A Few Thoughts on Leadership

Leadership is tough business. I have always been interested in it, though. I was the bossy kid who would try to take charge if no one else was willing. I have tried to lead lots of people and things in my life. I have tried to lead while in the military, tried to lead toddlers in children's church, teens in a youth groups and adults in church. I have led in small groups, advertising, launching a church, working with a staff. I have led in my house and tried to lead at times in my family. I have had the opportunity to lead a lot of different places.

The modern day approach to leadership is not necessarily the healthiest form of leadership. Many times it is either totally authoritarian-based (because I said so) or it is comepltely based on making as many people happy as possible. Neither one of these approaches is healthy to use on a regualr basis. The person who leads out of authority is a weak leader. They are not leading out of skill, but out of right. I would venture to say very few people have the "right" to lead, and usually the people who never demand that right are the best leaders. On the other side, the person who only does what everyone agrees with is not a leader. They are a politician who is simply carrying out the public opinion. You have to know what leadership is, if you are a leader and how to lead.

True leadership is leading where the person, group or organization needs to go no matter what without crushing them in the process. That is really hard to do. Sometimes you end up appearing like someone who doesn't care because you do what is right and not what is popular.

The single hardest person I have had to learn how to lead is myself. It is hard to do what is right sometimes because of what it costs you personally. You can strain or lose friendships. You can end up isolated. You may have to pay a higher price to get the right thing accomplished. Other times it is hard to lead because you just want to push through and get the job done. It is way easier to do it yourself than to develop someone else, but it is not better. Good leadership develops as many people under and around you as possible.

I am not a great leader, but I am a growing one. I have learned the value of investing time in bringing other people up instead of just doing it myself. I have learned that what you allow today will impact tomorrow and 10 years from now both in your own life and in your organization. I have learned that most people are slow to accept change and there needs to be a healthy balance between helping them come to a place they can move forward and moving forward when it is time.

I have a learned a lot about leading myself so that I have the credibility to lead others. I have to be willing to see my own sin and shortcomings first. I have to invest the time to do what is right even when no one else will ever know. I have to lead well even when I am tired. I have to live righteously even when I am at the end of my rope. I have to lead with hope or other people will never follow. I have to learn how to discipline without punishing. I have to love the people that disagree with me and remember they most likely are not trying to be cantankerous.
And the number one thing I have learned is I have to be faitfhul no matter what the cost and never let go of love. If I forget to love the people I am leading than I am not a good leader from God's perspective. Love sometimes is tough, but it is never mean.

I hope you will see where God wants you to lead so that you can grow into the man or woman He has called you to be.

My kingdom all for a corn dog

Yesterday was my daughter's (Sissy) birthday. When we first moved to Pueblo West I decided that I was going to surprise my kids on their birthdays by bringing them lunch from one of their favorite fast food restaurants. The first year i put a can of soup in my oldest's lunch box. When he got to lunch that day he was trying to figre out how to open a can of soup and heat it up when I walked in with lunch. I have made it each time for my oldest son's and my daughters birthdays. Yesterday I had a bunch of appointments so I wasn't able to bring Sissy lunch. My wife said she was almost in tears when she heard I couldn;t make it. Talk about breaking a guy's heart. I told her I would bring her lunch today.
I just got back from having Sonic with Sissy. I even smuggled in an extra corn dog for Dave. On the way back I stopped to give my wife a kiss and to say hi to my youngest son. Man, life is good.
Its funny because brining them lunch really doesn't take a whole lot. I miss a little bit of work, eat some relatively unhealthy food and have to drive a bit, but it is worth it to see the look of joy on their faces. The other kids look on like I brought them tickets to Disney Land for a week or something. It is neat to see the faces of the teachers too as they try to figure out why I am there. Some of them will just come out and ask me and I love telling them it is a special day and so I brought lunch.
Remember, the most significant thing you do today or this week may be something that doesn't cost much money or time and yet makes the day of someone else. Imagine how much better life would be if we worked harder at finding the simple things to bless each other with and less time complaining. I hope you find a way to show one person in your life how much they mean to you today.

Sticks and stones...

I have had a few people in my life recently who didn't care for me much. One of them has decided that I am a heritic (intentional false teacher) because I disagreed with him about some Bible stuff. Another one of them didn't like some of the decisions I made that affected them personally. And the human side of me has this desire to be justified. It wants to convince as many other people as possible that I am a great guy. And the way that plays out for me is like this: I either end up in a conversation about those circumstances or I bring them up myself and then I quickly explain my point of view. I do it in a way that no one could ever accuse me of gossipping or speaking maliciously about someone, but the real intent of my heart is to raise myself up and dimisnish the other person.
I have been confronted lately with this idea that I am not so important that someone can't say anything bad about me. When I look at the life of Jesus I see Him choosing to love for real and not just on the outside when He is insulted. They beat him with sticks and tear him apart physically and emotionally. Its not just that He doesn't respond, but He doesn't bring it up again either. He just keeps going. As a matter of fact, in 1 Peter 2:23 it says, "When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly." There was a time in the life of King David as well when a man was cursing him (2 Samuel 16:5-12) and a friend of David's wanted to go kill the man. David tells him not to, because maybe he deserves it. And even if he does not deserve to be cursd, God sees everything and He will do what is right.
I guess I just want to share the idea that when we are offended we think we need to defend ourselves. But I bet in most, if not all, of those circumstances we are forgetting that God is the One who's opinion matters and we should not think so highly of ourselves that we get irrate when someone speaks poorly about us. If you can remember that God is watching and entrust yourself to Him then you will be able to "...guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.' (Prv 4:23)
Love ya.

Good Friday?

Man, it is FRIDAY! But I do not mean the, "Yippy, it's Friday!" type of Friday. I mean the Bible day of FRIDAYwhen Jesus was crucified. If you remember, FRIDAY was the day He lost all of His friends, the day He was put on trial, mocked, beaten and eventually crucified. FRIDAY is the day that all of the hope of the disciples was crushed. FRIDAY was the day that defeat was certain. FRIDAY was the day th devil danced on grace and thought he had one. FRIDAY SUCKED!
Over the past several days we have seen FRIDAY come at us at full speed. We went form having a really neat worship service planned with the band to have 6 of the 8 band members unable to particpate on Sunday morning. Some are dealing with family crisis including death, some have been crushed by sickness, some have had their hearts attacked and some just have circumstances that make it impossible for them to lead as part of the band on Sunday. Yesterday was the culmination of FRIDAY when we found out that Allen, our worship leader, was in the hospital again. He and his family have paid a huge price physically since coming to work with us. We have had to decide how we are going to have a worship service without a band. Talk about a challenge. Everything would say we will fail miserably on a day when we will have our best attendance for the year. FRIDAY is bearing its teeth and grinning.
On top of the things with the band, I have watched as each one of my staff members has been thrown into FRIDAY. Angie has seen her family attacked having to deal with a couple of deaths and a lot of sickness. Meghan has struggled with sickness that landed her in the hospital once as well as dealing with her new house/old house. Matt has been struggling with sickness, family grief and heartbreak with some friends. FRIDAY has hit hard and is trying to convince them that all is lost.
And for me, I have seen every one of my three siblings struggling. There has been deaths in their families, grief, sickness, serious family issues and marriage stress. I feel for how much they have paid. FRIDAY is in full swing.
I tell you this fo a reason. FRIDAY was followed by SUNDAY!!!! FRIDAY defeat was certain, hope was crushed, the pain was too much. BUT THEN SUNDAY CAME ROLLING AROUND THE CORNER! Jesus showed back up from the dead and let the world know that all that was lost on FRIDAY was made brand new on SUNDAY. What evil tried to secure on FRIDAY was thrown in an empty tomb since Jesus had risen from the dead. The battle turned and God accomplished every single thing He desired.
What a better position to be in this FRIDAY then to see no possible way out and no possible way for success. EASTER is about God turning the tables on Satan and showing that FRIDAY only sets the table for SUNDAY to come in victory. Here is to believing that this SUNDAY will be the Easter of the Bible played out in Pueblo West. Man, I love SUNDAY!

The Apprentice - AD

I have a confession to make - I like watching The Apprentice. I know it is a corny show, but I really enjoy the different tasks they are given to do. I love seeing the different ideas and considering what I would do if I was given the same tasks and deadlines. Some of the things they create are really neat and then some of it is just horrible. The things about the show that drive me nuts are how badly they treat each other when they feel threatened and how much they look up to "The Donald". The entire show is about pleasing Donald Trump at all cost so that you can become his next apprentice. There was even one episode where one girl was seeking wisdom from the Bible and another girl was mocking her for it and saying all she really needed was to study the stuff that Donald Trump had written.
It got me thinking about how that applies to Christianity. Discipleship is the same thing as The Apprentice. It is based on the idea that you would do whatever it takes to become like your teacher - in the case of faith, Jesus. In the time of Jesus, rabbis (teachers) would call together a group of men to study under them. It was a great honor to be selected as an apprentice. It was the apprentice's (disciple's) job to learn absolutely everything they could from their teacher and to become like them in every way. The apprentice was working at becoming just like his teacher. It wasn't a matter of merely considering their teaching, but learning how to apply it to their life.
Now, I don't think we see it the same way today. We are called to be disciples of Jesus which means we should be committed not only to learning all of the things that Jesus said and did, but applying them without hesitation in our lives. But modern day discipleship is hard to find in most of our lives. We talk about not having enough time to read or being too distracted to pray. We go to church when it fits our schedule and we make decisions based on our desires. I think modern day discipleship is missing all of the qualities that makes an apprentice an apprentice. And that means we will never become like our Lord and Savior unless we change something.
True discipleship would mean we take the teachings of Jesus and apply them based on their value and not based on our availability. We make ourselves 100% available when we become an apprentice of Jesus. We put his priorities in front of ours when we decide to sit at His feet. Now I'm not saying it is easy, but since when did anything really good in life come about easily. Can you imagine one of the apprentices telling the Donald, "But you don't understand, it's hard." Of course it is hard. The world has taken the easy road and it has led them to be corrupt and pain-filled and lonely. Jesus has talked about the hard way and it is filled with life and love and joy and peace and hope.
Here's to looking for a few people to apply for the newest reality show - Aprrenctice - A.D.