One of the items I've been working on for Mountainview is a new adult education initiative. Our mission is similar to many other churches: "To turn unchurched people into fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ." But what does a "fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ" look like? Our new adult education thrust is designed to help move people towards maturity in Jesus by teaching everything from the basics to in-depth studies of all sorts. So ... we've begun looking for prospective teachers and assistant teachers. I'm excited to think about the quality of experience that exists in a congregation such as ours. Life experience, faith experience, job experience. I'm also excited to envision different environments where people can encounter God and be changed by Him. And I'm looking forward to teaching one of those classes (maybe the "Dummies Guide to Baseball and Breaking Bread"). If you're in or around Mountainview,…
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One of the concepts that Ken Blanchard explores in "Leading at a Higher Level" is the difference between a driven leader and a called leader. Coming from the faith world, the concept of "calling" is familiar. It's not explored much in the business world. A driven leader is a person who seeks to advance their own cause, their own agenda, and looks to move authority up the ladder. A called leader is one who seeks to serve those around him or her. A called leader seeks to improve the leadership skills of others, moving down the ladder to serve rather than waiting to be served. This is not to say that a called leader does not have passion or ambition. In fact, they are often very passionate about what they're doing and why -- but it's a passion that's redirected away from self-interest to the interest of others. Driven leaders…
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I recently started reading "Leading at a Higher Level" by Ken Blanchard and associates. It's about how to create high-performing organizations. They outline the flow of leadership this way: self-leadership > one-on-one leadership > team leadership > organizational leadership. Here's my quick run-down ... Without self-leadership, the other levels of leadership will break down. Self-leadership is the ability to "practice what you preach." At this level, leaders develop an internal compass that forms the backbone of decisions and actions. While it's possible to assume greater levels of responsibility without self-leadership, it's not sustainable. In positions that require a high level of trust, a leader who lacks an internal compass will not do the things that foster trust and respect. One-on-one leadership is the ability to effectively lead another person towards a specific end or goal. This requires the ability to adapt your leadership style to the needs of the individual. …
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There are a few blogs I track each day from thought leaders in the church, business world, and technology arena. I believe it's important to stay current with the ideas that are influencing and impacting our culture. One of the blogs I regularly track is from Tony Morgan. Tony has served in leadership positions at New Spring Church and Granger Community Church. He posted a note yesterday entitled "Ministry is Messy" and I thought I would share it with you. It's a good reminder to those of us who lead churches about what is important. Here it is ... At the end of Brian’s message today, he invited people to come forward for prayer and anointing. I was one of a number of pastors and elders who were available to pray with folks. The experience impacted me. It reminded me that the people that walk through the doors of our…
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This weekend I'm teaching on part two of our MRS GREN series: Respiration. The idea behind the message is that we need to continually breathe in God to stay spiritually alive. Breathing is vital to life. At this point, you might be thinking, "Ken is so profound. Duhhhh, I already knew that." Of course you did. But we may not make the connection between our physical bodies and our spiritual life. Just as our physical bodies are wired to breath, so are our spiritual bodies. In Genesis 2 we find that when God created man, he "breathed life into him." Ever since then, we have needed God to continually breathe life into us. And we need to continually breathe in God. Unless we develop the spiritually breathe, we will grow stale -- or worse, we will be spiritually dead. Bill Bright, the late founder of Campus Crusade, described the spiritual…
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