Month: August 2016

What Accountability Looks Like: A Structured Approach

Yesterday we opened the topic of accountability for leaders. Today let’s focus on what it looks like to have a structured approach to an accountability relationship. While I’m more of a non-structured type of person by nature, I have found that at the start of any formal relationship it’s better to have structure. Over time the structure may relax, or it may always stay in place as a framework for effective accountability. After all, an accountability relationship will become a friendship over time, and your accountability partner may even become one of your best friends, but the purpose of the relationship is mutual growth through accountability.

The type of accountability relationship you’re developing will determine the type of structure that works best for you. For example, when my accountability and I started to meet our goal was to become more effective followers of Jesus as men, husbands, dads and through our work. While that was an ambitious emphasis, those roles overlap in everyday life. Because our goal was mainly growth and accountability in our spiritual lives, we used specific books designed for either Christian growth or accountability as the basis for our meetings. One of the books was titled Discipleship Essentials. The book contained twenty-four lessons designed to help the participant develop essential skills for living as a disciple of Jesus Christ. We worked our way through the lessons, and also asked each other specific questions of each other in each area of our development. (More on the types of questions we asked tomorrow.)

At times we also chose specific books of the Bible to read through and then discuss in our times together. This was not a Bible study per se. The goal was to glean and discuss the principles from the texts we read that would help us develop us men, husbands, dads and in our work. Sometimes we read the texts ahead of time and came prepared to share what we had learned. At other times we read the texts together and discussed them as we went. Once again, this was a specific type of accountability for the purpose we had decided.

You may have an accountability partner who helps you with spiritual growth, or it may be a matter of maintaining personal integrity, or work productivity. It’s important to establish the purpose of your accountability relationship and at the outset to have a structured approach for your times together. As mentioned above, over time the structure may relax or you may maintain it depending on your personalities and the effectiveness of your times together.

While talking about structure, one of the most important matters to establish is timing. Both how often you meet and how long you will meet each time needs to be established and honored. For example, if you are going to meet weekly for ninety minutes, then you’ll need to make every effort to carve out those ninety minutes every week. Over the more than twenty years Bill and I have met, we have not missed many weeks, and when we do it’s because of vacations, or unavoidable work or personal conflicts. Sometimes when we can’t meet on our established day, we’ll meet at another time during the week. In addition to making the weekly or bi-weekly meeting a priority, honoring the sixty, ninety or whatever number of minutes you establish for the meeting is also important. Don’t have an open-ended time frame for your meeting, particularly if you are a schedule-conscious person. It’s in everyone’s best interest to treat your accountability “appointment” as an appointment rather than as a casual get together. Flexibility is fine, but at first establishing a structured time slot and honoring will help your accountability relationship get established, and be something to which you look forward each week.

When Bill and I first started meeting we would purposely have some time to catch up on the events of the week, then turn to our study, then ask the established questions and then pray together. We didn’t have a printed schedule, but that was the schedule we had in our minds. It helped us to keep within our time frame and also to make sure we were holding one another accountable in the areas we had established. If this all seems too structured to you, you probably have a personality similar to mine. It seemed a bit artificial, and over time my time with Bill has become much more casual in the structure, while still covering the important aspects the structure established in our relationship. As we’ll see on Friday, every accountability relationship changes over time and the way you structure yours will be part of that change.

Here’s to leading better by establishing or maintaining an accountability relationship as a regular part of your life’s schedule–today or as soon as you can establish one!

Why Leaders Need Accountability

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!

Casting Vision

I have often been told that one of the leader’s primary tasks is casting vision for the company, church, or organization. Casting vision is never a once and done activity because vision “leaks.” It’s easy to forget why we do what we do, and unless we remember why we’re doing what we’re doing we often tire of doing it and are prone to giving up on the task over time. In order to cast a vision, we must be clear about what the vision is ourselves and the vision must be worth pursuing in the first place. After all, if we have a clear vision that is not worth pursuing, the people in our organizations won’t be motivated, and even if we have a vision that could move mountains if people understood it, but it isn’t clear enough for people to understand, we won’t have many followers.

If we want to understand the crucial importance of having a clear vision and casting it effectively, we need turn no further than the ancient words of King Solomon of Israel: Without a vision, the people perish. The statement was made 3,000 years ago and reminds us that a nation, a business, a church or any significant organization will not continue for long without a clear, compelling vision. The greatest people movements in history have followed the development of clear, compelling visions that have been communicated effectively by great leaders.

So what is the movement for which you are seeking to cast vision? Is it the development of a product that will make people’s lives better physically, emotionally or spiritually? Is it the promotion of an idea such as freedom, or of an action such as learning? Until we are clear about what it is we are seeking to do and why, we will never be able to tell others why they ought to participate in the cause, but once we know what we’re seeking to do and why, we must communicate clearly to those we hope to influence to participate so they will not only join our cause or organization, but commit to accomplishing the vision over the long haul.

At New Life our vision (which we call our mission) is To share, grow and live the new life of Jesus Christ with the world–one person at a time! As you can see the key elements of the statement communicate what we are seeking to do: share, grow and live the new life of Jesus Christ, and our target audience is the whole world. We also recognize that in order to reach the whole world, we must reach one person at a time. The vision is so big–reaching the whole world–while at the same time broken down into a reasonable approach–one person at a time. You may be thinking, “Your statement doesn’t say anything about why you’re doing what you’re doing.” It doesn’t. When we cast the vision we always remind people that we do it, because the decisions we make now matter for eternity. That’s why we want to share, grow and live the new life of Jesus Christ with the world–one person at a time. What we do with Jesus Christ determines the course of our eternity.

You may or may not believe anything I wrote in the previous paragraph, but what I hope you see is the vision is clear, and has a compelling reason for being accomplished if you do believe the premise that the decisions we make now matter for eternity. As we cast this vision at New Life people are free to accept or reject it. We welcome questions from people as they are forming their decisions and commitments. We challenge folks to go all in with their commitment and provide biblical reasons for doing so. Since we are a Christian organization that trusts the teachings of the Bible as truth, we have a body of information that forms the basis for fulfilling our vision. In effect, we cast vision every time we share a message during our weekend worship services, because we show how the biblical passages impact what we do and why we do it.

The first step in casting vision then is to determine what it is you are attempting to do and why it matters. If you can’t answer those two basic realities–what you are doing and why–then you will never be able to cast vision effectively, because you don’t have a vision to cast. Once you have determined those two realities you will need to remind people of them regularly. How often? Daily isn’t too often. Absent a clear vision for life, people drift. While a small percentage of people seem to be naturally organized and ordered in their lives, the vast majority are waiting for someone to give them something to do and a reason to do it. Leaders see the what and the why clearly and help others to see them and join in the quest to accomplish them.

If you’re thinking, “Isn’t that manipulation? Seeking to get others to do what you want them to do?” It can be. True leadership is not manipulation, because true leadership pursues a vision that is not just in the best interest of the leader, but serves the “common good.” Businesses that seek only to make a profit, or churches that are seeking only to survive, or any organization that has a purely selfish reason for existing will ultimately be manipulating people whether intentionally or unintentionally, because the cause is not for the common good.

So, in order to cast vision, we must have a vision worth casting–a what and a why that matter. We must be clear in casting the vision, which means we have a body of information that forms the basis for our communication of the vision, and we must present it clearly. When we do those things people will understand our vision and be able to determine whether it’s worthy of their commitment. Once they do make a commitment to pursue the vision with us, our task of casting vision continues to be vital, because vision does leak, and we need to help those who are pursuing it with us to remember both what we’re doing and why  over the long haul.

Here’s to leading better by developing a clear, compelling vision and communicating it effectively and regularly–today, and for a long time to come!

 

Leading When You Don’t Feel Like It

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!

Your Culture Document

Yesterday I wrote about creating a leadership culture and at the end of that post, I mentioned that today, we would look at your culture document.      First question: do you have a culture document, that is have you taken the time to think through and write down the elements of your work, church or even family culture that are too vital to leave to chance? A great place to start is with the three things you can control: your allegiances, your attitudes and your effort. New Life’s culture document makes it clear that we’re serving Jesus Christ, who we believe is the King of kings, and Lord of lords, so we’re quite serious about our ultimate allegiance. Your allegiance may be to your company, to your family, or whatever it is that tops your list.

When it comes to attitudes, the culture document is the place you make it clear what kind of attitudes are and aren’t acceptable. For example, our document makes it clear that we are not “hired hands,” that is we don’t have an attitude of punching the clock when it comes to our work. We believe that the Kingdom of God doesn’t fit in our job description, so we may have times when we’ll need to work through a schedule time off. In my case, I’m officiating at a funeral today, even though I’m on vacation this week. To me, I’m making the right choice, and I’ll take some time next week to make up for the off time I’m missing today. You may not have that kind of flexibility in your place of work, church or endeavor, but it’s important to decide what your attitude is toward getting the job done.

Another area where attitude is important is when it comes to whining. We have a no whining policy for New Life staff. If you receive a pay check you lose the opportunity to whine. That doesn’t mean you can’t be critical of a process or situation, only that dealing with it includes finding constructive approaches rather than whining. Again, you may have a different attitude toward negativity, but whatever it is, having something about it in your culture document will help assure that everyone’s on the same page. After all, it’s hard to stay on the same page unless there’s an actual page on which to stay!

When it comes to effort, everyone wants employees or staff to give their best, but it isn’t realistic to expect someone to be at the top of their game every minute. The key is to include in your culture document that best effort is expected, and when someone isn’t feeling well physically, or is going through a challenging time personally, the document may address the need for team efforts in such situations, or specific responses to make when a coworker is performing at less than his or her peak.

As with all documents of this type, a culture document is always a work in progress. As I mentioned yesterday, we want to include that we are great at celebrating successes, but right now, we’re not. We’re monitoring our progress and one day we’ll add it to the document when the time is right. The key is to start somewhere and move one step at a time to the point that your culture document offers a clear representation of who you are and what your doing as an organization.

Here’s to leading better by making the first step, or the next step of progress on your culture document–today!

Creating a Leadership Culture

Back in April several members of our leadership team had the opportunity to sit in on a Q&A session with the lead pastor of a church that is much larger than New Life. During the session someone asked, “Which do you think is more important as church leaders: casting vision or setting the leadership culture in your church?”

Without hesitation the pastor said, “Culture kicks vision’s butt every, single time.” I’ve thought about that statement frequently over the past several months, because leaders often tell one another that casting vision is the leader’s most important task. After all, if the company doesn’t know whether it’s headed, how is it going to get there? If the church doesn’t know what it means to “win,” how will it know if it has? Vision is vital when leading any organization, because the people within the organization need to know why it exists before they will get on board with how to get there.

Having said that, the leadership culture within an organization determines what are and are not acceptable allegiances, attitudes and efforts, and since those are the only three things we can control, developing a culture that lends direction to what is and isn’t acceptable is crucial. For example, if you’re leading a business, and your R&D department has the attitude that no matter what they do they will always be behind your competitors, you have a major problem. If you’re leading a church and your youth ministry department or leader has decided that the best way to get young people to come is to align with the most popular rock bands (or whatever kind of music is popular in your area), and to reflect their attitudes and beliefs, you may well attract a crowd, but to what end?

One of the things we say often at New Life is that any paid leader must come “with the batteries included.” We learned that phrase from Michael Hyatt, but the concept is easy to understand. If someone is being paid to lead in your organization, whether it’s a business, a community organization or a church and you have to push them to exert the necessary effort to succeed that’s a major problem. That kind of attitude and effort is contagious. It will poison a culture if it’s permitted to exist. Sometimes we don’t want to appear to be harsh or uncaring, particularly in the church, so we permit that kind of behavior to continue longer than it ought to be permitted, which isn’t long. We hope the person will change, or perhaps we even challenge the person to change, but we don’t set specific standards and enforce them, so the person continues to poison the culture with his or her weak performance.

If you’re thinking this sounds cold coming from a pastor, remember this: the Church of Jesus Christ represents the God of the universe, and one day each of us will give an account of our leadership to Him. (I know you might not believe this statement, but for those of us who do, what more do we need in order to be motivated to develop a culture of excellence in every area of our churches?) That means if we have responsibility for a direct report who is not motivated, or who is exhibiting behaviors that are in direct contradiction to our organization’s culture we must address those behaviors sooner rather than later. (That last statement is part of an organization’s culture, because over time it becomes clear to staff whether there is accountability for their behavior and actions, whether the expectations are clear and will be enforced, or whether the policies and procedures are just pieces of paper that have been developed to satisfy an agenda item in the organization’s to do list.)

If you haven’t given much thought to the concept of your organization’s culture, it is essential that you sit down and do so. This is something that will take time, because you must come to clarity on what constitutes a win for you, and what personal qualities as well as processes and procedures are necessary and acceptable in obtaining that win. One of the things we realized we want to have as part of our culture at New Life, but don’t have yet is an ability to celebrate our wins. We attain wins often, because we have identified what they are, but after we accomplish one our tendency is to move on to the next goal rather than stopping to celebrate. We addressed that during our 15th anniversary in July, and did a great job of celebrating, but taking time once in 15 years does not constitute a culture of celebrating our wins. We’ll continue to address that area until it becomes part of our culture and then we’ll add it to our staff culture document. Yes, we have a staff culture document. More on that tomorrow.

Here’s to leading better, by taking time to consider our organization’s culture and if it’s the one we want, or we need to make adjustments–today!

Leading By Example…

While virtually every post I’ve entered so far has included at least one example of the leadership topic I’ve emphasized, I wanted to be explicit today about the importance of leading by example. We can say or write anything we want about  leadership, but unless we are doing it ourselves others will rightly label us with the “H” word–hypocrite. While none of us is 100% consistent in everything we say and do, the more consistency we live between our words and actions the more effective our leadership will be, and the more influence we will have not only with those we lead directly, but those around us who are impacted by our leadership.

I’ve been watching about an hour of the Olympics coverage each day since this past Friday, and one of the truths that has been brought home to me by these mostly young athletes is their absolute commitment to attain their goals. No one could call them hypocrites when it comes to the discipline needed to become effective in their chosen field, or in their willingness to do whatever it takes to win. The challenge becomes the win at any cost mentality they have developed can and has resulted in some athletes using performance enhancing drugs, or questionable or unallowable decision-making or equipment. As with every good or even great opportunity leaders have–and whatever anyone says, Olympic athletes are leaders at least in their chosen fields of endeavor–sometimes the thought is that the ends justify the means.

This thought has led many leaders to forget the example they are setting along the journey in order to get to their desired destination ahead of others, or with greater success than others. We have seen this path taken by leaders in every field of endeavor: business, sports, the church, education, you name it and someone who everyone thought was a great example turns out to be a cheat, a liar, or a phony. As leaders we must make certain that we use appropriate means to attain our ends. I remember more than thirty years ago while sitting in a preaching class at Princeton Seminary, when the professor said, “You can attract a crowd by preaching in your underwear, but the question is, ‘What will you do next Sunday?'”

Shortcuts are always a temptation on the road to success as leaders. While all of us ought to find the easiest and best way to do anything required in our particular field of leadership, sometimes the easiest and best way is still hard. After more than thirty years in the ministry, I still haven’t found an easier way to develop my relationship with God than to invest at least an hour a day in prayer and Bible reading. I’ve tried easier ways, faster ways, but in the end I always come back to the truth that no relationship is built easily or without an investment of significant time.

Think about your primary area of leadership. What kind of example are you setting when it comes to character, behavior, to living through best practices in your field of endeavor? Are you taking shortcuts that will eventually turn out to be anything but shortcuts, because they will compromise your integrity? One of the easiest ways for an Olympic athlete to be disqualified from a competition is to stray off the prescribed course for the event. Whether it’s moving outside of one’s lane, or missing a required element, or using an improper technique disqualification means that years, and in some cases decades of training are wasted.

I don’t want to take anything away from the achievement of earning an Olympic gold medal–or any Olympic medal for that matter–but the stakes are often much higher in your leadership and mine. If you or I stray off the course families will be ruined, businesses may be destroyed, and churches may lose their ability to speak truth and love into a community. All this and more make it vital that we learn the best way to lead in our areas starting with modeling character and integrity, and then learning or developing best practices, and then modeling them in our own lives. As we set the example, we also set the tone of what is and isn’t acceptable in our organization’s culture, which makes all the difference over time, because our organization’s culture provides the arena in which all that we do gets carried out, and sets the boundaries of acceptability and victory. More on that tomorrow.

Here’s to leading better by setting the right example in every area of our lives and leadership–today!

Practicing What I Preach…

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!

I Can’t Get Them To Do Anything…

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!

Leading Through Others

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!