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Today is Tuesday, my accountability day. Nearly Every Tuesday afternoon I meet with Bill, my accountability partner, to review how life has been going, and to focus on any areas of life where we have been struggling or purposing to do better. Accountability is at the heart of great leadership, because none of us has so much integrity that we can weather the storms of life alone. Bill and I have been meeting for more than twenty-five years. At first, I was mentoring him in the truths and actions of following Jesus. Over time it transitioned to a mutual accountability relationship. Bill knows where I struggle and where my victories are coming at any point in time. He has seen major breakthroughs in my life and he has also seen areas where I have worked and worked and worked without much visible progress at times.

You may be thinking, “Isn’t that a lot of information for another person to have about you?” Yes, it is. When I was a seminary student several decades ago, a number of the professors cautioned against making friends with the folks in the churches we served. They said it wouldn’t be wise for any of the parishioners to know too much about us, because it could interfere with our ability to lead. In addition, if they got upset they could tell the rest of the church members our “secrets.” I understand the concern and the cautions, but have rejected the concept from the beginning of my time as a church leader. Here’s why: anyone who watches me knows I don’t have all the spots on my dominoes. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. While Bill knows a lot of things about me that I wouldn’t want shared at a church dinner, no one would be really surprised to learn that Pastor Chris isn’t perfect. They see that every time I stand up to share a message with them.

The challenge with finding an accountability partner is the person has to have enough courage to tell you the truth, enough love to do it in a way that you know they are only telling you for your ultimate good, and enough discretion that you can work through matters you really don’t want to be shared at the water cooler, the church picnic, or anywhere for that matter. Trust is the basis of every relationship, and accountability relationships require a great deal of trust. That trust builds over time as each partner demonstrates the ability to keep a confidence, to be there when needed, and to know when we need a pat on the back and when we need a kick in the rear.

How do you find an accountability partner? My suggestion is that you look in a place where folks are already gathering for a positive purpose. What do I mean by that? You may find your accountability partner at your local place of worship, or at work or school, or in a community organization that exists to provide help and services to people or the community at large. What I’m saying is you probably won’t find you accountability partner at the local bar or casino. Certainly folks go to bars and casinos just to relax and have fun, but that isn’t generally the primary motivation. I’m not being judgmental, simply reminding us as leaders that an accountability partner is going to be someone who is committed to our mutual growth and development as people and leaders. Therefore, we want to find someone who has made those matters a priority.

If you’re still thinking that it’s too risky to “spill your guts” to another person, because you’ve tried it before and been burned in the process, I get it. Even the best accountability partner will let you down occasionally, especially if the relationship lasts for decades. In those moments you’ll have to decide whether the relationship is beneficial enough to offer forgiveness and then to rebuild trust from where the break occurred. Mark Twain once said, “If a cat jumps on a hot stove, it will never jump on a hot stove again. It will never jump on a cold stove either.” The point is clear: we are all going to get burned at one time or another. When we do in an accountability relationship, we can make a blanket decision never to get burned again, by never entering another accountability partnership, or we can reinvest in our accountability partner or find a new one.

So many times when it comes to matters that are as important as making certain we are held accountable for our growth and development as people and leaders, we “decide” to do nothing by default. We recognize it will take time and effort to develop a meaningful and mutually beneficial accountability relationship, so we just decide it isn’t worth it. Or we “intend” to find an accountability partner, but the intention never develops into action. Having experienced the manifold benefits of my accountability relationship with Bill for all these years, I know how vital it is to make the decision and then the commitment to be accountable. Without a doubt, if build had not been there over all these years, I would have made some serious mistakes, and all of my meaningful relationships would be less meaningful. Both of us have grown as men, husbands, dads, and leaders through holding each other accountable. Tomorrow, we’ll talk about what that looks like in much more practical terms.

Here’s to leading better by entering into or deepening our accountability relationships–today!

One of the greatest challenges I have faced over the years as a leader is leading in those times when I don’t feel like leading. You may have never come to that moment, but having been in some leadership capacity for more than three decades, I have found times come when I just don’t feel like leading. For me those times have been during discouraging times, during times of grief and loss, and during times when I’m simply wiped out from days and sometimes weeks of pushing without a break. We’ll devote a post to each of those kinds of times, because something tells me I’m not the only one who has experienced them and felt like giving up or at least taking a break from leadership during them.

Today, let’s address leading during discouraging times. Probably the single, longest discouraging time when it comes to leadership for me was the period from 2003-2008–yes it was a long time of discouragement. The time came when we moved our worship services from the small, comfortable church building in Ivywood to the massive (by comparison) auditorium at Knoch High School. We made the move because we had outgrown the tiny Ivywood property, and since our mission was to share the new life of Jesus Christ with the world–one person at a time, we knew we weren’t going to be able to reach more people even in our own community and region with the limitations we faced there. The leaders assumed we would lose some people in the transition, since it wasn’t common in our community for a church to meet in a school, and we already had a “church” property, but we saw fulfilling our mission as worth it. We were worshiping about 225 people per weekend back then, and I assumed we would lose about thirty people to the transition.

When we moved our attendance dropped immediately to about 170 people per weekend and then over the next year or so it dropped to a low of about 150. That meant during a two year period we lost 25% of our people, and we didn’t seem to be gaining many new people–the reason we had made the transition in the first place. During that extended period of time when we didn’t seem to be reaching new people, and many of our established folks were no longer with us, I became discouraged. At times, and those times were quite often, I felt like quitting. During that time I forced myself to remember one of the principles that has helped me countless times over the years: doing what feels good in the short run will not serve you well in the long run. Especially since I serve as the leader of a church, the tendency could be to lead from emotion or feelings first, because many times spiritual experience doesn’t feel good. The truth is many times obeying God does not feel good.

Many times over the years from 2003-2005 in particular, I found myself feeling discouraged, feeling like quitting, feeling that starting New Life had been my idea and not God’s idea. Have you ever been in such a situation? Have you ever felt for an extended period of time that the business, church or other organization you were (or are) leading wasn’t going to make it? During that time when the feelings of discouragement came, I looked at the facts. Sometimes that didn’t help. The metrics of the situation showed a failing cause on the surface: fewer people, fewer people trusting Jesus as Savior and Lord, fewer people being baptized… The folks who remained with us weren’t always as enthusiastic as they had been when New Life began. It was easy to find things about which to complain: we didn’t have a building to use during the week, so everything became more challenging. The auditorium was often cold, and the sound wasn’t great in addition to the problem of it seeming to be so massive with its 750 seats and only 150 of us sitting in them.

To be honest, all that meant I spent more than a little time wondering whether we would be around in a month or a year. I wondered what we had done wrong, and occasionally even whether the move had been a mistake. During that time two key realities kept me focused and moving forward through the discouragement: the mission of New Life and faith. I knew God wanted us to reach more people who didn’t know Jesus. I knew God wanted us to focus on becoming a church that would serve as many of those people as possible in our community and region in Jesus’ name. I knew New Life was going to become a church of influence over time, so I had to exercise faith. After all faith is the assurance of things we hope for, and the conviction of things we don’t yet see.

Faith is an easy truth to consider, and sometimes a difficult one to exercise and live in times of discouragement. Thankfully, faith is a spiritual gift as well as a component of every believer’s life, so I prayed for God to increase my faith and He did. Slowly, but surely, we experienced some victories in our life together. Some were small, such as when a new person or family would join us. Some were large, such as when we were able to purchase a twenty acre plot of land in 2005. Each victory showed us that God was with us and that He wanted New Life to exist. Those moments gave me the ability to press forward even though I often still didn’t feel like it.

As I look back on that extended period of discouragement today, I’m so grateful to God for His encouragement, and for the encouragement and perseverance of so many folks who also believed in New Life’s vision and stayed with us through those difficult years. As I noted in a previous post, if we think we’re leading but no one is following, we are only taking a walk. I thank God that a group of dedicated folks continued to follow my leadership as I followed Jesus during those discouraging times. I pray that you have some folks like that surrounding you when the discouraging times come in your life. I say when the discouraging times come, not if they come, because discouraging times come to all of us. Always remember during those times that feelings are a poor anchor. Continue to be guided by your mission, your core values, your culture and most of all by God. Then whatever the outcome you will be able to lead through discouragement.

Here’s to leading better by remaining anchored in what really matters during times of discouragement–today or the next time discouragement comes!

One of the most challenging tasks for any of us as leaders is to do what we say leaders ought to do, or in other words to practice what we preach. As we read anyone’s book or post on leadership it’s easy to think, “Wow! It sounds like he (or she) has it all together!” Sometimes reading a leadership book or attending a leadership seminar can be discouraging for that very reason. We get a lot of great information, and it seems like the person offering it is already doing it, and it’s one more thing to add to our to do lists that we aren’t yet doing.

I write that to say I have already written several posts about margin and rest, about the need to step away from our work to be renewed and refreshed. It’s easy to write about such matters, but for me it’s the hardest area of leadership to practice. Over this past weekend, I had the opportunity for a time of rest and renewal with my brothers, Tom and Kenn. We were all going to the Pirate game on Sunday. I knew I was going to do it. It had been on my calendar since January. The challenge was how much work would I mix in with the rest? How soon could I leave for the game, which didn’t start until 1:35 pm, when we had three morning worship services at 8:30, 10:00 and 11:30 am? Mark, our discipleship pastor was preaching, so I wasn’t needed at worship for that. Since it was the first weekend of the month, we celebrated the Lord’s Supper, and I typically lead that when I’m not preaching and am at worship. But I didn’t need to do that. I spoke with Mark earlier in the week and told him the situation. He said he would be glad to lead the whole service, so I didn’t need to be there.

We have worship on Saturday evening and three worship services on Sunday, so the truth was I could attend the Saturday evening service just because I wanted to worship with the New Life family, and then take Sunday off to be with my brothers. There was no good reason I had to be at worship at all on Sunday. Yet, I struggled with taking the morning off to be with Tom and Kenn. Why was it such a big deal for me? Trust and control? Did I not trust the team could handle things in my absence? Of course, not! After all, I go away several times a year and I’m not even in town on those weekends. Everything goes great in those times. Guilt? People might wonder why the lead pastor wasn’t at worship if he weren’t away? Possibly. But the church isn’t about Chris Marshall, it’s about Jesus Christ. With our full and part-time staff growing to nearly twenty people, I’m just one piece in the overall leadership at New Life. Part of my work as lead pastor is to show the rest of the leadership team that while we need each other, we must all take time to rest and renew. The best way for me to do that this past weekend was to be with my brothers.

It took me until after worship on Saturday night to tell Mark and Brad, our worship pastor, that I wouldn’t be there on Sunday. Mark smiled broadly, shook my hand and said, “That’s a really good decision.” Brad said, “Great. We have this.”

Maybe you’ve never struggled with practicing what you preach in the area of taking time away, but I’m guessing you struggle with it in some area of your life. How do you let go of whatever it is, or hold on as the case may be? It really does come down to trust versus control. Do you trust your other leaders? Do you believe the business can operate for a day without your input in a certain area? Do you know you need training in a certain area, but worry that you’ll look like you aren’t a great leader if you admit holes in your leadership? Do you think you can’t take any time away from leading, because too much will fall through the cracks? These are legitimate questions. Over time, as you develop other leaders who lead the other leaders and workers or volunteers in your organization, the time comes to let go and let them do what they’re equipped to do.

After all, we’re all temporary in our positions, right? If you don’t believe me, ask yourself, “Who will be doing what I’m doing fifty years from now? It will likely be far less than fifty years from now, but I wanted to make sure we covered anyone who’s really young and thinks you will be around forever. the best leaders recognize we need to equip other leaders around us and then empower them to lead by taking our hands off the controls and giving them the opportunity. That’s a big part of practicing what we preach when it comes to leading, because every good leader says, “I’m equipping the team to take over when I’m not here.” Believing it by stepping away from time to time and letting them do it is one test of practicing what we preach. (I went to breakfast with my brothers and to the game. We had a great time, and church went well. One step forward in practicing what I preach!)

Here’s to leading better, by taking one, tangible step in practicing what we preach, by giving someone else the opportunity to lead–today!

Yesterday, when I was talking about leading through others, I mentioned that sometimes leaders take control because we say, “I can’t get them to do anything.” The them may be the members of the church family we serve, or the shop we oversee, or the non-profit we manage. Whomever the “them” is, I once heard an extremely helpful comment from Craig Groeschel when it comes to this kind of thinking. He said, “While we often say, ‘Our people won’t do this,’ the truth is we ought to say, ‘We haven’t led our people to do this yet.'” That statement makes all the difference.

After all, when we say the problem is the people we’re leading, we leading have no recourse. If it’s their fault, then all we can do is hope or pray they will eventually see the light, or change, so that they will do what we want them to do. The first problem may be what I just said: we can’t get “them” to do what “we” want them to do. I always say, “There is no they, only we.” As soon as we start to think of others as “them” or as “those people,” we do at least two things that make leadership impossible: 1) we identify them as the enemy, or at the very least the opposition; and 2) we remove our responsibility for leadership in the situation.

Once I realize that the people of New Life have not yet adopted a specific behavior or action that will benefit them and advance the Kingdom of God,  I always find it much easier to lead them. The key is as a pastor, and I would contend as any type of leader, my goal ought never be to advance my cause or my goals alone. My goal must be to help those for whom I have the responsibility of leadership to grow, to gain, to move forward in whatever endeavor we are undertaking. For example, if I would say, “I can’t get our people to greet new guests before worship,” I’m identifying “them” as the problem, and I’m also assuming that “they” are purposefully failing to welcome others who visit New Life for the first time.

I already see such people as guests rather than visitors, which means I’m expecting them, hoping they come, and preparing for their arrival. New Life’s leadership invests significant energy to make sure we have a welcoming environment, by providing a Welcome Center for guests, by providing hot coffee, cold water and some snacks, and by welcoming guests ourselves. The next step as leaders is for us to make certain the folks of New Life understand how important it is for them to welcome guests.

We have become quite intentional in doing this over the years. We make a point in our new members’ classes to ask folks what kind of welcome they received when they first came to New Life. Thankfully, most of them tell us they felt quite welcomed. When they do, we say, “That’s because our members know how important it is to welcome guests. It’s hard to come to a church for the first time, especially if you haven’t been part of a church in your prior experience.” We remind those who are becoming new members that it’s their responsibility to welcome guests, so our guests will have they same positive experience they had when they first came to New Life.

When I see a first time guest or guest family standing in the gathering area before worship with no one speaking to them, I find a person our couple who are part of the church family and ask them to introduce themselves to the new people. Occasionally, these folks come back to me and say, “Thanks for giving me the opportunity to get to know these new folks.” I always thank them for taking the opportunity. At times I will remind folks in a message how important it is to welcome new folks, because it might be the reason someone who doesn’t know Jesus comes back and eventually does come to know him.

Over time this has developed a culture of welcome. That doesn’t mean everyone welcomes others, but many of our people do. I can’t say, “Our people won’t welcome other people,” and we have done a great deal to make certain that welcoming other people has become the priority it needs to be. You may think this is a small matter. Most of the things our people won’t do are small matters. Over time as we coach, encourage, and challenge our folks to move toward the behaviors and actions that will benefit them and the company, the church or organization, we will realize that when given good reasons and good examples most folks are willing to adopt new behaviors that will move them and everyone else toward the accomplishment of the goals we have set as leaders. The key is to remember it is our task as leaders to move those we lead toward behaviors and actions that will benefit us all rather than defaulting to the statement, “Our people won’t…”

Here’s to leading better by encouraging, modeling and challenging those we lead to move forward in behaviors and actions that are good for us all–today!

Today my focus is on leaders of leaders or leading through others. That means I’m focusing on pastors, managers, and anyone who needs to get things done through someone else rather than doing it himself or herself. One of the reasons churches and businesses stall in their growth is the leaders are unwilling to move from hands-on leadership to leading through others. Hands-on leadership is often much more personally gratifying than leading through others, which is one of the reasons leaders are unwilling to give it up. In addition, when we lead through others it means giving up control, which is never easy to do.

The reality is unless we move from hands-on leadership to leading through others we will put a “lid” on the growth of our church or business. One of the interesting points about leading through others is the Apostle Paul wrote about it nearly 2,000 years ago in his letter to the church at Ephesus. In chapter 4 of that letter he tells us that Jesus gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to “…equip the saints for the works of ministry.” In other words, the leaders are not to do the works of ministry, but to equip the members of the church family to do the works of ministry. Nearly every pastor I have ever met is well-acquainted with this strategy for carrying out the church’s ministry, but many find themselves overwhelmed with the doing of the works of ministry.

Sometimes such pastors “can’t get others to do anything.” In other cases it’s that they don’t want to give up the control of various aspects of ministry to others, or they don’t think they have time to equip others to do the ministry, or they knowingly or unknowingly don’t want to give up the sense of importance or affirmation that comes with doing the ministry. While I don’t have as much experience in the business world as in the church, I have seen many business leaders and managers who have the same philosophies when it comes to an unwillingness to empowering others to lead or at least to do the work of the business they were hired to do. We’ve all heard the old adage, “If you want the job done right–do it yourself!”

That’s the challenge: we think that we will do the job right and others won’t. The truth is nearly everyone else will do the job differently than we will do it. When I give up control of a task to someone else, the other person won’t do it exactly the way I would do it. When I give up control of leading or managing a certain area of the ministry or business or a certain group of people, the new leader or manager won’t lead or manage exactly the way I would do it. That can be frightening, particularly if you are the one who started the business or the church as is true in my case. The reality is until we learn to lead through others, we will put a lid on our church or business, or whatever type of organization we lead.

What I have learned over the fifteen years I have been the founding and lead pastor of New Life is: When we use God’s means to accomplish God’s plans amazing results follow. Once again, the same is true in a business. After all, God’s means are valid in all areas of life, and a business can certainly carry out God’s plans when the business’ reason for being is to provide a product or service that benefits and blesses others.

Let me give a specific example of what it looks like to lead through others at New Life. Over the past three years, we have moved from a full-time staff of four or five, to a full-time staff of ten people. What that means is in every area of ministry, we have someone who is responsible to equip and lead others to do ministry. Before that, I had a much more hands-on role both in equipping others for ministry and in doing ministry. If a pastoral emergency came up, such as an emergency hospital visit, I would do it, or one of the elders if I were not available. Now, our Care Pastor, Pastor Jayne, has a team of folks who carry out various roles including emergency visitation, and our ability to carry out ministry has multiplied. Pastor Jayne has equipped several dozen people for various types of pastoral ministry, and is equipping more all the time. The doesn’t mean she or I never make a pastoral call. What it means is such calls don’t depend on us, and aren’t limited to our ability to make them. The positive is that many more people get their care needs met, and the church is more effective in this area than ever before.

The challenge for me is leading through others means I don’t always know what is happening–I lose control. I’m also not the one who represents Jesus to others in the situation, so I lose that feeling of importance and value that comes in such situations–until I remember that the key is for the people in need to experience Jesus’ presence and ministry through someone not necessarily through me. This ability to reach others in Jesus’ name has been multiplied through worship, children’s ministry, youth ministry, in the administrative area, and in virtually every area of the church’s life and worship, because we have committed to leading through others as the Apostle Paul challenged us to do 2,000 years ago.

Whether you’re a pastor, a business leader, or a leader or manager of any type, here’s the question: What are you doing to equip others around you, so your ministry, business or cause may reach more people, may be more effective and may ultimate move forward the plan God has for you? The more authority you have in the organization, the more important it is for you to be championing leading through others. After all, if everything that gets done gets done through your hands-on leadership, you have become the lid for your organization’s health, growth and vitality.

Here’s to leading better, by equipping one more person to extend the influence of your ministry, business or organization–today!

John Maxwell popularized this leadership proverb: He who thinks he is leading, but has no one following is only taking a walk.  So, are you leading or talking a walk? Whatever your leadership position, are there folks who are following you? If they are following you do you know why? Is it merely because you have the title of leader in their lives so they’re forced to follow you or pay the consequences? Do they follow you, because you have established a relationship with them that makes them want to follow you? Do they follow you, because you have sown into their lives and  they have seen growth in their lives because of you?

I know that was a lot of questions. Great leaders ask themselves a lot of questions, because reflecting on who we are, what we’re doing and why we’re doing it is a basic reality for us as leaders. After all the unexamined life is not worth living, right? When it comes to leading or taking a walk, we must look to see who is following and reflect on why they are or aren’t following us on a regular basis. One of the things I realized as a leader long ago is if I want folks to follow me then I must care about them, and care about their growth. After all, positional leadership, the leadership that comes with a title such as pastor, or manager, or crew chief is the lowest level of leadership, and if that’s the only reason people are following you, then you are basically taking a walk.

If people are going to follow us, because we care about them and are feeding into their lives, then we must actually care about them and be growing ourselves. It’s all too easy in the midst of considering the “bottom line,” to forget that a leader’s true bottom line is always more than the number of widgets produced, the number of dollars in the profit column, or even the number of souls saved. As leaders the way we care for those who are following us, or leading with us, and the way we model and encourage growth are more of a lasting bottom line, even if all we are thinking about is the business or church we lead. Let me explain: one day you and I won’t be leading or taking walks any more. Our tenure as leaders is finite. If the church, or company or organization is going to thrive after our leadership ends, then we must be developing other leaders who will take our place.

That will certainly mean developing other’s skills and abilities, but it means so much more than that. If we want folks to follow us-truly follow us-then they must know we care for them as people and not just as cogs in the wheels of the machine. They must also know we are invested in them as people. That means we care about the intangibles such as their integrity and character development as well as their skill and leadership development. It isn’t either/or when it comes to these matters but both/and. Caring about the whole person and how they are getting along in life as well as how they are getting along in their roles at work is key to ensuring you will be leading and not merely taking a walk.

We are in a time of rapid growth at New Life right now, and our staff has multiplied over the past several years. That makes it a challenge for me as the lead pastor to know everyone personally and to help with their overall development as people and leaders. The truth is my role is becoming more one of leading through other leaders than it ever has. Even so, I still want everyone on the staff team to know I am there if they need me, and that I care about them, their families and their growth.

As a leader of leaders one of the best ways for me to be leading instead of taking a walk is to ensure I am continuing to grow. As a pastor, I make sure my relationship with God is growing through a daily practice of prayer and Bible reading/study. I also continue to read books and watch and listen to videos and podcasts that will sharpen my leadership. I invest time in Nancy, because I must model what I expect when it comes to family. My season of life permits me more time for all of these things than when I was the dad of small children. I take the season of life each of our staff members is in at the moment into consideration when I think about what it means to lead in his or her life. All of these considerations are aspects of what it takes to be a leader, and to ensure that I don’t turn around one day to find no one is following.

I hope you are taking the necessary time to inspect your leadership on a regular basis. Sometimes it’s as simple as asking, “Is anyone following?” If so, “Why are they following?” If not, “Why not?” As we ask and address the answers to those questions our leadership impact will grow, if we’re honest with our answers, and if we truly care about being leaders who develop followers whose own lives are healthy and growing. That type of environment is one that fosters the development of other leaders, which is a key to leading well not only in our own lives, but in the generations after us as well.

Here’s to leading better by investing care and encouragement into those who are following us–today!

This morning Kenn, my younger brother, and I will be driving to Cooperstown, NY, to visit the Professional Baseball Hall of Fame. We’re actually making a weekend of it, and Kenn’s son, Matt, will be joining us. I’m a devoted baseball fan and have always wanted to visit Cooperstown, but at the age of 59 it has never made it from the “to do” list to the “to done” list. Why? The short answer is I’ve been too busy doing other things. While traveling to Cooperstown is an activity, it is much more than that. It’s an opportunity to be a fan. It’s an opportunity to be a brother, and an uncle. It’s an opportunity to be a participant rather than a leader.

I have no doubt some things will happen that will be leadership lessons. That happens to me wherever I go, because I learned a long time ago to learn from the positive and negative events of life, which means every situation is a learning activity. But that’s not why I’m going. A couple of years ago when Jim, my oldest brother died, I realized that where there were once four brothers, there are now three. Eventually there will be two, then one, then none. I made a commitment then and there to invest time in my two remaining brothers, to be with them, to participate in activities we enjoy, and when we’re together just to be brothers. If “important” matters come up in conversation, that’s icing on the cake.

While I am more an more intentional about making my time count as I get older, I’ve realized that making time count doesn’t always mean making it pay a tangible reward that can be factored as a bottom line, or another “cog” in the “machine.” A couple weeks ago I took two days to celebrate my older brother Tom’s birthday with him. We didn’t have an agenda. We did celebrate. We got to be together. I expect the same from this weekend. Do I have work that I could do instead of taking the time away? Sure. We all do. There’s never time to be. There’s always time to do. The only way to make time to be is to schedule it and take it. Is this the best time for me to be away? You know the answer to that question. There’s never a best time to be away, especially if the being away is more or less just to be. It doesn’t add up in the world’s way of factoring importance or victory, or success. I know this: I’m glad I invested two days with Tom in early July, and that I’m investing four days with Kenn and Matt now. When I’m sitting in my rocking chair someday, I bet I remember the hall of fame induction of Ken Griffey, Jr. and Mike Piazza–and that I was there with Kenn and Matt. I’ll also remember that Tom and I got to be together for his 73rd birthday, and hopefully for a lot more.

Do you take time to be? Do you invest time in being alone, so you can remember who you are and whose you are? Do you invest time in the important relationships in your life so they really are the important relationships in your life? Let’s join our mentor, Socrates, and remember that the unexamined life is not worth living, and do a little self-examination in the area of being. Then if there’s a deficit, get out the calendar and start making plans to correct it.

Here’s to leading better by taking time to be–today!

Most American leaders pride ourselves in getting as much done as we possibly can. That often means not getting enough rest. By nature, I’m in this group. I remember once when I was a teenager, and I was keeping an extremely hectic schedule. My Mom said, “You can’t burn the candle at both ends.”

Without hesitation I replied, “It depends how long the candle is!” In other words, “Don’t worry, Mom. I have this. My candle is longer than other people’s and I have so much to do that I can’t worry about it anyway.”

Many years later I heard Pastor Rick Warren say, “Those who burn the candle at both ends aren’t as bright as they think they are.” Whoa. That caught my attention. Pastor Rick wasn’t just making a catchy statement. He was dispensing wisdom that’s backed up by the Bible, the colloquial sayings of famous Americans, and science. We need rest. In fact, the reason I put rest first in the list of the seven areas of life management is that without rest we won’t be able to do the rest well.

As I considered the idea of life management and started reflecting on what would be included in a well-managed life, I was living one of those times when I wasn’t getting enough rest. I never woke up without an alarm (which is a sign of sleep deprivation, by the way–if you need an alarm to wake up each day), and I would often start dragging by the middle of the afternoon. As I thought about that something came to my mind that I had never considered before: When God created the universe He started at night.  What do I mean? The Genesis 1 account of creation tells us at the end of each day of creation, “There was evening and morning day ____.” (The blank is filled with the number of the corresponding day.” Why does the day start at night? Why do Jewish days start in the evening to this day? I don’t know the biblical answer to that question, and am not sure there is one. I thought of a practical answer: We often think life centers around us, so of course the day “starts” when we wake up–in the morning. But life actually centers around God. He is always awake. Could it be that He ordered the days with evening first so we would START with rest, and then wake up in the “middle” of the day, and join Him in His work?

Whether that’s the case, I have operated with that concept and it helps me in a couple important ways: 1) it reminds me that life centers on God, not me. 2) It reminds me that rest comes before activity. Yes, it seems that rest comes after activity if I’m self-focused and see the day starting when I wake up, but if I remember that I started the day with rest, and then I join God in His work, it helps me to recognize that my contribution is important but not nearly as important as God’s. It helps me to remember who I am and whose I am.

When it comes to rest, I am learning that not only do I need to start each day with rest (science tells us the average adult needs 7-9 hours of sleep each night), but that in order to function as well as I can when I’m awake, cheating rest is unwise.  In addition, to getting enough sleep, rest includes taking time to stop and reflect on who we are and whose we are daily, weekly and annually.  We talked about the first hour of the day in a recent post, and we could say that as we invest the first hour of the day in prayer and planning we are resting in God, and determining His plan and purpose for our lives. In addition to that daily time, God ordered that we would exercise Sabbath on a weekly basis, that is we work six days and rest one. On the one we rest, we stop our work, and reflect on Him. This includes worship, and renewing our relationship with God and others. The rhythm of working six days and resting one is good for us, since God established it. Jesus reminded us that the Sabbath is not a rigid, religious observance, but rather a blessing from God.

Finally, I have added a week each year, when I get away to pray, reflect, read and plan. I have done this for two years in a row, and while I am an extreme extrovert for whom the time is a great challenge, I have gained so much from making the commitment to get away and be with God. To be honest the first year was much more “exciting” than this year. Last year, it seemed that God spoke to me throughout the week in clear and compelling ways. This year, it was more a time of rest and reflection, but it cleared my mind and helped me to plan the year ahead much more intentionally than I am able to do with just a daily or even weekly time of reflection.

Your schedule may not permit the week of rest once each year, but getting enough rest each day is so important for long-term physical, emotional and spiritual health. I hope you’ll take some time today to reflect on how your are doing in the area of rest, and to make any necessary adjustments to giving it the priority AND time it deserves in your life. Rested leaders are much more effective leaders over the long haul.

Here’s to leading better by getting enough rest–today!

Back in 2008, I was reflecting on how I could improve my leadership in every area of my life. I thought specifically of how I could become a better self-leader, so that I could become a better husband and dad, and a better pastor. As I was praying and reflecting on this matter, I realized that for me the concept of “time management” was too narrow. I needed to do more than manage my time. I needed to manage my life. Thus, I came up with the idea of “life management.” I realized that if I managed my life in key areas, life management would form the basis of effective leadership in all areas of my life. As I prayed and reflected on the matter, seven areas of life management came to me: rest, prayer, physical care, relationships, study, work and finances. (Of course you may come up with more or less areas as you consider your life and the need to manage yourself in order to become a more effective leader.) These seven areas have been extremely helpful to me and others with whom I’ve shared them in the past years in becoming more effective in caring for ourselves, and thus becoming more effective leaders.

Over the next week, we are going to invest a post on each of the seven areas of life management, but today, I want to say a little more about the importance of life management. If we don’t invest the time and effort necessary to manage our lives, everyone else will. We all recognize that we live in a media saturated culture. If we don’t plan our lives the sheer volume (both in the sense of loudness, and number) of those media messages will overwhelm us. I have heard various numbers as to how many media messages we are exposed to each day, but suffice it to say we receive thousands of messages through our phones, tvs, radios, computers, billboards, mail, and other avenues each day. They offer us “solutions” for every problem, challenge and opportunity we face. Unless, we have a filter for sorting out what we will permit into our minds, hearts and lives, we will drift through life much like a log drifting down a stream. When we pause to consider life management and to implement the seven areas we’ll be examining in the week ahead effectively, we will become much better at determining which direction we want to “float” through life, whether downstream or upstream, or whether we simply need to stay in one place for a while.

In addition to all those media messages, people are constantly asking us to  do something for them or with them. While the people include our families, our bosses and coworkers, or our classmates at school, they also include strangers who have access to us through the multiple media venues mentioned in the previous paragraph. Unless we know what we are doing in a given day, because we are managing our lives, someone else has a wonderful plan for us. While we may well want to do what others are offering us, or in some case we may even be required to do what they are asking us because of their role in our lives, to the degree that we determine when we say yes and no, we will be effective life managers and leaders. That takes intentionality.

My hope for the coming week is that you will consider the seven areas of life management, and ask yourself, “What am I doing to be proactive in each area?” As you reflect on your answers to that question in each area, I hope you will take the time to plan and pray about any changes you need to make. (You may want to consider making your reading and reflecting on these posts part of your first hour activity for each day in the week ahead.) You may find that you want to add additional areas or combine one or more of the ones I offer to your life management plan. The key is to invest the time to address each area and to consider whether you are effective right now in that area, or whether you need to focus more time, energy and commitment on it.

You may have noticed that my posts play off of each other. In order to be effective life managers, we must invest the first hour (or some hour) of our day in planning and prayer. (That was the focus of the July 6, 2016) post.  We will certainly be examining our lives. (That was the focus of the July 5, 2016 post.) We will develop margin in our lives. (The focus of the July 1 & 2, 2016 posts.) All of this involves moving beyond the tyranny of the urgent. (The focus of the June 23, 2016 post.) Leadership is not one action. It is a life filled with many intentional actions all geared to helping us influence others for good. After all, as John Maxwell said many years ago, “Leadership is influence, nothing more nothing less.” When our lives are planned, managed and lived well we may influence others for their good. I look forward to sharing what I’ve been learning about life management in the seven areas over the week ahead. I pray they will help you to become better leaders in every arena of your lives.

Here’s to leading better, by managing your life more effectively–today!