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Dangerous Calling Email – It’s About The Heart

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Here’s an email I sent to our Elders and Deacons this week:

We enjoyed a great Elders/Deacons meeting this past Monday and watched Sessions 3 & 4 of the Dangerous Calling DVDs.  As usual, Tripp delivered pointed and Biblical counsel.  And, as we follow up on the suggested reading, we end up back in Chapter 4 entitled “More Than Knowledge and Skill.”  If you’ve had time to interact with this chapter at all, you know that what Tripp is driving at is that ministry isn’t so much about what we know or what we’re able to do, but the nature of our heart relationship to God.  That heart nurtured before the Lord makes all the difference, for instance, in how we care for our wives, parent our children, relate to our coworkers and a host of other countless little things.  The heart processes our engagement with others. 
So, how is your heart this week?  If we go by Jesus’ standard that out of the mouth the heart speaks, what have your words revealed about your heart?  Might you need to repent and return again to Jesus?  Your ministry is about the impressive acts of service you can muster or what latest and greatest theological piece you’ve mastered.  It’s about your heart in right relationship to Jesus.  Nurture that this week, for the glory of God and the good of His people. 
Have a blessed weekend.  

Leadership Email – Trustworthy Processes

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Here’s my email to Leadership Reno County alumni on 3/18/13:

In a recent Leadership Reno County class, we asked them to “build a trustworthy process” and it got me thinking that this is something that might help more than just the class.  After all, under the competency of Energizing Others comes “create a trustworthy process.”  One question the KLC Quick Guide uses to get at this is: “What can we do to make the process more trustworthy for all involved?”  This dovetails very nicely with Diagnosing the Situation and its urging us to “understand the process challenges.”  Asking the question, “We’ve talked about the content of the problem but what processes need to be created to address it?”  So, there’s a lot to think about with this. 
First off, each situation and challenge we face has its own set of process challenges.  In our effort to quickly fix most of the problems we face with easy solutions, we can easily rush passed thinking about these things (this is part of the reason process is a diagnostic issue).  So, sometimes, more than merely fixing something, we need to think about what processes need to be put in place to address our challenge.  This might lead us to more effective diagnosis.
Also, trust is sometimes and elusive thing.  We’ve heard that trust has to be earned.  So, when we build a process that more effectively builds trust, it will have the effect of energizing others.  We must be careful to remember, though, that creating a trustworthy process will require learning, involve stakeholders, and involve us taking smart risks and so, creating a trustworthy process is an adaptive challenge itself.  Sure, authority can flex and help with the implementation.  But, the most effective (and thus most trustworthy) ones will be built from the ground up.  This will take energy and planning, but in the end might just help us make progress on those issues we care about so deeply.
So, think about creating processes, and trustworthy ones at that, and see if it doesn’t affect our community for the good.  Have a great week…

Dangerous Calling Email – Forsake Mediocrity

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Here’s the email I wrote for leaders in our church on Wed, 3/13:

As we continue moving through the chapters from Dangerous Calling that go along with sessions 1 and 2 of the DVD, we move ahead to Chapter 10, “Mediocrity.”   The big point here is that mediocrity in our service of ministry is a sign of our awe of God.  Yes, much of this chapter is addressed to me, the primary teaching pastor who, quite simply, must prioritize the preaching of the Word and fight against all the things that would distract me from it, but there are also applications for each of you.
Tripp writes, “Mediocrity is not a time, personnel, resource or location problem.  Mediocrity is a heart problem.  We have lost our commitment to the highest levels of excellence because we have lost our awe.  Awe amnesia is the open door that admits mediocrity.  Awe of God is fear-producing, inspiring, motivating, convicting, and commitment-producing.  There is no replacement for this in the leadership of the church of Jesus Christ.”  And the remedy, again, is “…run in humble confession to your Savior and embrace the grace that has the power to rescue you from you and, in so doing, to give you back your awe.”  “Run to your Redeemer.  Bask in his glorious grace.  Seek the forgiveness and empowerment that only he can give.  And commit yourself, by his grace, to the disciplines of excellence that will only ever happen as he rescues you from you and gives you back your awe once again.”
The challenge for most of us is that we’re more committed to our jobs or work than to the church.  This is reflected in mediocrity.  What we wouldn’t dream of doing in our work (failing to return a phone call or email, taking care of our responsibilities, working in accordance with our job title) easily happens in our ministry in the local church.  And, what Tripp is getting at, is that this is an issue of your heart.  So, maybe reflect on your ministry practices at Crestview.  Have you drifted into mediocrity?  Run to Christ and find the forgiveness He offers so that you can respond with excellence once again. 

Leadership Email – Don’t Misdiagnose

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Here’s the email I sent out to leaders in Reno County on 3/11/13:

The Kansas Leadership Center has many great tools for you to use.  One such tool is the KLC Playbook.  I commend it to you when you have a leadership challenge that you’re working through.  One of the first exercises they have under “Diagnose Situation” relates to distinguishing between technical and adaptive work.  Here’s how they helpfully describe it: “Your issue is complex. So don’t make the mistake of treating an adaptive challenge as if it were solely a technical problem. 
“Most leadership challenges have adaptive and technical elements. 
“Technical problems are usually clearly defined and have ready solutions that can be implemented by authority figures or experts. Adaptive challenges are dramatically different. They require us to learn new ways of operating. Progress is made when stakeholders, not simply authority figures, take action. Adaptive challenges almost always involve some sort of loss.
This is followed up with some activity:
Observations, Activities, Possible Experiments:
Answer the question, what kind of work is it?
Technical Elements
·         Expertise or Information Needed
·         How might we get this done?  Who could help?
·         What challenges might we face?
Adaptive Elements
·         What do we need to learn or change?
·         How might we work together?  What process should we use?
·         What challenges might we face?
(KLC Playbook, pp.5-9)
I think for me a great takeaway came in that middle statement: “Most leadership challenges have adaptive and technical elements.”  In our leadership dilemmas or those areas we’re really trying to make a difference in, there will be elements of both the technical and adaptive.  Working to distinguish these is an act of leadership.  So, diagnose away and see if it doesn’t help us make progress toward our goals.  

Weekend Recap – Called To Love

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My 3/10/13AM sermon, Called To Love, from Revelation 2:1-7 is now online.  This sermon was really unpacking the message the Risen Christ had for the church at Ephesus and helping us see exactly what the Risen Christ might be calling us to live.  Specifically, there’s a call to love.  There’s a warning if we fail to live it and a blessing should we choose to obey.  All of this, too, brings glory to the Risen Christ in obeying.  So, how’s your loving?  Maybe this sermon would help you see what the Risen Christ is calling you to do.

Dangerous Calling Email – All Too Familiar

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My email to leaders in our local church highlighting a chapter from Paul Tripp’s Dangerous Calling book went like this on 3/6/13:

So far as we’ve moved through recommended reading out of sessions 1 and 2 of the DVDs, we’ve been working through Dangerous Calling chapters 1-5 consecutively.  Now, we fast forward to Chapter 8, Familiarity.  Tripp’s big point here is that there’s a great danger for those of us in church leadership when it comes to God.  “What is the danger?  It is that familiarity with the things of God will cause you to lose your awe.”  “Awe of God must dominate my ministry, because one of the central missional gifts of the gospel of Jesus Christ is to give people back their awe of God.”  One part of this that was especially relevant and convicting for me was the relationship between our awe of God and theology.  Here’s Tripp: “Awe of God is one of the things that will keep a church from running off its rails and being diverted by the many agendas that can sidetrack any congregation.  Awe of God puts theology in its place.  Theology is vitally important, but whatever awe of theology we have is dangerous if it doesn’t produce in us a practical awe of God.”   
Now, there’s probably much more that could be said about this, but, gentlemen, have you lost your awe of God?  Have you slowly began to confuse awing Him with activity?  Today, as Tripp concludes, “I don’t have a set of strategies for you here.  My counsel is to run now, run quickly, to your Father of awesome glory.  Confess the offense of your boredom.  Plead for eyes that are open to the 360-degree, 24/7 display of glory to which you have been blind.  Determine to spend a certain portion of every day in meditating on his glory.  Cry out for the help of others.  And remind yourself to be thankful for Jesus, who offers you his grace even at those moments when that grace isn’t nearly as valuable to you as it should be.”
With you in the all too familiar, longing for more of Him…

Leadership Email – Playing It Safe

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Here’s my Monday email to leaders in Reno County from 3/4/13:

In Vol. 4, Issue 2 of the Journal of the Kansas Leadership Center (p.51), Joyce Webb made an interesting few comments about our engagement in the civic arena, especially on issues that are “value-laden.”  She writes,
“Effective interventions requires a keen sense of self-awareness and awareness of others, which is really hard to hold onto when the person across the table is polarized.  People have territory and values to protect and often get mired in the energy this defensiveness brings. 
“Whether one of us agrees with any factions’ opinions or not probably isn’t the issue when it comes to practicing leadership.  It’s OK to hold to purpose and not compromise values.  But one is always presented with a potential dilemma when deciding to make opinions and beliefs clear.
“This work requires us to be honest, yet challenges us to be intentional in reaching out and embracing those who have different life experiences, beliefs, values, and sometimes fears to protect.  It highlights our own beliefs and exposes our own biases and potential losses.  It requires tremendous courage, openness and love for our neighbors to be effective. 
“That kind of vulnerability seems to be too risky these days for most of us, including myself.  But we need a great strategy than playing it safe and doing nothing in order to make progress.
(Webb, Joyce. “When It Comes to Civic Life, We Need To Do More Than ‘Play It Safe’,” in The Journal [published by the Kansas Leadership Center] Volume 4, Issue 2, Fall 2012.  Pp.50-51.)
There are many things that resonate with me in what Webb writes, but one issue we consistently encounter is what we might call “Kansas Nice.”  We don’t want to cause trouble or a ruckus, so we choose silence and miss out on opportunities for leadership.  Now, I’m not suggesting we try to be intentionally unkind or mean-spirited.  I am saying that to make progress on issues that matter, it will require us to step into acts of leadership that are risky.  We must try to free ourselves out of that ever pressing default mode and find new behaviors that will help us make progress.  The competencies like managing self, diagnosing the situation, intervening skillfully and energizing others help give us some different ways of acting in leadership.  Today, what strategy will employ to help our community make progress?  It might be that rather than helping us make progress, playing it safe will actually hinder progress.  At the very least it’s something to think about.  At the most, it requires our skillful intervention.  Let’s check ourselves on this point, then, and see if we can’t make progress in these areas we are so passionate about.

Weekend Recap – To The Church

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My 3/3/13AM sermon, To The Church, overviewing Revelation 2-3 is now online.  This sermon was challenging in tying these two chapters to the rest of the book.  For instance, the Risen Christ, addressing the seven churches comes from chapter.  And the fulfillment of promises to those who conquer are, by and large, fulfilled in Revelation 20-22.  Other emphases I highlighted were that Jesus knows His church, He calls His church to endure and He urges them to listen.  I hope it proved helpful to people.

And, I trust and hope you had a great Lord’s Day, as well.

Dangerous Calling Email – Needing The Body

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As our leadership team reads through Dangerous Calling together, I try to pull together a devotional insight for us.  Here’s one from Chapter 5:

Chapter 5 of Dangerous Calling (if you’re reading roughly a chapter a week) is the chapter we come to this week.  It’s called Joints and Ligaments.  The point: leaders are not above the ministry of the body of Christ, they are in need of the body of Christ.  Using Hebrews 3:12-13 as a springboard, Tripp outlines the critical warning: see to it that none of you has an evil—unbelieving, falling away—hardened heart.  He then follows that up with the essential call of this passage: encourage each other daily so that sin doesn’t do its blinding work in you.
Much of this chapter is written to pop the ministry bubble that pastors often live in, devoid of the body of Christ.  So, it’s a great reminder for us.  The question Tripp began this chapter might be an appropriate way to end: “Who are you and what do you spiritually need?”  Know that I’m here for you if you need to talk and I know many of you are there for me.  Let’s model the body of Christ in action to our body and see if it doesn’t help our people see how glorious the Gospel we believe is.