A Framework for Leading in a Way That Develops Leaders
According to Dave Ulrich’s research and experience, there are five indispensable functions of leadership: personal proficiency, strategist, executor, talent manager, and human capital developer. A human capital developer is someone who develops people for the future. What does it take to have a team, a ministry, or an organization that consistently develops and deploys leaders? My […]
The Ridiculousness of Disobedience
The book of Jonah is considered a literary masterpiece, and in the first several verses the words profoundly confront us with the ridiculousness of our disobedience to God. The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because their evil has come up before me.” Jonah got up […]
The Leadership Code: A Framework for the Transferable Tasks of a Leader
The belief beneath the cliché “leadership is leadership” is that leadership is a transferable skill—that what it takes for someone to be effective as a leader in one field can be transferred to a different field. In the book, The Leadership Code, Dave Ulrich articulates that as much as 70% of leadership is transferable. Meaning if […]
A Big Question Technology Raises and Theology Answers
In our highly connected and technologically savvy society we have heard it said, “Do we really want those tech companies to know everything about us? It seems like they are everywhere and know everything!” We are uncertain about Big Data for one of two reasons: we aren’t sure we trust the people who know everything about us […]
A Framework about the Different Directions of Leadership
When many people hear the word “leadership,” they think primarily about a leader leading his or her team. In reality, there are other important directions of leadership. Dee Hock’s instruction to leaders about leading more than their teams is the impetus of this framework. What I Appreciate About This Framework I love that the framework […]
Walking With the Wise: 4 Qualities to Seek
As a teenager, my parents, concerned about the influences I was choosing, would sometimes ask me, “If your friends would jump off the Mississippi River bridge, would you jump with them?” Of course, I answered, “No,” but the reality is that wherever those closest to us go, we tend to follow. Whoever those closest to […]
Who Has the “A?”—A Framework About Roles and Responsibilities
Our executive pastor introduced the “ARCI” framework to me and has operationalized it within our team—so much so that the question “Who has the A?” is a common one among leaders I serve alongside. What I Appreciate About the Framework It helps solve a major problem—the lack of clarity around roles and responsibilities when leaders […]
The Curse Word Isn’t the Most Shocking Part of Philippians 3
In Philippians 3, the Apostle Paul declares that everything he once held tightly to in his life to be “skubalon” compared to knowing Christ. If you look up how the famous Greek word is used in the culture, you discover it was dung or animal excrement. Paul was making a very explicit point— everything is […]
A Framework for Ministry Leaders: Thinking Flock and Sheep
Larry Osborne has commented about ministry leaders, and I am paraphrasing, that some lean towards being a “flock leader” and some lean towards being a “sheep leader.” Meaning that some leaders, in their gifting, are more prone to think broadly about the overall ministry (the flock), while others are more prone to think about individual […]
The Biggest Source of Grumbling in Our Lives
What does grumbling and complaining have to do with our joy and our spiritual growth? Notice the connection the Apostle Paul makes in the book of Philippians: “Therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear […]