Month: June 2016

Over the past several years the church I serve as lead pastor has grown significantly. We now have more than a 1,000 people who call New Life their church home. While our staff has also grown significantly, which is a great blessing, one of the biggest challenges I face as a leader is that I can no longer interact with every person on a personal level. Some in my situation would suggest that you just have to settle for leading through others and recognize that at this point being a leader of leaders is my calling.

I agree with that assessment for the most part–for the most part. Several years ago, I heard Andy Stanley say that the time comes when an organization grows larger that leaders say, “Since I can’t do a particular thing for everyone, I won’t do it for anyone.” That seems “fair.” But Stanley contends there is a better approach. He stated that in such situations remember to “do for the one, what you cannot do for everyone.” That is incredibly helpful advice. I have applied it over the past year or so more than ever, and it has been a great blessing, not only to those with whom I have ministered, but also to me.

If you’re thinking, “That sounds good, but won’t the many people you aren’t interacting with one-on-one get upset?” Some will. Some people will get upset no matter what we do as leaders. Our goal is not to make people happy, but to make Jesus happy. It’s so important for us to remember that. I still make a hospital visit now and then, or sit down with someone who is struggling with their faith, or an important relationship to listen and share with them. The vast majority of the folks at New Life understand that I can’t give each of them that kind of attention. Those who don’t will probably be more comfortable in a small church, where the pastor serves more in a chaplain role than as a lead pastor. In my experience the people who get upset are people who have already been in church, since unchurched people don’t have many expectations of church leaders!

I learned a long time ago from John Maxwell that we are going to lose people. Maxwell contends we get to choose who we lose. In my experience he is right. I do my best not to lose folks who don’t yet know Jesus. After all, if a lost person leaves New Life without coming to know Jesus as Savior and Lord, they may never come to know Him. I also make time to meet with staff or other leaders in the church who serve in one of our ministries when they have important issues. Beyond that, I seek to listen to the Holy Spirit in every situation, and to say, “Yes,” to folks who request my help when there is a valid need and my schedule permits.

While it is hard to say, “No,” for many of us, as our church, business or organization grows we will have to do it, or risk not being of great use, when those moments come when we really could have made a difference. Remember, you can’t do everything for everyone, but you can do for one what you can’t do for all!

Here’s to leading better by leading one person in an area where you can’t lead everyone–today! (or soon!)

One of the most important truths I have learned from Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church is the concept that each of us has a unique God-given “SHAPE” or design. The word SHAPE is in all caps because it is an acronym. The letters in shape stand for:  S-spiritual gift(s); H-heart (or passion); A-abilities; P-personality; and E-experiences. As leaders we need to know our SHAPE in order to lead effectively. Let’s take a brief look at each component of the SHAPE acronym.

S-spiritual gift(s). In order to have a spiritual gift or gifts one must be a follower of Jesus Christ. Once we have trusted Jesus as Savior and Lord and been “born again” to use Jesus’ terminology, His Spirit lives in us. The rebirth of which Jesus spoke is a spiritual birth, and it comes with spiritual gifts. The Apostle Paul lists a number of spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12. The key for this brief summary is to recognize that each of us has one or more spiritual gifts that we may use to increase our effectiveness as leaders. One of the spiritual gifts is the gift of leadership. While leadership skills may be learned, a person with the spiritual gift of leadership will have God’s ability to lead in his or her life, which will raise the leadership capacity and potential greatly. In the same way, the spiritual gift of compassion will cause a leader to be able to empathize with those she is leading, and that is boon to leadership.

H-heart (or passion). God gives each of us a heart or passion for certain types of people, or certain realities. For example, I have a heart for people who don’t yet know Jesus as Savior and Lord. One of the greatest opportunities in life to me, is the opportunity to speak with someone who has not heard of Jesus, or who has not trusted Him as Savior and Lord. Some folks have a heart for orphans, others for the elderly, others for pursuing justice for the poor. Whatever your God-given passion, when you exercise it in your life, you will have more commitment and persistence to lead in that area.

A-abilities. God has given each of us natural abilities. Some of us are good with spatial relationships. Others are good with mechanical processes, while still others are good with math, or grammar, or other academic endeavors. Some of us have natural physical abilities such as good hand-eye coordination, or the ability to run or jump. While many may discount these natural abilities, God uses them in our lives to enhance our leadership. Over the years, I have had the opportunity to use my carpentry skills on many occasions, both for my family, and in the various churches I have served. During construction projects at the various churches I’ve served, my knowledge and skill in construction processes has allowed me to interact with contractors and sub-contractors in meaningful ways that have allowed for better outcomes in those projects. Your natural skills and abilities will give you a richer capacity to lead as you use them effectively

P-personality. No two people have identical personalities. While each of us is primarily an extrovert or an introvert, the level of our extroversion or introversion lies on a spectrum from extreme extroversion at the one end, to extreme introversion at the other. Many other facets of personality have been identified and studied. Knowing our basic personality “type,” can help us lead more effectively in many ways. For example, I am an outgoing extrovert who tends to process the world around me intuitively and I respond best in non-structured environments. What that means is I’m a great idea person, but not such a great follow-through person. Therefore, in calling staff at New Life, particularly when we called an Executive Pastor, we called a person with a much more concrete view of life, who excels in process and follow through. Pastor Barry has been a great blessing to us in the relatively brief time he has been with us, because his personality compliments mine, and several other of our staff members who are helped by his more structured approach to life.

E-experiences. We all have countless experiences in life that can help us to become better leaders if we let them. Some of those experiences were quite painful. Others filled us with joy. Training experiences have enhanced our skills in various areas. Even the leadership experiences we’ve already been through inform how we lead today. It’s been said that God never wastes an experience in our lives, so we must not. What that means is sometimes things happen in life that hurt us deeply. We may not understand why we must endure such things in the moment, but down the road we find that the experience strengthened us to face another difficult situation, or prepared us to come alongside another person who is facing a similar difficulty.

In order for our SHAPE to help us be more effective leaders, we must first study ourselves to understand our shape. Once we know who we are, we need to let our strengths “lead.” In other words, if I worked really hard for the rest of my life to become better organized and to develop better follow through, I might one day become adequate in those areas. Far better for me to exercise my spiritual gift of leadership in casting vision for New Life, in training leaders and complementing my gifts with those of others who have strengths in areas of my weakness. At the end of the day, each of us must be willing to do whatever it takes to lead in our lives, but the more time we spend in leading in areas outside of our SHAPE, the less effective we will be. Our goal ought to be to surround ourselves with teams of folks who complement us and whom we complement with our SHAPE. In that way we will move the organization, company or church forward far more effectively than by seeking to do everything well.

Here’s to leading better by living out our SHAPE–today!

I have a bias, which you have probably discovered by this point: I’m a follower of Jesus Christ. On my best days that reality colors everything I think, say and do. 2,000 years ago Jesus said that no one can serve two masters. He didn’t say it was difficult to serve two masters. He didn’t say it would be extremely difficult to serve two masters. He said it’s impossible. That means we must choose our master. In doing that we also choose who or what we worship. I chose to worship Jesus when I was twelve years old. (Some would say He chose me, and I have no argument with that.) I haven’t followed Him perfectly, or anything close to perfectly over the years. For a brief time in my teen years I even attempted to abandon following and worshiping Him.

It didn’t work out for me.

When I say it didn’t work out for me, I mean that I couldn’t NOT worship Jesus. I would say to myself, “I don’t believe there’s a God,” and then “shout” back, “Yes! I do believe there’s a God and He has revealed Himself to me in Jesus Christ.” I know many people have difficulty letting Jesus be their master, their owner, their Lord. So do I! It’s far easier to worship myself than Jesus. When Jesus said that no one could serve or worship two masters, He made it clear that the chief rival god would be “mammon,” which many modern translations render “money.” It’s a fairly good translation, since what Jesus was going for was the overall concept of material wealth and provision. For us the best representation of that pursuit, and therefore of that “god” is money.

Jesus told us that money would be the chief rival god, because it is so tangible, so measurable and we have been led to believe that it will purchase us everything we need: security, position, friends, and whatever else we value.  The truth of the matter when it comes to money is it’s a “dissatisfier.” What I mean by that is if we don’t have enough money to meet our needs, we will be dissatisfied, but we can never have enough money to be satisfied. Satisfaction doesn’t come from material things. It comes from relationships, and ultimately it comes from being in relationship with the one, true and living God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That’s why leaders worship–God.

We all worship something, whether we’re adherents of one of the world’s major or minor religions, or we claim to be atheists, in which case we will worship ourselves, or science, or some other invention of our minds. Everyone worships. The reason I contend that leaders worship God is because in order to be the best, most effective leaders we can be, we need to have as much wisdom as we can. God’s wisdom as found in the Bible has been demonstrated to be true over thousands of years and across cultures. We need authority to be leaders, and all authority is delegated. When we worship God, we are worshiping THE delegator of all authority. Jesus told His disciples that “all authority in heaven and earth had been given to Him.” From where? From His heavenly Father. That’s the kind of authority I want in my life, so I worship the source, and He shares it with me.

I don’t worship God solely, or even primarily, in order to get things: wisdom, authority, blessing, and every other good gift God gives. I worship God, because I have come to see that Jesus’ statement about masters is true: I CANNOT worship or serve more than one master. God is the best master. He does give wisdom, authority, blessing and every other good gift to those who love, worship and serve Him. From my experiences in places such as Cuba, Cambodia and Haiti I have seen first hand that people with virtually no worldly wealth can be far “wealthier” than Americans who have dedicated themselves to the worship and service of money. I have seen from a handful of Americans who lived their lives wholeheartedly for themselves, and then turned their lives over to God that there is no substitute for worshiping the living God in the name of Jesus and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

All this ties into leadership, because at the end of the day every leader has a “source” of his or her authority as a leader. It may be a title. It may be wealth. It may be tenure. It may be experience. The best source of authority for any leader is Jesus. Jesus demonstrated and initiated the model of “servant leadership,” which has been popularized sporadically in American business culture over the past several decades. Those who serve in churches and service industries may find servant leadership more appealing than those who work in businesses that are more geared to the “bottom line,” but the funny thing is all arenas of life work best when servant leadership is exercised, and then coupled with worship of the God from whom it derived. One day every knee will bow one day, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord either voluntarily or involuntarily, so why not do it NOW?

I know that’s a bold statement. It’s a statement of worship. I told you up front I have a bias. In every era of history, but the one in which we’re living now, thinking men and women have been able to hold a thought without agreeing with it, and still be civil toward one another. That is basically true in America today except when the thought being held is that Jesus Christ is the exclusive God of the universe who invites everyone to worship Him, and become part of His eternal family.

This is my twentieth post in twenty days. I have been clear that I am a follower of Jesus in a number of those posts. In the ones where I haven’t mentioned it explicitly, I haven’t hidden it. My goal is to help leaders lead better. Therefore, I cannot do otherwise than bring my faith in Jesus into the discussion, because He is the lens through which I view everything, including leadership. I will never bludgeon you with my faith, but neither will I hide it. I invite you to investigate it if you haven’t done so, and to do so without the commonly held preconceived biases about what is and isn’t possible in the natural world. After all if the God in whom I believe is the one true God then He created the natural world, and “invented” the natural laws that hold it together. Thus, by definition He comes from beyond the natural and isn’t bound by it.

Although I am a preacher, I don’t want to preach, so I’ll stop for today. I do urge you to be clear about who or what you worship and why. This will deepen your clarity as a leader, and as I said yesterday clarity always leads to greater effectiveness as a leader.

Here’s to becoming a better leader by worshiping the one true God–today!

The title of today’s post may seem obvious: Leaders communicate. After all, it’s impossible to lead anyone unless we communicate expectations, goals, and an understanding of what it would look like to “win” or succeed. The truth is communicating effectively isn’t easy. That’s why it’s an essential part of leadership. I once heard John Maxwell say that the difference between educators and communicators is that educators make simple things complex, while communicators make complicated things simple. With apologies to educators I have experienced the truth of Maxwell’s statement all too often in my many years of formal education. While not all communicators are leaders, unless we communicate effectively we will never be great leaders. That means we must make complicated matters as simple as possible.

I’m not saying we must “dumb things down,” making matters simplistic. I’m saying we must make matters as clear and simple as possible. Let me give you an example of what I mean through the use of a single word: utilize. Back in 1984 when I bought my first “portable” computer (It weighed 27 pounds!), a Kaypro IV+88, the word processing program had a feature, which would automatically make a document more “scholarly.” When you applied the feature it always changed the word “use” into “utilize.” There were dozens of other words this feature changed (transformed?), but have always remembered the use/utilize pair. To this day any time I hear someone say “utilize” I automatically think, “You mean ‘use.'” (There’s nothing wrong with the word utilize, but in my mind I always think of it as attempting to make something more complicated than it needs to be, so why utilize it?) What’s my point? My point is why say, “Unless we utilize our cognitive skills in order to overcome the plethora of provocations from our antagonists our endeavor will experience its demise,” when you could say, “Unless we use our minds, our competitors are going to destroy us.”? Or even, “Unless we think we’re going to lose!”

During my last year of seminary in one of my final theology classes, the professor told us that during our three years at Princeton we had learned a whole new vocabulary, one that we could use (utilize?) to ensure that no one in the churches we served would ever understand a thing we said. After all, we had paid for and studied to attain a Master of Divinity degree from one of the most prestigious seminaries in the world. Then he said, “I have always believed that if one is always speaking over everyone’s head when he or she communicates, it isn’t necessarily a sign of intelligence. You may just be a poor marksman.”

I have always remembered that statement. Our goal as leaders is to make sure that our listeners, learners, or followers are clear about what we have said. We ought not to care about how intelligent they think we are, because if they can’t understand what we’re saying it shows we’re not as smart as we think we are. When we communicate to others, the best way for them to follow us is for us to make it clear where we’re going! Our effectiveness as leaders rests in large part on our effectiveness as communicators. In order for everyone to head in the same direction, everyone needs to know that direction. As Michael Lukaszewski points out in his new book Streamline in order for everyone to be on the same page, there needs to be an actual page that communicates clearly what is expected.

Another important thing I’ve learned about communicating over the years is the less time I have to say something, the longer it takes me to prepare to say it. Anyone can be fairly clear given half an hour to say something. But if you have to say the same thing in fifteen minutes or five, it becomes much more difficult. Clarity is vital in communication and leadership, and yet we have often been led to believe that people will listen to us simply because we are leaders. Leaders can never take it for granted that others are following us. We must never assume that just because we hold a particular position that makes us leaders. We can’t assume that just because we are speaking our listeners are understanding. Particularly in American culture leadership must be earned. If we can make complicated matters as simple as possible when we communicate people will be more inclined to follow our leadership. That is as it ought to be. After all, if our business or church or organization has a mission to carry out and a vision worth pursuing, we must communicate both as clearly and effectively as possible. Otherwise, people will have to figure it out for themselves, which leads to division as they come up with their own interpretation of the mission and vision, or they will go somewhere else where the mission and vision are clear.

Here’s to leading better by communicating effectively–today!