Helping Churches Make Vision Real

what were your staff and elders wives doing friday night?

Monday, October 18, 2010

The temperature of the leaders always determines the temperature of the Church. Another way to state it would be to say that the culture that is built in the Church Body begins with the culture that is built in the Church Office. But behind every Staff Member is a spouse. And one of the things I’ve learned over the years is that you can tell an awful lot about a potential Staff Member or Elder by spending a little time with their spouse (mostly as a result of listening to my own wife…she’s really smart).

In light of this principle, something happened last week that absolutely blew me away. My wife went down to the Atlanta Dream Center to participate in Princess Night. An incredible ministry opportunity where women actually go and hand out roses to prostitutes and offer to pray for them, all in the hope that one of those prostitutes may take up the offer to come off the street. Unbeknown to her, as she got on the van to travel downtown she found herself surrounded by Staff wives, Elders wives, and other women from North Metro Church. The women on the van ranged from two young expecting mothers to Grandmothers. The last people that I would expect to see on a van headed to down town Atlanta to minister to prostitutes well after dark would be an expecting mother or a grandmother. Yet here they were giving up their Friday evening and leaving the comfort of the suburbs to take the Gospel into the darkness.

The night grew sweeter the longer my wife and those ladies stayed out there on the street. She came home with the incredible news that a girl in her early 20’s who is pregnant and had been prostituting since her early teens came off the street! Those same wives have already come around this young lady to do an incredible baby shower for her and have provided an incredible support network for her. While she may have a long road in front of her, this young lady has women around her who genuinely, fully, tangibly, and truly love and embrace her.

How incredibly cool to be a part of a Church where this is the kind of stuff is going on! A Church that doesn’t just give lip service to the Gospel, but rolls up their sleeves and lives it out, even when it’s uncomfortable. I almost feel spoiled to be a part of something that most guys dream for and live their entire lives hoping to see.

Posted in Spiritual Formation

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the day after catalyst

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

This past week I had the opportunity to spend a couple of days hanging out at Catalyst. As always it was an incredible opportunity to connect with friends from all over the country and hear from some incredible leaders who are influencing all of Church-World. Below are some of the highlights and take-aways from my notes. If for some reason you missed it purchase the DVD’s…seriously…it was that good this year.

Posted in Leadership

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human trafficking in the city my kids are growing up in

Monday, September 27, 2010

Since moving to Atlanta, Georgia three months ago God has thrown the issue of Human Trafficking in front of me more times than I would have liked. And while I’ve been familiar with it from a distance for some time now, it seems God will no longer allow me to be a casual observer. It has come to the point where I can’t ignore it and I have had to wrestle through not only what I’m going to do about it, but in the role I find myself in, what I’m going to lead others to do. I confess I have much to learn on this subject…and much to do. So while this may be my first post on this issue, I can assure you that it won’t be my last. This is too big of an injustice for the Church, and for me to remain silent on any longer.

Posted in Leadership, Spiritual Formation

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Clarifying Collaboration

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

If collaboration were only about working together, it would simply be called working together. But collaboration is far more complex than that. Collaborative Leadership by its very nature is an invitation to ownership and the developmental process of the people within the organization. The Collaborative Leader is generally more interested in asking the right questions that drive the right conversations than they are about barking out orders, directives, and spouting answers. They are skillful at bringing people along with them through engaging conversations and allowing them to come to the right answers, or perhaps better answers than any of us would come to alone. This leader is after buy-in, ownership, and the heart of their team. Collaborative Leaders invite their team to the table and are genuinely interested in relationships, developing and investing in their people, and engaging in dialogue that is not merely about getting greater productivity out of the work that is being accomplished, but also about the work itself. But with all that has been written on the topic of collaboration there is still much confusion about what it is. This brief list is a stab at clarifying what collaboration is by describing what it isn’t.

Posted in Leadership, Staffing

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Creating and Leveraging learning opportunities Part-2

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

As I round out this list that I began the other day and reflect on it, I find myself thinking, “It just doesn’t seem that difficult to me.” After all these are things that any leader can do, right? But why do so few actually seem to employ such simple tactics? There’s probably a grocery list of reasons, including the excuse of simply being too busy. But at the foundation of it I believe lays an addiction to progress that is rooted in basic insecurities that are found in many leaders (and “regular” people too by the way). Often times as leaders we are so wound up in advancing the mission of the organization we’re leading, that we forget the most important resource we have is our people. And the most important step you can take in advancing the mission of your organization is developing the people on your team.

Posted in Leadership, Staffing