Category Archives: Healthy Leadership

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How to Ace a Video Interview

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It used to be that if you were interviewing, you just had to be good on the phone or in a face to face interview. Now, the game has changed. Whether you are interviewing for a job or being interviewed for a show, you might find yourself on a video chat and when that happens, many of the rules change.

Here are 4 ways to help you succeed in a video interview:

1. Dress appropriately. Remember, this isn’t a phone interview so they can see you. Comb your hair, iron your shirt, look presentable. If you are doing a video interview, dress like you would if you were going to an office for an interview. I remember one video interview we did over the summer and I couldn’t see the person’s eyes. All I could think of was, we can’t hire him, he isn’t even looking us in the eyes.

2. Check your equipment. Your equipment will make or break a video iinterview This doesn’t mean you need a TV quality studio with an HD camera, but make sure you test your equipment. Do a practice run with someone, check the volume, make sure you can hear the people asking you questions. Look at what is in the camera and what they will see, because what we see on your end will tell us what you want us to know about you. One person we interviewed kept going in and out so we couldn’t hear them. Another one was poorly lit and looked like a criminal. Another person did the interview in their bedroom with an unmade bed in the background. Remember: everything communicates so make sure you are sending the right message.

3. Be overly excited. Because you are on a video, it is harder to hear the energy in your voice or see it on your face or feel the energy you will normally have in a face to face conversation. We can’t shake hands to make a connection so you have to do it otherwise. In addition, look at the camera. Nothing is worse than the feeling someone is looking at something else while talking to you. I know this will feel weird for you because it means you will be staring at yourself on a screen, but that is the way it goes.

4. Ask them questions. I say this in every post I’ve written about interviewing, but ask the people interviewing you questions, even if you know the answers. It shows you care and are interested in them and what they are doing, not just getting the job.

I’ll be honest, I think you lose something crucial in a video interview, but it is also unavoidable in the world we live in. Because of that, you need to become incredibly at video interviewing to get ahead.

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Facing Leviathan: Leadership, Influence, and Creating in a Cultural Storm by Mark Sayers

I kept hearing about Facing Leviathan: Leadership, Influence, and Creating in a Cultural Storm by Mark Sayers on different blogs and at different conferences and then a leader I respect said it was the best leadership book he’d ever read. I decided at that point, it was time to pick it up.

I was not disappointed.

One thing you will notice quickly, it is unlike any other leadership book out there. It has history, stories, art and a lot of soul in it.

The point of the book of the book is to show how leadership has changed, how culture has changed and what leadership looks like moving forward. I am thankful as Sayers points out, we are moving away from deconstruction in our leadership and culture and moving towards rebuilding. I’m hopeful Christians get this idea as many leaders seem to be behind the times and keep talking about deconstructing.

Leadership now is about rebuilding, not deconstructing.

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Here are a few things that jumped out:

  • Leaders are men and women who can influence a group of people toward a common goal. Their leverage comes from their ability to envision, communicate, and embody a better future. They see something wrong and want to change it. Yet for a group to be motivated they must come to some level of disillusionment with the status quo; they need motivation to change. The difficulty for those of us who are called into leadership in this era, in a society of the spectacle riddled with passive spectatorship and intermittent distraction, is made increasingly difficult.
  • Before we can lead others out of the culture of illusions, our illusions must die.
  • For leadership to be awoken, the modern myth that, like Nemo, we can hide away from the storms of life in comfort must be cast aside.
  • Our understanding of leadership is markedly shaped by the myth of the hero, the idea that through sheer effort and determination we can reshape reality. The myth of the hero tells us that dynamic, charismatic, and glorious individuals can heal cultures through their personal guile, skill, and glory.
  • The age of the image has created a whole industry that specializes in managing the public perceptions of leaders.
  • As leaders, influencers, and creatives, we all have dreams. Would we be satisfied if God made those dreams come true but we received no personal recognition?
  • Without realizing it, leaders can paint their own dysfunction over churches, ministries, and mission fields. All too easily, the effort to preach the gospel becomes about appeasing fears and insecurities, turning leadership into a tool used to primarily gain a sense of personal meaning. 
  • Emptiness seeks out thrills and excitement to escape the mundane. When this happens in Christian circles, churches recast mission, ministry, and leadership as adventures. 
  • Christian leadership is a strange beast. In its truest form it runs counter to almost everything the world has taught us: To create ourselves by accumulating riches, experiences, and relationships, and, most importantly, to broadcast them to the audience that will mirror back to us the messages we wish to hear. 
  • At its heart, biblical faith is a creed of the antihero. It is the story of men and women who come to the end of themselves and must discover God. 
  • Leaders do not avoid the storm when it comes, instead they step into the storm and discover the one who comes in the storm. 
  • Biblical leadership is so much more than just leading people. The biblical leader is a symbol who lives at the intersection of God’s breaking into history, into life. The leader can never be distant from God, His word, or the world. 
  • Those who avoid God’s holy storms fail to feel their pain, but they also fail to grow.
  • It is easier to reimagine church structure than it is to reimagine what it means to live a life fully devoted to God in modern culture.

But what do I love when I love you? Not the beauty of any body or the rhythm of time in its movement; not the radiance of light, so dear to our eyes; not the sweet melodies in the world of manifold sounds; not the perfume of flowers, ointments and spices; not manna and not honey; not the limbs so delightful to the body’s embrace: it is none of these things that I love when I love my God.

And yet when I love my God I do indeed love a light and a sound and a perfume and a food and an embrace—a light and sound and perfume and food and embrace in my inward self. There my soul is flooded with a radiance which no space can contain; there a music sounds which time never bears away; there I smell a perfume which no wind disperses; there I taste a food that no surfeit embitters; there is an embrace which no satiety severs. It is this that I love when I love my God.

Augustine
Confessions 10.6.8
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Why a Pastor Should Work Ahead (And How to do It)

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Work Ahead

Most pastors, because of all that is on their plates have this revolving conversation in their head: It is Monday, they are tired and worn down and they don’t know what they are going to preach on this coming Sunday.

They start scouring the internet to see what their favorite megachurch pastor is preaching on or they read a book in hopes of finding some kind of inspiration or story to steal, or they read their Bible in hopes that God will speak to them and show them their sermon.

Not all pastors are like this, but sadly, many are.

There is another way: work ahead. 

Why a Pastor Should Work Ahead on a Sermon (And How to do It)

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By working ahead, you are prepared for what is coming up, your sermons are not last minute. In fact, I just had two pastors tell me they spend 8 hours Saturday night working on their sermons. 8 hours! That’s crazy.

Every pastor wants to work ahead and when we hear pastors say that they have their next 3 sermons written, a part of seethes in anger.

While I don’t work like that, I write the sermon I’m going to preach on Sunday leading up to Sunday, I can tell you what I am planning to preach on for the next 12 months.

One of the biggest benefits to this is how it helps you to research. By knowing the topics I will cover over the coming year, when I read a blog or article that connects with that, I’m able to save it into Evernote.

But how do you work ahead? How do you know what you are going to preach on for the next 12 months? Here are some ways I’ve learned to do it:

  1. Write out books of the Bible or topics you’d like to cover. Don’t underestimate your passion for a topic or books of the Bible. Often, the next series you should do is one you are passionate about. What is God saying to you right now? How are you growing personally? Can you make that into a series? Is there a book of the Bible speaking to you right now?
  2. Ask your church, staff, and elders for suggestions. On a yearly basis, I ask for input. Granted some people give me input throughout the year and when they do, I add it to my growing list. A pastor should always have a running list of possible series or sermons they are thinking about. Often, the questions that come up in counseling or conversations lead to great sermon series as well.
  3. Get away for some solitude. When I finally decide what I’m going to preach on, I get away. I pray through the books that have been on my heart, topics that are bouncing around in my head and things others have said to me. I often do this in the summer time to lay out the following year. So, this past summer I was laying out 2015.
  4. Map out the series for 12 months. To effectively work ahead on prep, research, and creativity, I find a year a good standard to be working from. I am always amazed when I am reading a book that has nothing to do with a sermon topic and I find a great quote that I can use in 8 months. This saves so much time the week I work on the actual sermon. In fact, just this past week I landed on my big idea for a sermon I’ll preach in 9 months.
  5. Create Evernote folders. Evernote is something every pastor should know and use often. If you are unfamiliar with it, here are two resources I’d recommend: Evernote Essentials: The Definitive Guide for New Evernote Users and A Guide to Evernote for Pastors. I have a folder for different topics: leadership, gay marriage, marriage, dating, eating, health, divorce, parenting, schedule, pace, etc. I also have one for each book of the Bible, whether I am planning to preach through it soon or not. When I’m reading a blog or article online I simply use the Evernote shortcut for Chrome and send it to the correct folder.
Stop waiting til the last minute on your sermon

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I can’t tell you the benefits of this. I am never wondering “what am I going to say this coming week” which drastically lowers my stress level and raises the quality of a sermon because whenever I preach, it has been in preparation for a year.

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When a Sermon Bombs

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What do you do if a sermon bombs? How do you know if a sermon bombed?

Most pastors know the feeling. If you attend church on a regular basis, you have heard some duds as well. I know the truth that God can use the worst sermons and inexperienced speakers and how God will do whatever He wants to do. The reality is, many of the failings within a sermon though are avoidable.

There are many reasons a sermon bombs, but here are 4:

  1. There was a disconnect between the pastor and the congregation. Often the reason for a sermon not going over well is the disconnect between a pastor and his church. This might be because a pastor doesn’t know his congregation, their struggles, their questions or the pastor is so disconnected from the real world and stuck in the church world that he doesn’t understand their needs. This is why it is important for a pastor to not just hang out with pastors, not just read blogs by pastors, but be in the lives of a real church. The reason many pastors don’t do this is because pastors don’t make good friends, but this is a detriment for pastors.
  2. Sometimes it bombs because the pastor was not prepared. Someone pays the price for a sermon, the pastor in his study or the church for having to listen to it. Often when a sermon fails it is because the pastor was lazy, didn’t work on his research, isn’t prayed up, didn’t confess sin and has decided to preach someone else’s sermon or an old sermon. Do the hard work of a sermon. Don’t be lazy, you are preaching the word of God.
  3. Sometimes a sermon bombs because of sin in the pastor’s life. Often the disconnect happens in the heart of a pastor. An argument with his wife, unconfessed sin in his heart, pride. When this happens, there is a barrier between the pastor and God which is felt in his sermon.
  4. Sometimes a sermon bombs because God wants to sanctify someone. This is the hardest one for me because this can and will happen when a pastors works hard, does the work during the week, confesses his sin, seeks to live a holy life, know his church and serve them well and drives home on a Sunday knowing it tanked.

While there are other reasons sermons bomb and maybe even more spiritual reasons than this. These are the four most common I’ve encountered. The reality is that when it comes to preaching, most of it is out of a pastor’s control. There is some that he can control based off his preparation during the week in his study and with people, the rest is up to God.

When a sermon bombs, you can hang it up. You can get angry. Or, you can look at your life and heart. Don’t blame your church for your laziness. Don’t blame anyone for your hard heart or not confessing your sin. That’s on you. Do ask God to move and work. He will do so without you asking, but He tells us to ask. So ask.

Then remember whenever a sermon bombs, you get to preach again in 7 days.

What to do When a Sermon Bombs

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How to Succeed at (Almost) Anything

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It is easy to look at successful people or anyone who has reached a goal and get smug. We think about the things that went their way, the success that just fell into their laps or how your life is so much harder than their life.

And who knows, maybe that is true.

Maybe it is easier for someone else to lose weight than it is for you. Maybe someone was born into a wealthier family and had things given to them you never got close to. Maybe school came easier for someone than it does for you.

Church planters and pastors do this. When you meet someone who has a larger or faster growing church, you immediately wonder how the deck got stacked in their favor. Maybe they had more funding, got a larger launch team from a partner church or they were someone who is well known in an area.

Sometimes, that is true and sometimes it isn’t.

There is a secret to succeeding at almost anything.

Ready?

Small wins.

The path to success is paved with small wins. -Bob Sutton

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Anyone who succeeds at something, take your pick on what it is, has done several things, several right things in a row.

They talk about this in debt seminars, weight loss seminars and addiction seminars. Get a small win. Pay off a credit card. Lose 5 pounds, cut soda out of your diet for a week. Quit smoking for a day. Anything. Just get a win.

We do this in relationships as well. We think of something big that will make a big impact on our marriage, with our kids or in community. We make a commitment and then fail. Much like the person wanting to lose weight does when they don’t wake up at 4am to run. Start small. Don’t shoot for the moon on your first step, focus on something you can do.

Growing churches focus on this.

Get a win. Someone accepts Jesus, joins a small group or MC, gets baptized, starts serving, start a new service. A win. Something moving in the right direction. When it does a moment happens and it is a moment that all success is built on: momentum.

Instead of focusing on how to lose 100 pounds, get rid of $20,000 in debt, or how to grow a church to 1,000. Focus on the next step. It is important to have an eventual goal in mind, but it is more important to have your first step.

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Enjoying Life (and Ministry)

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Even if you are optimistic and not a pessimist, like me, you probably have a hard time enjoying life.

We are so programmed to expect things to fall apart or go wrong. Leaders are programmed to always be working, thinking about the next hill, the next program, next sale, the next thing that will change everything.

That in the midst of that, we miss enjoying life.

I was asked by some pastors recently how they could pray for me and I responded, “That I would enjoy the season I am in.”

Too often, I’ve found myself looking back or looking ahead and not enjoying where I am. To stop thinking about the next series, new growth, new staff member, next conversation or project and just enjoy something.

When you start a church or a business, you are in put your head down and get it done mode. When it starts to work, it is easy to stay in that mode out of fear it will stop or because you don’t know anything else.

Yet, some times you need to stop so you can enjoy something.

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Stop Being Letdown

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Relationships. At work. Your kids school. Your career. Education. Body.

All of us have been letdown.

All of us have let people down.

And it will happen again.

In the midst of all this gloom, it is avoidable to not be letdown.

You could take the easy way out and have no expectations of people and simply expect to be letdown. If you do this though, you will miss the chance for relationships, community and enjoying life. You’ll simply walk around waiting for the other shoe to drop, which will keep you from trusting and ultimately, living.

A better way is to clarify and evaluate expectations.

Here’s what I mean. If you are a boss, do the people who work for you know what is expected of them? Do they know the win for your team and organization? If not, you will be letdown at some point because you are evaluating them on a scale they are unaware of.

What about relationships?

This is where most of our disappointment and letdown lies, especially if you are married.

Most married couples can tell you what they expect of their spouse, chores, reactions, attention, etc. Yet, most couples have never told each other what those are. They walk around us a smug silence, pointing out in their heads how disappointed they are and then they return the favor. A cycle simply continues until you get to the place where you can’t take it anymore, resign yourself to the fact that this is as good as it gets or worse.

What if, you began clarifying your expectations in all walks of your life? What if you told the people you work with, have a relationship with, your expectations? What if your kids knew instead of you just getting frustrated? What if your spouse or employees knew?

What if you work for someone and they are frustrating you? Have a conversation, let them know what would be best for you.

Will this always work? No, but then at least you’ll know. But as long as you don’t tell them, you are saying no for them and that rarely works out.

Until it’s been clarified, we don’t have a right to be mad at the person who doesn’t meet our expectations.

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Why God Might be Silent

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I often hear people lament (and have even thought it myself), “I read my bible and don’t get anything out of it.” Or, “I try to pray, but nothing happens.” Or, “I want to hear God speak, but I don’t hear anything, he’s just silent.”

I wonder if the reason God is silent is not because God doesn’t have things to show us or teach us but because we haven’t learned and applied what He’s already told us.

The reason God is silent is…

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Think about the last area of your life or heart that God was working on, the last thing you were convicted about.

Do you have it?

Where are you in making those changes? If you made a commitment to do something, has that happened?

It isn’t that God is silent, I believe it is often that we struggle to handle what God has already given to us that we can’t handle more.

I believe that the reason God often seems silent is for our protection. It would overwhelm us.

Is that frustrating?

Yes for the simple reason, we want God to speak because we often don’t want to do or apply what He has already given to us.

We don’t want to let go of something, forgive someone, be more generous, slow down or open up in community. So, we look for something else to do. Something a little less uncomfortable or easier.

And God goes silent.

I believe, waiting for us to apply, learn and do, what He has already given to us or called us to.

The next time God seems silent ask, “Is there something I haven’t fully learned or applied that is keeping me from hearing God?”

The next time God seems silent ask…

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