Leadership Resiliency and Why It Matters

Resiliency is a leadership game-changer. Our ability to recover from critical feedback, unmet expectations and failed outcomes is the difference between thriving and languishing in leadership.

If asked whether you want to win or lose, I think most of us would say we want to win as leaders. No one sets out hoping their leadership declines over time…let, my leadership influence has been negatively impacted during seasons of low-resiliency.

What can low resiliency cause? I think it has several ripple effects, but here are three easy-to-identify ripples that feed into each other. If you can tackle one of these, you’re set to arrest all three and turn them around.

Ripple #1: Feeds a Negative Perspective. One outcome of low-resiliency is your outlook on your circumstances. It’s impossible to have low-resiliency and a positive perspective at the same time. They can’t coexist. In fact, your perspective feeds your resiliency and your resiliency feeds your perspective.

Ask yourself: What leadership challenge are you tempted to sweep under the rug, right now? Why are you tempted to ignore it? Do you have hope for a great outcome? Are you uncertain you can lead toward that outcome? 

These questions can uncover a leadership opportunity that you are ignoring. And though I understand the temptation to ignore it, let me challenge you. Ignoring it never brings resolution. Looking the other way and leaving the opportunity unaddressed will only make it worse.

Ripple #2: Erodes Vision. One of the first things to erode with a negative perspective is vision. You can’t embrace a vision for tomorrow when your outlook on today is in the toilet. It’s hard to get excited about what the future holds when you feel like your present situation is impossible.

Ask yourself: How have I communicated vision today? What level of conviction do others feel from me?

You can’t lead others toward a vision you aren’t actively pursuing. And I’m not sure how you can pursue a vision fervently that you don’t believe you can obtain.

Ripple #3: Declining Effectiveness. When you see your current situation as impossible and can’t embrace a compelling vision for the future, your ability to lead other is on the ropes. You simply cannot effectively lead others from here to there without these two critical skills: Hope for what can be done in the present and a Vision for what could be in the future.

Ask yourself: Who do I lead that can give me loving feedback on my ability to communicate Hope for today and a Vision for tomorrow?

Willingness to open yourself up to feedback is one of the most vulnerable things you can do. And yet it holds the potential to take your leadership to a new level. It takes courage. But the gain is worth the risk.

Here’s the thing. This isn’t a question of whether or not we are resilient. Everyone has a measure of resiliency. The question is, how strong is your resiliency?

Like a muscle in your body, resiliency can weaken or strengthen over time depending on how we exercise it. So, if you’ve discovered your resiliency is low then you can do something about it.

For a great resource on building resiliency and other leadership skills, check out our new book, Don’t Quit.

This article originally appeared here.

The Preacher’s Pledge

As I stood to begin my sermon this morning at Gastonia First Wesleyan Church, I felt prompted by the Lord to share about a       re-commitment I made this first week of a new year.  I shared these words: 

On this first Sunday of a new year, I want to make you aware of the re-commitment I have made by taking the Preacher’s Pledge which is the following: “I will make the Bible my primary resource in sermon preparation and preaching. I will also use other resources such as commentaries and web sites, such as Sermon Central and other subscription sites to enhance, not replace, my personal interaction with Scripture. As I study I will strive to accurately understand and honestly apply God's Word, allowing Him to uniquely proclaim His truth in a relevant way through me.” 

As a young minister, I heard Adrian Rogers say, “I got this story from someone who got it from someone who got it from the Lord.” In fact, the pastor of a mega church said to me about 15 years ago:” If my bullet fits your gun, go ahead and shoot it." I recently discovered this is a quote from Adrian Rogers. 

Rick Warren gives full permission for others to use his sermons and so do I!  My goal will always to give credit where credit is due. 

First Friday Thoughts

Tell It Like It Could Be

“[God] speaks of future events with as much certainty as though they were already past.”                                                  (Romans 4:17 TLB). 

There is enormous power in your words. If you’re going to become a person of faith, you have to change the way you talk. You have to announce it in order to experience it. 

Sometimes speaking in faith appears totally foolish, totally arrogant, and totally out of touch with reality to people who don’t understand faith. Abraham knew about this. God came to Abram one day and said, “Abram, I’m going to change your name from Abram to Abraham.” Abraham means “the father of a great nation.” 

There was only one problem: Abraham was 99 years old, and his wife was past the age for bearing children. He was probably ruthlessly ridiculed for his name. But God says that we don’t live in the world of human reality. We live in the world of spiritual reality, and we see it not as it is but as it can be, as it should be, as God wants it to be. 

Romans 4:17 says that God “speaks of future events with as much certainty as though they were already past” (TLB). That’s called speaking in faith — you announce it in order to experience it.

My primary spiritual gift is the gift of faith. I don’t tell it like it is. I tell it like it could be, like it ought to be, like God wants it to be.

There are teachers out there, some of them well-known, whose ministry is actually just telling it like it is about the world. And there are a lot of things in the world that are pretty bad. So they criticize this and disparage that, and they tend to be fairly negative because there are a lot of reasons to be negative. They say, “I just tell it like it is.”

That’s one way to do it. But there’s a better way. Don’t tell it like it is. Tell it like it could be! Telling it like it is has never changed anybody. It only makes people defensive.

For example, you could say to someone, “You’re a lousy father. You don’t spend any time with your kids because your career is more important.” But when you label somebody, you reinforce it. Instead, you could say, “I see in you the potential for greatness. If you would let Jesus Christ take control of your life, you wouldn’t be perfect, but you could become a godly man of character that your kids admire.” 

That’s the kind of talk that motivates change!

You don’t have to tell it like it is. Tell it like it could be, like it should be, like God wants it to be. Speak it in advance and in faith.

Source: BY RICK WARREN

Understanding Where Your Church Is on the Congregational Life Cycle

They tell me churches will not die, according to Jesus’ words in Matthew 16:18: “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock and I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.”

There are two major problems with the argument that churches will not close. First, Jesus is not referring to any one congregation in this passage; He is referring to the Universal Church. Second, churches are dying, lots of them—several thousand each year in America alone.

It is, therefore, helpful to see the life cycle of churches so we can at least understand visually where our church resides currently, and where it may be heading. I call this visual the Congregational Life Cycle ©.

This approach delineates six stages. Keep in mind that most churches are not totally focused on any one stage at any time. Rather, the Congregational Life Cycle demonstrates where a church is predominantly focused in its resources of time, money, and emotions.

Outward Focus

This is the beginning stage of most new churches. In the spirit of the Great Commission of Matthew 28:19 or Acts 1:8, the church focuses the majority of its resources reaching the community and having gospel conversations. The focus is on the “other” instead of the “us.”

Organization and Structure

A church without a healthy organization and structure is like a body without a skeleton. It cannot survive as an unstructured mass. It needs a clear polity. It needs a place to meet. It needs a healthy system of groups. It needs clearly defined leadership. It needs processes and procedures.

Integration and Assimilation

A congregation is better able to integrate and assimilate the congregants with a healthy organization and structure. The previous stage was more about the right structure. This stage is about integrating people into the structure.

Inverse Priorities

I also call this stage “the tail wagging the dog.” The previous two stages become ends instead of means. Members seek to hold onto the ministries, programs, processes, and styles where they are comfortable. Two phrases become common mantras in the church: “We’ve never done it that way before” and “We will not change.”

Decline

The church not only declines numerically; it declines in spirit and unity. The congregation often looks more like a spiritual country club doling perks and privileges, rather than a biblical church where all of the parts of the body are working in a self-sacrificial manner.

Death

The church closes its doors. In the past, death took years, even decades, to become a reality. Now it comes with surprising speed and unforgiving force.

What Now?

What are church leaders to do with this Congregational Life Cycle? First, determine where your church is on the cycle today. Where is your congregation expending the greatest level of resources?

Second, always seek to move to Outward Focus. Seek to expend your greatest resources being a true Great Commission church. Seek to reach your community with unadulterated love and grace-filled giving.

Even a church about to close its doors can move to the Outward Focus stage. The church can give its building and resources to a healthy congregation. It can become acquired by another church. It can become a church replant. Through its own death, it can give new life to another congregation.

But all churches should prayerfully move to the stage of Outward Focus, where the greatest level of resources are focused on reaching others and discipling them. That’s what the early church modeled.

And that’s what our church should model today.

Source: Thom Rainer 

Give Pastors a Break in 2018

There are a few jobs that everyone thinks they know how to do better than the people actually doing them. We love giving our unsolicited advice to politicians, football coaches, and (you guessed it), pastors. Apparently, all of these occupations are eternally stocked with hapless morons whose only hope comes from our online rants on how they just don't get it.

What would they do without us?

It seems pastors really need our armchair expertise. I've lost count of how many finger-wagging blog posts listing all the things a pastor should know/do/be/stop doing/start getting. Recently I saw one blog post (no joke) listing "41 things I wish my pastor knew about my mental illness."" 41 things! Listen, there's a name for someone who knows 41 things about your mental illness: a psychiatrist. Which is what you need if you're expecting a pastor to know 41 things about any area of your life.

This year, let's give pastors a break. I'll lead the way by demanding my pastor knows only 40 things about my particular issues. Hey, he's only human. 

Source: 

Drew Dyck
Contributing Editor 
CT Pastors

Choose to Trust God in 2018

“It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before” (Hebrews 11:7 NLT).

Faith is obedience when you don’t understand it. In just the New Testament alone, there are 1,050 commands, and they’re all there for your benefit. God says things like, “Love your enemies” and “Forgive the people who hurt you.” That’s not easy! There are a lot of commands in the Bible that seem difficult, unreasonable, unrealistic, unachievable, or even impossible. But when God says things like, “You should save sex for marriage,” he’s not being mean. He says it because he knows best and knows what will make you happy more than you do.

Every time God tells you to do something, it’s a test of your faith. The question is this: Do you trust God, or do you trust your gut? Do you trust the Word, or do you trust the world?

We’re starting a new year, and these are important question to ask. How will we answer them in 2018? Will we trust God, or will we do what we think we should do, regardless of God’s direction? Will we trust the Word of God, or will we trust what the world says we should do?

As a kid, did your parents ever ask you to do something that seemed unreasonable? When you asked them, “Why should I do this?” they would say, “Because I said so!”

Looking back at some of the things your parents told you to do “because they said so,” was it the right thing? Yes. Can you see in hindsight now how they were wise? God will say the same thing the rest of your life, not just when you’re a kid. When you’re 80 years old, God is going to be saying, “I want you to do this.” And you’re going to go, “Why? That doesn’t make sense.” And God will say, “Because I said so.”

It is a test. Faith is believing when you don’t see it, but it’s also obeying when you don’t understand it. If you do not learn to obey, you’ll miss so many blessings in life that God has in store for you.

But if you learn to do what God tells you to do without question, even when it seems absurd and the exact opposite of your natural tendency, then you’re going to grow in faith, and you’re going to get blessed.

Let’s make responding in faith our focus for this New Year!

Source: Rick Warren Daily Devotional