Lead Well

Last week we asked the question, “What kind of leader are you?” You can read more about that here. Ultimately, we should all work to become better leaders, but how do we do that? Over the next 3 weeks, I will outline six ways we can become better leaders. As we become better leaders, our influence will increase, our organizations will be stronger, and we will be more successful. Develop Humility The first thing we must do to become better leaders is to develop humility. I know; it sounds counter-intuitive. Many of us got into leadership because it makes us feel good. We like the power and the responsibility. I know when I first started to lead, I did it because I thought I was better than everyone else in my group, and they needed my “exalted wisdom and guidance.” As I continued to lead with this higher sense of myself on into the professional world, my senior pastor challenged me. Our church was looking at multi-site, and I was excited for the new position, power, an...

It's a simple formula really. I heard a story once about a Jewish Rabbi.  On the first day of school he would pour honey on his pupils' desks and then tell the kids to lick up the honey.  As they licked it, the Rabbi would tell them that the Word of God is like honey and should be a sweet taste in your mouth. King David says in Psalm 119:11, "I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you." How can we get our kids to hide God's word in their hearts? I don't know about you, but some days it just seems impossible. Over the past few years, I've challenged my kids in kid's church to memorize a certain passage of scripture, and if they do, they get to go to a local build your own frozen yogurt place on me. Last year I challenged our kids to memorize the Lord's Prayer and over half my elementary students and a third of my preschoolers learned it.  This year we're learning the 10 Commandments. I want the Word of G...

What makes an organization great? What separates two companies that sell the same product to the same people where one is incredibly successful and the other is a dismal failure? Several books, including Jim Collins classic, Good to Great , explores these questions and attempts to answer them. John Maxwell says that everything rises and falls on leadership. Show me a strong organization, ministry or business, I can show you a strong leader at the helm. Collins says a level 5 leader is what takes an organization from being just good to great.  While few of us will every reach level 5, we can all endeavor to be better leaders, and in turn, make the ministries and businesses we serve in better. So here are the 5 levels of leadership as outlined by Collins. Highly Capable Individual : This is the most basic level, where we start out and people start to give us more responsibility and tasks to complete. These people don’t really lead others, but they are beginning to lead them...

We spend our lives following God. Doing His will and still bad things happen to us. It just doesn’t seem fair does it? Didn’t God promise us joy? Aren’t we under his covering as His children? Doesn’t he want to bless us abundantly? Why would God allow this to happen? We’ve all asked ourselves these questions before and many times there are no answers. Then the answers we do get, seem hollow and cliche. The fortunate thing is that we are not alone. People all throughout time have asked these questions. Just a cursory reading of the Bible would show this. Adam lost two sons. Noah watched all the people of the world die. Joseph was sold into slavery and jail. David was hunted and almost killed. Jeremiah was thrown into a well and left to die. Paul was given a thorn in his flesh. Jesus was crucified on the cross. There is one thing all of these men had in common. None of them wanted to go through what they did. Even Jesus, the night before he was crucified as...

Tuesday was the first session of CEF (Child Evangelism Fellowship) of the new year at a local elementary school.  We are always excited to serve at the school because many of these kids don't go to church or understand basic biblical concepts, such as how you get to heaven.   I had the privilege of teaching the lesson to the 20 or so kids.  The lesson was the story of how sin came into the world and how we can find salvation through Jesus.  It ended with a call to salvation.  I thought I was really connecting.  I thought they were connecting with the message.  They all dutifully prayed with me to accept Christ, and I encouraged them to tell their small group leader if they had really prayed. When the leaders came back after the lesson, not a single one said they had accepted Christ for the first time.  I could have been angry.  I could have been discouraged.  I could quit right there.  But I wasn't, and I didn't....

As leaders we all make mistakes, but if we learn from others we can go much further, faster. Here are three mistakes every young leader (and sometimes old ones too) make. Thinking more negatively than positively. When I first came to Evangel, I was so excited for the new ministry, new responsibilities, and new environments. However, after a couple of months, I caught myself telling some parents and volunteers all the bad things that were happening. I would lament about my presentation style, how volunteers weren’t doing what I wanted them to do, and how kids just wouldn’t behave. After a while, God convicted me, and I began to change. Many leaders do the same thing. They look at all the bad things and forget to see the good. As you lead your team look for the positives and not just the negatives. Talk about the good things that are happening. If something is going wrong, write it down, talk it over with trusted people, and come up with a solution. People want to follow...

Recently I visited James River Church in Ozark, Mo.  James River is one of the largest Churches in the Assemblies of God and have a great children's ministry. I love to visit other churches and see how they do things. While I was there, I saw great idea for games and toys before service. Our kids love to find fun things to do before service begins and for us our games are on a cart and the kids have to play on the floor.  This is usually not a problem, except the colossal mess that's left when service begins and ends.  In addition, it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep all the pieces together for the multiple board games.   Kids will be kids. While I was walking through James River's children's area, they had these games stations set up with a game or two on each table.  I thought this was a fabulous idea and am looking forward to implementing it in my own area. Do your kids play games before service? How do you set them out? Please...

In life and leadership, mistakes are bound to happen. There’s pretty much nothing we can do about it. How we handle those mistakes, however, determines the difference between a great leader or just a good one. So here are 7 things to do when we mess up. Don’t bury it. When we make mistakes, our natural inclination is to cover it up. We don’t tell people about it. We try to control the outcome. Inevitably this fails, and causes far more harm than if we had just confessed at the beginning. Don’t blame others. This one is really easy to fall for. Even if it’s not your fault, if you are leading others throwing them under the bus won’t help you in the long run. The person who made the mistake still needs to be confronted, but that interaction will go much better if accept the responsibility as the leader. Don’t beat yourself up . I’m so guilty of this one. I hate to fail and can feel bad for days after a mistake. Hold onto the truth that you’re human and mistakes are bou...