wholistic theology.

The Next Evangelicalism is a must read for anyone serious about growing God's kingdom effectively in the years to come. So get it. Read it. Talk about it. Learn from it.

A leader is a servant

I was reading the other day in the book of Matthew and came across Jesus giving some specific teaching about a quality of greatness. In Matthew 20:26-28, Jesus reminded his disciples that the greatest would be a servant to all. This was a good reminder to me of a truth that I have known for a long time.

If I want to improve as a leader, than I need to continue to commit myself to serving others. I have so much to learn about being a person who serves people.

It is also a good reminder to me about teaching others how to be leaders. Many people, especially young people, want to lead. What they really often mean is that they want to be in charge. They want authority. They want to make decisions. They want others to follow them. But when it comes time to do the dirty work, the volunteer list can be short.

It is my observation that a lot of people are critical of leaders, but few people are willing to pay the price of leadership. Many people desire a position, but few are willing to walk the path of humble service.

Most of what I know about being a leader has come from observing and listening to humble servants of God who modelled good leadership. My challenge to those who desire to be a leader of others for the glory of God: Start serving people!

It is my prayer that God would help me to be a better leader. It is also my prayer that God would continue to develop more and more servant leaders for His kingdom.

Who is someone who has been a model of leadership for you?
What have you learned about leadership?

The Lord's Supper

Have you ever notice that I Corinthians 11:17-34 is all about the church being unified? This is the classic passage about the Lord's Supper. It is used whenever communion/Lord's Supper/Eucharist is observed in churches. Paul is addressing the Corinthians behavior while observing this ordinance, but his challenge has to do with how they are treating one another.
The Corinthians were dividing over class. The rich were eating a lot and leaving the poor without. They were disgracing the unity that comes from the cross. They were more concerned about their appetite than about there brother and sister in Christ. This was a disgrace to the "Lord's" supper. From verses 17 and 18 to verses 33 and 34, Paul is talking about sharing with each other without divisions.

Verse 29 says "For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself". Makes me wonder if the "body of the Lord" is talking about the other believers. Maybe the warning is about acting like you are the church, but not really being considerate of the other members of the body.
It seems that the Christian life was meant to be lived in the context of community and not in isolation. It seems that the Lord's Supper has a lot to do with Christian community and not just personal reflection.

Just some things I am have been considering. Any thoughts?

Psychology and "Christian counseling"

Something that I have thought about for a long time is: "What role does the science of psychology play in Christian counseling?" I am in a class in my grad program right now and reading a number of varying views on this question.

The extremes go both ways. One extreme says that all psycho or emotional problems are spiritual and should be "treated" only with the Word of God. The other extreme takes the science of psychology so seriously that the spiritual nature of many issues are not even considered. There are many different ideas in the middle. I have some thoughts on this, but I am wondering what some of you think.

How much should Christians use the knowledge gained from the study of psychology?

Can the Bible and psychology both be used to help people reach emotional and spiritual health?

Why do we suffer?

Have you ever wondered why something bad has happened to you? I know that I have experienced some very difficult things in life. One response can be to get upset with God. I could tell God that he doesn't know what He is doing as if He is not all knowing and in complete control.

I have been thinking about the purpose for our suffering lately. Peter addresses this issue a lot in I Peter. Studying this book has given me a greater understanding of the purpose in suffering and also how to respond to suffering.

But the most encouraging scripture to me is in II Corinthians 1:3-7 which states:

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort."

This is powerful stuff! God is the God of all comforts!! He comforts us in our trouble so that He can use us to comfort others in their trouble.

Do you see the difficult things that you have faced in life as something that God allowed so that you could be useful to others?

How have you seen God use your trouble to be a comfort to someone else?

"Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise".

I found this in a fortune cookie at a restaurant in Disney World, but I thought it was quite profound none the less.

I pray that I will be wise enough to be willing to learn from anyone.

A theology of celebration vs. suffering

Earlier this year, I heard Soong Chan Rah speak and was so challenged and intrigued that I decided to attend his workshop. He talked about a theology of celebration and a theology of suffering and how they look very different. It is fascinating. It is eye opening. It is convicting.

One thing that I have realized is that white evangelical Christians (of which I am one) do not like to be told that our theology is wrong or in this case incomplete. We feel defensive and want to argue the point.

Dr. Rah talked about a theology that does not understand suffering is incomplete. He challenged us that we need to learn from each other and realize that if we do not than we are left with bad theology. So the racial divide that often exists within the church is not only a problem by itself, but it also creates an incomplete (wrong) theology. So we must know and engage each other across racial and economic because we have so much to learn from each other.

Most minorities in America are OK with the fact that they have things that they must learn from white Christians. A large majority of white Christians in our country have no thought that they have something to learn from Christians outside there race. Often they don’t seek out those relationships, because they feel they get all that they need spiritually within there own race.

I understand that I am painting with a broad brush here without being able to flesh it all out, but it is long past time that the “white church” in America begins to learn from the “Latino”, “Asian”, or “Black” church.

I know that I personally have been so blessed by the instruction that I have received and the relationships that I have built outside my ethnic heritage. It has enriched my theology and sometimes even changed it. It has given me a different perspective on the world. It has humbled me. It has reminded me that I have so much to learn.

Have you ever been around people who think very different than you and realized that some of what you had thought was wrong?

A challenge to keep Christ central

Coach Wayne Gordon spoke this morning at the conference. He started out as his usually energetic self, but then became very serious and said that he wanted to share what was heavy on his heart about CCDA. He said that he wanted to warn us as an association about some things that could become detrimental to the work. There were three things that he talked about:
• Charisma without character is catastrophic.
• Bigger is not necessarily better.
• Success without spiritual depth is superficial.

The first one was a reminder that just having good leadership and energy is not enough. The character of the individual is vitally more important than anything else.

The second one was a warning about not believing that because something is big it is the best way. The opposite of that is that just because something is small does not mean that God is not at work and doing amazing things.

The last one was a key. He challenged us personally to be people of great spiritual depth. To not be doers, doers, doers who were not really close to God personally. This is such an important warning for the busy urban minister who has a million “urgent” needs always in front of them. It was a reminder to not build “kingdoms” or “ministries” that look for successful, but lack real spiritual depth. He challenged everyone to spend at least sixty minutes every day alone with God. He talked about spending at least five minutes of that in silence. I know that I struggle to take this time alone with God.

We were warned not to put Christ on the “margins of the page”, but to put him at the top of the page. It was a clear reminder that all that we do should be centered around Christ. We were reminded that we should not spend all of our time talking about our programs and never talk about the significance of Christ in what we are doing.

I appreciated the emphasis that he gave today and hope that all who were present have ears to hear.

Have you seen charisma take people far while they obviously lacked character?

Do you find yourself believing the lie that bigger is better?

Is God using you to be “successful” in serving Him, but without a real spiritual depth to that work?

Back to school

I am taking the big step of returning to school. I have applied and been accepted into a graduate program at Wheaton College. The program is Christian formation and ministry. I also have been awarded a full tuition scholarship through the Billy Graham Center for my involvement in Urban Ministry.

I am both excited and hesitant about this opportunity. I love to learn and look forward to the chance to be back in a classroom in the academic setting. I also am very grateful for the blessing from God of the scholarship that I have received. But I know that I already have a lot on my plate and wonder how this will fit in with all that. My prayer is that God will give me balance with being a husband, father, elder/pastor, coordinating PURSUE, and student.

I hope that this program will not just benefit me personally, but also my church and community.

Learning about the city

A friend of mine, Scott Lundeen, is producing video and other materials to introduce people who are unfamiliar with the issues that exist in our urban centers to ways that they can be involved. The website states that "Urban Entry is designed to generate conversation that leads to action around a variety of what have been considered “urban” issues: poverty, race relations, justice, etc."

If you are a Christian who cares about the problems that exist in the cities of America but are not sure how to get involved, I would suggest URBAN ENTRY as a first step in learning. Take the time to peruse the website and even watch the videos.

Are you looking to show the love of Christ to the problems of our inner cities?

What are some other resources that others might use to learn about how to be helpful?

Life lessons

Here are some humorous, but with some truth to them, life lessons that I came across today.

Life’s lessons (and ages at which the person learned them)
-Lending money to friends and relatives causes them to get amnesia. (32)
-No situation is so bad that losing your temper won’t make it worse. (41)
-You shouldn’t leave your fork on the plate when you reheat food in the microwave. (13)
-When you’re too busy for friends, you’re too busy. (48)
-Life is like a 10-speed bicycle—most of us have gears we never use. (59)
-When parents say, “It doesn’t matter what we think—you are the one dating him,” they hate the guy. (24)
-Keep your words soft and tender because tomorrow you may have to eat them. (38)
-The more mistakes you make, the smarter you get. (13)
-If you are still talking about what you did yesterday, you haven’t done much today. (21)

I found some good nuggets of truth in there. I especially relate to the fact that you get smarter from the mistakes that you make. A lot of my learning has come by doing.

Do any of these life lessons relate to something that you have learned?

Seeking to learn

I have appreciated Dawn Turner Trice as a columnist for the Chicago Tribune. She has been facilitating a dialogue on race through the Chicago Tribune website and through her newspaper column. Today she posted some questions for dialogue. I am always working hard to be a learner of how to better relate to people who are not like me. Trice is one writer who can be helpful to me in that process.

I also appreciate reading Ed Gilbreath's Reconciliation Blog. He too pushes for people (especially Christians) to learn how to better relate to each other. This spot has been a great learning place for me as well.

As much as these places and numerous books and articles are helpful, the place that I learn the most is from my friends. Through getting to know people who are different than me, I have learned so much about myself and the world.

I have a lot to learn, but I am enjoying the journey.

What do you do to learn how to better relate to people? Who do you learn from?

Iron sharpens iron

Proverbs 27:17

As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

I love to be sharpened. Tonight, I spent a couple of hours with some of the men of our church. We talked doctrine, we talked leadership, we spent some time in prayer. I am thankful to have men around me who can sharpen me and help me to grow.

We need to be willing to let people get close enough that we can be sharpened. Sharpening takes close proximity. Sharpening lets your guard down. Sharpening can be painful. Sharpening admits that you don't know it all.

I thank God for Chris, Cortez, Dave, Deshaun, and Marlone.

What sharpens you? Do you take advantage of opportunities to be sharpened? Where does this take place for you?

SEEKING

I am seeking to know God.

I want to be a learner. I am seeking to know more about God's church, leadership development, relationships, racial righteousness, justice, and many other random subjects.

I am urban. I live in the city of Chicago. I am seeking to learn more about the people, the problems, and God's plan for my community.

I am seeking to be a better husband to my wife and better father to my children.


Anyone else seeking?