Category Archives: Pastor

Posts that relate to pastoral leadership.

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Why Would Anyone Want YOU To Lead Them?

A Question of Leadership in Terms of "Followship"

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Halloween has just ended and the airwaves are full of Christmas music. Are we just going to bypass Thanksgiving altogether? I certainly hope not. Thanksgiving is a time of reflection for me. It reminds me that the year is nearly over.

At this time of year, many leaders and leadership teams are taking their annual step back to do a deep-dive assessment of their organization’s progress against the goals and objectives of their strategic plans that they established in the early days of 2016. (What? You don’t do that at your organization? Have you ever considered that maybe that is part of what is holding the organization back?)

Take A Look on the Inside

As part of your end-of-year strategic progress review, consider including another area of assessment — one that will require a different kind of evaluation and one that will be much more introspective in nature. Why not take some time to also consider how you personally are progressing as a leader? After all, an organization’s strategic performance is, in large part, a direct reflection of the effectiveness of the person at the top.

If you want to silence a room of pastors, executives or any group of leaders try this small trick. Ask them, “Why would anyone want you to lead them?”

Without fail, the response will most likely be a sudden, stunned hush. All you will hear are knees knocking and crickets chirping.

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Inspiring and Leading to Greatness

4 Things You Can Do Now!

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Inspire Others

What does it take to inspire and lead others to greatness in their own lives and in the organizations they are part of? How do we draw out of them their potential and their giftedness?

In the general sense, we have to convince them of what is possible. We will have to paint word pictures, cast vision, set goals etc. But in a very practical, “where-the-rubber-meets-the-road” sense, the work we have to do is more specific than that. As leaders, we must meet with people one-on-one and lead with questions, affirm their abilities, develop their perception of themselves and the world around them, and practically expand in their minds the realm of what is possible.

Inspire Others

Here are 4 specific and practical things you can do to inspire others:

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Leadership Language: Old & New – Part 1

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LL Old & New Part 1 - 1We can attract people with our language and we can turn them off just as quickly with the words we use. Which ones are the right ones? Which ones will not only connect but communicate what we are intending? Furthermore what “baggage” do the words we use carry with them? I want to take a moment and consider the importance of words in leading others and how the right words can make something stick but just as quickly the wrong words could result in the loss of our influence and leadership in someone’s life.

There are certain words that I read that quickly turn me off: “Vision-casting, BHAG’s, Successful, Daring, Significant” and more. Now don’t get me wrong I see the value of each of these words. I have incorporated what they represent into my own life and leadership and I have taught them to others. However I do often shy away from people using them because of the abuse of them and the “used car-salesman” (no offense intended) impression that some leadership experts carry with them as they teach others how to manipulate (hm-hmmm, I mean lead) others. So is there anything wrong with these words? No. But when I use them could I just as quickly be turning people off to the message I carry because they are perhaps judging me in the same way I have just mentioned? So does that mean we need to get rid of these words, redefine them, redeem them or replace them? And is it really that important?

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Manday Quote: Insecure Leadership

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My Senior Pastor Gregg Matte made many penetrating statements in a recent sermon that caught my attention.  But there is always that one  “SQUIRREL” moment when my pastor mentions leadership in his message.

“Insecure leaders make people-pleasing their priority instead of leading.”

Pastor Gregg was providing a breakdown of all the Herods listed in the Bible from Jesus’ birth to the preaching of Paul.  Our Pastor noted that one of the Herods became so enamored with the positive response of the Jews after he beheaded James, the brother of John.  He was so encouraged by the response, Herod decided to arrest Peter in an attempt to please the Jewish masses.  Herod became a people-pleaser.

The Senior Pastor then went on to confess that he has chosen the path of people-pleasing  and will probably do that in the future.  Now…he wasn’t comparing himself to Herod.  But as a leader, Pastor Gregg was admitting that it is human nature to accept insecurity and grasp at anything to please critics and followers instead of making the hard decisions and leading.

I have done it.  It is the path of least resistance.  I forfeited the opportunity to lead for the accolades and “likes” of men.

Men can have this tendency to choose the people-pleasing route instead of leading.

 

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Rant-The Weiner Warning

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Anthony Weiner. His name says it all. Let me be very clear. Anthony is not a man. And he is a poor excuse for a leader. How he got elected much less married puzzles me? But men (and women) can be deceptive and present themselves better than they really are.

Anthony Weiner is a brat. He is a digital flasher. If the internet didn’t exist, he would be wearing a raincoat in a public place opening it up to any unsuspecting victim.  He is a decadent pervert. This poor excuse of a man is so intoxicated with himself and so proud of his genitals he must present them in digital format to women who are not his wife. Was that too harsh? Well maybe we as men and leaders need to call deviant behavior what it is: shameful, decadent, and dangerous.

We use soft words to describe pretty sordid behavior because it’s socially acceptable and palatable on the tongue. We call what he did sexting.  And it is socially acceptable.

For example, if I say

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Manday-Continuing Proverbs 31 Verse 2

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Cartoon: Watterson, Bill. “Calvin and Hobbes.” Comic Strip. facebook.com/dailycalvinhobbes 12 July 2013.

How many of you had parents?  Silly question…but I thought I would start off with that little ice breaker.

A couple of weeks ago while teaching on Proverbs, I asked the question-If you were to pass away today, what nugget of wisdom would you want your child to have learned from you?

The mother of King Lemuel asked the same question as she gave advise to her son, the King.  The second verse of the much forgotten first nine verses of Proverbs 31 reads:

What [should I say], my son?     What, son of my womb?     What, son of my vows?

Like every parent, the King’s mother speaks/writes like one concerned with what to tell him…with what to share with him.  I can feel the anguish of having to choose words carefully.  And the prose is filled with concern.

I have two years before my oldest leaves our home and embarks on his own life.  The next two years “concern” me.  I am choosing my words carefully when I instruct and correct him.  I remember presenting him to the church body when he was months old.  I vowed to raise him to love God with all his heart, soul, and mind.  I remember my vow daily.  I promised to teach my oldest to live his life for God.  Remember the name Lemuel meant “for God”.  Devoted to God.  I learned from commentaries that Solomon was also called Jedidah meaning “of the Lord”.  So what vow are we talking about?  What devotion?  The commandment from Deuteronomy 6:4-7.

4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”

Parents teach your children what is good.  No matter their station in life, everyone needs instruction.  Kings the most.  Men the most…husbands the most…fathers the most.  Because children may recall all the good and bad teaching.

I remember thinking “Oh great…one day my kid is going to show up on Oprah and point at me and blame me for all his issues.”  Probably.

I lean toward Matt Chandler’s assessment.

“We’re just gathering all the spiritual kindling we possibly can around our kids and begging God to ignite their souls for Him”.

Phew.  Amen.

 

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Accessible or Aloof

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AloofReading Michael Hyatt’s blog early this morning I saw his recounting of a podcast by Andy Stanley, a well-known pastor in the Atlanta, GA metropolitan area. Andy Stanley is of the opinion that the greater or higher the level of leadership that a person reaches, the less accessible they must make themselves.

Andy Stanley is quoted as saying:

“The harsh reality of leadership is that the more successful we are, the less accessible we become. As things grow and as more people become involved, a leader can’t be equally accessible to all people. So then we are faced with the dilemma of who gets my time and who doesn’t, when do they get it, and how much of it do they get.”

l sort of equate that to the movie star who becomes famous by making movies.  And then they go on countless TV interviews to become even more famous.  And then they complain because they never have any privacy.  Does that sound familiar?

l would submit to you that the things that made a great leader great are the same things that will keep them great. And one of those things is accessibility and approach-ability.  Every person needs a certain amount of privacy and down time. And as followers we need to recognize and respect that.  But I don’t see a significant reason for someone to become markedly less accessible in order to become more effective.

Absence, or aloofness, doesn’t make the heart grow fonder. It makes the heart wander. And the opposite of accessible could be defined as aloof. And who thinks that is a leadership trait?