Archive for Leadership
What Do You Think? March 17, 2010
“What do you think” is one of the greatest questions any leader can ask.
EVER!
Let me explain…
Someone on your staff comes to you with a problem (and ANYONE can point out a problem, it doesn’t take a genius to do that.) They present the issue to you in detail and then ask you what to do…
The WORSE thing you can do is solve the problem (unless you are an insecure leader…or you are one of those people who just need to be needed!)
The BEST thing you can do is ask, “what do you think?”
BECAUSE…if you have a leader on your team then you need to understand when they present you with a problem they aren’t actually asking you to solve it but rather are merely wanting your permission to do what they already know should be done.
They don’t want your information…they want your permission to handle the problem.
“What do you think” will tell you what type of people you have on your team…because, believe it or not…a leader ALWAYS has an opinion!
“What do you think” will tell you if the person is actually a leader or not…because if a person is always presenting problems but never has a solution then they are probably not a leader.
“What do you think” will tell you if the person has caught on to the vision or not…because if they DO have answers but none of them are in line with where the vision of the church is heading then you have an issue that need to be talked about.
“What do you think” will tell you if the person has innovative ideas…or if they are lazy and are always reverting back to “what we’ve always done.”
“What do you think” will give you an opportunity to coach and cast vision…because they might have an answer, it might be wrong…and taking 30 seconds or so to coach through that and explain things more completely will do nothing but strengthen your church.
“What do you think” is one of the best questions a leader can ask when presented with a problem/opportunity…you church will be more effective and more people will be reached when it is not limited to just your own ideas!
Leadership Is Tough – Part Three of Three March 16, 2010
Last post on this painful subject! :-)
So think about it for a second, you are an Israelite soldier, you are getting ready to take on the enemy in a new land that God has promised you and you are waiting on your leader (Joshua) to present the battle plan…and then you get Joshua 5:2-3
“At that time the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites again.’ So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites at Gibeath Haaraloth.”
Question…do you REALLY think ANYONE thought this was a good idea?
Did anyone give Joshua an “amen” when he preached this message?
Did anyone want to respond to the invitation after this church service?
Seriously…this was NOT a popular battle plan…but, nonetheless, over 600,000 men allowed this to happen to them.
THINK ABOUT THAT – over 600,000 men were willing to “expose” themselves to some INTENSE pain and discomfort. In fact, the Bible doesn’t record anyone rebelling against this idea.
So WHAT was it in Joshua’s presentation that made over 600,000 men do this?
I personally believe it was because each man knew that Joshua, their leader, was asking them to do something that he had already done.
He wasn’t asking them to take a journey he had never taken.
He wasn’t asking them to take a risk he had never taken.
He wasn’t asking them to go through an experience he had never been through.
He knew what it was like…he knew the pain and sacrifice associated with the vision he was casting…and yet he could ask this of his men with integrity because he was not asking them to do something that he himself had been unwilling to do at one point.
Translation…leaders cannot ask people to pay a price that they themselves have been unwilling to pay.
If they do so then people see right through it…and that type of leadership is hypocritical at best. Leaders cannot cast strong vision and ask for a radical commitment if they have a personal desire to remain as comfortable as possible.
We can’t preach about sacrifice if we haven’t lived it.
We can’t ask for something we’re not willing to give ourselves.
Joshua could ask his men to make this move with integrity because he knew what was associated with it…and, once again, over 600,000 men followed through, one of the main reasons being because they were following a leader with integrity!
Leadership Is Tough – Part Two of Three March 15, 2010
Imagine with me for a second that you are an Israelite and have been wandering around in the desert for 40 years.
All this time you’ve been hearing about a land that God had for you…one that flowed with milk and honey, that had wells you did not dig, houses you did not build and vinyards you did not plant that would all be yours.
THEN you get to cross the Jordan River…you see God literally put an interstate highway through it while it is at flood stage and over a million people walk through it on dry ground.
You are on a roll…you are about to receive what God has for you. He has promised you victory over your enemies and there is a sense of anticipation in the camp like NEVER before…
And then…
“At that time the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites again.’ So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites at Gibeath Haaraloth.”
WOW…bummer…news like that will seriously crash ANY party…but there is a lesson here…
EVERYONE loves the idea of progress…it’s the sacrifice associated with that progress that we have a problem with.
God was saying to His people, “you are about to go to a place that is greater than anything you could have ever expected…but it’s going to cost you.” OUCH!
One of the mistakes we can make today as church leaders is begin to believe the lie that we’re supposed to merely be comfortable when the call of Jesus on our lives is actually to carry our cross daily.
I think God has AMAZING things in store for His church…I think He wants to do GREATER things that we could ever imagine…and it’s NOT His power that is the limiting factor but rather our unwillingness to sacrifice.
AND…as in this case…sometimes the sacrifice gets VERY PERSONAL! (We love the idea of others sacrificing…we just don’t like it when it comes to us.)
We will never get to where God wants us to go in we are not willing to give up what He’s saying we need to let go of.
This means our personal preferences, our desire to please others, our adaptation to a denomination rather than being who Jesus called us to be, please the biggest giver, remaining silent when God says to speak b/c of fear…WHATEVER…needs to go out the window.
Progress does not come without sacrifice.
Leadership Is Tough – Part One of Three March 11, 2010
I talked about this at Unleash…but wanted to revisit a thought that I didn’t fully develop…
Think about this for a second, you are Joshua, you have just led over a million people across the Jordan on dry ground…momentum is high, people are excited and they are just waiting on you to tell them what’s next.
SO…you beg God for direction…and then you get Joshua 5:2-3…
“At that time the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites again.’ So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites at Gibeath Haaraloth.”
Uh…yep…leadership is tough.
Please notice that God told Joshua to do it.
He didn’t tell him to delegate it.
He didn’t tell him to empower others to do it.
He told Joshua, “You are going to have to make the knives and then you are going to have to personally meet with each man you are leading and…” Well, you get the point.
As leaders we ARE called to empower others to do certain things…and we should always delegate the things that others can do better than us…but…
There are some things that God will call a leader to do that he simply cannot delegate…that means…
- There are meetings that you are going to need to attend.
- There are conversations that you are going to have to have.
- There are decisions that you are going to have to make (and they won’t be easy!)
AND…it doesn’t get easier. Keep in mind that there were over 600,000 fighting men…and God told Joshua to circumcise each one.
BUT…God knew Joshua was willing to do the things that no one else was willing to do…to roll up his sleeves and fully invest himself in a matter…to not be a coward because he feared what others might think about him (seriously…do you think people LOVED this idea?)
Leadership is tough…at the end of the day all of us need to be willing to ask ourselves with the question, “Can God trust me to do the things that no one else wants to do…but are absolutely essential for the success of the church that I am leading?”
More about this next week…
Experts…There Are None! March 3, 2010
One of the things I think church world needs to learn is that there are actually VERY few experts in the world today…especially in ours.
We love the experts…the ones who can tell us WHAT to do and HOW to do it (even if they’ve never darkened the doors of our church) and we will buy whatever they are selling because; after all, they are the experts.
(BTW…NEVER trust an “expert” that is “pimping” an untested philosophy that they don’t have the stones to try out…but they are absolutely positive it will work in your environment.)
Don’t misunderstand…I am NOT saying that there is never a time for outside opinions and/or some sort of consulting…but the problem develops when we depend on THEM way more than HIM. (You know, the One who called, equipped and will sustain us!)
He has an incredible track record of using non-experts…
- Joseph was not an expert statesman…but God used him to preserve a nation.
- Moses was not an expert leader…but God used him to lead His people to the place of promise.
- David was not an expert soldier…but God used him to bring down the biggest problem the Israelite army had ever seen.
- The Apostles were not experts…but God used them to plant the church (see Acts 4:13.)
When it comes to HOW to do church…there simply are no experts. There is not one type of church that works at every place at any given time. If there was a formula for doing church then why in the world did Jesus address seven different churches in seven different ways in Revelation 2-3?
Too many times pastors/church leaders want the easy answer rather than committing themselves to doing the hard work and actually seeking the face of God and begging for His wisdom and guidance…talking to the “experts” is easy…just plug in the formula and BAM…double your attendance. AND after years of watching this chaos happen I think we can all admit…this does not work…
Which is why I cannot wait until tomorrow at Unleash…
News flash…NONE of us are “experts” here at NewSpring Church. Our hope and prayer is NOT for churches to be more like us…but rather for churches to get a white hot vision from Jesus and become exactly who HE called them to be.
Tomorrow will be wheels off…intense…challenging…and extremely humbling for every single staff member and volunteer that is here. We can’t believe that people are actually making the pilgrimage to Anderson…and our prayer is NOT that people see an “expert” way of doing church…but rather just a bunch of “unschooled, ordinary men and women” who are desperately trying to hear God’s voice and do what He says.
February Leadership Podcast February 25, 2010
So…the leadership podcast for February is up on itunes (you can find it under, “The Perry Noble Leadership Podcast.”
Last month we talked about the alarm inside of a leader…and this month we talked about the vision of a leader (and Red Lobster cheese biscuits…AND people who have a “fart face.”)
So…it’s out there and it’s free if you want it! :-)
Modern Day Gladiators…Pastor, Be Encouraged! February 12, 2010
I had this thought on Monday morning that I could not shake and so I wanted to share it…
The Super Bowl was this past Sunday night…and it will go down in my mind as one of the best ones that I have ever watched. Peyton Manning and Drew Brees were locked into an epic battle that resulted in the Saints ultimately having a celebration that lasted well into the night and they “forever” marked their place in history as Super Bowl champions.
As I was thinking about this my mind flashed back 2000 years ago to the Roman Coliseum and the sporting events that took place there. I am quite sure there were epic battles that took place that absolutely riveted the crowd…and when these battles were over that men were raving about the results and talking about how these particular gladiators would never be forgotten…
And yet they have been…we know they existed, but have no idea WHO they were. We know there were battles but barely know any details about them…those once lifted up by society have drifted into obscurity…and what people considered to be of the utmost importance we now look at as insignificant.
However, around the same time the gladiators were locked into the epic battles that I am sure had the sports world going crazy there was this little known movement called “Christianity” that was beginning to take shape…a guy named Jesus who was dead came back to life…and it really did turn the world upside down.
SO…people began hearing this message called “The Gospel” and things began changing….and what was set in motion by groups of believers 2000 years ago is STILL taking place today…and while the gladiators that were once lifted up by society have been forgotten…Jesus has not, as His church is stronger than ever.
So…pastor…let me encourage you with this, what you are doing matters and WILL make a difference in 2000 years if Jesus delays His coming. It is a pretty accurate thought that your grandchildren will not even know who Peyton and Drew are…or even care about an event that took place dozens of years before their time…but the GOSPEL will STILL be true…it will still be making a difference and changing lives and it will still MATTER!
Don’t get me wrong…I am not railing against sports, heck, I LOVE a great football game! I just don’t want pastors and church leaders to lose perspective on the fact that what our society often says is important history often shows quite the opposite.
SO…don’t sell your life out for lesser things because, like I said…the Gospel, Jesus AND His church matter…these will NOT pass away in obscurity but rather continue to shatter the darkness with the power of the light.
Pastor…what you do matters…don’t lose sight or focus…keep your eyes on Jesus and stay the course…and one day you will see it was worth it!