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Developing An Environment Of Growth

A crucial element in leadership is continual growth.

This is true in all areas of leadership, but I find it to be especially true in ministry.

Green Grass

photo credit: Jason A. Samfield via photopin cc

Growth is critical if you want to stay on top of your game and be effective for the long term. I’ve seen too many leaders sacrifice personal and spiritual growth. It doesn’t take long for their leadership to crumble, for their effectiveness to wane, and even for their integrity to be compromised.

In order to grow, you have create the right environment. Hank Aaron understood this when he said, “My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging.” He created an environment where he could continue to grow, no matter what. And we must do the same.

In order to maintain your leadership abilities, you need to make sure that you are in an environment that is designed for growth. There are a lot of aspects of your leadership environment that you may have no control over. But there are several elements that you can control.

So how do you determine if you are in an growth environment? Here are a few tell-tale indicators that will show you. And if you don’t see these, many of them you can seek out or even create.

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Coffee Break – 10.8.2012

Coffee Break

Cartel Coffee & The Chemex – Perhaps my favorite method of brewing coffee is the Chemex. I love the way it allows me to taste the subtleties of my bean. So when I saw this video from Cartel Coffee Lab, I was captivated! I probably watched this a dozen times! Check out the video at DCILY, and then check out their website!

A Toy Train In Space – One of my passions is to be the best dad that I can be to my kids. This video, shared by Jon Acuff, shows a dad who understands what it means to be present in the life of his son. He took one of his son’s toy trains, attached it to a weather balloon along with a GPS, and sent it toward space! Watch the video to see how cool it was. This is the kind of dad I want to be!

Green Pedestrian Crossing – I really love the idea of interactive art. And when I saw this article about several intersections and crosswalks in China, I was pretty impressed. It’s pretty creative, and involves a lot of people in the process.

Real Life – You may know that we have half a dozen kids. As a result, our lives are hectic and chaotic. So it was refreshing to read something that gave me permission to have a messy house and a frantic schedule and an empty bank account. And the quote from C.S. Lewis was icing on the cake!

With Age Comes… Beauty? – One of my biggest frustrations is my early transition to grey hair. While Rosemary is writing to women, from a woman’s perspective, there are some gems here to be applied to men as well. Seeing the effects of my age, or seeing it in my wife, with a new perspective comes with a sense of relief.

W.E.B. DuBois Would Not Vote In This Election – We’ve all heard it said, “I’ll vote for the lesser of two evils.” We might have even said it. But American civil rights activist W.E.B. DuBois see that approach as unacceptable. In 1956, he delivered a speech in which he stated that if none of the candidates matched his convictions, then we refused to vote for any of them. Even though he spoke this almost sixty years ago, his words ring eerily true for 2012. Read the article on The Gospel Coalition, which includes much of his speech.

Who Are the Sons of God and Daughters of Men in Genesis 6:1-5 – One of my favorite topics is Creationism. The first 11 chapters of Genesis may be my favorite passages in the entire Bible. That being the case, I get asked a lot of questions on various aspects of these stories. One frequently asked question is on the topic of just who the sons of God and the daughters of men were. R. C. Sproul Jr. gives this topic a serious look, and I like what he says.

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently. – Warren Buffet

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Memorize Scripture – Week 40

I love the Romans Road. I especially love the simplicity of the promise found in Romans 10:13. Take a look:

Romans 10:13

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? That’s because it is.

The message of the Gospel is both deeply profound and easily understood. It is both incredibly complex and surprisingly simple.

While there are layers and layers that you can dig through all your life and still never completely reveal it all, the gospel is also as easy as this verse proclaims: Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

To be sure, there are complexities to the Gospel that defy our minds, but we often make things more difficult than they need to be.

At least I do.

And so, a message like the one here is refreshingly simple.

Breathtakingly so.

Do you need the occasional reminder that the message of Christ is refreshingly simple? What reminds you of this? You can leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

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How I Revive My Spirit

It’s that time of year again!

Next week, I’m spending five days in Colorado at CIY Wilderness.

I do this every year, and I refuse to miss it, it’s that important to me.

Glen Eyrie - CIY Wilderness

It refreshes my soul.

In a nutshell, Wilderness is an opportunity for youth ministers to connect with God and one another. It’s a chance to get away from the daily stresses of life and ministry. It’s a chance to let God revitalize me.

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Book Review – Embracing Obscurity

Embracing ObscurityNot too long ago, I received a copy of a new book. I have no idea who the author is. But the subject of the book is something that has been on my heart for a long time.

Obscurity.

Not that I really ever thought of it in that term. My thoughts usually run more along the lines of “less of me, more of You”.

But the idea is the same.

In Embracing Obscurity, the author presents some pretty audacious thoughts.

We are too wrapped up in ourselves. We want too much attention; too much of the limelight. All to often, it’s all about us.

And he’s right.

We need to let go of ourselves, let go of our pride, let go of our need for the credit.

Because when we greedily hog the spotlight, we steal the glory from Christ.

We need to let go of our intoxicated desire for more of me, and stop building ourselves up. We need to stop building ourselves up so that we can look like we have it all together.

We need to say “less of me, and more of You”.

I suggest you pick up a copy of Embracing Obscurity today. Make it the next book you read. Allow its principles and its precepts to challenge you and open your mind to its message.

You’ll be glad you did.

Do you struggle with wanting too much recognition? What do you do to combat this tendency? You can leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

I highly recommend that you read Embracing Obscurity, by an anonymous author. You can purchase it at Amazon.com.

Disclosure of Material Connection:
I received this book free from B&H Publishing Group as part of their Blogger Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Also, some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links”. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.“

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Top Posts For September 2012

I am continually amazed at how quickly the months fly by. Summer is over, school is in session, and fall is in full swing, even though it still feels like summer here on the Gulf Coast of Florida.

Things are starting to settle into a routine for the family now. We have adjusted to our new home pretty well, although a few things still seem kind of crazy; we have a storage unit with a lot of stuff in it that we need to integrate into our home, but won’t happen until we sell the house in Missouri and purchase one here. Until then, I am having a hard time finding anything when I need it. It always ends up being in a box in the garage or in the storage facility.

Other than that, we seem to be making the adjustments necessary to our new community, new church, and new friends. We really love Florida!

September Word Picture From Wordle.net

With a new location, I guess my creative juices were inspired in different ways. I have a project in the works that will be unveiled in the month of October. It will be a resource that I hope will help dads become great dads, and give them the tools and resources to be deliberate and intentional in their role as a father. More on that in the very near future!

In case you missed them, here are my top seven posts for the month of September:

  1. The Difference Between Purpose, Vision, and Mission
  2. Tips For Becoming More Consistent In Your Bible Reading
  3. Why You Need To Develop A Philosophy Of Ministry
  4. The Maniac And The Messiah
  5. My Current Philosophy Of Ministry
  6. Trying A New Bible Reading System
  7. Book Review: Sacred Pathways by Gary Thomas

For the past few months, something from my series of posts on purpose, mission and vision have made this list. It’s pretty encouraging to see so many people reading my material on this topic.

As for the rest of this list for the month, two posts were about reading the Bible. I suspect that this is because of one individual contacting me asking if he could reprint my Tips post in his church newsletter. This may have helped generate more traffic to these articles.

The last post on the list is a book review from almost three years ago. I loved this book, and a lot of the rest of Gary Thomas’ material that I’ve read.

I’ve started a new weekly post, called Coffee Break. The first post of this type was published yesterday, so it hasn’t had the time to see a lot of traffic yet. But I’m excited about it. Every week, Coffee Break will share a few of the fun, interesting and challenging things from around the web that I’ve read over the past few days. Check it out!

My favorite post written in September was one I wrote about a new series of lessons I’m teaching the teens at our church, looking at some of the miracles that Jesus performed: Believing In Miracles. So far this has been a refreshing look at some well known stories from the New Testament.

October promises to be great! Have a great month!

If you are a blogger, leave a comment with your top post for the month. If you don’t blog, leave a comment with a favorite post or blog that you read this month.