Would you be embarrassed if your family and friends saw a videotape of your previous year 24/7?
From the time artists begin studying their craft, they concern themselves with the "values" of colors. For example, pure white may have a value of ten and pure black a value of one, with many shades (and values) of gray in between. If artists continue to dilute or add a different pigment to a particular ...
Slip-ups haunt every pastor. Some are minor; others trigger long-term problems. But not all mistakes have to be fatal. Here are some ways to prevent them from becoming terminal.
Mistake Reflexes
Mistakes can cause our hearts to churn with painful emotions and impulses. Identifying our emotions is important in not further compounding our problems and to put us on the track of recovery. Here are several ...
No minister wants to be perceived as self-centeredly ambitious. Yet what church would want a complacent pastor with no discernible ambition? We wrestle with ambition: How much is necessary? Will we ever quit worrying about having as many in worship as the church across the street?
Good, holy ambition drives the mills of excellent ministry, helps us accomplish tasks the un-ambitious might deem impossible, ...
I never cease to be amazed at the incredible paradox of seeing many unhappy people in a world that has so much to offer surprises me even more is the sight of so many Christians who have succumbed to busyness, unhappiness, tightness, and boredom. Many suffer from a nagging sense of guilt that no matter how much they do it is never quite enough.
Words like wonder, joy, rest, and freedom have become ...
I recently spent a fitful night unable to sleep because of the strong disagreement I knew we would be facing at the next day's board meeting. A peacemaker by nature, I dread situations of conflict. Like many of us in ministry, I'm into conciliation, not confrontation. Why can't we all just get along? Let's find the win/win. Surely we can work something out so we can all be unified.
Criticism is part of leadership; here are ways to handle it:
Anticipate specific criticism. Every capable leader knows the "thought leaders" in a group and often talks to them ahead of time, enlisting their support or listening to their criticisms before a meeting. You can't go into a meeting without knowing how the voting will go.
Assume criticism is logical. It's always best to assume that a person's criticism is sincere. Given the base from which the person is working, the criticism is entirely logical. The key is to understand the base from which people work.
Thus, to work with people's criticisms, we must know their deep beliefs, biases, experiences, theological positions, and especially their ego positions.
In one of the spiritual gifts lists, Romans 12:8, the apostle Paul essentially says, "If you have the spiritual gift of leadership, lead with it, and lead with all diligence." I've come up with a partial list of what spiritually gifted leaders do if they develop and use their leadership gifts.
1. Leaders cast a God-honoring vision.Spiritually gifted leaders live in such a way that God invariably ignites ...
While spiritual leadership involves many of the same principles as general leadership, spiritual leadership has certain distinctive qualities that must be understood and practiced if spirit-ual leaders are to be successful.
The spiritual leader's task is to move people from where they are to where God wants them to be. This is influence. Once spiritual leaders understand God's will, they make every effort to move their followers from following their own agendas to pursuing God's purposes. People who fail to move people to God's agenda have not led. They may have exhorted, cajoled, pleaded, or bullied, but they will not have led until their people have adjusted their lives to God's will.
Printer view of these results
