Month: June 2016

Lifelong Learning and Leadership

Lifelong learning is to leadership what food is to our bodies. Unless we continue to learn every day, eventually our leadership becomes stale. Over time we lose our ability to lead effectively, and we certainly won’t be able to lead into the future. That’s because with the passage of time everything changes, and if we aren’t learning we won’t be changing, which means we won’t be able to lead.

I’m a Christian and the pastor of a local church that has been growing fairly rapidly for our area of the country for the past several years. We have grown from a church of less than 400 worshipers per weekend a few years ago, to one with nearly 800 today. Last fall I gathered our staff together and told them something I had heard John Maxwell say about leadership many years before: The people who got you where you are, aren’t likely going to get you where you’re going. I told everyone that if we were going to be able to continue to lead effectively into the foreseeable future in a church family that continues to grow we would need to be different leaders tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year than we were that day. In other words, we needed to keep learning so we would become different leaders ourselves.

Having served as a pastor for more than three decades now, I have learned a great deal about leadership in the church. One of the things I have learned is the best possible scenario when it comes to building a staff is to find the right people, invest your life into them, and encourage them to keep learning and growing all their lives. As they do that they will add value to your local church, and one of two things will happen for them: they will continue to grow as leaders and find fulfillment in your church, or they will continue to grow as leaders and be called to serve God’s Kingdom somewhere else. Either way it’s a win, because God’s Kingdom is served. My goal is for folks to stay at New Life for as long as they continue to be challenged in their ministries, to learn and grow, and to contribute to the equipping of God’s people for the work of ministry. Personally, I always hope that is a very long time. That’s because ministry is a more relational task than some occupations or callings. If staff come and go at a rapid rate they don’t have the opportunity to build relationships with other leaders, or with the folks of the church, and that negatively impacts the church’s health and growth.

If you’re a follower of Jesus and you’re thinking, “That doesn’t sound very spiritual,” I understand. I also believe that kind of thinking is what has often caused church leaders to rely on prayer–which we must–without expending the time necessary to learn and grow in leadership, and to do everything possible to cultivate effective leadership in our churches. While prayer is a spiritual activity that is crucial to our personal growth and development as well as to our growth and development as local churches, it is no less spiritual to develop our personal abilities and our spiritual gifts and to use them passionately in serving God’s Kingdom.

If you’re a business leader and you’re thinking this doesn’t having application to your business, I would challenge you to consider that your social awareness ability to build teams, both components of EI (emotional intelligence) are vital to the long-term health and growth of your business. It is always in a business owner’s or manager’s best interest to encourage and challenge lifelong learning in your workers. If they get so well equipped that they’re promoted or go elsewhere to pursue employment that will still be to your long-term benefit, because while they’re with you they will raise the effectiveness of your business, and the overall positivity of your business culture.

There is no down side to lifelong learning in leadership, particularly if everyone in the company, the church, or the organization is committed to it, because as President John F. Kennedy reminded us long ago: a rising tide raises all the ships. I challenge and encourage you, whatever your role in life right now, but particularly if you are the lead or senior pastor of a church, or the owner or manager of a company to make a commitment to learning every day. Incorporate it into your calendar and do it. Everyone will benefit from that commitment–everyone!

Here’s to leading better by learning something new–today!

More Leadership Lessons I Learned From Dad

Happy Fathers’ Day to all for whom that greeting applies! I wanted to follow up on yesterday’s post by adding a couple more leadership lessons I learned from my dad. These were lessons I didn’t learn directly from my him, but rather because he was my dad. The first of these lessons came when I was in fifth grade. I was walking across a parking lot near Punxsutawney, PA after a guitar lesson. I had my guitar in my hand, and was focused on getting back to the family car where my mom was waiting. As I walked, a man who looked to be about the age my dad was at the time said, “Son, are you Clyde Marshall’s boy?”

I said, “Yes, sir. I am. Why?”

He said, “I knew it. I could tell not only because of your facial features, but also because of the way you carry yourself. Your dad is a fine man, and I’m sure you’ll grow up to be like him.” I remember those words all these years later for two reasons: First, I realized that while I didn’t always experience my dad as a “fine man” others often did. Whether they knew him for his diligence at work, for his prowess as a baseball player and boxer, or his ability to tear down and rebuild a car engine, they saw my dad as someone who did what he did well. They also saw him as a man of his word. The second thing I realized was I was already a reflection of my dad. I knew that I had either inherited or learned his tendency toward anger, but apparently I was already exhibiting some of his purposefulness even in the way I walked across a parking lot. I realized that how I lived would one day reflect on my dad, too. My dad had built a “name” for himself. The Marshall name was held in honor by many who knew him, because of him. That mantle would soon fall to me. My actions would add to the  measure of the Marshall name either positively or negatively depending on how I lived. That has been an important reminder to me over my life. I haven’t always lived up to the challenge, but my goal has been to reflect the good qualities of my dad, and to change the ones that weren’t so good, so others would think positively when they heard the  Marshall name.

The second lesson, which I learned more through reflection than through life experience with my dad is that we can always learn from another person whether he sets a good example worthy of following, or a bad example to be avoided. I never thought about this fully until it was brought to my attention by a pastor named Arthur Pace, for whom I served as a student pastor in my first year of seminary. Arthur pointed out that during my year of serving with him, he would do many good things, and if I learned from them I would become a more effective pastor as a result. Then he said, “I will also do many things wrong. In those moments if you discount me as a leader, you will lose the opportunity to learn form those negative lessons, and you may repeat them yourself.” Over the years I have returned to Arthur’s admonition time and time again, and have done so specifically when it comes to what I learned from my dad.

We’re all mixtures of good and bad. The Apostle Paul helped us to see that clearly in Galatians 5:17 and following when he reminded us that even after we trust Jesus as Savior and Lord and are born again, we continue to live in a battle between the Holy Spirit–God’s presence in us–and our old natures, or what Paul called the “flesh.” How wonderful it would be if we would simply lose our old natures once Jesus became Savior and Lord in our lives, but we don’t. We have the power of God in us to do good and reject evil, but we also have the vestiges of that evil in us and we can will to do it. I saw my dad struggle with his weaknesses all his life without the benefit of being a follower of Jesus until nearly the end of his life. He often succeeded, and he often failed. What I learned from that is I needed a lot of help if I was ever going to overcome the anger that came so naturally to him and to me. For decades after trusting Jesus as Savior and Lord, I continued to let the old nature win all too often in many areas, but particularly in the area of anger. I have many struggles still, but what I learned from my dad was that trying hard wasn’t enough.

The human will is an incredible thing. The Bible would call it our soul, because the soul is the seat of the mind, emotions, and will. My dad’s soul struggle was evident quite often. What I learned from reflecting on his struggle was that I needed Jesus. I knew HE needed Jesus, but when I saw the bad traits he exhibited also being part of me, I knew that I couldn’t will myself out of them. I learned from him just how much I needed Jesus. I also learned that from myself!

As you go about your daily life, what positives and negatives do you remember or still see in your dad from which you can learn? Lifelong leadership requires lifelong learning and a key part of lifelong learning is reflecting on our experiences–not getting mired down in them–but reflecting on them, praying through them and gleaning the positive or negative example that we can either emulate or eliminate in order to become the man or woman that God created us to be. I’m grateful for all the ways my dad showed me how to be a better man, and for Arthur Pace’s reminder that sometimes he was doing it by not being all that great of a man at the moment. Even then there were lessons to be learned, if I was open to learning them.

Here’s to leading better by reflecting on your dad’s impact, and the lessons you learned from him–today!

Leadership Lessons I Learned From My Dad

Tomorrow is Father’s Day, so I thought I’d run a two day “series” on Leadership Lessons I Learned From My Dad. While my dad was an angry man most of his life, and not a follower of Jesus until just a couple years before he died, he was a man of integrity. If Clyde Marshall told you he would be somewhere, you could guarantee he would be there at least five and more likely fifteen minutes before the appointed time. If he told you he would do something, he would do it unless there was no way it was humanly possible. Dad expected no less from his four sons. Lying was never tolerated under his roof. Some people will tell you stories about their parents telling them that telling the truth was always best, that there would be less punishment for telling the truth about doing something wrong than lying about it. With my dad, it was always understood that there was no point in lying. He would find out and you would regret it. So, the first leadership lesson I learned from my dad was: Be a person of your word, a person of integrity.

It’s a common practice in business these days to impress customers by “under promising and over delivering.” With my dad there was never a need for a promise, because he was always going to deliver more than was required of him. I remember many times when my I would be introduced to one of my dad’s co-workers, and whether it was a “boss,” a peer, or someone dad was just working with as part of his daily routine in the company, every person said, “No one works harder than your dad.” They would usually add something about doing excellent work as well as working hard. The second leadership lesson I learned from my dad was: Work hard and work well.

I remember once when I was a teenager and had a job as a nurse’s aide at a local nursing home. It was between high school and college and would only last for four months. I knew I was going to be trying out for the basketball team at college, so I had started working out after a long lay-off from a daily workout routine in order to make up for lost time. I had overdone it with sit-ups during that first workout and when I woke up the next morning, as I bent forward to get out of bed, I felt sharp pain EVERYWHERE in my abdomen. I decided to stay home, because there was no way I would be able to work with pain like that. About ten minutes after I was supposed to be up, my dad who was home for some reason, (which wasn’t typical) shouted upstairs, “I thought you had work today.”

I shouted back, “I’m not feeling well.” He asked me what was wrong, and after several shouts back and forth I told him that my stomach hurt too bad for me to drive. He told me to get dressed and he would drive me to work.

He did.

I muttered under my breath all the way there. Every time I moved for the first couple of hours I felt pain in various places in my abdomen, but as the day wore on it was just a dull ache. I had felt similar pain after two-a-day workouts on the high school football team. I realized that my dad had been right, not only COULD I go to work, but it would have set a bad precedent not to go to work. I was in pain. I wasn’t sick. I wasn’t injured. I have experienced pain many mornings since that one so long ago. In fact, I have some kind of pain just about every morning at my age. Sometimes I think of my dad, who died to this life back in 1996, and remember that pain isn’t a reason to miss work. I’m grateful that my dad set the example of working hard and working well, and passed it on to me. I’m sure there have been hundreds of times over the years when his influence consciously or sub-consciously got me out of bed, or through a crisis, or to the finish line of a project, because working hard and working well are a given for Clyde Marshall’s sons.

I hope you had a dad who showed you some leadership lessons early in life. We live in a culture where dads are often absent either physically or emotionally. My dad was gone due to his work during much of my growing up. He often left for a week or two at at time and travelled to other states for his job. When he was home he wasn’t usually in the greatest of moods. I have often wished that he would have been home more often, and that he would have been more “present” when he was.  As a pastor for more than three decades, I have been with many people during significant moments in their lives. One time as I stood with a woman while her husband was dying, she turned to me and said, “He loved me the best he could.” The man wasn’t known as a great husband or dad. In that instant, I thought of my own dad. He had loved me the best he could. He never told me he loved me until after my mom died. He never spent much time with me until he retired, and by then I was well into adulthood myself. Even so, I learned much from him for which I am grateful. Tomorrow, I’ll offer a couple more leadership lessons from dad.

Until then, I hope if your dad is still around that you’ll take the time to thank him for what he has taught you that has made you a better leader. If he isn’t around, because he has died to this life, thank God for what you remember of him that was good, and kind and loving. If your dad has never been there for you, or even hurt you when he was, take a moment and forgive him, and put yourself in the hands of the perfect, loving and heavenly Father. I don’t write those words lightly, because I have no idea what it is like to never have had a dad at all, or to have one who hurt me consistently. I do know what it was like to have a dad who wasn’t often there for me, and who modeled inappropriate anger for as long as I can remember. The years have softened my memories and I am grateful that Clyde Marshall lived a life of integrity and diligent work, that he loved my mom, my brothers and me the best he could, and that one day I will see him again, and both of us will finally be all we were created to be by our loving Heavenly Father.

Here’s to leading better, by learning from our dad’s (or our Heavenly Father)–today!

Your Calendar Is Your Friend–Or Needs To Be!

I turned 59 on June 7th. It has taken me an extremely long time to realize that my calendar is my friend. During my twenties and thirties I spent a lot of time trying out different time management tools: Day Timers; Day Runners; Covey Planners; and many more. What I found out from that pursuit was it took a lot of effort to organize my life, prioritize my life and then actually carry out the plan for my life based on all that organizing and prioritizing. Too often it didn’t seem important enough to invest the time. My calendar often seemed like my enemy. It wasn’t–I was.

What do I mean by that? I mean that thinking our calendars are our enemy is misguided at best and foolish at worst. A calendar is an inanimate object on which we write or record the plans and priorities of our lives. As leaders we need to be the ones who control our calendars priorities. Often we think that if we’re leaders, we must be accessible to others as much as possible. The truth is if we’re always available to everyone, we will neglect the most important areas of life, the areas that have been called the important, but not urgent. The important but not urgent areas of our lives include prayer and Bible reading, which build our relationship with Jesus; building our relationships with our spouses if we’re married, and our children if we have them. If our parents are still with us they are on the important, but not urgent agenda of our lives. What I have often called “offensive reading,” meaning reading to gain information that will help me lead more effectively even though I may not need the information today, is also important, but not urgent. Exercise is also important, but not urgent. How do we make sure that all of these things “fit” in our lives. We schedule them when we are at our best.

I’ve found that if I scheduled prayer, Bible reading and exercise between 5:00-7:00 am no one will interrupt me, or want me to do something else. Occasionally, someone may ask me to go to an early breakfast meeting, but not often. My point is this: if we schedule what’s most important, but not urgent FIRST, our calendars will reflect our true priorities. After that we must schedule “margin.” Margin is extra time, with no specific agenda. Why do we need margin? So, when the car breaks down, we have time to get it fixed without messing up our whole schedule. Of course, we have regular items in our schedule: worship, work, recreational activities, but even those need to be scheduled intentionally. That way when someone calls and says, “Hey, do you want to go to the movies on Thursday night?” You can look at your calendar, see that you have scheduled family time, and say, “Sorry, I have an appointment, but I’m free on Saturday afternoon. Most people don’t schedule their lives, so they’ll probably adjust to your plan. That’s what leaders do.

How do I know this? Because I’m 59 years old and I’ve failed to do it far too many times. No matter whether we’re 19, 59 or 89 life is too short to let others set our agenda 24/7. It’s also to short to live without a plan. Benjamin Franklin is supposed to have said, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” I know his words are all too true. Here’s a challenge for you if you are not a planner, or if you think your calendar is NOT your friend: Sit down sometime in the next couple of days and look at July’s calendar. What do you have scheduled on it so far? Do you have a July calendar? Okay. If it’s blank, schedule the important but not urgent things right now. Then schedule an hour of margin each day. Next fill in the things you have to do.  If it doesn’t all fit, you need to redefine what you “have” to do. Put the July calendar somewhere you’ll have it with you and the next time someone calls and asks, “What are you doing next Thursday?” If next Thursday is a Thursday in July you will know whether you are doing anything or not. If you are suggest an alternative date if you want or need to get together with the person. If not, just say, “I’m sorry by I really don’t have time to get together in the near future. It’s a really full time in my life right now. That will be true, if you have scheduled your life with important, but not urgent matters first, and then filled in some margin (which is ALSO important, but not urgent), and then filled in the rest.

If you want an actual plan for how to do this planning, Michael Hyatt’s recently published book Life Planning is the best book I have ever seen for prioritizing your life and then planning it in an effective way. He offers some annual calendar, and monthly calendar templates, along with a template for an overall life plan that are outstanding. It has been a big help and blessing to me, because as a natural non-planner, he makes the process clear, simple and it appeals to the leader in me that what’s to make a difference now and to leave a lasting legacy when I’m gone. Since I’ve implemented the plan, I’ve been more effective at doing everything I’ve mentioned above in the way of positive planning and living. My final challenge for today is: DO IT! Don’t say you don’t have time. You do. Don’t say you’ll do it next week. You won’t. Do it today or in the next day or two. “It” is something tangible in the way of making your calendar your friend!

Here’s to leading better by making your calendar your friend–today!

Leading When You Don’t Feel Like It!

One of the biggest challenges to leading others is that sometimes you just don’t feel like leading. Whether it’s a moment when those you’re leading are being difficult, or you’d rather be having fun, or you have to make a tough decision, or any of a hundred other matters that you just don’t feel like going through, leading often doesn’t feel good.

Here’s the key: if we only lead when we feel like leading, we aren’t leaders! Leadership requires that we do the right thing regardless of how it feels at the moment. Mark Lutz, our Discipleship Pastor at New Life, talks about fifteen minute decisions versus fifteen year decisions. A fifteen minute decision is made based on how you’re feeling at the moment. You have a deadline coming up, but the phone rings and a friend asks, “Would you like to go to the movie tonight?” (Or the ball game, or for a bike ride, or anything that sounds like fun to you.) How do you respond? If you respond by how you feel, or how it would feel to spend the evening with your friend, which is a fifteen minute response, you may well have a fun evening, while pushing off the deadline. Maybe you can still make the deadline, or maybe you miss it. Either way your leadership takes a back seat to your feelings, and you take a step backward in your leadership, especially the effectiveness of your leadership fifteen years from now.

On the other hand, if your friend calls and you’re caught up on your leadership tasks, meaning you have some margin in your schedule, investing an evening with the friend will feel good AND it will add value to your life. Investing time and energy in developing meaningful friendships is a fifteen year decision, because fifteen years down the road you’re going to need some good friends. So, it isn’t always a black and white matter when it comes to what you do with your time at any given moment. The point is when the opportunity comes to avoid leadership by doing something that’s more fun, or that will make you feel better in the moment, how you determine what to do needs to be based on the fifteen year view, rather than the fifteen minute view.

I’ll be following up on this topic tomorrow as we talk about how important it is to schedule our time as leaders, so we know whether an “opportunity’ is actually an opportunity or a time waster that’s really a fifteen minute decision. For today let’s consider one specific time when it will always feel better in the next fifteen minutes not to do what we know we need to do as leaders: when we have to make a tough decision or face a task that we absolutely know we are going to dislike in the short-term. Some have referred to this as “eating the frog.” In other words, if you have to make a difficult decision, or you have to do something that you don’t want to do in the short-term, because it won’t feel good in the moment, that is your “frog.” So, when is the best time to eat a frog? NOW. The reason it’s now, is because it’s never going to feel good to eat the frog, and the longer we put it off, the more time we waste in thinking about having to do it. Great leaders learn to eat the frog first thing in the morning, that way the rest of the day is free to pursue the easier matters on the agenda. Once again, the morning is the best time to eat the frog if we must eat it in order to be an effective leader. Sometimes we end up eating frogs that weren’t ours to eat in the first place. Maybe we ought to have delegated the task to someone else, for whom it would have been enjoyable. Maybe it was a frog no one needed to eat in the first place.

Leadership always involves making choices, and the choices we must make when we don’t feel like eating the frog center around knowing whether it’s our frog to eat in the first place, and if it is eating it as soon as possible. That way we’ll feel better the rest of the day. I have found time and time again that the things I dread doing, are the things that make me feel the best AFTER I’ve done them. That’s why it’s so important not to lead based on our feelings, but based on prioritizing our calendars and doing the next most important thing on the agenda, whether it tastes like frog or not!

Here’s to leading better by eating your biggest frog–today! (Trust me, you’ll feel a lot better AFTER you’ve eaten it!)

Timing…Closer To Home

In yesterday’s post, I introduced John Maxwell’s four possible scenarios when it comes to timing and a leader introducing new ideas: a wrong idea at the wrong time equals disaster; a wrong idea at the right time is a mistake; a right idea at the wrong time equals non-acceptance; and a right idea at the right time equals success. Today, let’s take a look at that paradigm in our lives when it comes to something as simple as the timing of taking a vacation. Nancy and I got home on Monday evening after five days away on vacation. While the timing had been good for taking five days away from work, when I went out to the yard to check on the strawberries and the weeds–yes, to check on the weeds–I realized that our timing had not been the best for going away for five days from home. When we left last Wednesday afternoon, I knew the strawberries were getting ripe and that the weed situation needed attention in our blueberry enclosure and more so in our raspberry patch, in fact the raspberry patch had been next on my weeding schedule.

You may be thinking what does this have to do with leadership and timing? Everything! In last Saturday’s post titled The Importance of Rest, I noted the importance of taking time away on a regular basis for rest and renewal. Vacation is definitely part of that. While everyone receives differing amounts of vacation from their employers, it’s important to use whatever time we have available in our overall plan of rest and renewal, and to do so when the timing is the best for us. Nancy and I needed to visit our daughters, and we needed some time away. Since June 8-13 included Abby’s birthday (Abby is our older daughter) and Emmy (Emmy is our younger daughter) had recently moved to South Carolina, we thought it would be a good time to visit them, and since it was a good time for us to be away from our work at the church we went.

As I walked out to the strawberry, raspberry and blueberry patches I realized that our timing may NOT have been the best overall timing for a vacation. Nancy and I gave up on growing a big vegetable garden a couple of years ago, because I tend to take mission trips in the middle of the summer and when I come back the weeds have usually taken over the garden. Even at other times throughout the summer, we just can’t commit the time necessary to keep a garden doing well. Since then we have focused on our fruit bushes and a few apple trees. For example, I built a blueberry enclosure a couple summers ago and we were amazed to see the increase in the yield of the blueberry bushes once the birds couldn’t eat most of the berries. We planted strawberries outside the perimeter of the enclosure, and a handful of raspberry bushes given to us by some friends eight years ago have multiplied into a sizable raspberry patch.

When I walked out to take a look at each of them on Monday evening, the weeds were taller than the raspberry bushes. (Obviously, that didn’t happen in five days, since the raspberry bushes are three to four feet tall!) We have weeds about 6-10 inches tall throughout the blueberry enclosure. (No big deal, since I can clear those in about an hour.) But the strawberries had mostly ripened past the point of being useable or were bug infested. (That could have been avoided had we been home.) I told Nancy that June 8-13 is NOT the best timing for going on vacation from a standpoint of our fruit trees and bushes. I have been going out in the mornings on Mondays through Saturdays to pull weeds (in lieu of working out) and listen to my Bible on YouVersion, and then books on Audible for about an hour to an hour and a half at sunrise. By being away from June 8-13, I missed out on five to ten hours of pulling weeds. Had I been home the raspberry patch would have been weed free, since it was next on my list to weed when we left, as would the blueberries. In addition, I had staked up one of our apple trees, which has a weaker root system for some reason, and one of the stakes had broken while we were away, so the apple tree was leaning at a 45 degree angle. I would’ve caught that sooner had I been home. AND Nancy and I would have had fresh strawberries to eat at least three days during that time!

So what am I saying, that it was a bad idea to go on vacation? No, I’m saying it wasn’t the best timing to go on vacation. Had we gone a couple of weeks sooner, the strawberries would not have been ready to eat while we were gone, since that is a short window of time–basically the first two to three weeks in June. The weeds would still have been growing, but I would’ve just cleared the blueberry area of weeds, and the weeds around the raspberries would have been small, because of my “schedule” for weeding. I mentioned in yesterday’s post that I am extroverted, intuitive and spontaneous, so good timing isn’t a natural strength for me. In order to be better at it I need help from others AND I need to take better notes. Vacations and retreats are important–I would say vital–to a leader’s overall health and well-being. Good timing for taking them means more effective leadership over the long haul. While my goal is not to turn us all into obsessive-compulsive maniacs when it comes to timing in life, I am finally realizing at the age of 59 that good timing is a vital part of good leadership. Whether it’s when to go on vacation, or how to plan my work schedule, or how often I need to invest time in being with Nancy, knowing the best times to carry out each will mean better timing and good ideas carried out at the right time equal success!

Here’s to planning better so our timing will be better, so we will lead better–today!

Timing…

Many years ago I heard John Maxwell talk about timing as a key in whether our leadership succeeds or fails. He spoke about how the timing of a particular idea or action makes all the difference. He said that the wrong idea at the wrong time brings disaster. The wrong idea at the right time is a mistake. The right idea at the wrong time leads to non-acceptances, but the right idea at the right time leads to success. I have always remembered those four possibilities:  wrong idea-wrong time; wrong idea-right time; right idea-wrong time; and right idea-wrong time, and have lived through their reality again and again.

Thankfully, I have avoided making a ton of wrong idea-wrong time decisions over the years, but a couple come to mind, and Maxwell was 100% correct. One time I introduced contemporary worship at both of the worship services in a church that had been worshipping in a traditional style for nearly 200 years. One week we had two traditional services. The next week we had two contemporary services. It was the wrong idea at the wrong time. Talk about a disaster. I lived to regroup and move forward, but not without losing a tremendous amount of leadership credibility for a period of time. Had that been one of my first leadership decisions in that church it could have been my last. Wrong decision +Wrong time = Disaster!

I have made many wrong decisions at the right time over the years at home, at church, and in other organizations with whom I have volunteered or worked. By that I mean I had been in the leadership situation for long enough and had made enough right decisions at the right time to have developed leadership capital, which John Maxwell refers to as having “change in your pocket.” That meant the wrong decision was at the right time, because I used up some of the “change,” and still had plenty left.so did not end my leadership tenure. An example of a wrong idea at the right time in my home, was the time I decided we ought to buy a time-share vacation plan a few years after we got married. It was the wrong decision for Nancy and me, but it was at the right time, because we hadn’t yet started our family, and Nancy and I were both working. That meant we had the disposable income to pay for the time share. After a few years we realized that we were not going to be able to afford to use the time share, so we sold it for less than we paid for it.  Wrong decision + Right time = Mistake.

I have made so many right decisions at the wrong time over the years, that I could write a book about it. Since I am extremely extroverted, intuitive and spontaneous, I tend to adopt and implement new ideas quickly. I am often right about the need to adopt the new ideas. The problem is I don’t always think through the process necessary to implement the idea, or the consequences of adopting the new idea on the overall system involved, whether our family, the church I serve, or a volunteer organization of which I’m a part. For example, I have often heard about a new program for children, youth, evangelism or you name it, and I can see right away that it is going to be helpful and impact people for God’s glory. But sometimes I haven’t thought about the financial impact, or the number of volunteers needed to implement it, or its long-term sustainability. If I had a dollar for every time I have rolled out a new idea, which was a GOOD, new idea to a leadership team, or a church board, or my family and heard, “Are you crazy?” Or at least, “There’s no way! I would be a much wealthier man. Right idea + Wrong time = Non-Acceptance.

Finally, I have experienced the joy of coming up with the right idea at the right time and experienced success often enough to have been given the opportunity to continue to lead when I have made the other three types of decisions! The thing I would say that has happened over the years, as I have matured is that I have come to realize the importance of not only having the right idea, but also the right timing to implement it more and more. I have also learned that it is so much easier to come up with the right idea and the right timing collaboratively than it is on my own. One of the greatest joys of my life at work right now is working with the “Lead Team” at New Life. The Lead Team consists of four of us who are on staff at New Life. We meet every two weeks to consider what God is leading us to do in the big picture of New Life. We evaluate what we’re already doing, and consider what we need to do that we’re not doing effectively or at all right now. The biggest blessing of being part of the team is that together we come up with much better ideas AND better timing for implementation that I was ever able to do on my own. For example, New Life has been growing at a rather rapid rate for the past several years, so last year the Lead Team talked and prayed about adding a fourth worship service at some point. Various ideas were set forward, but we eventually decided to add the service on the first weekend in 2016. This gave us time to let the church family know, to promote it through our Christmas Eve worship services which are always heavily attended. We even had the time to order better chairs for the worship center. The result? Within a few weeks we were seeing an additional 150 people per week in overall worship attendance. Right idea + Right time = Success!

I hope as you consider your “great” ideas, that even when they truly are GREAT ideas, whether at home, work, in the church or in a community group of which you are a part, that you will also consider the timing. Consider when is the best time to present the idea. Consider the response folks are likely to have to it. Anticipate the objections and be ready to respond to them. Consider the timing. Is it too soon or too late to implement your idea. Sometimes we miss windows of opportunity and they don’t reopen. At other times, the window hasn’t opened yet, and it’s a bit messy to break the window in order to get it open!

Remember, that just because you’re a leader doesn’t mean that your ideas are automatically right, or that that timing is. If you have the opportunity to run the idea past a group of trusted folks whether family members, co-workers, or others whom you trust, the end result will often be better. I’m not saying never to champion an idea that no one else sees being right, but you. I’m just saying be really sure that you’re right and then do everything you can to help others see not only that the idea is right, but that now is also the time. Because Right Idea + Right Time = SUCCESS!

Here’s to leading better by implementing the right ideas at the right time – today! (or tomorrow if the timing will be better!)

The Swamp Fox

Nancy and I have been staying in Marion, South Carolina for the past couple of nights. The town and the county in which it is located are named for Francis Marion, an American patriot who served during the Revolutionary War. He was known to the British as “The Swamp Fox,” because he used surprise attacks, and trickery to overcome British troops even though the British troops’ numbers were nearly always greater than Marion’s.  As I’ve been reading about Colonel Marion and watching some videos based on his life, I’ve discovered that he is one of three American patriots on whose life the main character in Mel Gibson’s movie The Patriot is based.

In one of the videos I watched about Marion, he gives a rousing speech about why despite being outnumbered, outgunned and in virtually every way being the underdogs in the war for independence they will win: they are fighting for their land, their families and their country. They have a cause worthy of defending. He points out that the British are there because they are paid to be there. They aren’t defending their homes. They are simply taking orders. The point is obvious: When we have a worthy cause, a cause for which we would be willing to die, we have a reason to live! As I listened to Colonel Marion’s speech, I thought, “Yes! I would serve him. I would serve his cause. I would be glad to fight and even die for such a leader.”

We have such a cause, and an even greater leader, if Jesus Christ is the one we serve as Savior and Lord. He has already lived, died and risen again for us. He has given us new lives empowered by His Holy Spirit. The enemy we fight is real. The stakes are eternal. Sometimes it’s easier to watch a video of a leader from more than 200 years ago and say, “Yes, I would follow him!” than to remember that we’re following a leader and living out a cause who is superior to any leader or cause in history. Until we remember that what we are living as Jesus’ followers in His cause which is worth dying for if necessary, we will never live with the passion, zeal and integrity we need in a time such as this. Francis Marion helped me to remember that great leaders are worthy of being followed in any era.

One of the most common questions we hear about leadership today is, “Where are the great leaders?” We ask this question every four years when we have presidential elections. We ask it every time we read about or watch the news of another leader in the business world, or field of education, or in the ministry who has compromised his or her integrity for personal gain or personal indulgence. As you and I seek to live as leaders at home, work, church or in the world, we may think, “I’m never going to be president,” or “I’m never going to lead an understaffed group of soldiers against an occupying army,” or “I’m never going to be the president of the company,” but each of us can and must remember that we are leaders in the army of Jesus Christ. We often want to downplay the military terminology when it comes to our participation in the cause of Jesus Christ, but the truth is we are engaged in a spiritual battle every moment of every day of our lives.

What role do we play in the battle? At different times we may be foot soldiers, or members of the cavalry, or sergeants, captains or even generals. The position we hold doesn’t matter nearly as much as how we discharge our service in each moment. Whether we’re “privates” or “generals” our cause is worthy. We are not mercenaries, merely at our posts because we’re being paid a sum of money. We’re patriots. We’re part of the cause of eternity, and we’re called to use every bit of wisdom, truth, strategy and love God has given us as we engage our enemy. We must remember the Apostle Paul’s words that tell us our battle is NOT against flesh and blood, in other words not against people, but against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (See Ephesians 6:10 and following.). Then we must remember that spiritual battles must be fought with spiritual weapons. We must wear the armor of God and engage the enemy with the sword of the Spirit, which is God’s word.

As we engage the battle we must remember that we have already won. Jesus won the victory over sin and death 2,000 years ago on the cross. As Francis Marion spoke to his troops so long ago, he spoke with the conviction of one who knew his cause was just and that the victory was already theirs, even though the reality of that victory seemed far from certain in the moment. We must always remember that there is no doubt about the ultimate outcome of the war in which we are engaged. We have already won. Let’s live as leaders on the victorious side, being gracious to those who have been defeated, because they have served the losing side out of ignorance and being deceived. As Paul said our battle is NOT against flesh and blood, against people, but against the spiritual forces that have controlled them. At the end of the battle there will be some people who are separated from us because they have chosen to follow the enemy. As long as the battle continues we have the opportunity to win them over to our side. That is part of what it means to be a leader in God’s army.

I saw this clearly in one of the videos I watched about The Swamp Fox. Some of the “Tories,” those loyal to Great Britain, were burning the homes of their patriotic neighbors. In one case a Tory leader brought his group to the home of his brother, who was in the Continental army. He locked his brother in the barn and set it on fire. Colonel Marion and a few of his men showed up in the nick of time, drove off the Tories and saved the man. A few scenes later a group of patriots, some who served in the Continental army and some who did not, are shown marching toward the home of a family of Tories. They are intent on burning the home to the ground in retaliation for what had been done to them. The Swamp Fox shows up and reminds the group that after the war, they are going to be neighbors and family members. He tells the group that the Tories will forget their allegiance to Britain, but they will never forget that their friends and neighbors burned their homes.

It was a pivotal moment. It showed the merit of the patriotic cause. It showed the noble nature of Marion. It reminded me that our battle is not against flesh and blood, but in the evil spiritual forces behind what human beings do to one another, and that after the battle we will be neighbors. As leaders in God’s army we must remember that we serve the cause of Jesus Christ, and the goal is to draw all people to Him, that each of us may live together as brothers and sister for eternity. The war is already won. The battles continue and casualties can and will come. We must do all we can do to lead from the virtue of our cause, and the reality that at the end of the day all who remain will live as brothers and sisters forever. Let’s live that cause, whatever our role may be at this moment, to God’s glory and to the end that as many as possible may experience the life that is truly life now and forever through Him.

Here’s to leading by living our cause fervently and effectively–today!

Truth and Love

For all of my adult life I have pursued a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. That has meant reading the Bible and considering its message as the basis for truth. Many in our day don’t believe truth exists, at least not absolute truth. The idea that absolute truth doesn’t exist is foolish, considering that the statement: There is no absolute truth is a claim of absolute truth! Of course absolute truth exists. The Law of Gravity, for example, always works. All truth claims are absolute. If I say my name is Chris Marshall either I am or I am not Chris Marshall. The statement is absolutely true or absolutely false. While we may debate about who I am, the absolute truth is I am someone, and I either am or I am not Chris Marshall.

Folks who claim no absolute truth  exists say more about their desires than about truth. Jesus Christ made many claims that I wish were not true, because my life would be easier if He hadn’t made them or if they weren’t true. For example, He claimed to be “…the way, the truth and the life..” and that “…no one comes to the Father except through Me.” (See John 14:6 in the Bible.) While it would be far easier for me and for all of us, if “all paths lead to the top of the mountain,” that is it would be easier if whatever anyone believes when it comes to philosophy and religion were true. But either what Jesus said is true or false. We can’t simply say, because I don’t want something to be true no absolute truth exists. That’s not a statement of truth. It’s wishful thinking. What we must say is, “I don’t think ‘X’ is true, but I must investigate to determine whether it is or not.”

The age of reason, the Enlightenment of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, convinced us that truth would lead us to a better world, perhaps a perfect one. In the twentieth and now the twenty-first centuries we’ve realized that such a truth claim was not true. Reason has not won the victory over violence, disease, poverty and the like. Many have abandoned the quest for truth, because it didn’t lead where we were promised it would. The truth is we abandoned the quest for truth when we limited truth to the things that can be seen, heard, tasted, touched or smelled. Science is a wonderful endeavor when used within the limits of science, but as a religion science has failed miserably. Since science can’t investigate an uncaused cause for the creation of the universe, “science” tells us one does not exist. Since science cannot investigate the occurrence of miracles, which by definition are beyond the natural, “science” tells us miracles don’t exist. The truth is “science” doesn’t tell us anything. SCIENTISTS DO! Science is invaluable when used to investigate natural phenomena, but when we use it to investigate the origin of the universe, for example, or the causes of poverty or violence, science always falls short, because these are matters beyond the scope of science.

But not beyond the scope of truth. All truth is not relative.  Absolute truth exists. As we investigate the cause of the universe, or the reasons for poverty and violence we go beyond the scope of science, but a cause exists for the creation of the universe, and causes exist for poverty and violence. These are absolute realities that have absolute causes. We must step into the realms of philosophy and faith when we seek to discover them, but discover them we can. I find it quite interesting that many of the modern atheists are so passionate about their faith. (Yes, atheism is a faith, because it’s basic premise: there is no God cannot be proven scientifically.) To claim there is no God, or no truth, because one doesn’t want there to be is quite a non-scientific approach. As one Christian apologist debating an ardent atheist has put it in summing up the atheist’s claims: There is no God and you hate Him. How does one “hate” a being who doesn’t exist? Reason tells us we cannot hate that which doesn’t exist.

My point is that as leaders, who are also Christians in the twenty-first century, you and I must hold the truth together with love as the Apostle Paul reminded us in Ephesians 4. When we speak the truth, we must speak it in love. People don’t want to hear us, because we believe in Jesus. They won’t hear us for sure when we yell or act belligerently as we offer the truth to people. In my experience as one who knows the truth, and who has been set free by it as Jesus promised I would be, when I speak the truth in love people listen. They may still scoff at my conclusions. They may discount my claims, but most will walk away with a different attitude about me than they do of many with whom they have argued, because they will have experienced the love of Jesus.

I don’t claim to speak the truth in love perfectly. None of us do. But we have the great opportunity as leaders who follow Jesus to show people that  we are not “fools” simply because we believe the truth, or because we believe truth exists. The debate between Christians and those of other religions and no religion is going to increase in our culture, because of the commonly held belief that absolute truth doesn’t exist. We won’t win the debate through reason alone, but we must not abandon reason. We must not abandon good science. We must not rely on anger or derision to put down those with whom we disagree. That is the way of the world. I’m amazed at how often people who have weak points YELL. When we speak the truth, we don’t need to yell. In fact, speaking the truth in love, requires that we remain calm in our passion. That doesn’t mean we speak in monotones or in barely audible voices. It means that our passion exudes love, not anger. It means as we speak the truth, we let the assurance of the truth compel rather than the decibel level of our words.

While I wrote this post for all of you, I have written it as a reminder most of all to myself. It’s always easier to yell, especially for me. I was brought up that way. It’s always easier to speak the truth without love, or to love without considering the truth. We have neither of those luxuries in a world that’s moving farther and farther away from both truth and love in the name of “tolerance” and “acceptance”. (I put those words in quotes, because of the way our culture has refined them both over the past decade or so. Tolerance means acceptance in our culture, but tolerance is NOT acceptance, it is a willingness to put up with another’s viewpoint. It is speaking the truth in love, rather than dumbing down the truth, or reacting out of hate. Acceptance is not agreement, but rather demonstrating love and good will to those around us, even when we disagree.)

Leadership is sorely tested in this day in which everyone does what is right in his or her own eyes. When we cannot appeal to truth alone as a virtue on which to base our lives, because many around us disagree on whether truth exists, we must continue to learn and live the truth in love, because that marriage of truth and love is compelling. It will be even more so as people become more and more disagreeable and intolerant of those who contend that truth exists and exists absolutely. We will be challenged as we live the truth in love. Remember, the only one who ever did that perfectly–Jesus–was executed by those He came to save. Jesus reminded us that if the world rejected Him, it will reject us. Don’t surprised when you’re rejected, but be sure when it happens it is for speaking the truth in love. The Good News of Jesus has always been offensive to those living in darkness, living outside of the truth, but it’s the only hope of the world. We must continue to speak it and live it in love as He commanded. While it will become increasingly difficult to do so, it is the only solution to a world disconnected from God’s truth and love. As we live the truth in love we shine light, God’s light, on the darkness, and that IS our calling from Him.

Here’s to leading better by speaking the truth in love-today!

The Importance of Rest

A tired leader is an ineffective leader. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but over time when we fail to take time for rest our leadership suffers. We live in a culture that has long considered working to exhaustion, sucking it up when others won’t, and having a “git ‘er done” mentality badges of honor. I have too for much of my life. I’ve counted it as evidence that I’m a true leader when I’ve worked more hours than most of the people around me. When folks mentioned working a double shift at their factory jobs, I’ve thought, “I work 14-16 hours in a day at least once a week and have never been paid a penny of overtime, since my work as a pastor is a salaried position.”

Looking back over my life, I remember periods in my younger days when I worked more than 80 hours a week as a carpenter and as a pastor on a regular basis. I DID get a lot accomplished, AND during those times I also made some of the worst decisions of my life. Were the two connected? Definitely. Our judgment gets impaired when we lack rest. Study after study has shown that sleep deprivation, and “running on empty” contribute to on the job accidents for those who work in blue collar situations, and poor decisions regardless of what type of work we do. Nevertheless, there are those particularly in my generation (Baby Boomers) who still push and push at work considering rest a luxury that comes with retirement.

While generational studies show that Gen Xers’ and Millennials tend not to be as driven as groups as Baby Boomers, the tendency to undervalue rest and overvalue drivenness in the work place and in life is still strong. Several years ago, as I was considering “Life Management,” the overall practice of caring for the important matters of life that contribute to being healthy and growing people, I came up with seven components and the first was REST. I realized that in the very order of creation in Genesis 1, God established days as starting at night or evening. In the record of creation at the end of each day, the account reads, “There was EVENING and MORNING…” Why? Why do the days start in the evening and not in the morning?  We consider days to start when we get up and get going. We talk about “FIRST thing in the morning…” As I reflected on it, this thought came to me: What if evening comes first, because God expects us to REST before we work? What if we get up in the middle of the day, to show that God has been working all night and we join Him in His work, rather than asking Him to join us in ours?

That kind of thinking has revolutionized my approach to rest. I realized what the Bible makes clear from cover to cover: I work first and foremost to fulfill God’s plan for my life, not to demonstrate that I am a leader, or that I’m significant, or that I’m more effective than others, or for any other reason.  When I recognize my role as God’s co-worker, who works to carry out His plan for me, then I get my value more from who I am than what I do. I work just as hard as I ever have, but I’ve started to value rest. In fact, as I write these words I’m on vacation. I’ve come to realize that I need to sleep 7-8 hours each night, take an hour each day to invest time with God, a day each week away from work (what the Bible calls Sabbath) and then I need to take regular times away from work (what we call vacation, and what I’ve come to consider rest and renewal time). When I do that, my energy level for the hours I do work is higher. I focus better, and I accomplish as much in fewer hours as I did when I was always working to exhaustion. I also prioritize better. I don’t do so many things that don’t need to be done in the first place, nearly as much.

If you’re thinking, “That’s okay for an old guy, but I have to get as much done as I can while I can,” remember: God created a rhythm of rest and work in the fabric of creation for our benefit. He designed us and He knows what WORKS best for us. We work best with rest. If you want to lead effectively, and particularly if you are a leader at work, investing time to rest by sleeping enough, turning to God for a daily time with Him, stopping our work once a week and regularly throughout the year to rest, reflect, and be renewed will result in honoring God AND being more productive.

I challenge you to try it for a month if you’re one of those work ’til you drop people. It will take you a month to start to experience the benefits. If you’re on the fence after a month give it one more month. At worst, you’ll lose a few hours of work each week, and you can get back to your driven life when you want. At best, you’ll discover that you are a more effective person, worker, spouse, parent, and leader than you have been to this point. You’ll be in a position to emphasize what’s really important in your life, and in all likelihood you’ll be physically healthier too!

One final note about rest: rest is more than not working. Watching television for three hours is not resting. Playing video games all evening is not resting. Mowing your grass is not resting. Rest is sleeping, or reflecting on your life, or taking a walk with your spouse or child, and talking about what’s important to them and how they’re doing right now. It’s praying or journaling. It may even be writing a post in your blog that causes you to look back on your life and consider what’s really important. No one lying on their death bed says, “I wish I would’ve shown up at the office an extra five hours each week,” but plenty wish they had paused their work life more frequently to invest more time with loved ones, to develop their relationship with God and even in taking the time to consider what was truly important.

Here’s to leading better when it comes to leading ourselves in the area of rest–today!