I've always said that hindsight is 20/20. It's easy to see what God has placed in your life when you get to the end of a season and it all makes sense. The problem is that we rarely see things clearly as they happen. We usually grumble and complain when God allows us to go through difficult circumstances. When we emerge on the other side stronger, however, then it all becomes crystal clear.
Here's an excerpt from Wide Awake by Erwin McManus I read this weekend.
"For some of us, the challenge is not being distracted by our circumstances or overwhelmed by the opportunities. For some of us, the real challenge of focus is that we get lost in uncertainty. What we need to develop is not simply concentration or convergence, but clarity. In this case, the question isn't what should I be doing? but who am I becoming? Self-awareness is one of the most critical characteristics of personal effectiveness and productivity. Do you know who you are? You cannot focus if your lens isn't clear."
Do we know who we are becoming? I think it's a plus for me to be so introspective and deep thinking most of the time. I'm constantly evaluating things in me and in others. Have you spent much time thinking deeply about yourself, or are you just going with the flow, reacting to circumstances around you? It's good to stop and just think for awhile. Think about where you want to be, the kind of life you want to live, and see how well prepared you are to live that life. What experiences or education do you still need to be more prepared to live that life? I've often told adults who are considering going back to college, "The next four years are going to tick away at the same rate, whether you're earning your degree or not. Wouldn't it be nice to finish the next four years with that degree, than empty handed?"
Here's a little more from Erwin.
"When we talk about the will of God, you know what most of us are expecting to find? We're looking for a yellow brick road or a clearly paved one-way street. We want a straight line from point A (where we are) to point B (where we are supposed to get). We often think of God's will more as a tightrope than a compass. We want one path, clearly lit and marked so we know exactly where to go. We don't think of ourselves like little mice smelling for the cheese while God shows us the way through the maze. We act as if the spiritual journey is lie God leaving little breadcrumbs, and we are Hansel and Gretel. Through the woods we can find our way home. But somewhere along the way all the ravens ate the breadcrumbs and we're lost in the forest, asking "God , where do I go?" The dilemma is that God doesn't draw you a map, doesn't give you chalk lines, doesn't leave you bread crumbs. He builds your character. As you develop your character, you have an internal compass that guides your way and begins to give you the clarity to see the life of your dreams. It is here that the hero within you is awakened, and you discover you are the seer. While others may be lost in the fog of ambiguity, you see your pat clearly for you know exactly who you are and why you are on this journey. The future is not waiting for you, it is waiting within you."
Building character. We usually never see it happening, but if you look back over your life thus far, you can see all the ways you've matured over time and how God has brought you to where you are. Hopefully none of us have to repeat our life lessons but learn the first time as we go through situations and move ahead. Blessings on this beautiful Monday.
Showing posts with label Character. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Character. Show all posts
Monday, August 4, 2008
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Nuggets #13
An Unstoppable Force by Erwin McManus
(As mentioned yesterday, today we'll look at the six different areas in which you as a leader have a direct impact in the ethos of your congregation.)
Character
The people you serve will be able to summarize who you are in one core idea or one central characteristic. You need to listen carefully to how they describe you. They may describe you as a kind and caring, visionary and courageous, empowering, or something else. Hopefully you will appreciate the description you hear.
When we consider character, we usually think of attributes such as integrity, humility, and trustworthiness. All of these are obviously critical to spiritual leadership. But the kind of character I'm speaking of is more than that. Every leader makes a distinguishing mark, which is the best way to define what we call a character. A character is a distinguishing and defining mark or imprint that communicates something to those who see.
Stories
If your stories are never personal, it will be very difficult for people to embrace a personal faith. People want to know what you're committed to. They want to know how you experience God. They want to know what you know about God, not simply what you've learned. Whatever topic you preach on, the story you choose to tell will reel your heart.
One thing I've noticed over the years is that even when I teach about tithing, I tell a story about evangelism. I love telling stories about people I meet and the conversations we have about God. It doesn't matter to me what the topic is. These stories are always relevant and fit in with the subject. Your stories of faith, your stories of risk, your stories of failure - all these stories shape the ethos of the congregation. Borrowed stories just don't work as well. Stories communicate what really is important and what kind of experiences others in the community should aspire to have.
Experiences
People want to know about your experiences - even the bad ones. They want to know when you've failed; they want to know when you've been disappointed; they want to know what you've struggled through; they want to learn from your life. Genuine ethos cannot be developed without genuine communication.
Reward
Another way leaders shape ethos is by what they reward.
Once when I was a young pastor, I found myself creating an environment in which only those who did the wrong things were receiving my affirmation. They were the people I always spent time with. The more you sinned, the more you disobeyed God, the more of my time I would give you. If you did what you were supposed to do you received very little of my time. I was essentially rewarding disobedience and dysfunction rather than affirming obedience and servanthood. I realized that who I gave my time to demonstrated what was important.
I also began to realize that whenever I affirmed someone through a story, it helped shape the culture. If I told stories of the secret servanthood of members in the body, it inspired everyone else to serve. When I celebrated sacrificial giving by individuals, it inspired others to give sacrificially.
Battles
Everything worthwhile has a cost, and the ethos of a community is worth fighting for. Establishing a value system that honors God and reflects his heart is the most important battle in spiritual leadership. All spiritual leaders must be warrior-poets who lead both through courage and suffering.
Advancement
I believe that the resume-style selection of leadership has detrimentally affected the development of an apostolic ethos in the church. The church overwhelmingly hires from the outside.
It seems abysmal that in a church of ten thousand, you wouldn't be overwhelmed with emerging leadership, and yet these churches tend to hire proven leaders from other congregations. We seem to be better at growing congregations than at developing leaders.
The development of indigenous leadership is critical to creating and shaping ethos. It is also essential in generating first-century church momentum. One reason for this is that when you identify leaders from within, everyone realizes that he or she could be the next leader identified. It gives everyone a sense of inspiration and hope that he or she might be selected and invested in. If you're always hiring from the outside, it becomes a mystery how one every grows to that level of leadership. The obvious conclusion for someone interested in leadership would be that he or she has to leave the church to find a place where that level of leadership could be obtained.
In an organization, leaders must be brought from the outside. In a movement, leaders emerge from within. A genuine movement is a leadership culture. It values the identification, development, and empowering of new leaders. A central component of a movement's success is not the selection of accredited leaders but of proven leadership. Leadership is not about how much education a person has attained but how much they have actually accomplished in a ministry context. In many congregations the only role that members can aspire to is to be a good follower. In the first-century church, there were no other churches to take leaders from. Everybody had to be homegrown.
At the end of each chapter of this book, Erwin gives several questions. I'm going to include a few below for you to ponder.
1. Is your leadership more spiritual or secular? Are you leading from biblical or business principles?
2. Who are the emerging leaders in our community (congregation), and what do we need to do to prepare them for spiritual leadership?
Let's look at number 2 for a minute. How do you determine who the emerging leaders are? What is the criteria? In a future blog, Erwin talks about discipleship. He says there are two types of discipleship: the stage theory or new building metaphor, and the new baby metaphor. In the stage theory, people are taught a proper theological foundation, next a layer of faithful church attendance is added, then they are trusted with serving. Layer upon layer, systematically, to grow an individual to spiritual maturity. The other way is to nurture what is already there in an individual. Just as a new baby has everything they need already, a new believer has everything they will need for their spiritual journey. It just needs developing. Some have an unusual connection through prayer, some are overtly generous, some are willing to pick up and move to another country for the Gospel. Everyone has gifts, we just have to discover and nurture them.
So, how do you identify a future leader and how do you prepare them for spiritual leadership? You spend time with them. You love them where they are and see their potential. You get to know their level of faithfulness. You discover their gifts and passions with them. Woven through this relationship are times when you serve with them, correct them, encourage them, stretch them, teach them, and most of all you show them you trust them.
There is a very wise man in our church. I think of him as the father of our church, having built it with his own hands with a handful of faithful individuals who had a call and a dream. This man knows how to show people he sees their potential in a very surreptitious way. When he began recruiting people for a missions trip to Brazil that he was leading, he walked up to someone he wanted to go on the trip with him and say, "I hear you're joining us on the Brazil trip." In at least one instance the person had never considered going. They hadn't gone on a missions trip before. But just by planting that little seed in their heart, they started to see the possibility of them going, serving, and seeing already the approval in this man's eyes that they were worthy of the challenge. They began to pray, and save, and commit, and train, and they they went. It was like butter to see how smoothly he discipled this team to go all the way to the Amazon for two weeks, build two churches and have several adventures. True, this leader has the gift of discipleship, but anyone can do it. It's amazing how much impact you can have on someone's life when you are willing to pour a little of yourself into them.
(As mentioned yesterday, today we'll look at the six different areas in which you as a leader have a direct impact in the ethos of your congregation.)
Character
The people you serve will be able to summarize who you are in one core idea or one central characteristic. You need to listen carefully to how they describe you. They may describe you as a kind and caring, visionary and courageous, empowering, or something else. Hopefully you will appreciate the description you hear.
When we consider character, we usually think of attributes such as integrity, humility, and trustworthiness. All of these are obviously critical to spiritual leadership. But the kind of character I'm speaking of is more than that. Every leader makes a distinguishing mark, which is the best way to define what we call a character. A character is a distinguishing and defining mark or imprint that communicates something to those who see.
Stories
If your stories are never personal, it will be very difficult for people to embrace a personal faith. People want to know what you're committed to. They want to know how you experience God. They want to know what you know about God, not simply what you've learned. Whatever topic you preach on, the story you choose to tell will reel your heart.
One thing I've noticed over the years is that even when I teach about tithing, I tell a story about evangelism. I love telling stories about people I meet and the conversations we have about God. It doesn't matter to me what the topic is. These stories are always relevant and fit in with the subject. Your stories of faith, your stories of risk, your stories of failure - all these stories shape the ethos of the congregation. Borrowed stories just don't work as well. Stories communicate what really is important and what kind of experiences others in the community should aspire to have.
Experiences
People want to know about your experiences - even the bad ones. They want to know when you've failed; they want to know when you've been disappointed; they want to know what you've struggled through; they want to learn from your life. Genuine ethos cannot be developed without genuine communication.
Reward
Another way leaders shape ethos is by what they reward.
Once when I was a young pastor, I found myself creating an environment in which only those who did the wrong things were receiving my affirmation. They were the people I always spent time with. The more you sinned, the more you disobeyed God, the more of my time I would give you. If you did what you were supposed to do you received very little of my time. I was essentially rewarding disobedience and dysfunction rather than affirming obedience and servanthood. I realized that who I gave my time to demonstrated what was important.
I also began to realize that whenever I affirmed someone through a story, it helped shape the culture. If I told stories of the secret servanthood of members in the body, it inspired everyone else to serve. When I celebrated sacrificial giving by individuals, it inspired others to give sacrificially.
Battles
Everything worthwhile has a cost, and the ethos of a community is worth fighting for. Establishing a value system that honors God and reflects his heart is the most important battle in spiritual leadership. All spiritual leaders must be warrior-poets who lead both through courage and suffering.
Advancement
I believe that the resume-style selection of leadership has detrimentally affected the development of an apostolic ethos in the church. The church overwhelmingly hires from the outside.
It seems abysmal that in a church of ten thousand, you wouldn't be overwhelmed with emerging leadership, and yet these churches tend to hire proven leaders from other congregations. We seem to be better at growing congregations than at developing leaders.
The development of indigenous leadership is critical to creating and shaping ethos. It is also essential in generating first-century church momentum. One reason for this is that when you identify leaders from within, everyone realizes that he or she could be the next leader identified. It gives everyone a sense of inspiration and hope that he or she might be selected and invested in. If you're always hiring from the outside, it becomes a mystery how one every grows to that level of leadership. The obvious conclusion for someone interested in leadership would be that he or she has to leave the church to find a place where that level of leadership could be obtained.
In an organization, leaders must be brought from the outside. In a movement, leaders emerge from within. A genuine movement is a leadership culture. It values the identification, development, and empowering of new leaders. A central component of a movement's success is not the selection of accredited leaders but of proven leadership. Leadership is not about how much education a person has attained but how much they have actually accomplished in a ministry context. In many congregations the only role that members can aspire to is to be a good follower. In the first-century church, there were no other churches to take leaders from. Everybody had to be homegrown.
At the end of each chapter of this book, Erwin gives several questions. I'm going to include a few below for you to ponder.
1. Is your leadership more spiritual or secular? Are you leading from biblical or business principles?
2. Who are the emerging leaders in our community (congregation), and what do we need to do to prepare them for spiritual leadership?
Let's look at number 2 for a minute. How do you determine who the emerging leaders are? What is the criteria? In a future blog, Erwin talks about discipleship. He says there are two types of discipleship: the stage theory or new building metaphor, and the new baby metaphor. In the stage theory, people are taught a proper theological foundation, next a layer of faithful church attendance is added, then they are trusted with serving. Layer upon layer, systematically, to grow an individual to spiritual maturity. The other way is to nurture what is already there in an individual. Just as a new baby has everything they need already, a new believer has everything they will need for their spiritual journey. It just needs developing. Some have an unusual connection through prayer, some are overtly generous, some are willing to pick up and move to another country for the Gospel. Everyone has gifts, we just have to discover and nurture them.
So, how do you identify a future leader and how do you prepare them for spiritual leadership? You spend time with them. You love them where they are and see their potential. You get to know their level of faithfulness. You discover their gifts and passions with them. Woven through this relationship are times when you serve with them, correct them, encourage them, stretch them, teach them, and most of all you show them you trust them.
There is a very wise man in our church. I think of him as the father of our church, having built it with his own hands with a handful of faithful individuals who had a call and a dream. This man knows how to show people he sees their potential in a very surreptitious way. When he began recruiting people for a missions trip to Brazil that he was leading, he walked up to someone he wanted to go on the trip with him and say, "I hear you're joining us on the Brazil trip." In at least one instance the person had never considered going. They hadn't gone on a missions trip before. But just by planting that little seed in their heart, they started to see the possibility of them going, serving, and seeing already the approval in this man's eyes that they were worthy of the challenge. They began to pray, and save, and commit, and train, and they they went. It was like butter to see how smoothly he discipled this team to go all the way to the Amazon for two weeks, build two churches and have several adventures. True, this leader has the gift of discipleship, but anyone can do it. It's amazing how much impact you can have on someone's life when you are willing to pour a little of yourself into them.
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