Your Journey Blog

Leaders vs Managers by Seth Godin

Exclusive interview with Seth Godin from GiANT Impact on Vimeo.

Children's Discipleship Tool by Gary Rohrmayer

Life's Biggest Adventure: Guiding Your Child on their Spiritual Journey

One of the positive trends we are seeing take place in children's ministry is not just teaching children spiritual content in a loving, fun and safe environment but there is a great emphasis on training parents in how to disciple their children.

Life's Biggest Adventure is a tool for parents to use with their grade school aged children as they guide them through the following questions:

• What is the gospel?
• How do I know I am a Christian?
• What is baptism?
• Why do we take communion?
• How do I pray?
• How do I start reading the Bible?
• How do I deal with temptation?
• How do I tell my friends about Jesus?

I'm so thankful for Life's Biggest Adventure!   It's one thing for me as a pastor to tell parents they need to disciple their children, but it is quite another to be able to offer them an easy-to-use tool that helps them to impart their faith to their kids.  And I'm even more grateful for what this book has meant for me as a father.  Fathers are called to spiritually lead their children, and this book helped me to be a better dad as my son and I worked through the book together.  He took new steps of growth, and it culminated with his decision to be baptized as a follower of Christ.  I will treasure the memory of those sessions with my son for the rest of my life!    Mark Albrecht, NorthBridge Church, Antioch, IL

PURCHASE HERE

Dependency on external motivation by Seth Godin

One of the characteristics of the industrial age was the reliance on external motivation.

Go to work on time or the boss will be angry.

Work extra hard and the boss will give you a promotion.

If you get paid to work piecework, then your paycheck goes up when you work harder.

This mindset is captured by the Vince Lombardi/pro sports/college sports model of the coach as king. Of course we'll have our non-profit universitiess pay a football coach a million or more a year, of course we need these icons at the helm--how else will we get our players to perform at their best?

I was struck by a photo I saw of male fencers at Cornell who practice with the women's fencing team. Clearly, they're not allowed to compete in matches (though the university counts them for Title XIV). I got to thinking about what motivates these fencers. Are they doing it because they're afraid of the coach or getting cut? Would they fence better if they were?

The nature of our new economic system, that one that doesn't support predictable factory work, is that external motivation is far less useful. If you're looking for a big payday, you won't find it right away. If you're depending on cheers and thank yous from your Twitter followers, you're looking at a very bumpy ride.

In fact, the world is more and more aligned in favor of those who find motivation inside, who would do what they do even if it wasn't their job. As jobs turn into projects, the leaders we need are those that relish the project, that jump at the chance to push themselves harder than any coach ever could.

via sethgodin.typepad.com

Ten Marks of a Coachable Leader

When Phil Jackson became coach of the Chicago Bulls his first meeting was with Michael Jordan.  Phil shared with Michael his dreams and plans for turning the Bulls into a Championship Team.  He said to Michael, "It will only work if you embrace them"... to which Michael Jordan said, “I am with you Phil, you know I have always been coachable.”   The rest is history!  Michael Jordan, because he was coachable, submitted himself to his coach, to his coach's process and plans. He was willing to be put under the scrutiny of others, so that they could see what he couldn’t.  He was willing to trust his coach enough to make the necessary adjustments that would make him (Jordan) one of the world’s greatest basketball players that led one of the greatest champion runs in NBA history.

Over the next few months we are going to examine ten marks of a coachable leader because coaching can only work when there is a coachable person.

1.  Coachable people understand the concept of ‘spiritual authority’.

Spiritual authority is the result of one submitting to the authority of Christ in ones life.  Every great leader is a strong follower.  Spiritual authority is the source of true credibility in leadership. While there are other legitimate means of authority such as, positional, expert, and relational, spiritual authority is foundational to accomplishing the mission of God. Spiritual authority is the direct result of God doing a greater work in the deeper areas of a leader’s life so that they act with courage, faith and conviction in the face of great challenges.

Joshua and Caleb under great opposition acted with courageous faith (Numbers 13-14).  They claimed the promises of God for their people (Numbers 13:1). They saw that the hand of God was with them (Numbers 13:30, 14:6-9). They were willing to act by faith and not by sight under the threat of their own lives (Numbers 14:10). And in the end, Joshua and Caleb were the only ones who experienced the blessings and promises of God.  They were the only ones to be spiritually empowered to lead God’s people into God’s great cause.

Many a leader has withered away in the wilderness of ineffective ministry because they shrunk back in those critical moments that call for courageous faith.

Many a new church has plateaued because the leaders could not see the hand of God with them and forgot the promises of God as they stumbled in taking the church to the next level of growth and impact.

Many older churches have declined because the leaders are unwilling to confront and deal with the strongholds the enemy is using to suck the spiritual life and power out of the church.

I have been coaching pastors and church planters for nearly 20 years now and I have come to this conclusion: No amount of question asking, motivational cheerleading, truth-telling, grace giving or personally challenges will help a leader experience spiritual authority.  As Robert Clinton wrote, “Spiritual authority is delegated by God.”

Coaching can set the atmosphere or awareness for the need of spiritual authority but spiritual authority will only occur when the leader practices obedient faith at critical moments in their ministry life.  Robert Clinton calls this a faith challenge. He writes, “God’s call to a leader to increase his or her faith in ministry is one of the strongest challenges a leader will face.  Faith challenges almost always stretch one beyond his present understanding.  The faith challenge refers to those instances in ministry when a leader is challenged by God to take steps of faith in ministry and see God reward those steps with divine affirmation and ministry achievement.  God’s faithfulness increases the leader’s capacity to trust Him in future ministry.”  (The Making of a Leader)

Leaders who possess spiritual authority are leaders who live by faith and not sight (II Corinthians 6:6-10). These types of leaders come to the coaching relationship with openness not suspicion, with hope and not hesitancy, with readiness to be empowered by God and not simply receive tactical advice.

Reflective Questions

• What were the key faith moments you experienced early in your relationship with Christ?
• What have been the key faith challenges you have addressed in your current ministry?
• What are the key faith challenges you are experiencing today in your ministry?
• What evidence is there in your life that you are experiencing spiritual authority?
• How does a leader or a church recover from a faith setback?
• Where does a leader or a church find help in dealing with a faith challenge?

Next Time: Coachable people are action oriented.

Financial Dos and Don'ts for Church Planters by Steve Smith

All new church pastors have to deal with the setting up of financial systems, which is often their least favorite part of the planting process. Because of their need to be involved with the finances in the early stages of the plant, there is a danger of not acting with integrity in all financial matters - to cut corners - so that they can move the plant forward. Some of these corner cutters are illegal and all are ungodly. Here are some of the most common issues of which the planter should be aware.

1. Not carrying liability insurance: All places you rent require you to carry liability insurance, as a protection to themselves. To fail to carry insurance is both dangerous and endangering to the landlord.

2. Giving yourself a raise: The quickest way to lose credibility with a core group is to take charge of your own salary increases. Always submit these decisions to your coach and oversight team until you have a leadership team in the church to oversee salaries.

3. Counting the money by yourself - and taking it home: An ethical no-no by IRS standards which can open you up to legal charges if known. And do not say they will never find out, make sure you have a back-up plan instead.

4. Failure to keep your obligations: Second quickest way to lose credibility with the launch team. Pay bills on time; keep all commitments that you made, especially in the Expectation Interview process.

5. Lying about housing allowance: It is normal to underestimate housing allowances, but it unethical to adjust them after the bills come due. If you misjudged, you have to accept it. Also, make sure that you adjust your housing allowance on your tax forms if you overestimated it. If you are audited, you will be glad you did.

6. Not tithing yourself: Never say that the hours you spend in ministry are your tithe to the church. You were called of God to this ministry. Never ask the people to be obedient in this if you are not, as they will come to find out (they always do!) and they will lose respect for you.

7. Donating stuff to yourself and taking a tax write off: This is illegal, period. Do not donate to your or your children’s college expenses or anything else that is sidestepping IRS regulations in this matter.

8. Writing checks on next week’s offering: It is better to pay for stuff out of your own pocket than take a chance that someone is going to bounce a check on the church plant. Further, if you are not able to handle a budget at this low income level, beware.

9. Not reporting income: If people pay you for a wedding or funeral, you must report it on a Schedule C as income. Do not see it as free money. Remember, God knows about this.

10. Paying people under the table: We are teaching people by what we do how much we respect authority that God has set up in the government. When we ignore this fact, we will find people will ignore our pastoral authority as well at some point

11. Using tax exemption for personal purchases: You are not the church, so do not jeopardize the church’s tax status by using its exemption for yourself. Furthermore, those that do this are revealing a moral lapse in their character.

12. Failure to control your budget: Budgets are guides to help the church people know the priorities of ministry. It is impossible to always know what will be needed in the first years, but, as the leader, you need to show that you value the other ministry volunteers by not spending money budgeted for their ministries on your own priorities.

Steve Smith is the Executive Minister of Converge Southeast

Coachable vs Uncoachable by Seth Godin

A friend is wrestling with his ability to be coached. For the coachable, "Turn right at the light" is seen as a helpful suggestion for someone lost in a strange town... the advice goes in, is considered and then acted upon. For someone wrestling with coaching, though, it's like surgery. It's painful, it has side effects and it might lead to a bad reaction.

Coaching happens all the time. Most often, it's not from a boss or a professional coach. In fact, the best insights and advice usually come from informal or unexpected sources.

In fluid marketing and organization environments, where the world changes rapidly, coachability is a key factor in evolving and succeeding. Not because all advice is good advice. In fact, most advice is lousy advice. No, the reason coachability is so crucial is that without it, you don't have the emotional maturity to consider whether the advice is good or not. You reject the process out of hand, and end up stuck.

Symptoms of uncoachability:

• Challenging the credentials of the coach
• Announcing that you're being unfairly singled out
• Pointing out, angrily, that the last few times, the coach was wrong
• Identifying others who have succeeded without ever being coached
• Resisting a path merely because it was one identified by a coach

Years ago, at the great Bolshoi Ballet, auditions for the troupe were conducted among 8 year old girls. That's because it took ten years to become great. How did the auditions work? The teachers weren't looking for the best dancers. They were looking for the dancers who took coaching the best. The rest would come with time.

via sethgodin.typepad.com

Are You Coachable?

As a pastor, coach, regional leader and father I have discovered one thing: It is so much easier to work with people who are coachable!  They have a demeanor that is receptive and not resistant!  They take the view of a learning student not a suspicious critic.  They have a posture that is open and not guarded.  One of the great biblical examples of a coachable leader was Apollos. Luke gives us a great description of him in Acts 18:24-26:

“Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.” Acts 18:24-26 (NIV)

Apollos was a great man, well education, cultured and eloquent. He knew God’s Word and he spoke with great passion and courage. And yet all the greatness didn’t go to his head, because he was willing to receive more instruction from a couple of tent makers. Great leaders are teachable leaders. In the end Apollos’ usefulness to God’s great cause expanded to the point that the Corinthian Church began to look at him as a equal or even superior to the Apostle Paul. (I Corinthians 3:1-8)

Other strong biblical examples are ...

• Saul (Paul) in Acts 9:26-30 seeking out to work with the Apostles in Jerusalem and allowing Barnabas to introduce him to the group.
• Saul (Paul) in Acts 11:25-26 willing to accept Barnabas' invitation to work under his leader at the church in Antioch.
• Timothy in Acts 16:1-5 willing to submitted completely to Paul's leadership for the advancement of the Gospel.
• Samuel in I Samuel 3:1-21 went to Eli three times to discern the word of the Lord.
• Elisha in I Kings 19:19-21 left everything to become Elijah's servant is a great example of a person with a coachable spirit, seeking to get everything from his mentor. Read 2 Kings 2 from the perspective of a coach and coachee relationship.

Continual learning is a basic necessity to improvement in life and in many cases, it is other people, such as coaches and mentors, who will help you get there...but only if you are coachable. Are you?

To be coachable means to be…

• Approachable
• Attentive
• Receptive
• Curious
• Objective
• Trusting
• Shapeable
• Confident   HT

A quick 8-point check on your coachability…

Which of these are true and to what extent?

1. I usually allow my manager and others to complete their sentences before responding. (If you don’t, it’s not a good sign.)
2. When I’m given feedback/criticism, I usually think about it before responding, waiting just a bit. (If you don’t, you’re likely not giving it real consideration.)
3. When I’m given feedback/ criticism, I rarely find myself defending a position or action immediately. (If this is true, you’re probably trying to really learn how you can improve.)
4. When I’m given feedback/ criticism, I ask questions about it in order to try to better understand it. (A good sign.)
5. I feel my work’s purpose is to serve my external customers. ("You’re gonna have to serve somebody." – Bob Dylan)
6. I feel my work’s purpose is to serve my internal customers (managers, colleagues, other departments).
7. I’ve changed/ revised my position/ approach because of the advice of another individual. (If not, how coachable do you really think you are? No one is always right.)
8. My manager invests time in my professional development (If s/he doesn’t, it might be because of a perception that you’re uncoachable).

There’s no rating scale here. These questions are simply meant to raise awareness (when answered as objectively and truthfully). HT