Tag Archives: Christ

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Highlights from Rethink Leadership on Strategy

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leadership

I’m at Rethink Leadership Conference in Atlanta, which has been like drinking from a fire hose of leadership wisdom. The first session was on strategy, which was incredibly stretching. Here are some highlights:

Reggie Joiner
  • It isn’t the vision that determines our success at a church, it’s your strategy.
  • A strategy is a plan of action with an end in mind.
  • You don’t have to work at getting misaligned as a team or organization.
  • Questions to ask: What do we want someone to become? If you could only get the people who come to your church for one thing, what would that one thing be?
Carey Neiuwhof
  • Is vision as important as we think it is?
  • The reason vision isn’t as important as we think is almost every church has the same vision.
  • Your problem as a leader isn’t a vision problem, it’s a strategy problem.
  • Mission and vision determines intention, but strategy determines direction. -Andy Stanley
  • Strategy initially divides, but ultimately unites, every organization.
Leonce Crump
  • Forms and functions change, but convictions never should.
  • How do you change your strategy without losing your core:
    • Can you measure your core? Do you know who your core is? Make sure they know your core convictions.
    • Vision is taught, culture is felt. What do people feel in our church?
    • Every person wants consistency out of their leaders more than anything else in the world. Do you know who you are and can you consistently communicate who you are?
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Monday Mind Dump…

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mind dump

  • Some days after preaching you have this high that you can’t explain.
  • Some days, you feel like you trudged through the mud of a passage and came out on the other side only to see the next verse waiting for you.
  • Today, I feel like the second one.
  • If you missed yesterday on “Do good people go to heaven?” you can listen to it here.
  • Romans 1 – 3 is an amazing set of verses that sets up the amazing truths that await in the rest of Romans, but they are hard passage to preach through.
  • Grateful for a church that wants to know what the whole bible says and sit under hard passages like ones on God’s wrath and judgment.
  • Those are humbling topics.
  • Got to celebrate with someone who kept inviting someone who finally came.
  • There’s nothing better than hearing someone say, “I have prayed and asked for years and they’re coming today.”
  • It’s a reminder that every Sunday is someone’s first Sunday. 
  • Since moving to our new location I feel like we have been doing a lot of work behind the scenes of our church to strengthen our discipleship and leadership development systems.
  • Right now, our staff is working through the leadership pipeline material from lifeway.
  • Such solid stuff.
  • Can’t wait to roll this out across all our ministries this year and how it will help people move on a path to use their gifts and talents.
  • Started reading You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit by James K.A. Smith.
  • The book is not at all what I thought it would be about.
  • Not sure if that’s ever happened to you.
  • But I’m loving it despite that.
  • So there you go.
  • Took our kids to the fair last week.
  • Spent too much money on rides but made a ton of memories.
  • Went to see Zootopia with our kids and 4 of their friends yesterday, so yes, we took 9 kids to the movies.
  • Got some funny looks.
  • All in all, a good movie. Always interesting processing with our kids the messages of a movie and it was interesting the timeliness of the zootopia message about being anything you want to be as it relates to our culture.
  • I’m predicting some fun conversations at dinner tonight about it.
  • If you’re like me, you are excited about the NFL draft this Thursday.
  • If you’re not, you just found out the NFL draft starts on Thursday.
  • I love watching the draft.
  • Yes, I’m that guy.
  • I’ll be on a plane Thursday night so I’m hoping the airplane wifi is better than the usual airplane wifi.
  • Got a lot to do today.
  • Tons of follow up.
  • Back at it…
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In Recruiting, Don’t Say No for Someone

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recruiting

One thing I have noticed in the lives of pastors and those who are on church staff is a fear when it comes to volunteers and delegation. I understand where it comes from and appreciate it (because I used to feel the same way), but there is also a lot of danger in it and a robbing of our churches.

It goes something like this. A leader in a church has a need, a role that needs to be filled. They have someone in mind who could fill it and do it very well, but they don’t ask them. It might be because they think the person is too busy, that they will say no or that they won’t want to do it. (Most leaders normally feel this way because we assume that if we don’t like to do something every person on the planet also dislikes doing those things.)

How do you get high capacity, talented people to serve at your church?

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What happens then is the leader says no for the person without giving them a chance to say yes or no. Would that person say no? I have no idea and neither do you.

I hear from many pastors, though, who feel guilty for asking people to give their time in building the kingdom. I understand this sentiment as people are incredibly busy. But I think this also says something about our theology. If all Christians are given spiritual gifts and will one day make an account to God for how they stewarded those gifts, it is our job as leaders to help them develop those gifts and use them (Ephesians 4). When we don’t challenge people, make the big ask of them to step up, we are robbing them of becoming all that God wants them to become, and we are keeping them from using all the gifts and talents that God gave to them.

So what do you do? “Don’t ever say no for someone.”

Don’t say no for someone.

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So I started letting people tell me no instead of doing it for them. What it has done is require me to trust God more when it comes to leaders and the holes that our church has, and it has forced me to make some big asks of people and cast vision to people. But God has also had people step up in ways that I didn’t expect them to do because, “I didn’t say no for them.”

So, pick up the phone, ask that person for coffee and cast a huge vision to them and let them decide. You never what might happen.

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What Should the Culture think about Christians?

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christians

When I read through the gospels, I am blown away by the conversations Jesus had with people. There is a difference in the way Jesus talked to them and his expectations for people outside of Christianity compared with today.

It always strikes me as interesting when Christians talk about the culture, politics or current issues and are surprised when people who don’t follow Jesus act like they don’t follow Jesus.

Why are we surprised?

If Christians believe that the gospel changes us (which we do), then we should expect someone who has been changed by that truth to live and act a certain way. The New Testament writers did. That’s what all the NT letters are about, how to live and act as the body of Christ. Paul did it one way in 1 Corinthians, a different way in Philippians, and James and Peter added their own takes to it.

5 things to remember when you talk to someone you disagree with.

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Here are a couple of ideas on how to interact with the culture in light of this:

1. If you are a follower of Jesus, live like it. One of the best ways to move the gospel forward is to live like the gospel has changed you. Too many people who attend church every week do not live, think or feel any different from those who claim to not follow Jesus. As I said once in a sermon, a follower of Jesus should be obvious because they will have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22 – 23).

2. Give space for those exploring Jesus to explore. Your church, community group and missional community should be places where those who don’t know Jesus feel comfortable asking questions and exploring Jesus. You should be the kind of person those who don’t know Jesus feel comfortable being around. Too many Christians don’t know how to be friends with people who don’t know Jesus, let alone share their faith with them. Be a good friend. Be someone who can be counted on, trusted, respected. This goes a long way in sharing the gospel.

3. Have a community/life that is attractive to those who don’t know Jesus. Same thing as above. If you are a pastor, how many people who don’t know Jesus do you see coming through your doors each week? How many people are getting baptized? Following Jesus? If the answer is low, you do not have an attractive community for the gospel.

4. Lovingly confront sin. If you are around humans, you will need to learn how to lovingly confront sin. The NT calls us to do this. Over and over community is to pull people aside and confront the sin in their lives with the truth of the gospel. Christians are good at shouting about the truth but terrible at doing this in a loving way. Don’t be passive aggressive. Remember how broken you are when confronting someone, and confront them the way you would want to be confronted.

5. Lovingly confront Christians who are unloving to those who don’t know Jesus. When you hear about Christians pointing their fingers, turning up their noses, or expecting not yet Christians in your church to act like Christians, lovingly confront them. Tell them how great it is that someone felt comfortable to put their cigarette out in the parking lot; at least they are there. Roll the red carpet out for not yet Christians by teaching Christians to love.

What people should think of Christians.

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8 Ideas That Challenged me as a Leader This Week

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leader

Here are 8 posts I came across this week that challenged my thinking or helped me as a leader, husband and father this week. I hope they help you too:

  1. How to Know if ‘Kids Sports’ has Become an Idol? by Jim Elliff
  2. 10 Confessions of a Millennial to Older Leaders by Zach Yentzer
  3. 6 Reasons Church Offerings are Struggling by Thom Rainer
  4. Creating a Path to Healthy Church Growth by Tony Morgan
  5. 6 Habits of the Best Conversationalists by Stephanie Vozza
  6. 3 Morning Habits to Boost Brain Power by Charles Stone
  7. 5 Key Differences between Church Shoppes & the Unchurched by Carey Nieuwhof
  8. The 7 Keys to Public Speaking by Nick Morgan
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Monday Mind Dump…

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mind dump

  • What a weekend.
  • I realize every pastor is supposed to say that after Easter, but it felt that way in our new space.
  • One of my favorite things this weekend was watching people who have never done the stations of the cross go through it for the first time and seeing their reaction.
  • So cool.
  • It was awesome hearing the stories of change during baptism.
  • I love that those who got baptized yesterday became Christians at our church in the last 10 weeks!
  • It was awesome kicking off our series in the book of Romans.
  • I’ve been thinking about preaching through Romans for the last several years but never felt like it was the right time.
  • With where our church is, now is the right time to walk through this book of the Bible.
  • If you missed yesterday, you can watch or listen to it here.
  • It was cool yesterday to see so many people come from GTX, the crossfit box that Katie and I go to.
  • I started reading The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert and her story is incredible.
  • I think it is easy for Christians to think about conversion in very sanitary ways, but meeting Jesus (when we are truly changed) wrecks us.
  • It’s been challenging me as I get ready to preach on the end of Romans 1 and God’s heart towards sexuality and homosexuality.
  • Those verse are bigger than homosexuality.
  • I also started reading In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin just to get a change of pace.
  • I try to read novels throughout the year just to give my brain a break and thought I’d try reading something historical for a change.
  • Katie and I watched Spotlight on Saturday night.
  • It was incredible and heartbreaking.
  • The abuse of power is gut wrenching.
  • I’m really excited for our first membership class to happen on April 16th.
  • We tried membership before at Revolution and I’m not sure we knew what we were doing, so we took it away until we could figure out how to make it more than signing a piece of paper.
  • I think it has been a missing piece at our church.
  • We’re assessing a new church planter to join Acts 29 this week in AZ.
  • Love that our network is growing in our state.
  • I also get to train some leaders in Phoenix this week on leadership and marriage.
  • Always love talking about those topics and the chance to help other leaders.
  • Well, time to get back at it…
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Leaders Disappoint Someone

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leaders

“Exercising leadership might be best understood as disappointing people at a rate they can absorb.” -Ronald Hiefetz

I had a mentor tell me when I first started out in leadership, “Every leader on a daily basis should disappoint someone; if not, you aren’t really leading.”

Every leader on a daily basis should disappoint someone; if not, you aren’t really leading.

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There’s a part of me that likes this idea. It means I’m moving something forward, creating change or pushing against the status quo.

The other side of me hates it because I want people to like me. I don’t want to disappoint people. I want them to love what I’m doing, be a part of it and think, “I never want to leave the church Josh is leading.”

The reality is, leaders do disappoint people, and if you aren’t disappointing people, you aren’t really leading.

Why?

Disappointment can look like frustration, bristling at changes that are made, challenging people to step up and lead, take ownership or challenging someone in a counseling session to deal with their junk.

All of those things disappoint people because it pushes on something in those people.

I’m calling disappointment; when you as a leader make someone uncomfortable, lead a church where they don’t think it should go, make a change that they wouldn’t make.

Now, to be clear: disappointment is not the goal of leadership, but it is a byproduct of it.

Disappointment is not the goal of leadership, but it is a byproduct of it.

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It is the reality of what you are doing.

Disappointment also comes in another form and from another place: past hurts.

When you hear things like, “You’re moving too fast, you’re changing too much, you’re building your kingdom and not God’s”, two things might be happening. One, they might be true and you need to listen to them. Two, someone is looking at you through the lens of a past hurt and past disappointment; you are reminding them of a leader they once followed or a church they were once a part of.

Where does that leave you as a leader?

Leaders do a few different things with this:

1. They run from it. Many leaders have enormous wounds from their past that shape their present and future, and the idea of disappointing anyone keeps them from leading. Many leaders want everyone to love them, which keeps them from making bold decisions, praying big prayers or making any changes. The slightest hint of conflict or an unwillingness to move into a new future from anyone in their church, and they are done as a leader. Many pastors fear the Monday morning emails that come in, so they look towards the status quo and simply surviving.

If you’re afraid of upsetting people, you won’t be able to lead.

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2. They revel in it. Some leaders genuinely enjoy making people mad or disappointing them. In a sick way, it is a badge of honor. “I made this change and we lost __ blank people, but I’m being bold.” Maybe you’re bold, but you might be brash and kind of a jerk. How you talk about people’s reactions to change reveals a lot about you as a pastor. If you enjoy people leaving over changes, that can reveal some broken things in you.

3. They learn from it. Leaders are learners, bottom line. It is not just about reading books and blogs (thanks for reading this one) and listening to podcasts. Do you learn from the reactions to your leadership? Do you learn from how you make people feel when you walk into a room or how you speak to them? Any time you disappoint someone, you should find out why. What can you learn from that?

4. It makes them stronger, better leaders. If you allow disappointing people, turning people’s anger into learning as a leader, you will become a stronger, better leader. This creates resilience to keep leading. The strongest leaders I’ve met are the ones who have lived and led through some pretty big storms.

Strong leaders handle storms correctly.

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How to Worship

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worship

Worship music has often been a battle ground in church. It is the reason many people come to a church and the reason many people leave a church. Did they sing the songs I like during the worship time? Was the music too loud or too quiet? Were the lights too bright? Too dark? Did they make me stand too long? Not long enough?

I was reading through Leviticus chapters 1 – 7 the other day, which cover the offerings and sacrifices the nation of Israel were to make to God. The specific laws: the kinds of animals, which side of the altar, which door they were supposed to enter from, who was supposed to kill the animal, who was to throw blood on the altar, what to wear, and it went on and on.

This can seem like one of those what’s-the-point moments in the Bible. Why did they record all these details for things we don’t do anymore? Is it just a foreshadowing of Jesus or to let us know the history of God’s people? It can also get kind of monotonous reading about another sacrifice.

Yet, I was struck by the details. And I don’t think God was trying to be difficult or give them a whole host of hoops to jump through simply to have hoops.

Worship is something we do everyday, whether it is God, our job, house, spouse, kids, dreams, or hopes. We also worship our hurts and pain by holding on to them and making them the focus of our lives and identity.

3 things that matter for worship today.

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I think there is a lot of relevance from the beginning of Leviticus to our lives and churches.

1. Worship is easy to coast through. It is easy to walk into church, stand, sit, sing, listen to a prayer, recite a verse, take communion, open your Bible to hear a sermon and walk out. It is easy to simply coast through it. One of the reasons I think God goes to the detail of what kind of animal, which door to walk through, who does what, in what order is so that we see the importance of thinking through our worship and what is happening.

How to keep worship in your church fresh.

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2. Worship is easy to make about me and what I want. It is easy to make what happens in a worship service about me and what I want. After all, I have a ton of choices on a Sunday morning. When we do this, we miss the point of worship. It has very little to do with what we want and all to do with who God is and who we are. Worship is an acknowledgement that we are not in charge, that we are not God and that we don’t deserve to have access to God, but should be under God’s wrath if not for His grace and the sacrifice of His Son in our place.

How to make worship about God and not what you want.

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3. It is easy to leave repentance out of worship. In the Old Testament there is a continual reminder of atoning for sins as the nation of Israel sacrificed animals. Hebrews 4 teaches that Jesus is our High Priest, and now we have access to God. This means we don’t need to sacrifice animals, we don’t have to continually atone for sins because of what Jesus did “once and for all.” Yet we too easily walk into God’s presence with unconfessed sin. We need the reminder of starting with repentance, of bringing our sin, our idols, hurts and anger to God. Before walking to communion, before giving God our lists of wants and needs, to remind ourselves of our need for Him and acknowledging the grace He has extended to us. I know my heart changes and my attitude changes when I start with repentance. It changes my perspective of what is happening.

Worship starts with repentance.

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Monday Morning Mind Dump…

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mind dump

  • Sunday was our 8th week at our new location.
  • God has done so much in that time.
  • We’ve had 4 people take the step of following Jesus.
  • We’ve had 56 first time guests and 27 of them have returned for a 2nd and a 3rd time!
  • The response to our Future Family series has been incredible.
  • If you missed any of the weeks or want to watch them again, you can do so here.
  • If you weren’t there yesterday, you can watch & listen to it here.
  • I got to spend some time last week with the other area leads from Acts 29 West.
  • Love praying and planning with those guys to plant more churches in the western United States.
  • It’s also amazing to hear what God is doing around the world.
  • I’ve been spending some time working on our upcoming series Romans.
  • Feeling a little overwhelmed by the idea of spending the rest of the year in Romans, but really excited about it at the same time.
  • There is so much in there.
  • It’s easy to see how people spend years preaching through Romans.
  • If you follow me, you know I’m pretty into crossfit and right now is the crossfit open.
  • These workouts are hard every year, but this is a new level of crazy.
  • I’m doing 16.2 today and it looks brutal.
  • Read a great leadership book last week, Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive through the Dangers of Leading; highly, highly recommend it.
  • So much great insight for leaders and the difficulties of leading, but how those difficulties often come from the leader.
  • We’re hosting a dinner party this week which should be fun.
  • We’re part of a group that does a monthly dinner party with all the food from one country.
  • This month, at our house, is Irish night for St. Patricks day.
  • Always a good time.
  • Blessed to have friends that love food and are great cooks!
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How to Invite Someone to Church

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invite someone to church

It can be awkward inviting someone to church. We have fears about the relationship changing. What if they think we’re weird, or worse think we’re just friends with them so we can invite them to church?

Yet the reason you attend a church is, somewhere along the way, someone decided to take a risk, to take a chance and invite you. They knew that everything would change if you heard about Jesus, if you saw life-changing community unfold before you and thought, “I have to invite this person to my church.”

But how do you know if it is time to take that risk? How do you do it?

First, how do you know if you should invite someone?

There are clues to listen to when you talk to someone. Andy Stanley calls these “the not cues.” When you hear a person say something like, “Things are not going well.” Or, “I’m not prepared for…” Or, “I am not from here, we just moved to the area.”

When you hear any of these, you know it is worth the risk. Often the person who says these things is searching for something. They may not think it is Jesus, but it is.

Another way is to know what your church is preaching on and finding someone who would benefit from that. Maybe your church is doing a series on marriage, and you have a friend who is struggling in their marriage. Invite them. It might be a series on apologetics, and you have a friend who loves to argue about religion or has questions about who Jesus is and why Christianity is true. Invite them.

Once you decide to take the risk, and hopefully you do, the next question is how. That is an awkward moment. I remember this past Christmas inviting a friend to church, and when they didn’t come I thought, “Great, now it’s going to be weird.” Usually it isn’t. I saw them a week later, and it was fine. Life moved on, so don’t fear. I’ll ask them again.

You can call, text, email, share a Facebook event page or talk to them. Hand them an invite card. Take them out to lunch afterward to answer questions they have or simply to hang out with them. Be sure when you bring them to introduce them to people. Especially your pastor; he’ll love to meet your friend.

Let me end with this.

You never know when a simple invite can change a life. Hopefully your life has changed because of attending your church. This is a chance to change someone’s life and eternity, to help them see the life found only in Jesus.