Quick Wednesday Night Mind Dump

Wednesday night was a special night.  Let me tell you why…

• One of my Adult Leaders, Eric Burkhart, spoke last night and did an incredible job!
• The worship as far as music goes was tight
• We had a good group of kids
• We have had a visitor that has stuck with us over the past 3 weeks.  He’s an awesome kid!
• Small Group discussion was amazing yet again.
• Our teens have been super attentive lately and it feels great!

Great stuff happening at AMPED on Wednesdays!  Praying that the Lord will continue to bless us!

Wow!

I’m not going to lie.  I was going to write this post to say that my blog had hit a certain number of views.  But, I was blessed by a video today that I want to share with you.  Please take 5 minutes to watch this video.  I know it is somewhat “old news” for those of you in ministry, but if I had an attitude like Matt’s, I’d be set!

Expectations (Part 2 of 2)

Yesterday, we took a look at having high expectations of human beings and how sometimes it can be dangerous because we will be let down at some point in time.

Today, I also want to warn about having too low of an expectation of someone.  Let me cite 2 examples.  First, if you have low expectations for a co-worker/ministry leader, you may not give them a chance to shine in an opportunity where you do not think that they would do well because of low expectations.

Next, I want to share something about having too low of expectation of “big named people”.  I recently had an amazing opportunity to have lunch with Andy Stanley and 8 other pastors.  Andy had mentioned a story that they had a guest speaker during their young adult program.  He spent a lot of time “bashing” Britney Spears.  Now, we can look at this 2 ways.  One, we can say that it was wrong for him to do that.  Others of us may laugh and agree with him.  According to Andy, he was  a lucky man because the week before he spoke Britney Spears was sitting in the back of North Point’s young adult program.

So, whether you have low expectations of a co-worker/ministry personnel, or you have low expectations of others, you never know who may be lurking in the back of your church or organization.

Expectations (Part 1 of 2)

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23

I want to spend the next two days talking about expectations.  I believe expectations can be a good thing, but in a lot of cases be a very dangerous things.  Let me explain.

It’s not bad to have an optimistic expectation for an event your church/organization is planning.  It is dangerous when we look at “big name” people with high expectations.

I think you all know where this is going.  While I don’t condone what the media thinks Tiger Woods did, should we not have such high expectations of him?

Take the verse at the top.

I know this may be a surprise to you, but Tiger is human.  He has flesh and he will screw up.  Now some may disagree with me on the next statement.

With the understanding that Pastor’s are held to a higher standard, when a “big name” pastor screws up, it’s all over the news. CNN, Fox, Headline News has many reports.

May I make the suggestion that we should not hold these people too high or on the proverbial pedestal and realize that they are human beings who screw up every day.

PLEASE NOTE:  In writing this blog I am not intending to tear down Tiger Woods.  I believe he is a great golfer.  I am also not tearing down “big named” pastors.  I actually glean a lot of leadership insights from these guys.  The blog above is for us to be weary about how high we put these people on a pedestal.

What Does It Take to be a Great Leader? Part 5

A teachable spirit.

I want to conclude the series today with this one last piece of what it takes to be a great leader.

I believe along with humility, we need to have a teachable spirit.  Even the greatest of leaders have learned from other leaders in their field and even outside their field.

For example, take Bill Hybels.  He is always referencing someone in the church leadership or business world.  Andy Stanley tends to credit others with some of his theories and leadership development principles.

In order for us to be great leaders, we need to learn and have a teachable spirit.  If we don’t, we become selfish and think it’s our way or the highway.

What Does It Take to be a Great Leader? (Part 4)

A Great Team

No matter how great of  a leader you are, in order to be a great leader, you must have a great team of people around you.

It’s incredible when you go to a leadership conference of some sort, you will notice that the greatest leaders will share that they couldn’t do anything without the support staff and team around them.

This would go hand in hand with yesterday’s topic of leadership, humility.  In order to be a great leader, you must have some sort of follower(s).  You can’t do it all yourself.  People have tried and failed.  Plus, it’s not good for you health-wise either.

So, in order to be a great leader, you must have a great team to assist you and so that you actually have someone TO lead.

What Does It Take to be a Great Leader? (Part 3)

Another trait it takes to be a great leader is humility.

The greatest example we have of leadership is Jesus, hands down.  To say that He was humble would be a HUGE understatement.  We have this guy who can do literally anything, seated on a throne in Heaven come down to earth in flesh to do God’s will.  If that isn’t humility I don’t know what is.

In regards to leadership in today’s time, humility is key.  Cockiness is never perceived well and it would be hard for a team to follow a leader who is self-centered and thinks they know everything.

A great leader will admit that they are wrong, will take suggestions that are not their own and mull over them, and will put God and others before themselves.

What Does It Take to be a Great Leader? (Part 2)

Yesterday, we looked at integrity as a huge asset in being  a great leader.  So what else does it take to be a great leader?

Clear Communication

Communication is a must to be a great leader, but not just communication.  It must be clear. If you are a leader, you most likely work with a team of some sort.  In order to be a great leader and get the production you need and/or want, you must be a clear communicator.  You must distribute and delegate tasks clearly so they are done correctly and accurately and you must communicate the vision of your church or company with clarity.

I also believe as it relates to clear communication, you must deal with conflict personally.  Clear communicator’s see the problem, and put the fire out with personal communication, not email, text messaging, etc.

Tomorrow we’ll look at another aspect of being a great leader…

What Does It Take To Be A Great Leader? (Part 1)

Over this week, I’d like to take a look at what it means to be a great leader.  These aren’t in any order or importance, but today I want to start off with something that I believe is a very important piece to the puzzle.

#1.  Integrity
I believe integrity is key when being a leader.  Why?  Well, let’s start with the basics.  What is integrity?  The dictionary defines it as this:

adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty.

So, it is key that we hold, honor, live out moral and ethical principles.  For myself, being in a pastoral position, I would hold firmly to Scripture for these principles.

Notice, that point number two in the definition is soundness of moral character. How do you portray yourself, not only in the workplace, but out of the workplace as well.  Who are you when no one is looking.  You are not just a leader in your place of employment, you are also a leader outside of that environment as well.

Lastly, the definition says a one word statement: honesty.  In order to lead, you must have follower’s.  In order to have follower’s they must be able to trust you.  So, if you say you will do something, do it.

Now, I know what you all are thinking.  We’re human, we screw up.  I am 100% with you on that statement.  But if we are not striving for integrity, things can get out of control quick.  If we just play it off as “Oh, well I’m human” or “it’s just another hiccup”, we will fall into dishonesty, have horrible character and our integrity will be shot.

So strive for integrity!  It’s huge these days!

Tweak, Tweak, Tweak…

I sit here this morning and can’t get the Catalyst One Day Conference off of my mind.  The entire day was spent talking about “Momentum”.  One quote I took from Andy Stanley’s first session was this statement:

“Minor improvements don’t change momentum.”

What a profound statement.  He went on to say that all we do is tweak, tweak, and tweak and we never gain any or very little ground on what we are doing.  He used this reasoning for shutting things down over the summer and so on.

I know personally in my ministry, I’ve done a lot of tweaking.  I have a lot to think about from that session.

Short, sweet, but to the point.  Think about it!