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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.

Tweets From Revelation 13

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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 13.  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

Satan’s power appears very attractive on the surface…but lo, his doom is sure. (Revelation 13:1)
While Satan’s doom is sure…make no mistake of his power on this earth. (Revelation 13:2)
Satan’s deceived the world by drawing their attention away from his future. (Revelation 13:3)
In our blindness to true spiritual realities, we can mistake Satan’s strength for God’s. (Revelation 13:4)
Even Satanic deception is limited by the power of our God. (Revelation 13:5)
Satan has nothing good to say about God or His followers. (Revelation 13:6)
God at times even allows Satan to resist & conquer believers, so He can gloriously triumph in the end. (Revelation 13:7)
Unbelievers are easily duped into worshipping Satan instead of the One True God. (Revelation 13:8)
It’s time to wake up and listen to what God has to say. (Revelation 13:9)
Times of suffering & tribulation call for faith & endurance, not unbelief & retreat. (Revelation 13:10) 
If Satan was a Transformer, he’d definitely be a decepticon. (Revelation 13:11)
All Satanic deceptions appear the same: look godly to draw people away from God. (Revelation 13:12) 
Satanic deceptions wield power that appears godly. (Revelation 13:13)
One aim of Satan’s tricks is to get devotion from people toward himself. (Revelation 13:14)
Resisting Satan’s deceptive schemes can prove dangerous. (Revelation 13:15)
Truly following God (or Satan) definitely marks us one way or another…no matter who we are. (Revelation 13:16)
Being set apart for God or Satan can affect our living in this world. (Revelation 13:17)
Being marked out for Satan sets us apart for man’s (not God’s) purposes. (Revelation 13:18)
Make no mistake: you either follow God or the god of this world. (Revelation 13:16-18)

Weekend Recap – 9/16/12PM

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On this past Sunday, our men gathered for a series called Collision Course, which seeks to allow men to sharpen one another to practice Biblical masculinity.  Specifically, we engaged with this Doug Wilson video entitled Two Departures from Masculinity:

Here’s a transcript:
Scott Anderson of Desiring God: Doug, talk to us about what it means to depart from masculinity? What are the options if we fall off that horse?
Doug Wilson: I’m fond of telling our people at our congregation at Christ Church that there’s always a ditch on both sides of the road. There are two ways to run your car off the road. And if you want to stay on the road of Biblical, godly masculinity, one way to veer off the road is simply to abdicate, to collapse in a heap, to fail to fulfill your obligations because you twisted your ankle, just sort of an effeminate collapsing. Then, the other way to veer away from masculinity is through bravado or machismo or sort of a swagger that is all hat no cattle. You know all the trappings of masculinity are adopted: sports fanaticism, smoking cigars, loud music, your pickup truck is jacked up so you can go hunting bear. You’ve got all the trappings, but you’re not taking responsibility for your wife or for your family. So, one is a counterfeit machismo and the other is an effeminate collapsing.
Benjamin Oard led our men in a discussion on what are the ditches to avoid, how are they created and how we keep in the center, walking the path of Biblical masculinity God intended.  We had lots of rich discussion and prayer at our tables following this and ended our night.  It was a great time of fellowship and encouragement for the guys.

Weekend Recap – 9/16/12AM

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Yesterday, we had a visiting speaker, Luke T, speaking to us on The Heart of a Sending Church from 3 John 5-8.  He pointed to this text as a way to calibrate our hearts as sending workers into the global harvest.  Specifically, there was a past look to faithfulness, a present passion for faithfulness, and a future commitment to being faithful.  Faithful, faithful, faithful, that is the core message to churches sending workers to the harvest.  There was much rich, Biblical application.  I hope it proved helpful for you.

Leadership Email – Leadership & Coaching (Football)

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Here’s my email to Leaders in Reno County from Monday, September 10…
I’ve been alluding in recent weeks to the latest journal of the Kansas Leadership Center.  One article in this issue might be especially relevant to us (especially this time of year): The Leadership Example of Bill Snyder.  Whether we cheer for K-State or not, we can all find relevant leadership applications in the life of this amazing leader.  I thought this summary from Mary Hale Tolar, who directs the School of Leadership Studies in Manhattan, was especially enlightening: “Coach Snyder’s belief in hard work and incremental improvement perhaps ring most true for me.  Exercising leadership consists of helping followers clarify their individual and collective goals, enrolling followers in a collective vision, and then doing the work necessary to improve.  He believes larger goals must be broken down into intermediate goals that are believable and achievable.  Exercising leadership takes hard work, a plan, ability to assess and adjust the plan, all in a pursuit of a goal – a purpose worth the effort.” 
Let this summary be your motivation today to do the hard work of leadership.  It is hard work but has amazing benefits to make progress on issues we care about.  Diagnose a situation, intervene skillfully, and energize others through it and see if it doesn’t help us make our community a better, healthier place.   

Weekend Recap – 3D Love

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My 9/9/12AM sermon, 3D Love, from Hebrews 13:1-3 is now online.  This sermon, coming almost in the same breath of a revelation that God’s a consuming fire, helps us orient our lives in worship properly by displaying love to those around us.  The three dimensional love taught to us is an inward love for other Christians in the church, an outward love for those outside the church and a particular love displayed for the needy, as if we have the same kind of need.

I hope you had a great Lord’s Day, as well.  Now, with Monday, we have the opportunity to live out what we experienced yesterday.  I pray you do that in a way that pleases God.