Category Archives: Leadership

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Leadership Lessons From Vacation Bible School

Sometimes, you can learn some great lessons in the most unlikely of places. Like this week’s Vacation Bible School at our church.

Sports Camp VBS

This week is our annual VBS. But we are taking a twist on the normal routine and going a bit different than we ever have.

Typically, we do a program that is from one of the major Christian publishers, like Group or Zondervan or Standard. But this year, we took a deep look at it, and decided that our Vacation Bible School program is more of an outreach than anything else. Although we strive to disciple the kids who are a part of our church through events like this, we wanted to reach out to those who may not be a part of a church regularly.

So we decided to do a week that was different than anything we have ever attempted. We decided to do a sports camp style VBS. As we planned it, we knew that this could be a big thing for our church and community. And it could be great, or it could flop.

We started our week on Monday, and we got off to a great beginning. And I am excited to see what the rest of the week holds.

But as we are moving along, I have noticed a couple of things.

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Summer Of Service

One of my strongest spiritual gifts is in the area of discipleship. And the best way that I can achieve that is found in one of my other strongest gifts, teaching. But is that the only way to disciple?

Summer Of Service

Although teaching, in a classroom setting, or a home study, or even some one on one situations, is often the way that we create and grow disciples, is it the only way? Or even the best way?

I am very comfortable teaching a Bible class or study, and the more I do that, the more comfortable I am. In fact, when I was presented with the idea that we do something different this summer, I was hesitant at first. Simply because teaching is within my comfort zone. Other stuff might not be.

But the more I thought about it, the more I discovered that maybe discipleship happens in several different ways, and not all of them involve a teaching/classroom setting. Sometimes disciples are grown by getting out and doing what disciples do.

To that end, we are trying something new at our church this summer. We are calling it the Summer of Service, and we have a lot of pretty good ideas that can pull all the different ages and groups in our church together to work together as we grow together. It may be a bit uncomfortable for some, but we believe that it will be a valuable summer experience, helping us identify our role as a disciple more clearly, and acting upon it.

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Moving Forward When It Is More Comfortable To Stay Where You Are

Sometimes the hardest time to move forward is when things are going great.  I know that sounds kind of crazy, but it is definitely true. Sometimes it is more difficult to move forward when everything is going well than it is when you face tough circumstances.

Moving Forward

When times are tough, you have to make choices. You have to implement change. You have to take steps just to get through to the other side of the rough circumstances. You have to move. Everything depends on it.

But when things are going well, it is much harder to take steps that will get you to the next level. Our mentality is, “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.” And that’s a shame, because times like these are the perfect times to take strides to build yourself, or your church, or your business, to even greater things.

When things are going well, it isn’t time to relax and take a break. No, it’s time to move ahead with excitement and energy.

That is where we are as a church right now. Last year, we faced a pretty tough set of circumstances with some back taxes that had been neglected. On top of that we owed a balance on a couple of properties that the church had bought. We were making it, but God had greater things in store for us, and incredible lessons to learn.

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Finding Peace In The Middle Of Busyness

Have you ever just wished you could walk away from it all? I mean, just get up and walk away?

Man At Peace

I do this every single day. Literally. I get up and walk away.

As a minister, I stay pretty busy. And sometimes, all the things that I have going on in my life, in my family, and in my church seems to bear down and weighs heavily on me.

At times like that, I have a choice. I can either try to keep going, and allow the stress to build. Or I can get up and walk away.

I choose to walk away. At least for a few moments.

In our church, we have a lot of stained glass windows. When I feel like I have to get away for a moment, I usually go into our auditorium and sit for a few moments, enjoying the peaceful atmosphere. Sometimes, I pray. Sometimes, I listen. And sometimes, I just sit and allow the stress to bleed off of me.

And, usually, after a few moments of this, I’m ready to get back to the tasks at hand. My heart has been unburdened, and I feel like I can continue.

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The Surprising Advantage Of Gratitude

Thanksgiving is tomorrow here in the United States. This is the day of the year when we take the time to be grateful for the blessings that God has given us. However, gratitude should be practiced more than just this single day each year.

Church In The Mountains

A thankful attitude has several tremendous benefits. There are ties to health and physical benefits. Some studies indicate that thankful people are less stressful people. Others suggest that gratitude benefits the emotional realm, and that negative emotions are reduced or eliminated when thankfulness is practiced.

Still another benefit of being grateful is the impact on our relationships. Thankful people are fun to be around and your relationships will benefit from surrounding yourself with those people.

However, there is one advantage of gratitude that supersedes all of these and more. Gratitude carries a benefit far greater than each of these. A thankful heart has one effect upon people that cannot be matched.

Grateful people have learned to rely completely upon the Lord.

You can do a study of the word thankful and all of its derivatives and find out that the Bible has much to say about the idea of gratitude. You will find out that being thankful is an example for us to follow, that thankfulness is a benefit for our spiritual lives, that it is, in fact, a part of God’s will for us.

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The Value Of Reading Biographies For A Leader

As a leader, I find some of the most incredible resources in some of the most unlikely places. Most of the time, I find encouragement and new ideas in a variety of the usual ways: conferences, books on leadership, discussions with other leaders. But over the past several months, I’ve discovered a whole new treasure trove of leadership resources.

Reading Biographies

Biographies.

That’s right. The stories of other people and their lives. I am amassing quite a collection of biographical resources in my personal library.

Several years ago, one of the ministers at a church I worked with in Indiana encouraged me to read biographies. He specifically encouraged me to take a look at a certain biography of Thomas Jefferson. I can’t remember which one, or who it was by. I shrugged off his suggestion, wondering what I could possibly learn by reading about the life of someone else, other than a new perspective on history.

I wish I had paid a little more attention to his suggestion. I would be ahead by several years.

Since I stumbled into reading biographies a few years ago, my pace has picked up, and I read a half a dozen a year now, easily. I could probably state that biographies are quickly becoming my favorite genre of book to read as a leader.

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4 Negative Results Of Jealousy

Jealousy leaves a pretty bitter aftertaste. It really doesn’t mater who you are or in what capacity you experience it, jealousy never results in positive growth.

Jealousy

Jealousy can be referred to as envy, and leads to frustration, anger, resentment, and bitterness. Jealousy results in all kinds of things in our lives that we would be better off without.

Jealousy is labeled as an emotion, and as such, it can rear its ugly head pretty quick. However, I’m not so sure that the term “emotion” aptly describes this. Jealousy is more of an attitude or a decision than it is an emotion, and as such, the Bible instructs us to guard against it frequently.

That can be hard. When the church down the street experiences a growth spurt, or builds a new building, it’s easy to question why it hasn’t happened here yet. When another ministry sees giving increase dramatically, we start to dream about what we could do with that money in our own roles. When good things happen to others, we wish it was us, or at least not them.