Guest Blogger on Street to the Seat
I had the opportunity to post two guest blog posts in the last week over on Street to the Seat, and was a host on their first ever podcast. Very Cool, thanks Kerry!
Here are excerpts from both posts!
Beginner’s Guide to Blogging
So, knowing how to blog, and whether or not it fits your situation as a church is important. Many people would love to engage in a consistent conversation with you or your pastoral staff about the life of your church, and a blog could facilitate that conversation. There are many ideas, but before you start any of them it is good to know where to start.
Social Media in 3 Words
The social media platform is not going away. And as these new technological and sociological realties being formed on the internet become mainstream (if they haven’t already) how your church and ministries use them will become as important as your weekly church bulletin, if not much much more.
Your Thoughts: The 10 Major Mistakes made in Ministry?
For our Who Are These Guys Podcast crowd, what do you think are the 10 Major mistakes that pastors make in ministry?
3 “Gee-Whiz” Mistakes to Avoid Early in Leadership
There is a dynamic in the first years of leading in ministry that I fell into pretty hard and that set me up for a lot of frustration and disappointment. I call it the “gee-whiz” element. It is the frame of mind that I believe many young pastors and leaders in ministry have fresh out of college, or early in their pursuit to follow the call of God into vocational ministry. And it is a frame of mind that I believe leads towards 3 crucial mistakes.
The Pedestal
This is the mistake so many young pastors and ministry leaders make when they place the church and the person they will be working for on a pedestal. This is such an obvious mistake to avoid, but almost all of us make it and after a year or two it often leads to frustration, disillusionment and conflict.
The reason this happens is because we allow ourselves to become so enamored with being accepted by a church that we stop thinking critically about the leadership and community. Is the church in the midst of a large transition? Has the youth ministry had a quick turn over in the position they are looking for you to fill? Are the ministers that will lead you proven mentors? Are the ministers that will lead you someone that you want to be like as a pastor? Is the church looking for a minister to come and set direction, and “fix” the ministry? How has the church grown over the past 3-5 years? Is there a strong team in place?
These are all questions that need to be asked and adequately answered. Young Leaders need a mentor, they need a place to learn, but the freedom to put those learnings into practice (now catch this) in an environment HEALTHY enough for their mistakes. You need a place to develop practical experience and a place that values the practice of mentorship for young pastors - period!
The Tom Sawyer
This is the mistake where you SO want to feel useful you sign up for every little task you can to help out and get that “that-a-boy” pat on the back. In the business world this is called falling for a “Tom Sawyer.” In the novel, Tom was whitewashing the fence, and his buddies made fun of him for having to work instead of play. Tom insisted he was having the time of his life so vehemently, that the other kids asked if they could take a turn painting the fence. Tom allowed them to paint the fence for him, but only if they gave him something in return. So, Tom ended up getting snacks and toys in exchange for allowing the other kids to paint the fence.
Don’t become someone’s “Tom Sawyer”, know who you are, and focus on your ministry. Think of it this way, your time is worth $500/hour. Now, most of us only wish we got paid that much, but as the leader of the ministry your time and where you spend it should only be in the places of the HIGHEST value. Don’t get suckered into menial tasks just because someone is affirming you, focus your time on the things you are best at and that hold the highest value. Now, don’t become the worst team player in history, your church is full of people who need to serve in their place in ministry. Enable them to serve, and stay focused on your priorities.
The Bottle Neck
In leadership and management books a consistent mantra is that you must delegate and enable volunteers so that you don’t become the “bottle neck” to your ministry, and thus limit it. There is one benefit for the insecure leader though, if you are the bottle neck you are also the center of attention! It also means when the ministry hasn’t grown, you are the center of attention for that failure. Learn early that being a pastor means lifting others up. Great pastors are constantly enabling ministry opportunities for people by getting out of the way and letting them serve. It is also the best way to help create “buy-in” within your ministry, and to provide an environment of excitement.
Underpromise
In our last podcast Josh and I gave 6 ways that you can master the first 6 months in a new ministry. The real “gem” that Josh came out with was to “Master the Reverse”. Meaning, instead of dumping your general brainstorm of what could be to your new partners in ministry, you should hear their hearts and not over promise. Over promising is a bad, bad thing… (shutters at many past mistakes…)
Seth Godin has a new post on his blog commenting on very same thing, here is a short excerpt:
“one of the most beneficial things you can do is get people to give you the benefit of the doubt before you start delivering a service or a product.”
I would recommend reading the rest of the article as well as subscribing to his blog and reading some of his books (you can find links in our resources section).
Unique?
Power Strip Leadership
I was talking to my wife this morning about leadership from thoughts she was having in Mark 4:21-25. About how “Giving, not getting, is the way”, and how that relates to “getting ahead in the world” in terms of leadership. We were talking about how many people feel like giving parts of their job away hurts their leadership and threatens the loss of their job, where this scripture and many people in leadership say differently.
To help her with the thinking of giving away as a value of leadership, I came up with this illustration on the fly. I told her that when you start you are just a single outlet on the wall, and that as you step into leadership you are there to get results, and the best leaders are able to get lots of results, or increase their capacity as a leader. They have only so much energy, but they give it away by plugging in a power strip, then more can be accomplished because they are giving their resources away to more “outlets” that can yield results. The more you open yourself up that the larger your capacity grows, and so does your ability to lead and to get more/better results. It doesn’t mean you stop being the outlet that everything plugs into, and that you forgo responsibilities or qualitative and evaluative control. But as a good leader, you want as many outlets as possible creating as many positive results with as high of an effectiveness as you can reach.
I don’t know if that is helpful or not, but it felt like a “light bulb” illustration that helped us both key in on this principle of leadership, especially as this scripture was teaching. Either that or it reminds you of your college dorm room built in the 50’s that tried to support your computer, TV, video game console, cell phone charger, electric shaver, curling iron, hair dryer, refrigerator, and hot pad - haha!
Mistaken Identities of Leadership
Leadership is a term that seems to be used as loosely as the word love. You love hot dogs and your love your wife, same word but it doesn’t really mean the same thing. The same is true with leadership. People who are in positions of authority, especially in a church, are always called leaders. And if they are doing poorly with their people they are sent to develop their leadership skills. I actually think there are 3 kinds of authoritative positions (sort of like there are 3 loves), and just one of them is a leader.
1. Manager
Managers aren’t really leaders. They do need to have a respect and competence that the people they are managing are willing to submit to. But managers are followed not because they are leading, but because they have perspective to understand their environment and to keep it running smoothly to expectations set elsewhere. Managers are detail people, they are organizers, they might even have a streak of strategic thinking in their blood, but they don’t have to be a leader to do well.
2. Commander
Commanders don’t really care to value people as long as they fall in line with their ultimatums. Commanders have been given command of a group, a team or a staff. They get orders handed down to them and results are expected. There is often a fear and intimidation around these individuals because of the authority that has been given to them. But they aren’t leaders, because if you took that authority away, no one would follow them. People can respect a Commander, but they are rarely inspired by them. A commander is barely concerned with the way things are done (unless it concerns the authorities that preside over them), they are much more interested in the end result. Commanders are the easiest to spot because of all the human collateral that surrounds them.
3. Leader
A leader is more a state of being than a role, even though people with these natural talents often can rise to positions of authority. Leaders are people that seem to effortlessly exert influence from anywhere in an age range or chain of command or organization. A leader is someone you trust beyond their occupational responsibilities. Leaders are disruptive, and are often the centers of crisis from the creation of their ideas and vision. Leaders know results are important, but also care about how something has been done (especially when people are involved). Leaders don’t have to be the smartest (or most specialized) person in the room, they do need to be the wisest and most trusted, with a heavy dose of integrity. True leaders are born, not produced from seminars and best selling books.
How or What?
When it comes to ministry and working with people, is it more important what you do, or how you do it?
What are your thoughts?
Courage
It takes incredible courage to be a good leader. The courage to act in humility. The courage to treat people with respect, even in the midst of conflict. The courage to say a hard thing IN THE RIGHT WAY, and in love. The courage to deal with criticism. The courage to own up to your mistakes, especially when they have implications for other people. The courage to speak the truth behind your decisions, even if you know it doesn’t sound good.
I don’t know that there are a lot of leaders who stand in that sort of courage consistently, but the ones that I have seen I would follow anywhere, and I bet you would to…
-
Subscribe to Podcast
