It seems nearly every week that a ministry or marketplace leader asks me about the blog, and how it works, not the technical aspects but the regular rhythm of sending out new content nearly every day. It took me more than a year of writing a blog to get into a good rhythm, but typically…
Leadership
If You Have to Choose Between Clarity and Creativity…
Clarity and creativity are both admirable qualities. People seek both when creating a resource, when delivering a message, when leading a team, and when designing ministry strategy. Authors, artists, song writers, communicators, ministry leaders, and a plethora of other people desire for their work to be both clear and creative. But if you have to…
3 Cruel Christian Clichés for Graduates
It’s graduation season and your mailbox is likely filled with graduation invitations and pictures. Your church has likely asked graduates to stand and be recognized or marched them across the stage as proud family members took photos and celebrated/mourned the ending of an important season in their lives. It is an exciting time for graduates….
2 Views on Hiring Friends
Should you hire a friend to work for you? If you are sitting among a group of leaders and that question is posed, you get a variety of responses, each with a heavy dose of passion. “Don’t hire anyone you can’t let go.” “Life is too short to serve alongside people you don’t like. So,…
The Importance of Integrity in the Small Things
Rosie Ruiz won the 1980 Boston Marathon in the women’s category. And she held that title for eight days until it was determined that she had not run the entire 26.2 miles. In fact, it is likely that she ran only a half-mile after jumping onto the course. None of the other runners remembered seeing…
2 Possible Outcomes of Being Overwhelmed
I have encouraged leaders to look for seasons of being overwhelmed, to disregard the cliché “don’t bite off more than you can chew” and intentionally take on more than you thought you could handle so you will be forced to learn and grow. In their newest book, The Power of Moments, Chip and Dan Heath…
One Trait That Links Geniuses Like Jobs, Franklin, Edison, and da Vinci
Walter Isaacson has extensively studied people known as “geniuses,” distinct from those around us who are just “super smart,” which Isaacson says are a dime a dozen. Isaacson has written biographies on both Steve Jobs and Leonardo da Vinci. And the one trait that stands out in all the geniuses he has studied is their…
The Importance of Being “a Finisher”
Cal Newport, the author of Deep Work, has invested years studying the habits of successful people, and he believes the most common trait in successful people is their compulsion with completion. They are finishers. They may finish in different ways, depending on their personality or approach to work, but they are committed to finishing. He…
Why I Almost Didn’t Write the Book AND Why I Have Already Struggled to Promote It
I almost did not write the book How To Ruin Your Life because I was afraid people would assume I was piling on, leveraging the pain of others, and kicking good people while they were down. In my role at LifeWay, we had been through a painful season of seeing leaders we love disqualify themselves…
6 Important and Impactful Quotes from Leaders
I recently offered my five most favorite leadership quotes. They are not from modern leaders, writers, or thinkers but from leaders, theologians, and philosophers whose writings and sayings have endured the times. This is not to say that only old, dead thinkers have the best quotes. And to prove it, here are six important and…