Accidental Insight

Posted on May 19, 2012 by

Recently, I was eating lunch with a new friend and he was asking me a few questions about church planting. (Ironically, he’s a great church planter…but happens to be taking a class on it.) He asked me for some practical advice about church planting.

Here’s where the accidental insight comes in. I answered with this thought:

Figure out WHY. (Are you doing this to earn God’s love or show God’s love? This is a huge question to answer.)
Ask God to determine the WHERE, WHEN and HOW. (Faith is action…so ask, listen, then act!)
Build into the WHO. (Who do you want to be on your core team? Build into them now. Sow into their life. Pray for, waste time with, and cast vision to this group now.)

It was fun to bump into these insights, and I’m gonna keep them! What would you add?

4 steps to keeping your SALT as a leader.

Posted on May 16, 2012 by

We’re all familiar with Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount where he says:

You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. (Matthew 5:13 ESV)

We take that as a call to kingdom-like living, to embracing the beatitudes in our life and a call to be a preserver of the God-centered life in a self-centered culture. But what about the way we lead?

I’m convinced that the world needs salty leaders. People whose leadership reflects a living faith in a living and speaking God.

The non-salty leader sees a need and takes action to address it. While this moves things forward it creates a pattern that does not allow for the reality of God to shape the leader’s course of action.

Let me suggest you use this helpful acronym help you maintain your SALT as you lead:

See a need
Ask God for help
Listen for His leading
Take action

Simply adding two steps in the middle opens you up to lead differently, to hear from God in the middle of your leading, disciplining planning, counseling, etc.

Ask and listen. Don’t just see and act.

Creating vs. Critiquing

Posted on June 6, 2011 by

WHY IT’S EASIER TO CRITIQUE THAN CREATE

Countless people make a living analyzing what has happened – in the game last night, during the meeting this morning, the performance last quarter, etc. No doubt feedback after the fact is valuable, but there’s a simple reason so many more take the “after the fact” approach: it’s easier. Here are 3 reasons why it’s easier to critique than create:

No risk. After all, it’s not your work/performance/idea on display…it’s someone else’s. You didn’t have to risk anything to make it happen. You’re watching it happen and offering your thoughts from the safety of the sidelines.
No work. OK, this might not be totally fair. There’s a lot of work in a helpful critique. But, the process of creating takes a lot of work. Getting the ball rolling takes a lot more energy than keeping it rolling.
You have all the data. It’s a convient place to evaluate from. Once the game is played, the service is over, the product has shipped, the meeting has happened, the painting is done, etc. You can see it all now…and it’s much easier to decide what you should have done…

It would be great if the story ended there. But it doesn’t. If you always stay in the posture of the creative one and never the critiquing one, you may be doing so to keep your own life easier. Let’s face it:

You never have to grow from hearing difficult feedback.
You’re always as good as you think you are. (And, you’re only as good as you think you are, too)
Your bias towards creativity prevents you from seeing the value in your ideas being refined. You miss the best for the better. Most people don’t deliver their best ideas on the first take.

Questions:

What are you critiquing that you need to invest more energy into creating?
Where are you avoiding critique?
What does it look like to build an environment that fosters creativity and welcomes critique?