Don't Celebrate Before You Score

A Devotional Thought for the day: 




JAMES 4:10
“ ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”

HOW TO IDENTIFY YOUR BLINDSPOTS

One of the most deadly challenges for leaders are blindspots. Everyone has them. 

The worst leaders don’t realize it, while the best are constantly on guard because they know how deadly those blindspots can be. 

For some, it’s being stuck in a unproductive way of thinking. For others, it may be staying blind to the poor performance of a friend who works for you. For still others, it may be living in denial of your own talents and abilities.

I’ve seen pastors whose church membership is dramatically declining, and yet they are still stuck in the thinking they used 20 years ago. I’ve also seen business leaders whose blindness about their own weak spots has created a lid they’re never going to grow beyond.

It doesn’t really matter what your blindspot is—what’s important is that you find it and fix it.

Years ago, I was stuck in a certain way of producing TV programs and documentaries. But by the grace of God I had enough honesty about my ability to see that I wasn’t keeping up with changing styles. So I surrounded myself with a talented young team and empowered them to push me in new directions.

HOW DO YOU FIND YOUR BLINDSPOTS?

First, empower the people around you to be respectful, but honest.

You’ll never discover your blind spots surrounded by “yes” men or women.

Second, be honest about yourself, because too many leaders live in denial.

Insecurity can destroy leaders, so be generous when it comes to other people, but we ruthless when it comes to yourself.

Then, when you realize what they are, encourage others to keep you alert.

Blindspots have a way of coming back because they’re often created by our own past, our upbringing or our personality. Through treatment, addicts can overcome their drug use, but they never stop being aware of situations that may cause that addiction to rear its ugly head.

And if you don’t think you have any blindspots, then you probably do, because that’s how they work.

We call them blindspots because just like the oncoming car in our side mirrors, we don’t see it until it’s too late. Start looking today, because once you discover them and start dealing with the problem, your effectiveness as a leader will be transformed.

Source:  Phil Cooke is an internationally known writer and speaker. Through his company Cooke Pictures in Burbank, California, he’s helped some of the largest nonprofit organizations and leaders in the world use media to tell their story. This article was originally published on Cooke’s blog at PhilCooke.com.

Read more from Phil Cooke »

3 Marks of Humility in Leadership

We tend to despise pride in others and we recognize its destructive power. The Scripture teaches us that pride goes before destruction and haughty eyes before a fall. We long to serve with leaders who are humble, and we are wise to walk in humility ourselves. But what does humility in leadership look like? 

Here are three marks:

1. Attitude of gratitude, not entitlement

Leaders can move from gratitude to entitlement by believing their position or their performance entitles them to certain things. It is impossible to be filled with humility and a sense of entitlement at the same time. Whenever we feel we are owed something it is because we have forgotten that God is the One who gives all good things. Humble leaders believe all they have received is from the Lord, including the team they lead and their work ethic and intensity. All is from Him. When we walk in humility, we are grateful for all He provides.

2. Posture of stewardship, not ownership

Though some don’t recognize it, all leaders are temporary. Because leadership is a temporary assignment, humble leaders treat their roles and their organizations or ministries as something they steward not something they own. They know the Lord ultimately owns it all and they make decisions from the posture of a faithful steward not the posture of an owner who will always sit in the chair of leadership. Humble leaders desire to steward the season well and humbly recognize the season won’t last forever.

3. Trust in the Lord, not in oneself

Humble leaders trust the Lord and not themselves. Humble leaders seek His wisdom, not their own. They lead in His energy, not their own. They trust His leading, not their own. Their confidence resides ultimately in the Lord and not in themselves.

Source: By Eric Geiger

This article originally appeared here.

Do you have a resurrection mindset?

7 Steps to Take When Sunday Hurt

For some of you, yesterday was a difficult day. Something happened (or has been happening) within your congregation that makes your ministry difficult. 

If that’s where you are today, here are a few suggestions:

1.    Pray much today, asking God to teach you and grow you. Even in the toughest situations with people who are simply sinful, we can learn something. Lean on God all day long.

2.    Don’t overreact with emotion. Your emotion may be justified, but don’t let it lead to bad decisions. Don’t let somebody else’s issues create more difficulty for you.

3.    Talk with somebody. I realize you may not be in a position to talk about everything, but find somebody with whom you can share your burden. Let a friend encourage you.

4.    Realize what Satan wants to accomplish in your life. No matter what you faced yesterday, the enemy wants to discourage and defeat you. It’s your call whether you let that happen.

5.    Read some of your favorite Bible texts. I know this suggestion sounds simplistic, but that’s the point. Go back to a basic strategy of letting the Word of God speak to you as it has in the past.

6.    Work hard to reflect on anything positive that happened yesterday. Ask God to help you see His hand rather than the tough stuff. Even a glimpse of His work will help you deal with the negatives.

7.    Begin making plans to address the issues. Some situations demand follow up, and I’m not suggesting you ignore that need in your church. I’m simply saying that you need to think through your reactions and respond wisely.

What other steps would you take?

Source:  By  Chuck Lawless

This article originally appeared here.

You Have One Life, Don't Waste It – John Piper

Seventeen years ago John Piper gave a powerful plea to 50,000 college students in Tennessee at Passion’s OneDay event. 

His message inspired a book he would later write a few years later entitled “Don’t Waste Your Life“. Many pastors, leaders, and missionaries today say his book was instrumental in changing their lives and giving clarity to where God was calling them to serve today.

“There are people in this country that are spending billions of dollars to get you to buy it [the American dream] and I get 40 minutes to plead with you DON’T BUY IT!” 

John gives us a great reminder we need to ask ourselves every single day: When we stand before the Lord and give an account for our lives, will we say we pursued our personal dreams and possessions or will we be able to say we lived for His glory?

“Don’t waste your life. Don’t waste it.”

3 Common Traits of Youth Who Don’t Leave the Church

“What do we do about our kids?” The group of parents sat together in my office, wiping their eyes. I’m a high school pastor, but for once, they weren’t talking about 16-year-olds drinking and partying. Each had a story to tell about a “good Christian” child, raised in their home and in our church, who had walked away from the faith during the college years.

These children had come through our church’s youth program, gone on short-term mission trips, and served in several different ministries during their teenage years. Now they didn’t want anything to do with it anymore. And, somehow, these mothers’ ideas for our church to send college students “care packages” during their freshman year to help them feel connected to the church didn’t strike me as a solution with quite enough depth.

The daunting statistics about church-going youth keep rolling in. Panic ensues. What are we doing wrong in our churches? In our youth ministries?

It’s hard to sort through the various reports and find the real story. And there is no one easy solution for bringing all of those “lost” kids back into the church, other than continuing to pray for them and speaking the gospel into their lives. However, we can all look at the 20-somethings in our churches who are engaged and involved in ministry. What is it that sets apart the kids who stay in the church? Here are just a few observations I have made about such kids, with a few applications for those of us serving in youth ministry.

1. They are converted.

The Apostle Paul, interestingly enough, doesn’t use phrases like “nominal Christian” or “pretty good kid.” The Bible doesn’t seem to mess around with platitudes like: “Yeah, it’s a shame he did that, but he’s got a good heart.” When we listen to the witness of Scripture, particularly on the topic of conversion, we find that there is very little wiggle room. 

Listen to these words: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Cor. 5:17) We youth pastors need to get back to understanding salvation as what it really is: a miracle that comes from the glorious power of God through the working of the Holy Spirit.

We need to stop talking about “good kids.” We need to stop being pleased with attendance at youth group and fun retreats. We need to start getting on our knees and praying that the Holy Spirit will do miraculous saving work in the hearts of our students as the Word of God speaks to them. In short, we need to get back to a focus on conversion. 

How many of us are preaching to “unconverted evangelicals”? Youth pastors, we need to preach, teach, and talk—all the while praying fervently for the miraculous work of regeneration to occur in the hearts and souls of our students by the power of the Holy Spirit! 

When that happens—when the “old goes” and the “new comes”—it will not be iffy. We will not be dealing with a group of “nominal Christians.” We will be ready to teach, disciple, and equip a generation of future church leaders—“new creations”!—who are hungry to know and speak God’s Word. It is converted students who go on to love Jesus and serve the church.

2. They have been equipped, not entertained.

Recently, we had “man day” with some of the guys in our youth group. We began with an hour of basketball at the local park, moved to an intense game of 16” (“Chicago Style”) softball, and finished the afternoon by gorging ourselves on meaty pizzas and 2-liters of soda. I am not against fun (or gross, depending on your opinion of the afternoon I just described) things in youth ministry. 

But youth pastors especially need to keep repeating the words of Ephesians 4:11-12 to themselves: “[Christ] gave…the teachers to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” Christ gives us—teachers—to the church, not for entertainment, encouragement, examples, or even friendship primarily. He gives us to the church to “equip” the saints to do gospel ministry in order that the church of Christ may be built up.

If I have not equipped the students in my ministry to share the gospel, disciple a younger believer, and lead a Bible study, then I have not fulfilled my calling to them, no matter how good my sermons have been. We pray for conversion; that is all we can do, for it is entirely a gracious gift of God. 

But after conversion, it is our Christ-given duty to help fan into flame a faith that serves, leads, teaches, and grows. If our students leave high school without Bible-reading habits, Bible-study skills, and strong examples of discipleship and prayer, we have lost them. We have entertained, not equipped them…and it may indeed be time to panic!

Forget your youth programs for a second. Are we sending out from our ministries the kind of students who will show up to college in a different state, join a church, and begin doing the work of gospel ministry there without ever being asked? Are we equipping them to that end, or are we merely giving them a good time while they’re with us? 

We don’t need youth group junkies; we need to be growing churchmen and churchwomen who are equipped to teach, lead, and serve. 

Put your youth ministry strategies aside as you look at that 16-year-old young man and ask: “How can I spend four years with this kid, helping him become the best church deacon and sixth-grade Sunday school class teacher he can be, ten years down the road?”

3. Their parents preached the gospel to them.

As a youth pastor, I can’t do all this. All this equipping that I’m talking about is utterly beyond my limited capabilities. It is impossible for me to bring conversion, of course, but it is also impossible for me to have an equipping ministry that sends out vibrant churchmen and churchwomen if my ministry is not being reinforced tenfold in the students’ homes. The common thread that binds together almost every ministry-minded 20-something that I know is abundantly clear: a home where the gospel was not peripheral but absolutely central. 

The 20-somethings who are serving, leading, and driving the ministries at our church were kids whose parents made them go to church. They are kids whose parents punished them and held them accountable when they were rebellious. They are kids whose parents read the Bible around the dinner table every night. And they are kids whose parents were tough but who ultimately operated from a framework of grace that held up the cross of Jesus as the basis for peace with God and forgiveness toward one another.

This is not a formula! Kids from wonderful gospel-centered homes leave the church; people from messed-up family backgrounds find eternal life in Jesus and have beautiful marriages and families. But it’s also not a crapshoot. In general, children who are led in their faith during their growing-up years by parents who love Jesus vibrantly, serve their church actively, and saturate their home with the gospel completely, grow up to love Jesus and the church. The words of Proverbs 22:6 do not constitute a formula that is true 100 percent of the time, but they do provide us with a principle that comes from the gracious plan of God, the God who delights to see his gracious Word passed from generation to generation: “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”

Youth pastors, pray with all your might for true conversion; that is God’s work. Equip the saints for the work of the ministry; that is your work. Parents, preach the gospel and live the gospel for your children; our work depends on you.

 Source:

Jon Nielson is the college pastor at College Church in Wheaton, Illinois. He blogs at Something More Sure. 

 The post originally appeared on The Gospel Coalition.