I can remember growing up that the rule was “Clear your plate.”  Eat everything that you were given, don’t waste anything, there are kids starving in Africa, so “Clear your plate.”  So we  get conditioned to eat everything on our plate.

In my work life/professional life I have adopted this to a degree.  Finish the To Do List, even though it is a mile long and things keep getting added, “Clear your plate.”

Well I am giving up on that.  I was listen to John Maxwell yesterday as I was working and one thing he said jumped out of the speakers and hit me hard in the head, “Practice Planned Neglect.”  Then he went on to talk about the 80/20 principle and the fact that there are things that you should not be doing.

The key is “planned neglect” there are things on the list that you don’t need to do, should not do, and should even pass on to someone else to do.  Focus on the things that give the greatest return for your time.  So I am presently evaluating my To Do List and asking myself “Where do I need to practice planned neglect?” “What are the things that give me the greatest return on my time?” and “What is just filler?”

Thoughts?

…It is a necesity!

Sadly we think that failure is not an option, when it is really a necessity.  If we are afraid to fail we will be afraid to even try new things.  Life, ministry, almost everything involves a level of risk, taking a chance, getting out there in the scary places.  It has been said, “if we aren’t failing, we aren’t trying.”  That is all too true.  I think many times we fail our way to success.

I’ve made many blunder as a public speaker.  When I was first starting out I was scared of looking bad, until that fateful day that I got up to preach and said everything I had to in 2 minutes and then paced back and forth saying “praise God, Amen, Glory to God” for the next 20 minutes.  CRASH AND BURN BABY!!!!  I am at the point now that I have embarrassed myself enough times to try anything when I am speaking.  This has freed me to be more creative and more bold.  It took a lot of failures, really bad messages, and vocal gaffs to get to this point.  I’ve failed my way to a level of success as a communicator.

We have taken stabs at different events that didn’t work.  Classes that didn’t work.  Programs that didn’t work.  As a result we have a better handle on what does work in our local context.  I call that a win.  As John Maxwell says “we have been failing forward.”  In the last 6 year as the lead pastor @ Lighthouse I have had many miss steps but each one has become a stepping stone to greater growth ad success for the church.

How about you?  Have you been failing forward?  Or do you feel that failure is not an option and you won’t even try until your sure you will get it right?

Repost from Swerve

Right Hand Team

Many leaders have a right-hand-man (or woman). To maximize your leadership effectiveness, I would suggest a right-hand-team.

For years, many churches that grew large enough had a senior pastor and his right-hand-man, the executive pastor. In my opinion, this is a dated and limited model of church leadership.

I suggest breaking the traditional “second spot” into two to four roles. I can’t tell you what those roles will be for you, but I’ll offer some broad suggestions.

Serving alongside the leader, you’ll probably want two to four team members that cover these roles:

• An administrative player. You’ll want to ensure someone is capable of building systems, structures, and accountability.
• A relational player. Hopefully you’ll have someone who is very good with people. This person could be an expert in recruiting, team building, pastoring, relational problem solving, or some combination of the above.
• An innovative player. In the best environment, you’ll have someone who is an idea-person. This team member is often young (but not necessarily). You’ll want to make sure this innovative mind isn’t rebellious and is a team player. When you find a person like this, she’ll be a great asset to your team.
• A stabilizing player. Most good teams have a person who can rise above the details and see the big picture. This person may not be the most visible, but is often one of the most important. He is someone who can bring objectivity and stability in the middle of challenges.

Jump into the discussion!

Repost form Swerve

Team Dynamics

In the early stages of ministry, I suggest you never make anyone a permanent member of a leadership team. Things change too quickly. Determine limited time periods for a leader to serve. You can always ask her to rejoin easier than you can ask her to leave.

When you’re building a team, you have to remember a team takes time to build. (When you determine you have a “wrong” player on the team, you must remove him sooner rather than later.)

You must be willing:

• To fight together. A team that can’t work through conflict will never be a team.
• To be loyal to the death. Even though you can fight behind closed doors, you ALWAYS stand together publicly. Disloyalty is never tolerated.
• To be transparent. If you can’t be brutally honest about everything, you don’t have a team.
• To care for each other. A team that is “all business” will eventually deteriorate. A ministry team must become a family.
• To have fun together. I always know a team is not healthy when I don’t hear them laughing often.

Thoughts?

This is a repost from Swerve

Team Leadership

I don’t like committees. Big groups of people rarely make the best decisions and often slow things down.

When I talk about leading as a team, I am NOT talking about ministry by committees.

On any good team, there is a head coach. Someone must be in charge. But if the coach is wise, he’ll build a team of coaches.

In any ministry, I suggest the following:

• One leader who is ultimately responsible for the direction of the ministry.
• Three to seven people who become some sort of a leadership team. (Two is not enough. Three drastically improves the dynamics. More than seven becomes bulky. For some reason, I like odd numbers.) This could be an advisory team, executive team, leadership team, directional team, or whatever suits your purposes.
• When possible, the people on the team should be a diversified group.
• Each person has an equal voice—but the leader reserves the right to make the final call. (On our team, it has been years since I have overridden the wisdom of the team. I still reserve the right at any time to make the hard call.)

More to come.

Thoughts?

I love Perry Noble, He is the Pastor of Newspring Church, a very hard hitting and innovative church in South Carolina.  He does not mince words and says what is on his heart.  The following is a blog he posted today, he is talking to pastors, but the principles apply to us all, we cannot give the enemy a foothold or even crack the door for him.

Attention Pastors: Keep Your Penis In Your Pants!!!

No, the title is NOT a type-o!  I meant exactly what I said…and I will mean every single word that follows.

Before you write me an email (which will automatically deleted…I don’t freakin’ care what anyone thinks about this post) you need to understand that I am completely pissed off…and…at the same time completely broken over this subject!

AND…this is something that NEEDS to be addressed.  Unfortunately at conferences people will talk about it in the corners and private conversations…but rarely will anyone speak (or blog) about it because they feel they may offend someone if they use “strong language.”  I am SICK and TIRED of people dancing around the issue and speaking in OBSCURE terms!
It’s about freakin’ time SOMEONE quite worrying about who gets offended and just flat out told the truth…

PASTORS…we have a calling from God, we are called to live with integrity, we are called to LEAD by living an example…and that CANNOT be done if we are trying to have sex with women that we are NOT MARRIED TOO!

The other day I was sitting at my desk and received an email from a friend informing me that another good friend of ours had disqualified himself from the ministry because of an affair.

I wanted to throw up!  I began shaking all over.  I wanted to cry…and at the same time I wanted to throw things and cuss.  The enemy scored another notch…another black eye on the Christian faith.

Am I judging the guy?  Heck no!  Anytime I hear of something like this happening I always say, “It’s by God’s grace that it didn’t happen to me.”  In fact; I called him and spoke with him for quite a while.  I love the guy–he’s my friend and always will be.

However, pastors–THIS HAS TO STOP!  We cannot get up on Sunday and tell people how to live if lust and sexual fantasies with women we are not married to are dominating our minds.

Paul said in Philippians 4:8 that we need to think about things that exalt Christ…NOT satisfy our own flesh!  Let me ask you an honest question pastor–RIGHT NOW…is there a woman other than you wife that you are thinking sexual thoughts about?

If the answer is yes then you’ve GOT TO TELL SOMEONE!  PLEASE, get some help!!!  Talk to a friend…go see a Counselor…but DO IT NOW!  I know you think you are strong…but all it takes is ONE WEAK MOMENT and then BAM…everything you’ve worked so hard for is LOST on the five seconds of sensation that you obtain!

It’s SO SAD when pastors will talk about how bad it was that Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of soup…and then they will turn around and sell their ministry for an orgasm!

Is it tough to maintain a sexually pure mind?  YOU HAD BETTER BELIEVE IT!  I remember my pastor saying to me back in 1990 when he was meeting with a group of young men who were called into the ministry, “Boys, everyone of you is going to have a chance to have an affair…and it’s not because you are good looking but rather because the enemy is crafty and knows he can use a woman to take you down!”

I know of some pastors who have had emotional affairs with women…and when questioned about it they will simply say, “Well, my wife just wasn’t there for me!”

WHAT A FREAKIN’ WIMP!!!  In 99.9% of the cases the wife wasn’t there because the PASTOR was out trying to impress everyone else and, in doing so, didn’t pursue his wife!!!!!!!  SHE NEEDS YOU BRO!!!  AND…if you would pursue her and QUIT allowing the church to be your mistress…things would be a lot better!

Pastors…I am NOT a legalist…except for this subject!  We simply CANNOT allow the enemy to steal our calling, kill God’s work and destroy our families simply because we began thinking between our legs and not between our ears!

My advice…take RADICAL steps.  Make a committment to NEVER be alone with a woman!  EVER…under ANY circumstances.  Form a relationship with a godly man whom you trust and talk about your struggles…every single one of them.  Pastors–we’ve GOT to stop trying to impress others with how “godly we are!”  HONESTY paves the way to INTIMACY with GOD…and the reason a lot of pastors don’t feel a connection with the ALMIGHTY is because they are too busy trying to “connect” with a willing woman…BUT denying that they have the desire to do so!!!

If you are a church member…PRAY for the purity of your pastor–EVERY SINGLE DAY!  Is sexual temptation real for him?  Let me go ahead and say it–YES!  (And the pastor who says no is a freakin’ liar!!!)  As I said earlier…the enemy is wise…he knows WHEN to tempt and WHAT to tempt with!!!  Pray that he will walk with Jesus and ONLY have eyes for his wife!!!

PASTORS…the battle is REAL…and IF you are struggling it is NOT going to go away!  How do you resist?

STOP DENYING there is a problem…if there is…CONFESS IT!!!

PURSUE YOUR WIFE with passion like never before!  Warning…if you haven’t pursued her in a while she is going to be skeptical of your advances…it’s going to take time to win back her heart.

II Corinthians 10:5 says that we should take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ…that means WHEN (not if) the lustful thoughts come your way…understand that those thoughts are NOT FROM GOD…take them captive!

STOP FLIRTING WITH ANYONE EXCEPT FOR YOUR WIFE!!! No texting, no emails, no chatting online, no “counseling appointments,” no long lunches…STOP IT NOW!!!

I’ve said about all I am going to say about this for now…as I said…I am ANGRY…angry that the enemy is so persistent and that SO MANY men give in rather than calling on the unbelievable power that Christ has placed inside of us through HIS Holy Spirit.

Pastors…let’s be men who LOVE Jesus, LOVE our wives, LOVE our children and then LOVE His church!

AND…one more time, IF you are struggling with this–PLEASE GET HELP!  You cannot keep sin in the dark…Galatians 6:7 says God will not be mocked…you know that verse…you’ve preached it many times…problem is you don’t think it applies to you…and it does!!!

My desire when it is all said & done is NOT to pastor the largest church in the world or to speak at tons of conferences or to sell lots of books…but rather to hear the words of my Lord, “Well done my good and faihtful servant.”

And…if I die before ‘Cretia I want for her to be able to stand over my coffin and KNOW that I was 100% faithful to her…that I was a man who took a vow to forsake all others…and that I was man enough to fulfill that vow!!!

Do you have the stones to man up?  Will you commit to purity RIGHT NOW?  Seriously, break off a phone call to someone TODAY and have a serious conversation about this.  Ask them to ask you the tough questions…and be man enough to be honest!!!  We can’t let the enemy have any more ground here…let’s take it back!!!

I will be spending this week talking about what it means to be a “member” or better said a “partner” of Lighthouse Assembly.

To become a member/partner at Lighthouse you must complete Class 101 Discovering Church Membership as well as agree to and sign the Membership Agreement.

The Membership Agreement spells out what it means to partner with us and it is broken down into 4 parts and we will be dealing with those parts this week.

1.  I will protect the UNITY of my church

• By acting in love toward others
• By refusing to gossip
• By following the leadership

So let’s define to important terms

Protect is “to defend or guard from attack, invasion, loss, annoyance, or insult; to cover or shield from injury or danger”

Unity is “oneness, a state of being one; being united; oneness of mind; harmony; agreement”

So this first point of the partnership agreement is to PROTECT (defend or guard against attack to shield or cover from injury) the UNITY (the harmony, the oneness of mind) of our church by:

-Acting in love toward others

• this is a central part of our vision “love each other”
• this tells the world we really are Christ disciples
• this creates an environment that people want to be a part of
• this means we “love our neighbor as ourselves”
• this means we treat everyone the way we want to be treated

-Refusing to Gossip

• gossip is “idle talk or rumors about the personal or private affairs of others”
• ACT IN LOVE TOWARD OTHERS, you don’t want people bad mouthing you, don’t do it to them
• we all have junk in our lives, if you are really concerned for someone take them aside and SPEAK TO THEM DIRECTLY!!!
• if someone comes to you with a concern about someone else, ask them “have you discussed this with the person you are talking about?”  If the answer is NO, DO NOT LISTEN TO THEM!!!
• If we refuse to listen to gossip, gossip will stop, gossip is like a flame and listening ears are like fuel for that fire.  Smokey the Bears says “Only you can prevent forest fires”   Pastor Clif says, “Only you can prevent the destructive fires of gossip”
• Don’t start gossip, to listen to gossip, don’t spread gossip
• GOSSIP KILLS UNITY
• When you gossip you become Satan’s hand extended instead of God’s

-Following the Leadership

• Get behind the mission of the church, “To lead people to become fully formed followers of Jesus Christ who passionately Love God, Love Others, & Love The World”
• Trust that the leadership is prayerfully following Jesus’ leadership and direction
• By becoming a member/partner you have said “I agree with Lighthouse, it Leadership, & its’ vision;” if you can’t say that you should not be a member/partner
• WE are all rowing the boat in the same direction, we can have discussions about the best way to get from point A to point B, but we are UNITED on WHERE WE ARE GOING, and if you don’t want to go THERE then change ships don’t try to bring this one down.

***I know some of that sounds hars but please note this dose not mean we are the BORG and as a collective their is room for disagreement or discussion.  What it does mean is we are UNITED around a singular VISION for Lighthouse and we follow the leadership as they follow Christ as they try to bring it about the fulfillment of that vision.

As a member/partner you  agree to Protect the UNITY of Lighthouse.  We have a lot of people to reach for Jesus Christ.

I have found it is hard to rock the boat when you are helping to row it.

Protect the unity!

Ok yesterday I post the first few traits of the kind of leader that God uses taken from Glenn Wagner and Dan Southerland’s series on ReThinking Leadership, today we will list another batch:

5.  The leader God uses develops Their Skills

6.  The leader God uses Loves Others

7.  The leader God uses recognizes the Needs Of Others (Outside the church/community where they minister)

8.  The leader God uses Delegates Respsonsiblity

Reasons leaders don’t delegate:

• They have a perfered method of operating
• They need to know all the details
• “I can do it better” mentality
• They have a lack of experience in the job or in delegating
• Insecurity

Thoughts?

In our Elder’s Meeting each month we try to spend sometime working on Leadership Development.  For the past couple of meetings we have been listen to some material by Glenn Wagner and Dan Southerland on “ReThinking Leadership.”  Last night the material was on the kind of leader that God uses.  I wanted to hit some of those points and see what kind of discussion is born out of it, they had 11 points we will hit a few today and some more later.  The following is taken directly form their material:

1.  The leader that God uses is open to CHANGE

Indicators change is needed:

• lack of growth
• outdated methodology
• rapid leader turnover

2.  The leader God uses is open to Significant Lay Involvement

• The role of the pastor is not to do ministry
  
• The role of the pastor is to equip the church to do ministry

3.  The leader God uses exercises GREAT FAITH

4.  The leader God uses SHARES their faith

These produced some great discussion in our meeting, I’d like to hear all your thoughts.