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Waiting For What’s Next Doesn’t Mean You Do Nothing

By Business, Church Planting, Devotional, Encouragement, Faith, Jesus, Life Plan

Inactivity rarely produces anything…
Waiting on God doesn’t always mean doing nothing…

Jesus said, “My time has not yet come” (John 2:4)… He was in a time of waiting…yet He continued to act on what He could do…

Do what you know to do today…
Take initiative towards change you know you should make…

In Joshua 3 they had to get in the water before it started to part…You may have to get in the water first, before you start to see results…

Create action…it is often then God begins to reveal the destination He is taking you towards…

What action do you need to take today?

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Balancing the “Big Deals” Within an Organization – A Challenge of Senior Leadership

By Business, Church, Church Planting, Church Revitalization, Leadership, Organizational Leadership

Frankly, finding that balance has always been difficult for me, and at times in the life of the organization, one area does require greater attention than other areas. The key for me is to always keep the big picture in my mind of what we are trying to accomplish, while recognizing the individual contribution, each area needs to bring to that success. I can never allow one area to cloud out my perspective of the other areas.

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Knowing Your Identity Helps Establish Your Influence

By Business, Change, Church Planting, Encouragement, Leadership

I once wanted to be known as the life of the party. I’m funny, quick-witted and actually kind of silly at times, but these days people seldom see the real me. My family does, and often the people I work with gets to see who I really am, but except for occasional bursts of randomness the rest of the world thinks I’m always serious, always thinking about something purposeful or profound. (Social media has helped with that some.) I had to come to the realization that I’m an introvert and, in crowded settings, I most often shut down the wild side.

Knowing who you are is the first step to becoming a person of influence.

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7 Ways to Better Ensure Your Email Gets Read

By Business, Culture, Innovation, Leadership

I’ve been having a problem with my youngest son lately. He isn’t reading all the emails he should be reading. In fact, we almost missed paying some fees he had due for college, which could have made him miss some deadlines for school. You see, Nate’s a busy college student. He’s consumed with school work, church activities, and a host of social activities. If you want to lose his attention quickly…send him a really long email.

I can’t complain, because he’s wired like me. He is always busy doing something, hates unproductive time, and some emails, if they tend to ramble, simply don’t capture his attention. I realize it’s ultimately our problem, not the sender, but it almost seems a waste of time to process an email that could have been written with the same information in a much shorter form. Just being honest…I don’t read all the long emails I need to read. Sometimes I miss details, because the email was too long to process.

That’s my honesty….I’m working on it…but lately it seems I’m getting a ton of chapter length emails and it prompted me to think through this issue. If you want me to read your email…and people wired like me, here are some suggestions. In fact, if you simply want to make sure your emails are read, regardless of who you email, consider these thoughts.

Here are 7 ways to ensure your email gets read:

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When You’re The Pastor, But They Won’t Let You Lead

By Business, Church Planting, Encouragement, Leadership, Organizational Leadership

I was talking with a 25 year old pastor recently. He is frustrated with his church. He was brought to the church because they wanted him to help the church grown again, but they see him as too young to make decisions on his own. They won’t take his suggestions. They consistently undermine his attempts to lead. They expect him to speak each week and visit the sick, but they won’t let him make any changes that he feels need to be made. It has made for a very miserable situation and he feels helpless to do anything about it. He’s ready to quit and the situation is negatively impacting every other area of his life.

It wasn’t the first time I have heard a story such as this. I hear it frequently from young leaders in churches and the business world. I didn’t want to be the one to tell him, but I didn’t want to mislead him either. The bottom line in this young pastor’s situation:

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7 Ways to Make Strategic Decisions Quickly

By Business, Change, Church, Leadership, Organizational Leadership

Recently I posted “Leader, Strategically Keep Thy Mouth Shut”. The title was startling perhaps, but the principle is important. I wrote the post to encourage leaders to think strategically, especially when making quick decisions. Many times a leader says something or does something in a quick response which can negatively impact other people or the organization. Sometimes it is best to say nothing until the best answer can be decided. This often requires the work of more than just the leader answering the questions. One reader asked me to expand on the phrase “thinking strategic in the moment”; specifically how I do that.

Again, it should be understood that this post addressed decisions which should require some thought. Most leaders make hundreds of decisions a day and many of those require very little thought. If a leader is asked a question where an answer has already been clearly defined then the leader can answer quickly. When the issue, however, has an undetermined answer, especially if the answer could alter the direction of the organization, impact other people or require a change in the organization’s finances, then the leader needs to learn to think strategically in the moment. That may result in saying nothing at the time.

With that in mind, how does a leader think strategically in the moment? Here are 5 thoughts of how I do this:

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