A Woeful Substitute

The apostle Paul challenged Timothy, “And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (2 Timothy 2:2). Notice the order of the language. Paul did not say, “Entrust to able men who will one day be faithful.” He did not encourage […]

A Simple Exercise for Organizational Stewardship

If you lead a ministry, department, or organization, you have likely been entrusted with the financial stewardship for your area of responsibility. You carry the burden both to execute the mission faithfully and to manage the financial resources wisely. And while the resources are merely tools to fulfill the mission your team has embraced, they […]

Water-Skiing and Becoming Like Jesus

So then, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is working in you, enabling you both to desire and to work out His good purpose. (Philippians 2:12-13) […]

Everyday Serving in the Workplace

A common misconception among Christians is that their work is not spiritual, that a regular 9-to-5 day cannot be sacred. If they’re going to do anything spiritual or ministry-oriented, it’ll have to happen around these occupied time slots. But this implies that everybody needs to be a full-time pastor of some kind if they’re going […]

Spirit-Filled Leaders Are Better Leaders

In his popular books Emotional Intelligence and Primal Leadership, researcher and author Daniel Goleman writes that the most effective leaders are emotionally intelligent. More than a high IQ (intelligence quotient), great leaders have a high EQ (emotional quotient). Because these leaders are emotionally intelligent, they are able to create environments and cultures that are highly […]

Be Fed, Then Feed

The Leadership Code is a book based on a leadership framework developed with consultation from renowned leaders around the world. The authors sought to discover the DNA of leadership by asking two basic questions: What percentage of effective leadership is basically the same regardless of industry, role, culture, situation, etc.? Of that amount (the percentage […]

Do you have a bias toward action?

Author and consultant Tom Peters popularized the phrase a “bias toward action” to describe organizations that are led with a posture to execute rather than a posture to evaluate constantly. The opposite of a bias toward action is the dreaded state of “paralysis by analysis.” On many teams what is often called “strategic planning” is […]

Don’t Love Your Job Less

A good friend of mine, Steve Graves, recently asked me to write an article about practical faith in the professional world on his site. Steve is a organizational strategist and coach who has been very helpful to me in my transition from full-time local church ministry to leading the Church Resources division at LifeWay. I encourage […]

The Miracle of Unity

Through the sacrificial death of Christ, believers are one with God. It is the miracle of salvation. A holy God and sinful man unified. God also desires the miracle of unity for the church — for your church. Without the miracle of unity, churches divide and ministry suffers. And all this occurs while the world […]

A Debilitating Weakness

While I agree with the counsel and coaching for leaders to focus predominately on developing and utilizing their strengths, if a leader does not move a weakness to at least average, the weakness will become a debilitating one that overshadows the strong points of the leader. A debilitating weakness will cause the leader to lose […]