That’s how we planted a church. We looked for people who were influencers within a circle of friends to find a core of people to start our church and we invested in them and released them to lead in the church. We continue to invest in influencer type people that come to our church to lead our ministry. I have personally looked for influencer type people to add to our staff.
I’m curious what you do with anonymous criticism. I don’t really have a policy and I feel I must establish one. I realize that growth in any organization and just being in a position of leadership welcomes critics. The debate I’ve always heard, however, is what to do with anonymous criticism. I don’t appreciate critics who want sign their name, but since it’s part of leadership, here’s how I currently react:
I love creativity. When we started Grace Community Church, we surrounded ourselves with highly creative minds and allowed them to dream big dreams. One thing I realized early in the life of the church, however, is that creative people are more difficult to lead.
James Castellano is leader number two today in my interview series with readers of this blog. James can be found on Twitter HERE. James writes a great blog HERE.
Here are 10 questions with leader James Castellano:
Mature leaders don’t abuse power just because they have it…
A couple of weeks ago I invited my readers to share their own answers to the leadership questions I had been asking other leaders. I have some great leaders reading my blog…some of whom I have never met. This has been a great experiment. I’m learning from some leaders who weren’t on my radar previously.
Here’s the point: All marriages have trouble at times, but building a healthy marriage ultimately takes two healthy people. If your marriage is in trouble, consider the emotional health of each spouse. People who are individually dealing with issues such as past hurts, broken relationships, damaged emotions, abuse, or personal loss, will have a harder time building a strong relationship until their own emotions heal.
Here’s a quick message to my boys. My boys are 21 and 18 years old. I wish someone had given me this advice when I was their age. (Perhaps you need to hear it as well.)
As believers, we are called to offer forgiveness, because we first have been forgiven. Whenever I talk about forgiveness, however, grudges, hurts and past pains seem to surface in people’s lives. I will get emails, Facebook and Twitter direct messages confessing to scars and wounds being opened. In fact, the reaction to the topic of forgiveness is so tender for many, that it draws me to address the issue frequently.
Consider Adam’s story. God created everything; the land and water, plants and animals, and then God permitted Adam to name things. (Genesis 2:19-20) God delegated the responsibility of naming the animals He had created. Surely if God can design and create the intricacies of the human body He could come up with a more creative name than black bear, yet God gave that job to Adam. Something else I find amazing is that it seems that it was while working through the process of naming the animals that the discovery was made of Adam’s deficiency without Eve. (Vs. 20)
The biggest question has been what we are to do while we wait to respond to this tragedy. Grace Community Church is a doing church. We have serving our community in our DNA. Our people have been anxious to do something tangible. In cooperation with local officials, however, we have been encouraged to wait. In the early stages of a disaster like this, mass numbers of people are not the greatest need. The safety of people, stabilizing the community, and assessing needs of the community is where the community is focusing attention.
If you are following this series, I’m interviewing some of the leaders who follow this blog.
Susan Bordewyk has a great online presence. I easily found her on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Read another great interview from Susan:
I opened my weekly interview series up to my readers last week. What an awesome idea! I got some great response. Over the next few weeks, I’ll share two each Tuesday. Look for another one later today.
I am tired of watching marriages fall apart. What breaks my heart most is when two wonderful people allow temptation to overtake them and fall into the sins such as adultery or pornography. I wish I could say it was rare, but it happens every day. I have seen and believe that marriages can be fully restored from these times and even made model marriages after them, but the goal should be to keep either spouse from reaching this point.
Obviously there is far more than what I will share here to learn about public speaking, and I’m certainly not an expert, but a few of the things I learned I have tried to incorporate into my public speaking. Here are 7 basic reminders for public speaking:
