I shared the following article by Seth Godin with our staff today. And then I did the exercise below with them. I would encourage you to do the same. The Problem with Problems We have limits. There are challenges, limited resources, people or organizations working against you. Your knee hurts, the boss is a jerk, the systems are down. We have opportunities. There are opportunities, new sources of leverage and ideas just waiting to be embraced. You can share something, give something, make something better. There are always limits, and there are always opportunities. The ones we rehearse and focus on are the ones that shape our attitude and our actions. How many times a day do you think about or announce the limits you face, the people who cannot be trusted, the problems that are weighing you down? The problem with problems is that they always keep us from…
Read More
When was the last time you decided to go for a run without any thought of where you would go? "That day, for no particular reason, I decided to go for a little run. So I ran to the end of the road. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd run to the end of the town. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd just run across Greenbow County. And I figured, since run this far, maybe I'd just run across the great state of Alabama. And that's what I did. I ran clear across Alabama. For no particular reason I just kept on goin'. I ran clear to the ocean. And when I got there, I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well turn around, just keep on goin'. When I got to another ocean, I figured, since I'd gone this far,…
Read More
Thomas Edison was a dogged man. From his mind came things like the phonograph and the first commercially-viable incandescent lightbulb. But they didn't magically drop from his mind to reality. In the case of the lightbulb, the number of failed attempts is legendary. But he didn't quit. Thomas Edison once said that "vision without execution is hallucination." Three key words emerge from that statement: Vision. Execution. Hallucination. Vision is a popular topic for business leaders and pastors, as well as football coaches and politicians. We write vision statements. We talk about visionaries. A simple definition of vision is "to see a preferred future." This preferred future could be for your family, your ministry, or team. It's how you want the future to be. Not everyone who sees a preferred future is by default a visionary. The second key word in Edison's statement is execution. Edison didn't think the incandescent lightbulb into existence, though…
Read More
My oldest daughter, Hannah, and I recently spent a few days in Nashville visiting colleges. Yes, it's hard to believe in one year she will be off to college ... somewhere. So, we're doing the college tour routine: Schedule a visit, sit through a presentation, and take a walking tour. In Nashville, we had the opportunity to tour three schools: Lipscomb, Belmont, and Vanderbilt. Also known as pricey, pricier, and priciest. While I had grown up in the same church tradition as Lipscomb, I had never actually visited the campus until this week. I was pleasantly surprised by the campus (though I'm not exactly sure why I was surprised that it would have a nice campus). On the walking tour, I even passed an old acquaintance -- Keith Lancaster, of Acappella fame. Hannah was given a free t-shirt (swag!) at the end and so we picked up a t-shirt for Hope…
Read More
At its core, effective leadership is really stewardship. As the leader of a church, I am not the owner; I am a steward. God has entrusted to me both human and financial resources and expects me to utilize them effectively. As a leader, I will be judged not only by how I used my own resources but also the resources of those around me. Did I bring out the best in them? Did I allow them to grow and expand? Did I encourage their development? Did I become a bottleneck, requiring all decisions to flow through me? Did I inhibit a good idea simply because it wasn't mine? How would thinking of leadership as stewardship change the way you lead?
Read More