This passage spoke to me this week. Pastor, imagine if God had you stand on the front steps of your church and deliver this message as people entered your church Sunday morning…
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This is hilarious. I found this on Ed Stetzer’s blog and I figured if he thinks this is what it takes to be a church planter, then it must be true. After all, he is the expert.
I’m curious about something. I’ve been curious a long time. This is not new subject for me. Over the years my wife and I have visited dozens of churches. We’ve visited in most mainline denominations. We’ve visited predominantly white churches and predominantly black churches. I’m white (in case you didn’t know…and the more the seasons change the whiter I become), but some of my very best friends are black. I’ve even been privileged to speak in predominately black churches. I’ve never really understood the whole racial division thing. I love people. I think our culture is, at least in some ways, getting more accepting of other cultures and colors of skins. I won’t pretend racial prejudice has ended, because I know it hasn’t, especially in other parts of the world, but, things are better today than they once were in my lifetime.
But, that’s where my curiosity begins. I see improvement everywhere except in the church. Why is that?
In case you haven’t been keeping up, the world has changed. To be successful today in any profession takes new tools and skills. I am asked frequently by young leaders what advice I have for those just starting their career. Obviously, if you are a believer desiring to do ministry (which describes many of my readers) then you first need to work through your relationship with Christ to be obedient to God’s call on your life, but even Christian leaders need to think how best to succeed in a changing world.
Here are some “must haves” I would advise young leaders to seek to possess in order to achieve personal success:
Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another. Proverbs 27:17
This verse has inspired me over the years, but recently I saw it in a different context for my life. One of the biggest mistakes I see leaders make is failing to learn from the people on their team. We tend to think the best ideas are outside our organization, so we learn from many sources, but many times the best ideas for the organization are already with us. I love to attend conferences, I read tons of books, I follow numerous blogs of great leaders, but the fact is God has surrounded me with great leaders with whom I work. I need to make sure I’m learning from them.
Here’s a gentle reminder…
If you have a smart phone, you never have to leave home again without your Bible!
I love what the team at LifeChurch.tv has done to encourage Bible reading through their work with YouVersion. Our church uses the live version each Sunday (sign up HERE) and it has started to catch on with people. YouVersion continues to improve their offerings for churches. Consider these additions:
Often it’s one revision…a second look…one additional opinion…that takes an idea or a project from “Okay” to noteworthy.
It happens for me when writing a sermon. If I take the time to finish, then sit on it 24 hours, then go back for one more critical look the message is always better than it was before.
Don’t rush excellence. There’s a balance between stalling too long and rushing through a decision.
Which do you lean towards…rushing through a project or stalling too long?
Prior to entering ministry, my wife and I owned a small business. It was small in the sense of how economists measure businesses, but it was a big business to us. Whenever you have to make payroll for almost 40 people (including yourself)…that seems big. This was my second venture as an entrepreneur. The first was extremely successful, but this one was not. An opportunity came to sell and we quickly accepted. We learned tons of principles from that negative experience that still help us today, but it was a very challenging time for us personally.
Looking back on that experience, I realize one of the major problems we had being successful. There were hundreds of issues, including some of our own mistakes, but one aspect of our company and where we were in the market worked against us most. I discovered that….
Recently I attended the Story Conference in Chicago. It was a two day conference for the creative-minded packed full of the best ideas available to communicate our story to the world. It was a well-planned and scripted time and Ben Arment, the conference founder, is to be commended for the event.
The greatest moment for me, however, happened…
Could this be enough to bring back the bowl cut?