I've done things in my life that I'm not proud of, and after the fact, I have thought to myself, "That's not me." Maybe you've had a similar experience. We can probably all relate to those times when we surprise ourselves by how bad we can be. What motivates us to do those things? While…
When was the last time you felt like you had too much to do and not enough time to do it? What was your solution? Was it to "just work harder"? Or maybe you threw your hands up in despair and just walked away from the pile of working sitting on your desk or kitchen…
It is totally obvious to state, but here it is: Jesus was a genius disciple-maker. And to make disciples what did Jesus do? He shared his life and he shared the word of God. His practices influences our practices. The practices of sharing life and the word are the two foundational pillars for building a…
When you're leading a ministry, you only have a compass, not a map. You can't predict the future and trying to plan out every little thing often does not work. Yet the allure of planning runs strong in many leaders. Map-Based Planning We often treat planning for ministry like we have a map in our hands: a…
My wife was the first woman to pray during Sunday morning worship service in the history of our church. It was Mother's Day 2014 when my wife ascended the steps on the stage during the worship service, walked over to the microphone and prayed for the mothers and the women who desired to be mothers…
You win at life and leadership by doing the basics. How do you actually do them? Well, first you need to know what the basics of life and leadership are. For my vocation, I have distilled out five essential habits for Christian leadership. They are: Daily prayer Consistent exercise Evening routine Weekly Sabbath Weekly Planning…
Do the basics. You nothing without the basics. So much of success in life in general, and leadership in particular, is merely doing the basics. There is a large market for sharing the latest leadership hack, trick, or steroid which will make things better or cause your church to grow. It won't happen. Anything good…
So much of Christian leadership is just doing the basics. So much of success in life is just doing the basics. For example, we all know that we need to get a good night's sleep in order to do good work and be effective. Yet people can neglect their sleep, watching Netflix in bed on an…
Bill Walsh was the legendary coach of the San Fransisco 49ers in the 1980s. He took over a team that was previously 1-15 and in three years won a Super Bowl. The backbone of Walsh's success was his "Standard of Performance," his leadership principles. Bill Walsh assembled his leadership principles into 17 bullet points which…
The Hurt Locker tells the story of various soldiers serving overseas, but it particularly focuses on those who disarm explosive devices. As you can imagine, trying to disarm bombs either before they explode or so that they don't explode is one of the most nerve-racking jobs in the military. The movie shows how such stress affects…