Archive for the ‘Leadership’ Category
A story is told of a famous actress from the early 1940ʼs. Her name was Billie Burke who famously played Glinda, the Good Witch in the Wizard of Oz, and apparently she was quite impressed with herself. Once, when she was on a transatlantic ocean trip, she noticed a man […]
Read More...“Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the […]
Read More...Have you ever read the story in Exodus 4 about God almost killing Moses until his wife circumcised their son? This is what it says: At a lodging place on the way the LORD met him and sought to put him to death. Then Zipporah took a flint and cut […]
Read More...The other day I was talking to one of my overseers about the need to raise up younger leaders in our denomination. This includes identifying and developing leaders for the future. It also involves placing some qualified, experienced, younger leaders in key assignments now. I stated that while it’s important […]
Read More...“When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus.” Acts 18:5 There are a multitude of ministries in the church, and they are all vital to the Kingdom. Silas and Timothy served in a different way than […]
Read More...In Acts 6 the Apostles had to focus on what they were called to do and call others to do what needed to be done. There was literally a bottleneck of leadership happening. The church was growing explosively. Everyone was complaining. It wasn’t good. So they had the congregation chose […]
Read More...When my wife and I planted a church in Seattle in the 90’s we occasionally had some good-natured person suggest something along the lines of, “if you could just get Bill Gates saved and tithing to your church, you’d be set”. It was the same in Youth Ministry. When discussing […]
Read More...“Don’t you know anything? Can’t you see that it’s to our advantage that one man dies for the people rather than the whole nation be destroyed?” He didn’t say this of his own accord, but as Chief Priest that year he unwittingly prophesied that Jesus was about to die sacrificially for […]
Read More...The other day when I was at California Adventure with my family, the boys went on a ride that my 3 year old daughter couldn’t do. While she and I were seeking some shelter from the pouring rain, I was surprised to see a door opened into an unmarked building […]
Read More...The other day I had a conversation with a man who, as a part of his job description, regularly has to place—and sometimes remove—pastors. It was interesting to talk to this leader of shepherds and realize the challenge involved in helping to discern a ministry fit or misfit. Most of […]
Read More...As a teenager I played in a few bands and wanted to “grow up” to be a rock star. I heard interesting stories about out of control behavior by the big boys. These performers would make ridiculous demands and then throw an expensive, destructive, expletive-laden fit if they didn’t get […]
Read More...A big religion headline last week involved the Crystal Cathedral declaring bankruptcy. This was, at one time, the mother of all mega-churches and was probably more well known, in it’s day, than Lakewood Church, Willow Creek, and Saddleback are today. The pastor and his church built an empire. If you visit […]
Read More...I’m about ready to head into a yearly study break. I take a few days, usually with a few friends who are also pastors, and spend much of the time stopping—listening; reflecting; praying; writing; planning. The pastors who are there occasionally connect and share what we feel God has been […]
Read More...Quick, anyone know where the title of this blog post comes from? The Sheriff of Nottingham says it to Friar Tuck in the classic animated film, Robin Hood. “Save your sermon, preacher, it ain’t Sunday you know!” Recently when my kids were watching the movie, I heard that line and […]
Read More...I’m sitting here with rapt attention watching the Chilean miners finally get rescued. This is an excruciatingly slow process. One by one, the capsule is lowered and then a single man is brought up who has been trapped for nearly 70 days. When the first guy was brought up, there […]
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