Leadership

Building Relationships #1

Not step one, and not necessarily the most important, although most certainly top 5.

Do what you say your going to do.

  • Manage expectations.
    • Don’t be overly optimistic, be realistic. 
  • Don’t make promises about things you can’t directly control.
  • If you think it will take a week don’t promise a week, give yourself a buffer. 
  • Communicate, Communicate, Communicate.
  • Don’t be late, if Siri says you’ll be there in 10 minutes let your party know you’ll be there in 15 minutes. 

I know there’s more but you get the point. What am I missing? 

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Posted by Gary in Leadership, Personal Development, Practical

The Hardest Part is Starting

In her book “Better Than Before”, Gretchen Rubin said:

“Don’t Get it Perfect, Get it Going.”

Have you ever thought about what it takes to move a train? It starts by getting the engine moving. The engine engages the first coupler which moves the first car and then the next and then the next until the entire train is in motion. If you’ve ever watched this it’s sounds like a bunch of clicks as it gets going. It starts out slow and then the momentum is difficult to stop.

So it is with us. Once we get moving the other pieces start to come together. Resources and relationships we had forgotten about, or didn’t know we had, begin to move with us as we slowly build momentum and it happens because we choose to create motion.

Newtons first law of motion or, the law of inertia, gives us further insight. According to NASA the law states: 
“A body at rest will remain at rest unless an outside force acts on it, and a body in motion at a constant velocity will remain in motion in a strait line unless acted upon by an outside force.”

You are the outside force. Here are 3 things that fuel you.

The first is absolute clarity. 

  • Get a crystal clear vision of what you want?
  • What will it look like when your finished?
  • How will you feel when you have it?
  • How will having it impact those around you?

The second is knowing why.

  • What will change when you have the thing your hesitating to start?
  • Why is it important?
  • Why is it necessary now?

The third is Courage.

In my first sales job my sales manager had a sign that said “Action Cures Fear.” Since then I’ve learned “The Learning is in the Doing.” You have to find the courage to take bold action. Once you start the fear subsides as you build confidence and learn while doing. Once you’ve answered the questions above stoke the fire and take bold action. 

There’s a Latin Proverb “Fortes Fortuna Juvat”.

Fortune (luck) Favors the Bold.

Nobody is served by your playing small. Get clarity, know why, and find the courage to take the first step and watch what happens. Don’t wait for perfection, or until you learn more, or build a bigger list, or get the right connections. Take the first step. Do the next right thing. 

Let me know in the comments what you’ve been putting off and what first step you’re going to take.

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Posted by Gary in Personal Development

It’s All About His Presence

“It is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God himself, and unless and until the hearers find God in their personal experience, they are not the better for having heard the truth. The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into him, that they may delight in his presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God himself in the core and center of their hearts.”

Aiden Wilson Tozer
Chicago Illinois
June 16, 1948
From the Preface of: The Pursuit of God

What do you think the application is?

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Posted by Gary in Church Growth, Discipleship, Faith, Intimacy W/God, Leadership, Pastoral Care, Worship

Gary’s Rules

Several years ago we started watching NCIS. It used to be a great show about the Naval Criminal Investigative Service before it got political. The characters are great and the story’s were great. I really liked all the characters but I loved Gibbs.

Gibbs is the leader of the team and is a seemingly heartless pragmatist. Until you get to know him. You find out quickly that he has a huge heart and lots of baggage. But is very good at his job and a great leader. Someone I would like to emulate in some ways, in others not so much. One of the mainstay of the show is Gibbs rules. He doesn’t write them down. He feels it’s his job to teach the rules and he expects everyone on the team to know them.

I started thinking. “what are my rules?” so I started a list and here they are, 30 of Gary’s rules:

  1. Always default to relationship
  2. Always assume the best in people
  3. Don’t make arbitrary rules
  4. Always give your people a “why”; or they will come up with their own and they will be wrong
  5. Always give honor and respect; not always obedience
  6. Never judge motives, only fruit
  7. What you allow you promote
  8. What you reward you get more of
  9. Unity trumps disunity
  10. Continually cast vision
  11. Email is the lowest form of communication; texts are the next lowest
  12. Vision that creates opportunity for others; will never lack the involvement of others
  13. Sometimes your’re wrong; when you’re wrong apologize, it’s a sign of strength.
  14. Direction comes before correction
  15. Always over communicate
  16. Don’t give too much attention to your biggest fans or your biggest critics
  17. If you’re going to get into trouble anyway; get into trouble doing the right thing.
  18. Be predictable; your team should always know how you will react
  19. Training too close to the decision making process looks like lobbying.
  20. Ignore the squeaky wheel
  21. Ignore your weaknesses; hire or delegate to your weakness
  22. The best time to remove a team member is before they’re on the team.
  23. Always reward faithfulness over giftedness.
  24. Never confuse familiarity with understanding
  25. Focus on building big people not big organizations
  26. Nothing grows without conflict
  27. Consensus is the end of leadership
  28. Be very careful when playing the “God” card
  29. Take responsibility not blame
  30. Always give credit, take blame

These are not all original. I’ve stolen most of them and have forgotten mostly where they came from so if you know the origin feel free to give credit in the comments.

I plan to do a series of blog posts expounding on these rules someday. Stay tuned.

What do you think?
What would you add?

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Posted by Gary in Church Growth, Civics, Discipleship, Just for fun, Leadership, Pastoral Care, Personal, Practical

What is God’s highest priority on the earth?

According to scripture;
What is God’s highest priority on the earth?

On February 5th & 6th I have the privilege of addressing worship leaders at the Continuous Worship Conference at Maranatha Bible Camp. I have a premise that will be the basis for the entire weekend and you can help my expressing what you think the Bible says is God’s highest priority on the earth.

It’s only one question. Please click through and answer the question.

God’s highest priority is….

Feel free to comment below as well. Thanks again.

Don’t forget to check out the conference.

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Posted by Gary

The Leaders Top Priority

As leaders we need to be competent in our craft but it’s not our first priority.

What are your thoughts?

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Posted by Gary in Church Growth, Discipleship, Leadership

Walk In Your Gifts

“We don’t see the world as it is, we see it as we are”
Anais Nin

Are you ever frustrated because people don’t behave in a certain way? Do you ever get angry because someone didn’t respond the way you would have?

The right way.

We tend to be a self-centered bunch. I don’t mean selfish I mean self-centered. It’s something we have to constantly stay vigilant about. We are all uniquely made by God with specific gifts, talents, and bents. This is how a community is built. This is how a church is built. We all bring something unique and valuable to the community.

We must constantly be on guard against expecting others to behave in a certain way or respond to things the way we would.

This morning I was looking through my Strengths Finder results and realized I have put expectations on people based on my personality and my priorities. I haven’t been fair.

I’m reminded of a song by the band DOWNHERE called “The Problem”

Today I repent of my judgmental spirit and my expectations on people that have been unreasonable. I will walk in my gifts, not someone else’s, and I will not expect others to walk in mine.

Will you join me?

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Posted by Gary in Church Growth, Leadership, Personal, Practical

Lights, Smoke, Worship?

Lights and smoke do not make what we do on Sunday a show, and the lack of lights and smoke do not make what we do on Sunday worship.

Lot’s of digital ink has been spilled recently about the “look” of worship in a lot of churches and why it either hinders or helps “worship”.

Many writers and leaders have diagnosed a problem. That problem being the congregation is not engaging. I believe they have correctly diagnosed the problem. However I believe the wrong solution has been prescribed. What has been missed IMHO has to do with the presence, or lack thereof, not the presentation, necessarily. The presentation can be the reason there is no presence in some settings but let’s start somewhere else. Let me give examples as explanations.

James K.A. Smith just posted An Open Letter to Praise Bands this morning.

It’s a good article. In it he gives three criteria to evaluate whether we are leading worship or delivering a concert.

1. If we, the congregation, can’t hear ourselves, it’s not worship.
2. If we, the congregation, can’t sing along, it’s not worship.
3. If you, the praise band, are the center of attention, it’s not worship.

In his final paragraph he says “My concern isn’t with style, but with form:”

I’m not saying he is wrong. What I’m saying is there is another aspect that is more important than style, or form.

Doug Lawrence also posted 5 Ways to De-Professionalise Your Worship.

Doug gives us these tips:

1. Stop being a slave to glitz
2. Start seeing congregations as people instead of numbers!
3. Let people see worship as part of their offering instead of just yours!
4. Stop competing with pop culture, you’re probably bombing there anyway!
5. Shut it down instead of whipping it up!

Again I don’t mean to criticize this critique. Although it does begin with an assumption that I am confident is not true of many churches. Most Church leaders and worship leaders I meet are great people who love God and love Gods people. Unfortunately We don’t have many fathers in the church. Many teachers but not many fathers. Seems like Paul mentioned something about this in 1 Corinthians 4:15. So most of todays leaders have not been taught incorrectly. They think the magic is in the media, or the presentation, or the show. “If you build it they will come” is true but what are we doing with them once they arrive?

I am not against the media, the presentation, or the show, necessarily. The issue is deeper and bigger than all of these things in themselves.

Late last year Matthew Sigle at Seedbeed, a Methodist blog from Asbury Theological Seminary. nails the main issue in his post called “Misplacing Charisma: Where Contemporary Worship Lost its Way.”

Among other things he says:

it’s important to point out that this theology of worship, while undergirded by “praise and worship” songs, understood the entire time of singing (the pauses, instrumental solos, spontaneous prayers, raising of hands, shouting, etc.) to be part of the progression from praise to intimacy. The songs themselves are only a part of the complete picture of what is occurring in a Charismatic praise and worship service. Something much deeper is understood to be going on in worship.

This needs to be couched in the next point he makes:

What’s missing? The answer is found in looking at what happened when “praise and worship” was adopted by mainline denominations. During the 1990’s many mainline congregations began to import the songs, sounds, and some of the sights (like hand raising and clapping) of the praise and worship style. In many cases, what got lost was the robust pneumatology behind this approach to worship. In other words, many mainline churches brought the form, but didn’t bring the theology of praise and worship into their congregations.

That last point is the main point and the reason we’re in the fix we’re in and is not exclusive to “mainline churches”. We do need to be careful about what elements we bring into the worship service. That is a much bigger conversation than I want to get into here but I want to note that we must evaluate why each element is present.

The bigger issue as leaders is our why. If get the why of worship right the how will take care of itself.

The only way to evaluate the corporate time of worship entrusted to us as worship leaders is did the Bridegroom meet with the bride?

  1. Did I prepare a place for the two to meet?
  2. Did I approach our time together with a deep love for the bride as the one Jesus bought with His own blood? (Acts 20:28)
  3. Did I prepare as one laying down his life for the sake of unity in the body?
  4. Did I prepare myself and my team well enough to recognize when the bridegroom enters and then get out of the way when He does? (John 3:29-30)

Before you reply let me clarify. I understand sometimes the bridegroom does not enter (Read Song of Solomon). I also understand your tradition may define “His entering” differently than I would. We also need to be sure we are not trying to manipulate a feeling or an emotion, although I defy you to come into the presence of God and have it not be an emotional experience, what we do is not about a specific outward response.

Having said all of this let’s make sure we begin from the right premise before we begin diagnosing a cure. Let’s do all we can to prepare a place for the Bridegroom to meet His bride and then get out of the way.

Would love your thoughts.

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Posted by Gary in Intimacy W/God, Leadership, Worship

Home

So good to be home

This is the first time since we’ve been married that I’ve been away from home more than two weeks. It’s been a great 3 months in Crosslake MN. Serving as interim worship pastor for Crosslake Evangelical Free Church was great but now I’m home and looking forward to the next season.

So many great people, so many great takeaways from the last 90 days.

For example:

  • Serving on a ministry staff is hard.
    Implementing change and vision is hard.
    People are our greatest asset and greatest challenge.
    Unity is a key, if not the key, to worshiping in community.
    Leadership is about dying and serving.
    Serving on teams is the best way to do ministry.

Over the next several days I’ll post thoughts about each of these, in the meantime why not schedule a retreat. you can email me here.

Have a great Thanksgiving week. I’ll check in here soon.

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Posted by Gary in Personal

Continuous Worship Conference

Last weekend I attended a conference you should consider attending with your team next year.

The Continuous Worship Conference at Maranatha Bible Camp near North Platte NE. Next years conference will be the weekend before Valentines Day, February 5-7 2015. Make sure you put it on your calendar.

There are so many options when it comes to worship team training.
Why should you attend this conference?

The best reason is the heart of the leaders. They get it. The weekend was a great mixture of “the why” and “the how”. Paul, Phil, and Ty understand if our hearts are not right nothing else matters. They have humble servant hearts with a passion to equip the local church.

The workshops were very practical and very specific. Rather than a workshop for drummers the workshop was titled “mic’ ing the drums”. So drummers, sound techs, or anyone else can determine if its something they should attend based on their skill level or level of interest.

My favorite part was the jam session. They leave time for people to come on stage and put into practice what they’ve learned no matter the skill level.

It’s a lot of fun and will equip your team with the right heart.
See you there in 2015.

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Continuous Worship Blog

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Posted by Gary in Leadership, Worship