Monday, November 29, 2010

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Marks of New Monasticism Locating Our Lives in the Abandoned Places of the Empire

I read this recently from "Common Prayer" by SHANE CLAIBORNE, JONATHAN WILSON-HARTGROVE and ENUMA OKORO. It moved me. I hope it does the same for you.

Marks of New Monasticism Locating Our Lives in the Abandoned Places of the Empire

"Everything in our society teaches us to move away from suffering, to move out of neighborhoods where there is high crime, to move away from people who don’t look like us. But the gospel calls us to something altogether different. We are to laugh at fear, to lean into suffering, to open ourselves to the stranger. Advent is the season when we remember how Jesus put on flesh and moved into the neighborhood. God getting born in a barn reminds us that God shows up in the most forsaken corners of the earth.

Movements throughout church history have gone to the desert, to the slums, to the most difficult places on earth to follow Jesus. For some of us that means remaining in difficult neighborhoods that we were born into even though folks may think we are crazy for not moving out. For others it means returning to a difficult neighborhood after heading off to college or job training to acquire skills — choosing to bring those skills back to where we came from to help restore the broken streets. And for others it may mean relocating our lives from places of so-called privilege to an abandoned place to offer our gifts for God’s kingdom.

Wherever we come from, Jesus teaches us that good can happen where we are, even if real-estate agents and politicians aren’t interested in our neighborhoods. Jesus comes from Nazareth, a town from which folks said nothing good could come. He knew suffering from the moment he entered the world as a baby refugee born in the middle of a genocide. Jesus knew poverty and pain until he was tortured and executed on a Roman cross. This is the Jesus we are called to follow. With his coming we learn that the most dangerous place for Christians to be is in comfort and safety, detached from the suffering of others. Places that are physically safe can be spiritually deadly."

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Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Sarah Smile Three

Leadership: To Train Or Not To Train

Have you ever wondered why some churches achieve their goals and objectives much faster than others despite having less talent? Talent is important, but typically those who succeed have a plan for success. That plan always includes training and developing leaders.
A popular saying states, "A church that fails to plan is a church that plans to fail." I would like to rephrase that, "A church that fails to train its leaders is a church that trains its leaders to fail."

Since the pastor cannot do it all alone, training leaders is a must. It is imperative that every church have a plan to train existing and future leaders. Leaders are not born, they are developed through mentoring, training and hands on experience.

Leaders must have a clear mental and spiritual picture of their goals. The Bible calls this vision.

Prov 29:18

18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

Without vision, people have no direction or focus and are easily confused and distracted. Without vision, ministries will fail and people will become discouraged and move on. Your leaders must know the vision, see the vision, understand the vision and believe in the vision. They must be trained in how to accomplish the vision. Then they must be consistently encouraged to fulfill the vision.

Training leaders is an ongoing process. It is not something you do only when one thinks it is needed. It must continue even when all of your leaders are succeeding because every leader will fail at some point. When they do fail, they will need somebody there to pick up the pieces. They will need to fall back onto that foundation of mentoring and training they have been building on. If your mentoring program no longer exists, they might just pack it in for good.

That is exactly what Peter did. He failed big time by denying the Lord three times in the space of one day. His mentor, Jesus, was gone. He didn't have anybody there to pick up the pieces. So Peter gave up and went back to fishing. If Jesus had not come back to mentor Peter through this trying time, Peter would have packed it in for good. The one who at one point was given the "keys to the kingdom of Heaven" would not have preached the keynote message at Pentecost.

A one year class is not enough, a two year class is not enough, a three year class is not enough. Training leaders is an ongoing process. This must be a continuing education program that is a regular part of your ministry.

Developing Future Leaders

In the business world recent studies show that the number of managers available to step into leadership roles is dropping dramatically. The average company will be left with just half the leadership talent it needs by 2015. This means that companies are going to have to get a lot better at identifying and developing leaders from within, and not many companies do this well.

The same challenge exists in the church. There are not many churches that look very far into the future. Most pastors are not too concerned about who will lead their outreach ministry five years from now. They figure God will send somebody. While that may be true, God also honors those who have a plan.

Luke 14:28-31

28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?

29 Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him,

30 Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.

31 Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?

Are you sitting down with your ministry teams and consulting whether you can finish God's plan in your city? Are you counting the cost of leading without enough leaders? Are you making sure that you have enough trained leaders to fight the spiritual battles of your community?

There are many pastors who fail to train and mentor future leaders because the need isn't immediate. To some, it seems counter-productive to train a person today for a ministry they may or may not fill five years from now. There are always many other pressing needs that take priority. But a church that is not developing its future leaders today is a church that is dying a slow and painful death. Start planning for your future leaders today, don't wait till it is too late.

From the Preachit Newsletter



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Location: By David Church

Three Ways to Influence




Influence is the power and the ability to personally affect others' actions, decisions, opinions or thinking. Ultimately, influence allows you to get things done and achieve desired outcomes.

At one level, influence is about compliance — getting someone to do what you want them to do (or at least not to undermine it). But genuine commitment from other people is often required for you to accomplish key goals and tasks.

Early in your career, or in individual contributor roles, influence is about working effectively with people over whom you have no authority. It requires the ability to present logical and compelling arguments and engaging in give-and-take. In senior-level or executive roles, influence is focused more on steering long-range objectives, inspiration and motivation.

The Center for Creative Leadership has found that influencing tactics fall into one of three categories: logical, emotional or cooperative. We call this influencing with head, heart and hands.

Logical appeals tap into people's rational and intellectual positions. You present an argument for the best choice of action based on organizational benefits, personal benefits or both.

Emotional appeals connect your message, goal or project to individual goals and values. An idea that promotes a person's feelings of well-being, service or sense of belonging has a good chance of gaining support.

Cooperative appeals involve collaboration (what will you do together?), consultation (what ideas do other people have?) and alliances (who already support you or have the credibility you need?). Working together to accomplish a mutually important goal extends a hand to others in the organization and is an extremely effective way of influencing.

To maximize your personal influence, you'll want to become skilled in all three styles of influencing. Decide which tactics will reap the most support for a specific task or strategy and employ one or more approaches. To understand which tactics might work best, consider the following:

Assess the situation. Why are you involved in this work? Why do you need this person's support? What outcomes are you trying to achieve by influencing this person? Be clear about whom you need to influence and what you want to accomplish.

Know your audience. Identify and understand your stakeholders. Each will have special concerns and issues, plus his or her own agenda, perspectives and priorities. Various groups and individuals will require different approaches for influencing. Tailor your influencing strategy for the particular person, considering individual personalities, goals and objectives, as well as organizational roles and responsibilities.

Review your ability. What tactics do you use most often? Which seem to be most effective? What new tactics could you try in this situation? Draw on others for advice or coaching, too. For example, if you always focus on the logical appeals, have a co-worker who is a strong collaborator help you think through your collaboration tactics and arguments.

Brainstorm your approach. What tactics would work best? Which logical appeals will be most effective? How could you make an emotional or cooperative appeal? What specifically could you say and do to use each type of tactic? Anticipate possible responses and prepare your reply. What counterarguments could you use? What additional influence tactics might be helpful?

At first, you might want to try out new influence tactics in low-risk situations, practicing these skills one-on-one. As you become more versatile, you'll gain new confidence in your ability to influence teams and larger groups and to persuade others in higher-stakes situations.

But also consider changing tactics right away if you have a pressing issue that has stalled due to lack of buy-in or support. Would a more logical, emotional or collaborative approach make a difference? If so, go ahead and try out a new angle — you might be more influential that you realized.



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Sunday, November 7, 2010

Tuesday Bible Class: Coach Singletary Talks About Vision

Making The Cut

Text: Titus 1:1-14

Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness; 2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; 3 But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour; 4 To Titus, mine own son after the common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour.

Title: Making The Cut

Series Title: Game Ready: Conditioning For Leaders

And when it comes to leadership in the church, the question is less about talent and more about making the cut. In 1999 there was an excitement amidst the National Football League and the fans thereof. It was a historic year. For the first time, five of the top draft picks were quarterbacks and even more historic was the fact, that three of these was African American.

All five were drafted in the first round. A few years later, after the hype subsided, three of those quarterbacks had become complete busts; one started well but descended into mediocrity; only one (Donovan McNabb) fulfilled his promise as star.

The same can be said of leadership in the church, because we count so much on talent. Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads. 
Erica Jong


In John Maxwell’s valuable new book, Talent is Never Enough, he cites Peter Drucker on effectiveness, “There seems to be little correlation between a man’s effectiveness and his intelligence, his imagination, or his knowledge…Intelligence, imagination, and knowledge are essential resources, but only effectiveness converts them into results. By themselves, they only set limits to what can be contained.”

1. Belief lifts your talent: Lack of belief in yourself can act as a ceiling on talent.

2. Passion energizes your talent: A passionate person with limited talent will outperform a passive person who possesses greater talent.

3. Initiative activates your talent: Socrates said, “To move the world we must first move ourselves.”

4. Focus directs your talent: Attempting everything, like attempting nothing will suck the life out of you.

5. Preparation positions your talent: Becoming more intentional. You can claim to be surprised once; after that, you’re unprepared.

6. Practice sharpens your talent: Practice demands discipline and embracing change.

7. Perseverance sustains your talent: People who display perseverance keep a larger vision in mind as they toil away at their craft or profession.

8. Courage tests your talent: As we develop our talent and grow to our potential we will be tested continually. Courage is an everyday virtue.

9. Teachability expands your talent: Teachability is not so much about competence and mental capacity as it is about attitude. It is the desire to listen, learn, and apply. Talented people can be the toughest to teach because they often think they know it all. It’s a problem of pride.

10. Character protects your talent: People cannot climb beyond the limitations of their character. Talented people are sometimes tempted to take shortcuts. Character prevents that.

11. Relationships influence your talent: Life is too short to spend it with people who pull you in the wrong direction. And it’s too short not to invest in others. Your relationships will define you.

12. Responsibility strengthens your talent: Responsibility not only improves your life, but also will improve the life of those around you.

13. Teamwork multiplies your talent: Teamwork divides the effort and multiples the effect.

14. [Leadership directs, deploys, and gives purpose to your talent.]


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Game Ready Makeing The Cut