One of the tests of a great leader is not so much the quality of her work but the quality of people she surrounds herself with. Put another way, you can measure the competency of a leader by the competency of those they gather around them. To create a scalable culture -- one that is easily reproduced and expanded -- requires competent leaders. Many organizations, churches included, will hit a ceiling based upon the competency level of one leader. To continue to grow and expand requires a growing and expanding layer of competent leadership. This requires hiring the best people possible and releasing them to do their jobs. It also requires developing the in-house talent that already exists in latent form within the organization. May your greatest competency as a leader be the ability to spot and develop the competency of others!
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Jesus can you take the time To throw a drowning man a line Peace on Earth To tell the ones who hear no sound Whose sons are living in the ground Peace on Earth Jesus sing a song you wrote The words are sticking in my throat Peace on Earth Hear it every Christmas time But hope and history won't rhyme So what's it worth This peace on Earth -- Bono, "Peace on Earth" Hope and history. Hope is what we aspire to, what we know is possible. Hope believes and trusts and holds on to the promises of God. Hope inspires. History is what actually happens. History tells the story of our ups and downs, our wins and our losses. History is littered with beauty and marred by ugliness. There are times when hope and history tell the same story. Or, as Bono would say, they rhyme. We see…
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I'm passing along the story I used this past weekend to illustrate how God uses his people to lead others to Him. How will the church be lighted? Several centuries ago in a mountain village in Europe, a wealthy nobleman wondered what legacy he should leave to his townspeople. He made a good decision. He decided to build them a church. No one was permitted to see the plans or the inside of the church until it was finished. At its grand opening, the people gathered and marveled at the beauty of the new church. Everything had been thought of and included. It was a masterpiece. But then someone said, "Wait a minute! Where are the lamps? It is really quite dark in here. How will the church be lighted?" The nobleman pointed to some brackets in the walls, and then he gave each family a lamp, which they were…
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The Lord's Prayer contains a curious word that has survived in most English translations from the King James (1611) to the New International Version (1980's). The word? Hallowed. Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name" (Matthew 6:9). But what does it mean? The basic meaning is this: "to make holy or sacred, to sanctify or consecrate, to venerate" (Source: Dictionary.com). Wikipedia also has a great article on the word itself and its usage. But why does it matter? It matters for this reason: What I believe about God will shape the way I live my life. If I believe God is a ... Slumbering Grandfather (I'll see what I can get away with) Harsh Judge (I’ll live in fear of him) Warm Fuzzy (Sin may not bother that much because he will love me anyway) To help illustrate this, we used a video…
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