Leadership

How do leaders get the best ideas?  Years ago I learned that not all the best ideas originated with me.  That was a humbling experience -- and one that has paid many dividends throughout the intervening years. If you lead a team of people at work, are you getting the best ideas on the table?  More importantly, are you getting them into circulation? I've learned through the years that there are guaranteed ways to dry up the well of ideas. If every idea must be your idea, you are drying up the well. If suggestions are criticized before analyzed, you are drying up the well. If who gets the credit is an issue, you are drying up the well. If it has to be done your way, you are drying up the well. If ideas are asked for but never used, you are drying up the well. What happens when…

Here is a great reminder from Dallas Willard about the power of contentment. ******************** The moral failures of ministers usually are over one of three things: sex, money, or power. That always comes out of dissatisfaction. Ministers are reaching for something, and they begin to feel, I deserve something better. I sacrifice so much and get so little. And so I’ll do this. The surest guarantee against failure is to be so at peace and satisfied with God that when wrongdoing presents itself it isn’t even interesting. That is how we stay out of temptation. Read the entire article.

Loved this story from Greg Stier: The great revivalist Gypsy Smith was once asked by a young pastor how he could start a revival at his church. The evangelist simply told him to go home, draw a circle on the floor with a piece of chalk, and kneel within that circle. He then instructed him to pray for revival for everyone on the inside of that circle and, after that, he would start to see revival on the outside of that circle. Read the whole article.

Passion wanes in the absence of purpose. This isn't to say that every detail of every day must be done in accordance with some larger purpose.  If you can, that's great.  There are things we must do simply because they must be done. But if we operate for too long outside of our purpose, our passion will suffer. God designed each of us to live for something larger than ourselves.  Your purpose might be educating young children in a classroom.  It might be feeding the hungry or working with battered women.  When you discover what that purpose is, you know it.  You feel it.  And when you are doing tangible things towards the accomplishment of that purpose, it feeds your passion. If you find yourself having a hard time getting motivated, that may be a warning sign to check if you are operating within your purpose.  

"The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory rests with the Lord." (Proverbs 21:31) As a young pastor, I believed it was my responsibility to get the horse ready for battle AND to win the victory.  That kind of thinking is the result of several things: Stupidity Immaturity Arrogance This is only one extreme.  The other is to believe we don't have to do anything at all and can sit back and wait for God to act. I've learned through the years that God expects me to act on things that are under my control.  When possible, be prepared, be ready.  It's why we must continue to learn, expanding our mental resources. In the end, however, the outcome rests with God.  He is not bound to my preparation (or lack of).  Success in ministry, success in life, is in God's hands.  That takes away a tremendous…