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Leadership Email – Diagnosing the Problem of Yourself…

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Here’s my weekly email to leaders in Reno County from October 1:

Greeting Fellow Leaders of Reno County and Happy October.

I love the resources provided from the Kansas Leadership Center.  I just opened my snail mail box on Friday to find a postcard from them entitled “Take Care of Yourself.”  I want to include its contents here for those of you who might not get the mailings.
TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF
A resource for Managing Self created by Kansas Leadership Center alumni
“Leadership is risky.  You stand a better chance of succeeding when you’re at your best.”  This resource is designed to help you engage in civic leadership more effectively.  It is based on experiences shared by KLC alumni in a September 5, 2012 “On the Balcony” conference call, hosted by KLC President & CEO Ed O’Malley.
WHAT DOES TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF MEAN?
·         Recognizing when you need to take care of yourself.
·         Finding what balances you.  Personal projects, quiet time for self, physical activity.
·         Having kindness and compassion for yourself and the work you’re doing.
WHY IS TAKING CARE OF YOURSELF NECESSARY FOR YOUR LEADERSHIP?
·         When we neglect to take care of ourselves, we can’t bring our best selves to work.  If we can’t bring our best selves, we’re less likely able to engage in leadership effectively.
THREE WAYS TO TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF:
1.       Take quiet time for yourself: Prayer, reflection, meditation.
2.       Care for your physical needs: get enough sleep and exercise regularly.
3.       Ask for what you want or need.
WHY DON’T WE TAKE CARE OF OURSELVES MORE?
·         Competing values.  We choose to make managing work and family more important than taking care of ourselves.
·         It’s risky.  We fear job loss, income loss, and the perception that we’re selfish.
·         Caring for ourselves is not valued enough culturally.
WARNING SIGNS THAT INDICATE YOU NEED TO TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF:
·         You become restless, irritable and discontent.
·         You can no longer meet people where they are.
·         You start forgetting things.
·         You become physically sick.
·         You take things personally that were meant as constructive criticism.
I know I’ve bombarded you with a lot to think about here, but mull it over and consider how you might better take care of yourself and make progress as an effective leader.
Until next time…

Weekend Recap – Content in God

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My 9/30/12AM sermon, Contentment, from Hebrews 13:5-6 is now online.  The big idea of the sermon is that we should be content in God, our Helper, and flee the love of money, look to Him and be confident that He will provide for our needs.  The confession of a contented soul flows in v.6, “The Lord is my Helper; I will not fear, what can man do to me?”  As we rest in God’s promise to never leave or forsake us, we find our souls revived to rest in Him alone.  This is contentment.  The music for our morning pointed to this and to Christ’s finished work on the cross.  Is there a better way to boost contentment than to gather at the Lord’s table together and reflect on what God’s done for us in Christ?  This was our morning yesterday.  It was such a blessing to be a part of it.

In the evening, equally blessed were those who attended a time of corporate prayer for needs that are all around us.  Casting our cares on the Lord freed us from the burdens we came with.  It was truly a marvelous Lord’s Day.  I hope yours was filled with grace as well.

Tweets From Revelation 14

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In late May, I began 202 days of journaling through the 404 verses of the final book of the Bible, Revelation.  To go along with my personal study and preparation to preach through this book in 2013, I’m trying to tweet something from every verse.  Today I finished chapter 14.  Here’s a compilation of my tweets followed by the reference.

Revelation 1 | Revelation 2 | Revelation 3 | Revelation 4 | Revelation 5 | Revelation 6 | Revelation 7 | Revelation 8 | Revelation 9 | Revelation 10 | Revelation 11 | Revelation 12 | Revelation 13

Throughout eternity, God and His people will remain. (Revelation 14:1)
God consistently reveals Himself in the Bible through speaking. (Revelation 14:2)
God’s redeemed people always have a new song to sing of God’s mercies. (Revelation 14:3)
God’s people are characterized by purity, devotion to Christ and freedom from sin. (Revelation 14:4)
God’s people are also truthful. (Revelation 14:5)
The gospel is always meant to be advancing to ALL people.  (Revelation 14:6)
God’s call to ALL: “fear & worship Me or face judgment.” (Revelation 14:7)
God’s message to ALL people warns them of the allure that this world offers. (Revelation 14:8)
A sad reality (part 1): the world can follow the god of this world. (Revelation 14:9)
A sad reality (part 2): following the god of this world gets us God in His righteous anger.  (Revelation 14:10)
God’s punishment of those who follow Satan is eternal torment. (Revelation 14:11)
The reality of God’s wrath inspires God’s followers to endure in obedience and faith. (Revelation 14:12)
Resting in Jesus means laying down our works and dying in Him. (Revelation 14:13)
Jesus is a King ruling in righteous judgment. (Revelation 14:14)
Whether we like it or not, deny it or not, God’s judgment is coming. (Revelation 14:15)
And it is Jesus Himself who exercises judgment. (Revelation 14:16)
Let judgment begin in the house of God. (Revelation 14:17)
The time of judgment is compared to a ripe harvest, O, please be right with God when the time comes. (Revelation 14:18)
One day, like a harvest, those rejecting God will be gathered for the winepress of His wrath. (Revelation 14:19)
The winepress of God’s wrath is a terrifying prospect. (Revelation 14:20)

Stop Being Such A Greedy Pig

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We must guard ourselves against all selfishness, greed and coveting.  As Charles Spurgeon said:

It is not possible to satisfy the greedy.  If God gave them one who world to themselves they would cry for another; and if it were possible for them to possess heaven as they now are, they would feel themselves in hell, because others were in heaven too, for their greed is such that they must have everything or else they have nothing.  

This Sunday, we will look at Hebrews 13:5-6 and its call to contentment.  Search your heart?  Are you greedy, loving money and “more”?  Come Sunday and hear how God is more than enough for anything you need.

Corporate Prayer at Crestview

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I love that our church regularly disciplines our time for corporate prayer.  This Sunday (9/30) at 6PM, we will take time to gather together and pray.  Recently, Sinclair Ferguson commented on the importance of corporate prayer in a post entitled Does Your Church Pray Together.  He said:

There is the lack of prayer and of the Church praying. This is to me the most alarming, for this reason: we have built apparently strong, large, successful, active churches. But many of our churches never meet as a congregation for prayer. I mean never! What does that indicate we are saying about the life of the Church as a fellowship?

By contrast, the mark of a truly apostolic spirit in the church is that that we give ourselves to prayer and the Word together (Acts 6:4). No wonder “the Word of God continued to increase and the number of the disciples multiplied” (Acts 6:7). If this is so, it should not surprise us that while many churches see growth, it is often simply reconfiguration of numbers, not of conversion. I greatly wish that our churches would learn to keep the main things central, that we would learn to be true Churches, vibrant fellowships of prayer, Gospel ministry and teaching, genuine mutual love. At the end of the day, such a Church simply needs to “be” for visitors who come to sense that this is a new order of reality altogether and are drawn to Christ.

Will you join us?  Let’s gather and see if God doesn’t do amazing things through these prayers.

Leadership Email – Building Bridges

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Each Monday I write an email for leaders in Reno County.  Here’s the one I wrote on Monday, 9/24/12 entitled “Building Bridges”.

Well, it’s nearly done.  Every day on my morning commute through Hutch Rush Hour, I glance at that interchange at 30th and K-61 and it even got a nice write up in Monday’s paper.  The Pedestrian Bridge is nearly done.  Bridges are important.  They connect things.  They bring two opposing sides together in a safe way.  Bridges help us get across obstacles.  They encourage our overcoming impasse.  They are certainly needed in our physical world.
This is also true in our acts of leadership.  On the one hand, leadership takes courage.  It’s risky.  Leadership means we sometimes have to push out into hard and uncharted territory.  But, on the other hand, we have to opportunity to diagnose situations and, in purposeful engagement, see progress at any time and in any place.  One question in the KLC Quick Guide encouraging us to energize others asks, “How do we build bridges between the factions?”  Great question indeed.  We often look at factions very differently.  A question I’ve asked in my mind before is, “How can I work around the faction without a bridge?”  But, like we’ve seen, bridges are important.  Bridges will help us make more progress.  Bridges will give us a bigger and often better result in the long run.
So, as our community prepares to open another physical bridge, let it be a reminder that we have the opportunity to lead and energize others, building bridges not walls.  Let’s step into this kind of leadership, then, and see if it doesn’t help us make progress on the issues we care about the most.  

More On Esteeming Marriage

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After my summary of Sunday’s sermon, Esteeming Marriage, yesterday, I thought I’d follow up today with some questions you could work through to further apply the message.

Here’s the info:

My Outline:
3 encouragements in esteeming marriage…
I. Honor It!   II. Protect It!  III. Sanctify It!
Questions:

What seemed to be the main emphasis of Sunday’s sermon and how did that resonate with you? 

Why do you think we tend to take so little time prioritizing the health of our marriages?
Other than the ones mentioned, in what ways can we seek to make marriage honorable before all?
What should be our response to those who have witnessed a dishonorable marriage from us?
What are some remedies for keeping the marriage bed undefiled?
How do we fight against the onslaught of the world around us and their thinking on $ex?
Why do we in the church shrink back from talking openly about marital relations?
Why does the writer of Hebrews go to such lengths to remind us that God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous in this passage?
How does remembering God will judge inspire you to action?
What applications need to be made in your life in light of Sunday?

If you discuss this with your spouse, maybe spend time in prayer together afterwards to help draw you together as one.

Weekend Recap – Esteeming Marriage

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My sermon from 9/23/12AM entitled Esteeming Marriage from Hebrews 13:4 is now online.  While many in our culture scoff at what the church thinks of marriage, God calls His people to live in such a way that marriage is honored among all.  He also calls us to pursue the purity of marital relations as well as seek holiness in light of His sure judgment.  All of these thoughts led this sermon to conclusions like: Honor marriage!  Protect marriage! Sanctify marriage!

Hope you had a great Lord’s Day and God richly blesses your week.

Leadership Email – Band-Aids & Cancer

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Here’s the article I wrote for Reno County Leaders on Monday:

Happy Post-Fair Monday, Fellow Reno County Leaders…

We’ve all heard that phrase, “Don’t put a band-aid on a cancer.”  And we know what it means, don’t we?  It means don’t try to solve problems in ways that are ineffective.  This got me thinking recently about how quick I am to forget to distinguish between technical and adaptive challenges.  I tend to think that most problems I encounter can be solved with a simple solution.  But, the true reality for those of us who deal with people is that most of the problems we are working to solve are more adaptive in nature. 
To clearly spell this out, I’m helped by how the KLC, in its Leadership Lexicon, defines Adaptive Challenges or Adaptive Work: “problems that resist easy solutions and in which new learning is needed, often causing an examination of the context of a situation and the individuals involved including the way things typically work and the way we work.  Contrasted with technical problems in which known remedies and expertise can be applied.”  Often, in our work as leaders, there are elements blended in our leadership.  Part of the solution may very well be technical, but there is a huge adaptive element that must be considered. 
Part of our acts of leadership, then, especially in diagnosing a situation, must be distinguishing between the technical and adaptive elements and even exploring the adaptive interpretations that emerge.  Band aids don’t fix cancer.  And, your trying to solve all the leadership challenges you face with known remedies and expertise doesn’t work either.  Step into leadership by seeing those adaptive challenges for what they are, exercising leadership by applying wise solutions to these.  And just see if the effect isn’t more progress on these issues you care about so deeply. 
Have a great week.
Oh, and if you’d like to dig deeper, here’s a journal article from the KLC which defines Adaptive Work.