the homogeneous local church

Monday, May 10, 2010

A couple of years ago a friend told me that they didn’t like what was happening in America. They weren’t making a political statement so much as it was simply a statement about sameness. They were frustrated that no matter where they went in America there seemed to be the same big box retail stores, the same fast food joints, the same home improvement stores, the same clothing stores, everywhere they turned there just seemed to be more of the same. There has been a lot of contributing factors along the way, not the least of which are technology, sociology, some good marketing, and a void of critical thinking and leadership. But the real problem is that this sameness has crept into the church. In response to this issue of sameness, Howard Hendricks said it this way, “If you’re just like somebody else, we don’t need you.” The Scriptures would teach us that the beauty of the Body of Christ, His Bride, the Church is that we are not the same and it is in our uniqueness that we need each other to be and do something together that we could never be or do alone. So how do we avoid homogony? In an age when anywhere America looks the same as anywhere else America, how do we avoid sameness in the local church? Here are a couple questions that may get you going in the right direction.

Posted in Leadership

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What Jesus had to say to Church Leaders and why it should Freak us out…Part-2

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Here are a few humbling things that Jesus had to say to the synagogue leaders of the day. Not to women at wells, people possessed by demons, men born blind or whose bodies were with crippled with leprosy or even women caught in the very act of adultery, but to the religious leaders. As church leaders today in an ever increasing busy ministry world you and I would do well to slow down for a moment and drink in these comments deeply, ponder them and allow the Spirit of God to teach and correct us.

Posted in Leadership, Spiritual Formation

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What we can learn from crisis

Monday, April 26, 2010

This past weekend I was sitting in a line of traffic waiting for a train to pass, innocently counting the cars on the train when WHAM!!! Once I gathered my wits about me I realized that I had just been hit. I pulled off to the side of the road and the gentleman in the giant tank of a brand new Tahoe that just plowed into me came up to check on me (very polite of him). Later that day the insurance adjuster made it over to the auto shop that the truck had been towed to and what we had speculated about became reality. He told me that it was totaled. He said that the vehicle did exactly what it was designed to do in a moment like that, protect the driver and passengers by absorbing the shock of the impact. With a speed limit of 45mph, and no skid marks, the back of my truck crinkled up like used wrapping paper from my daughters’ 5th birthday party which happened later that evening. It’s interesting to me that they design vehicles these days to absorb the shock of the impact of an accident, and fortunately for me they do.

That statement the insurance adjuster made, that I was lucky the truck did what it was designed to do in the accident made me think, among other things, about crisis. Specifically that you and I can learn a lot about ourselves, the people around us, and the organizations that we lead in a moment of crisis. Here are a couple of thoughts that may help.

Posted in Family, Leadership, Spiritual Formation

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Asking the right questions about time management Part-2

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Poor time management wastes everybody’s time but most importantly it wastes the time of the leader. Which means the leader is not spending time on moving the organization forward to its desired future. Getting rid of what wastes your time as a leader is essential if you plan on spending your time on what you need to. But getting rid of what wastes your time should not simply be limited to your personal calendar as a leader but occasionally needs to be looked at through the lens of the organization as well. Here are four more great categories suggested by Peter Drucker to take a look at when evaluating your time and the time of the organization you’re leading.

Posted in Leadership

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Asking the right questions about time management Part-1

Monday, April 19, 2010

Most leaders will agree that the three major limiting factors to actually getting work done are money, people, and time. It is the primary job of every leader to give their teams as much of these three resources as possible to get their jobs completed. In fact when someone is failing to perform well in their role on the team, more often than not it has to do with one of these three resources not being in adequate supply to get the job done. Even in these tough economic times there is more than enough money out there to get a compelling dream financed and people can always be recruited and hired. But there is no sales pitch you can give, no manner to recruit, and no way to purchase more time. It is the ultimate limiting resource to getting work done. In his book, “The Effective Executive,” Peter Drucker put it this way.

Posted in Leadership