As followers of Jesus we live in a holy paradox of loving the place where we live (the city, state, country, etc.) and longing for the day when Christ will return and graciously give us our eternal inheritance. We are to love where the Lord has placed us, serve the people we live among, and…
Prayer
How Should I Confront My Leader?
In my latest book, How to Ruin Your Life, I share how isolation typically leads to destruction. Leaders are not the only ones who face the temptation to abandon community, but the temptation for isolation is strong for leaders because they can use the guise of “it is lonely at the top.” Since writing the…
Links for Leaders 3/2/18
How to Fix the Most Soul-Crushing Meetings—Ron Carucci Meetings are notoriously one of organizational life’s most insufferable realities. U.S. companies spend more than $37 billion dollars a year on them. Employees in American companies spend more than one-third of their time in them. And 71% of senior managers view them as unproductive. In one global consumer products company that I work…
Links for Leaders 6/17/16
An important role that many leaders, in the church or otherwise, hold is the role of “mentor.” Being an effective requires a great deal of wisdom. Malachi O’Brien shares some helpful thoughts on the importance of leading through prayer on the LifeWay Leadership blog. “There is no magic in small plans. When I consider my…
Links for Leaders 6/3/16
Steve Graves is a friend, consultant, and executive coach who loves the Lord. You should sign up for his blog! This week he gave a list of books to consider for the summer. Gaining and maintaining credibility is vital to effective leadership. If the people you follow or the people you lead cannot trust you,…
Links for Leaders 3/11/16
Conflict resolution is an incredibly important part of effective leadership. Few people, if anyone, enjoy confrontation at all, let alone trying to resolve a conflict. Where do you start? What does successful conflict resolution even look like? Here is a helpful blog post from Selma Wilson, who shares four ways to resolve conflict at work….
Links for Leaders 1/8/16
Humility is vital to healthy leadership. A leader who cannot own his or her flaws and mistakes is not fit to lead. We often misunderstand humility as weakness, because we feel vulnerable when we admit our shortcomings. We must remember there is power in humble leadership. Perhaps one of the biggest temptations for those in…
Links for Leaders 9/4/15
If you’re in leadership, your faith needs to be undergirding everything you do, which means you need to be a regular prayer. Great post on the importance of prayer in leadership by Carolyn Taketa. “The most effective leaders are authoritative, not authoritarian.” Helpful wisdom from Dan Rockwell on how you can lead with authority without…
Three Questions to Ask as You Discern the Culture of Your New Church
Realtors love the summer because it is a time when many families move. Kids have completed a school year, so summer provides a transitional season. When ministry leaders change roles, they often do so in the summer. I know this personally as our moves from Cincinnati to Miami and then Miami to Nashville both took…
Four Hard Questions Pastors Should Continually Ask Themselves
When the apostle Paul challenged the believers in Philippi in their obedience to the Lord, he told them: “Do what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me” (Philippians 4:9). When he wrote the believers in Corinth, he said, “Imitate me, as I also imitate Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). Though not perfect,…