4 Important Leadership Traits From One of the Most Popular Leadership Sayings
One of the most quoted leadership axioms is this gem from Max Depree, a former leader of Herman Miller furniture. DePree famously said: The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is both a debtor and a servant. In this one pithy […]
Pastors, Conferences, and Coaching Networks and What I Look for in One
Pastors get hit up with lots of promos for conferences. We get email invites in our inbox and full color brochures to our office. The response of a pastor to these promos falls somewhere on a spectrum. One on end is the pastor who goes to tons of conferences. The conference junkie pastor lives for […]
5 Reasons Why You Should Get Away with Your Spouse Every Year
This November Kaye and I will celebrate our 23rd wedding anniversary. We took our honeymoon to a family friend’s condo in Missouri (we were college students with very little money). The next year we went to Cancun, which was our wedding gift from my parents. After those two trips, we decided we would not stop […]
10 Ways Leaders Shape Their Teams
The popular and often-quoted leadership axiom “speed of the leader, speed of the team” captures the reality that the leader of a group of people sets the tone and pace for the group. Of course, there are exceptions. There are times that gifted people with high integrity give themselves fully to their work despite their […]
4 Reasons Leaders Need Large Blocks of Time
Calendars fill up quickly. If leaders don’t manage their calendars then their calendars will manage them. In my view, one of the most important decisions leaders makes is how to plan their work. Do they just react to what comes their way or do they proactively plan how they will lead and create? Meetings, emergencies, […]
7 Signs We Are Not Spiritually Hungry
We all hunger for something, at all times. Whether for position, for influence, for affluence, for possessions, for a relationship, or for righteousness – we are hungry for something. Jesus said that only those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled. In Jesus’ Kingdom, the only way to be satisfied is to be […]
Adam Sandler’s Sermon on Happiness
OK – it wasn’t actually a sermon. Sandler’s message came in the form of a funny sketch, but it is loaded with much truth. Adam Sandler recently hosted Saturday Night Live and starred in a sketch as a tour guide warning people against using his tours to Italy to make them happy. Romano tours […]
4 Reminders about Kids Ministry After VBS
We offered VBS at our church last week for kids and families in our church and in our community. Our team did an amazing job serving kids so well, teaching them about Jesus, and giving them an incredibly fun time. Trisha Graves, who built VBS at our church years ago, is a hero as her […]
3 Indications Data is King and Not Friend
My friend Ed Stetzer often says, “Facts are our friends,” when encouraging leaders to learn from important research. He is right. Wise leaders don’t ignore facts. They understand reality and offer hope and mission in the midst of that reality. Data should be a friend of ministry leaders. As examples: Data about the number of […]
Data in Ministry: a Cruel God But a Great Tool
Ministry leaders should have a complicated relationship with data. We should value data because it can be used as a tool to help us make wise decisions. But we must not value data too much, and must not find our worth and identity in a number or spreadsheet. Data can help ministry leaders make wise […]