Archive for Leadership
Leading Dinner Devo’s with your family
Posted by: | CommentsStep 1. Eat dinner with your entire family regularly.
Step 2. Mom and Dad sit next to one another to lead the family discussion.
Step 3. Open the meal by asking if there is anyone or anything to pray for.
Step 4. Someone opens in prayer and covers any requests. This task should be rotated among family members so that different people take turns learning to pray aloud.
Step 5. Start eating and discuss how everyone’s day went.
Step 6. Have a Bible in front of the parents in a translation that is age-appropriate for the kids’ reading level. Have someone (parent or child) open the Bible, and assign a portion to read aloud while everyone is eating and listening.
Step 7. Parents should note key words and themes in the passage and explain them to the kids on an age-appropriate level.
Step 8. Ask questions about the passage. You may want to begin with having your children summarize what was read—retelling the story or passage outline. Then, ask the following questions: What does this passage teach us about God? What does it say about us or about how God sees us? What does it teach us about our relationships with others?
Step 9. Let the conversation happen naturally, listen carefully to the kids, let them answer the questions, and fill in whatever they miss or lovingly and gently correct whatever they get wrong so as to help them.
Step 10. If the Scriptures convict you of sin, repent as you need to your family, and share appropriately honest parts of your life story so the kids can see Jesus’ work in your life and your need for him too. This demonstrates gospel humility to them.
Step 11. At the end of dinner, ask the kids if they have any questions for you.
Step 12. If you miss a night, or if conversation gets off track, or if your family occasionally just wants to talk about something else, don’t stress—it’s inevitable.
Eight things that exasperate children:
Posted by: | CommentsMany of us as kids had to memorize the Bible verse found in Ephesians 6:1 and repeated in Colossians 3:20 which says:
- Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2“Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— 3“that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.
And yet as parents we would do well to read on as Paul continues in both passages with some instruction in parenting he says:
- 4Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
Possibly without meaning to many parents have driven their children away from a relationship with the Lord rather than towards him. They have done exactly what Paul warned against, exasperating their children, and destroying the very fibers of which a spiritual relationship with the heavenly father is built. Some versons use the phrase “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger,” (NAS) and I feel this better sums up God’s feeling here. As parents it’s our job to prepare our offspring for a challenging and sometimes frustrating world, however we should do all in our power to make sure that our relationship leads them toward the safety and security we have found in the Lord. Paul put’s it differently in Colossians 3 by saying “Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.”
Here are 8 things as parents we can avoid to prevent our most precious relationships from become tarnished or destroyed!
1) Making promises that you don’t keep
(Even using the “maybe” word can confuse your children who automatically assume that you have made a commitment)
2) Nagging them to death; always finding fault
3) Micromanaging there lives (especially in their higher teens)
4) Having unrealistic expectations that they can never meet
5) Showing partiality in how you treat your different children / Playing Favorites
6) Being inconsistent in your enforcing of rules and exercise of discipline
7) Designing punishments that far exceed the nature of the infraction
8)Ignoring them; Failing to spend time with them in activities of their choosing
Taking a Stand
Posted by: | CommentsOne of the timeless questions of leadership is which battles to engage and which to leave to another day. There are some leaders who fail in both areas, either they engage in every confrontation and are branded confrontational or they engage in no difficult stands and are liked but not respected. A wise leader realizes that the place they need to be is somewhere in between.
Imagine the concept of “leadership cash”. Just like real cash if invested correctly it can yield an increase on our investment, however it can also be lost on a poor or unnecessary expenditure, and yes,when it’s gone it’s gone
How then do we decide which fight to join and which to walk away from?
1. Whats at stake?
Galatians 2:11
When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. 12Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. 13The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.
2. Is this my opinion or God’s Commandment?
3. What will happen if I do or do not become involved?
4. Do I have the leadership cash, or do I need to seek others input
5. How do other leaders feel and why do they feel this way?
Lead Like Jesus
Posted by: | CommentsLeading Like Jesus
Introduction
Equipping people to become servant leaders will be a task of the church until Jesus returns. Therefore it is important that we keep the mentality of a servant (slave) at the forefront of our ministries.
Jesus, the greatest leader of all time, was unquestionably a servant-leader. The crown of his servant-leadership was a crown of thorns.
- The symbol of Rome’s leadership—a sword
- The symbol of the Greek’s leadership—a pen
- The symbol of secular leadership—a chair
- The symbol of the Christian’s leadership—a towel and basin
Maybe a better title for this topic would be, “Developing a Foot-Washing-Driven Church.”
Servant Leadership is what the entire Bible is about!!
The Problem
In the last 50 years, “the church” has been experiencing an identity crisis. She has unfortunately been receiving her cues from the secular market place rather than the authoritative Scriptures. Preachers have courted the world’s philosophy so long it’s become second nature, the norm, and embraced as a viable style of leadership.
The by-product from this type of secular thinking is a non-spiritual hierarchy in the Church (2 Cor. 4:5). Service, not status, is the goal of a leader who has Christ as his master.
- Natural Ability vs. Spiritual Giftedness
- CEOs vs. Shepherds
- Executives vs. Servants
- Managers vs. Leaders
The church does not need only strong-natural-leaders. The church needs strong-servant-leaders. Two many preachers are building resumes rather than people and churches.
“Most of us would have no objection to being masters, but servanthood holds little attraction.”
- J. Oswald Sanders
The Servant Paradox (the top is through the bottom)
A leader starts by first being a follower.
A servant-leader is not a title or position. It is a lifestyle.
The principle is simple The way up is the way down in God’s economy.
A successful servant-leader in ministry descends not ascends. So many leaders excel at climbing the ladder but fail at coming down the ladder.
The more authority, giftedness and natural abilities you have the more you have to work at servant-leadership. The flesh is a menace to servant leadership. Me-ism is the idol of today’s leadership and it is antithetical to Christ leadership style.
Let me draw your attention to some key texts:
Mark 10:35-45
- This, without question, is the key text in the Gospels to define Christ’s leadership style.
- Christ has already made three predictions about his impending crucifixion (Mark 10:32-34 being the third).
- James and John ask an inappropriate question that is still being asked, or at least being thought, today.
- Jesus’ closest disciples were looking for a messianic “secretary of state” not a suffering servant.
- Notice that their ambition is not wrong. However, their ambition is certainly misinformed and misguided. Notice they are not condemned for seeking greatness. Aspirations are not wrong as long as they would seek the right kind of greatness. Their error is in the goal. (Self-centered vs. Others-centered)
- On the spot, Christ transforms their concept of greatness. Jesus redefined greatness and being first. True greatness is when you serve. You are first when you are a slave.
- The paradox of all paradoxes is the way to the top is through the bottom!
- God’s standard for leadership is selfless-servanthood! Servant-leaders give up personal rights to find greatness in service to others.
- Jesus spent his whole life and ministry serving others. The cross, a case in point, is the ultimate sacrifice/service to others. Jesus wanted James and John to know that following him would cost them their lives, not gain them places of position.
- Servant-leadership is two-sided. On one side it requires drinking the cup and being baptized with the baptism of Christ’s suffering (Mark 10:38-39). On the other side serving others is a tremendous privilege (Acts 20:35).
- These exhortations are unqualified! Jesus did not call us to servant-leadership only when it…is convenient, fits our schedule, or if fits our personality.
Servant-leadership is God’s standard for spiritual leadership! To say it another way, servant-leadership defines spiritual leadership.
