Leadership

For two years of my life, most of my days were spent in an airplane.  Whether traveling for shows or meetings, it’s interesting how much I was able to learn about people and myself 30,000 ft. in the air.  The below is part 1 of a 4 part series entitled “Lessons Learned at 30,000 ft.”

I believe that God’s sovereign over everything, even the development of technology.  I believe that because right around the time my traveling schedule started picking up, the iPhone came out ; )  I’d spend the entire flight on my phone if it wasn’t for the FAA rule of shutting off your electronic device during takeoff and landing.

The rule is kind of annoying and I don’t understand it.  But because it was a clearly stated rule, I had to follow it, no questions asked.  Yet one night, one flight changed my entire perspective on the rule.  I sat down next to a pilot who was on a flight home.  After small talk, the time came for the dreadful power down command from the flight crew.  I turned my iPhone off expecting to see the knowledgeable pilot next to me with his phone in the off position as well.  However, that’s not what me and the people around saw.  You guessed it, the pilot was flicking through his phone during the entire power down time.  As soon as I noticed this, I began to question the rule itself and it’s importance.  So much so that during the landing, me and the rest of the people around stayed on our phones.  If it wasn’t important to a person who is a pilot for the airline, why should it be an important rule for people who pay to fly with them?

The same is true in leadership.  As leaders, we’re called to uphold standards and practice obedience as others follow the pace that we set.  Undoubtedly, we are not held responsible for their decisions in the end.  Yet, we kind of are when it’s our example their following headstrong into those decisions, right?

We find ourselves in this position as leaders because all to often we fail to ask ourselves, “do I really believe that what I’m calling others to is important?”  Is there a firm belief in your heart that the gathering of believers each week is not about religion but relationship?  Then why do we have such a hard time being open and transparent with one another?  How about marriage?  Do you really believe that a couple in your church should seek God’s way and work out their marriage no matter what?  Then why do you go home and fail to serve your spouse in any way you can?

Do you see the progression here?  Just like that pilot sitting next to me, everyone around you can see with their own eyes what truths are important to you.  The pilot could’ve told me till he was blue in the face that I should shut my phone off during landing.  But because he didn’t power down, there was an unsaid understanding that the rule wasn’t really that important.  As leaders, our lives are under the microscope for all to see.  Our lives are still in process, meaning we aren’t perfect, but the errors in our lives need to be worked out.

Ask yourself often, “what ‘in-flight instructions’ am I asking others to follow that I don’t really believe are important?”

As I’ve asked numerous flight attendants and pilots, the electronics off rule is important because they want our attention during two of the most critical times inflight, takeoff and landing.  Pay attention to how you live, because the lives of those you lead are in critical times.

13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. - 1 John 3:13-15

Just like life, leadership comes with struggles.  Unfortunately, a lot of the struggles that leaders have to deal with is the daily sifting through the “haters.”  The haters are those people who seem to have a list of concerns about everything, without any solutions.  They’re also the ones who want to bring you down because they’re jealous of your successes.  If you look deeper into 1 John 3, it’s clear to see that it’s expected for the world to hate us, or not “know” us, because they didn’t know Jesus.

So where does the ultra negative spirit in “believers” come from?  To be honest, I’m done asking that question.  It’s not our job to try and decide what makes people do the things they do.  But so many leaders are spending their precious resources trying to fix the perspective of these kind of people.  However, at the end of the day their inability to love well is between them and God.

Is it sad that some in the church tend to be the voice of negativity rather than the voice of love?  Absolutely, and it’s the reality of what we leaders are facing in so many areas.  It feels like you against the world.

After all the experience with “haters” I’ve decided to do something about it:

Don’t Respond - There’s a difference between a person who has a right to an opinion and a person who just wants you to hear them be negative.  You know the people who can’t say anything positive, and you fuel their fire when you respond to every random email or comment.

Stand For Truth Only - In some instances there are people who will try to attack your character and will build a story of lies that will end up hurting you.  In love, you have to fight for the truth.  Make a stance to protect your character, but don’t look at it as an opportunity to win, but to stand for what’s right.

Filter – Because not everyone is always trying to be negative, you need to have a system for filtering the valid from the unimportant.  I suggest bringing in a third party.  Someone who knows you and your character, but is unbiased on the decision making process.  Trust this person to read through the messages or listen to the voicemails and heed their opinion on the issue.  Those closest to you will know if the issue at hand is truly something you struggle with.  If it’s not, trust them and let it go.

Let It Go And Keep Moving - The desire to please everyone is a struggle that leaders often have.  But the negativity of hater’s tend to stick with you.  You have to brush it off or it will eat at you when you sleep, affect your relationships, and change the reason why you make certain decisions.  Live out the truth that their negativity is not your responsibility.

Stay Away From Haters – There are just some people who have negativity on their speech more often than being positive.  Unfortunately I’ve realized that they’ll bring you down to their level easier than you’ll be able to change their outlook on things.  For the health of your ministry and life, stay away from haters.

I’d love to hear your stories on how negativity has hurt your ministry and leadership and how you were able to overcome the haters in your life.  Let’s be here for each other and help encourage others through the good and the bad times.  Join the conversation in the comments below.

To often in leadership we find ourselves looking at the successes of others and wanting it for ourselves.  The thing that I’ve learned is that someone else’s successes are preceded by a long history of struggles and “working things out.”  And who’s to say that their way of doing things is going to be successful in your specific context?

As leaders, we need to be stretching the mold in our designated areas.  Working out problems and struggling through creativity where God has us is the beginning of something great.  I’ve seen the results of churches and organizations crippling their potential by simply copying the work of others.  As leaders, it’s our responsibility to focus our team to do a few things great.  This simple way of “doing” allows for the best amount of creativity possible.  It’s when we pile on a bunch of useless tasks that we find ourselves rushing and copying.

A few weeks ago I saw a graphic that began a new way of viewing this thing we call creativity in our churches and businesses.  Coca-Cola has been the best, in terms of Cola sales worldwide, for over a century.  The challenge for anyone else wanting to pursue the Cola business is not comparing themselves to Coca-Cola.  Looking at this graphic, it’s clear to see Pepsi’s problem since their inception.  They tried the same things as Coca-Cola.  They looked the same, and when that didn’t work, they kept making changes, as if their brand logo was the problem.

So what can we learn from Pepsi’s mistakes and Coca-Cola’s successes?

* Be You – I am all about looking at what others are doing and learning from them, but there has to be a point in your decision making process that you decide to be, you!  Church leaders, stop trying to be North Point or Fellowship Church.  Be who the people in your city need you to be, so they can hear the gospel in a way that only you can uniquely share it.  Can we learn from other’s and their ways of doing things?  Absolutely.  But for some, learning has become copying and it’s keeping you from being who God’s equipped YOU to be.

* Go With Your Gut – Coca-Cola put their best foot forward in their “brand.”  I’m sure they took their time and were simple in their approach to their branding, and they stuck with it.  Pepsi, not so much.  The beauty of being simple, is it gives you the time to put the effort into doing a few things well.  Plan and prepare well and then stick with it.  Does it mean that you won’t make mistakes and have things to change?  Absolutely not, but when you’re free to go with your gut on things and create your best work, you’ll be free to see what the real issues are that need changing.

* Good Content Wins Every Time - All to often I have seen churches and organizations put their effort into how things look and forget about the quality of the content.  Church leader, do you have awesome environments that are always changing, yet lack the depth in your planning to communicate sound content?  Don’t be like Pepsi and think that people aren’t latching onto your brand because of the logo.  Pepsi just needs to make better tasting Cola.  At the end of the day your creativity should just be a way to accent awesome and profound content.  Don’t put the logo before the flavor.

I’d love your feedback on this post.  What things are holding your church or organization from greatness?

“Those of us who have been true readers all our life fully realize the enormous extension of our being which we owe to authors.” - C.S. Lewis

Of all the leaders in my life, that I know and respect, every one of them is a reader.  Reading is so much more than blowing through a book in a day and moving on to the next one.  It’s about learning, studying, and understanding; traits that must be present in any leader.

I’ve often been told, “but I just don’t like reading, I get bored.”  Let me say it this way: I don’t like disciplining my body by working out and eating right, but I have to in order to stay healthy now and in the future.  The point is that there are things that we have to do that we don’t “like.”  But there’s something about a person who bypasses what they “like” and instead pushes for excellence, to be better.  Every book is filled with the experience and history of someone who has searched for understanding in any given area.  That truth alone is a wellspring of life for the leader.  It’s life for the leader because there is a yearning in the heart of a leader to grow and know.  Do not confuse knowing with a haughty spirit of “knowing everything,” which is the farthest thing away from knowledge.

There are “types” of books that have helped shaped my understanding and have left me with a desire to search for more insight.  If you struggle with not liking to read, try studying and learning from one book at a time and pay close attention to the benefits.

Here some examples of “types” of books that will help round out your leadership and understanding in general.  Depending on what kind of learner you, try reading a different collection of books from the below types at one time, or just rotate.

* Theology - We need to constantly grow in our understanding of who God is from scripture and also search what history and theologians have had to say about who He is.  Books on theology, the study of God, can either be found about specific attributes of God’s character, or a broad overview of a certain study.  For example, soteriology, the study of salvation.  A great start to a simple, yet broad understanding of theology is “Systematic Theology” by Wayne Grudem.

* Leadership - Leaders thrive on learning from others mistakes or insights.  Who better to learn from than other leaders?  In some cases it helps to learn from leaders who are leading in the same places you are, for example, the church.  But often times it’s wise to learn from leaders in areas that you aren’t familiar with.  It seems that leadership principles tend to cross over into other applications.  A great book on leadership that I’ve read recently is “Making Vision Stick” by Andy Stanley

* Biography - There’s something about putting yourself in the story of someone that you look up to.  Maybe you don’t even know who they are before reading their story.  Either way, their story’s can bring inspiration in areas of your life that you’ve had empty for quite sometime.  One of my favorite stories about a real life person is “Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy” by Eric Metaxas.

* Spirituality - How has someone else taken the truth’s of scripture and applied them into their life?  This is a pivotal question that will help you do the same.  Not only into your life, but into other’s.  A book I highly recommend is “Crazy Love: Overwhelmed By A Relentless God” by Francis Chan

* Devotional - Along with my daily studying of scripture.  I’ve found it helpful to have a collection of books, alongside of the Bible, that I read from daily.  These devotional books help focus me and give me a practical truth about scripture that I can unpack as I study deeper into the text.  For me I read “My Utmost For His Highest” by Oswald Chambers everyday.  And I also try to study a book of the bible at a time.  Right now I’m studying Colossians and I’m using John MacArthur’s Commentary on Colossians as a study aid.

* Practical - Whether you’re a worship leader, communicator, or student pastor; you should be reading a good amount of books that discuss practical ways you can improve and grow in your specific area of ministry.  For worship leaders, a great book that challenged me recently was “Ancient-Future Worship” by Robert Webber.

* Marriage – The bible puts a heavy emphasis on those who lead to be leaders of their homes first.  For those of you who are married, or hope to be one day, there needs to be an urgency for growth in you marriage.  Before you desire to grow in your knowledge of how to lead a congregation from traditional worship to contemporary worship, you must know how to lead your marriage better.  Whatever the case may be for you, put a lot of focus into growing in your marriage by reading a number of books a year with your spouse on the topic.  A great place to start is “Intended For Pleasure” by Ed & Gaye Wheat M.D.

* Random – I love the idea of being able to discover something new in a book.  Whether it be new information about a hobby or technology, I think we should all stretch ourselves by reading something outside of our “field.”  Whatever it is, make sure it is stretching you in some way.  I’m not to sure if a bunch of books about Vampires counts, but have fun reading.  A book I just recently finished was on Social Networking and Blogging “Naked Conversations: How blogs are changing the way businesses talk with customers” by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel.

I’d love to know what books have helped form you in your leadership.  For those of you who struggle with reading, what’s keeping you from reading more?  Comment below and get the conversation started.

The past week I’ve been unpacking the book of Acts and it has been an exciting, yet convicting journey.  Exciting in the sense that the very roots of the “church” were being planted across the known world.  Yet convicting because of the great lengths that those chosen to spread the message went to speak the story of Jesus.

Although I’ve read through Acts numerous times, there always seems to be something that I see that I missed the last time through.  One specific observation has begged me to ask the question, what has happened to the church’s message today?

Acts gives us a glimpse into the message of the apostles and the means by which they conveyed that message.  Unfortunately, our message today has deviated from the straightforward preaching methods found even in Peter’s first sermon (Acts 2:14-36).  Church leaders, there must be a constant evaluation of how and what we’re conveying to believers in our specific context.

I encourage you to take a good hard look at your current situation and see how the methods and message of your church context line up with the message and method of the apostles.

* Exposit – Right from the beginning of the book of Acts, we see the apostles preaching/teaching by “explaining or expounding” on scripture.  In Acts 2, Peter exposits passages of scripture from Joel and Psalms.  Too often today there’s a tendency to settle on a topic or theme, and find passages that support what message you want to convey on that specific topic.  Let the passage speak for itself.  It’s the job of any teacher of scripture to teach scripture, not what you think listeners need to hear and how the bible supports your view.  I am all about theme driven series’ that convey biblical truths, but only when the theme finds it’s meaning in a passage of scripture alone.

* Jesus - Unfortunately the church’s message today tends to be void of Jesus and His work on the cross.  Fortunately, it wasn’t that way for the apostles.  They understood the importance of conveying the work of Jesus alone because they had seen it with their own eyes.  There was an unsaid reasoning that apart from Jesus, they had nothing to offer.  It was His grace that gave them a voice, purpose, and perspective.  This facet of biblical teaching/preaching is easy when you’re faithful to exposit scripture.  It’s easy because Old Testament scripture points to Christ and New Testament epistles point back to Christ.  It’s when we want to stick to our self-help themes that we find it hard to “tie” in a gospel centered message.  Whether you’re speaking from a passage about money or sex, there’s a direct correlation to how we view Christ and therefore treat a specific area of our life.  We truly have to believe that God’s message of grace through Jesus alone is enough.

The apostles believed that what scripture had to foretell about the work of Jesus Christ on the cross was relevant for all who listened to them speak.  Some 2,000 years later, we tend to believe that something has changed.  We believe that because culture communicates one way, we, God’s people, have to adapt.  The bible says all we need to know about Jesus and it is the most “relevant” thing we have to share.  It’s time that we begin to believe this.

“Some people gotta learn the hard way, I guess I’m the kind of guy who has to find out for myself.”  Strong lyrics from a record back in the day, “Free At Last” by DC Talk.

After years of doing ministry leadership “the way it’s always been done,” I’m learning that a fear of change will suck the life out of your passion to lead, and be led.  The danger of running head strong into your weaknesses is the pain it always leaves you in.  But you must address those weaknesses in order to leave the old leader behind.

As my dad used to say to me, “this is gonna hurt me more than it’s gonna hurt you.”  Trust me, I’ve seen hurt, as a result of failure in leadership, that would bring any man to his knees.  So have many of you.  What have you learned in those times of humility that you could share with other leaders?

These are a few of the truths about leadership I wish I didn’t have to learn the hard way:

* Leading People Sucks Sometimes – There’s no easy way to say it.  People will let you down.  Quite frankly, not having someone care as much as you do, hurts.

* The Weak are Strong – Healthy leadership thrives on constant transparency about where you’re weak.  It is not healthy to be some “strong fortress” who doesn’t let anyone know any of their struggles.  Keeping people at an arms distance is a formula for disaster.  We fail at this because we know we can’t get close to everyone, so we don’t get close to anyone.  Admit when you’re wrong and watch leadership get easier.

* You Fail as a Leader If You’re the Only Leader – Let’s face it, we leaders have a tendency to keep our hands in everything.  Training others to lead in your presence or absence, is paramount.  The business world gets this right, however, the church tends to be so focused on “the leader” instead of the leader “s.”

* Money Can Cripple Your Ability to Lead – Money is definitely the root of all evil.  Overnight the desire of money will change the very motives behind why you do things as a leader.  It’s an idol and status symbol in a lot of leaders live’s that often gets masked as “success.”  Watch, not only where you spend your money, but how much of your money you’re willing to give away.  From there you’ll be able to tell how good of a leader you are.

* Your Ministry or Business Will Eventually Look Like Your Home - It’s easy to hide your inability to lead your home and private life for a little bit.  Eventually those who have a failure to lead their family with humility, consistency, and honesty will have a church/business that looks just as faulty as their home.

* Make Fewer Promises - There’s no easier way to take the wind out of your sails than to have a bunch of broken promises between you and those you lead.  Do what you say you’re going to do.  Most of the time we know we “can’t” right when we’re asked to do something, yet because we’re a leader, we feel like we have to say “yes!”

* Don’t Take Yourself So Seriously - It’s amazing how freeing this truth can make you feel.  You’ll learn from your mistakes, rather than scrutinize them and your team.

* Run From Negative People - The negative can’t be trusted.  Their attitudes are like a cancer that starts in you and grows to everyone around.

What are some leadership truths that have helped shape you?  Comment below and share your list.