NEW E-BOOK

LeaderSHIFT: 8 Pivotal Breakthroughs of Emotionally Healthy Leaders

LeaderShift eBook

Personal Assessment

How Emotionally Healthy Are You?
Take a free 15 minute personal assessment now!

*We respect your privacy by not sharing or selling your email address.

Personal Assessment

Close

Category Archives: Discipleship/Formation

Wonder

Wonder is one of the most important qualities we can cultivate as leaders. It is also one of the most difficult, especially amides the daily pressures and demands of life. A very gifted, godly, friend of mine, after twenty-one years of  “successfully” pastoring a mega-church, recently resigned and decided to pursue a quieter, more reflective life. He writes about his more recent learnings in a wonderful, little book called, Thursdays with Naomi. In it, he notes the learning that have emerged out of his time spent on Thursdays with his little granddaughter, Naomi. Children, like God he notes, have an amazing ability to experience the joy of every thing in each and every moment. G.K. Chesterton, in his book Orthodoxy, writes: It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike,. Read more.

6 Questions for 2014

These six questions come from a longer list Bobb Biehl sent me to consider as I enter into 2014. I found them helpful as I prayerfully considered them in my time with God the last couple of days. I treated them as part of my Midday and Morning Prayer. Take 2 minutes being still before the Lord, listening. Prayerfully, with journal in hand, sit with the following questions: 1. What might GOD IN HEAVEN want us to do in 2014? 2. What is our SINGLE WORD FOCUS for 2014? 3. What 3 MEASURABLE PRIORITIES should we accomplish in 2014? Of the three, which is our NUMBER ONE PRIORITY? 4. What is our NUMBER ONE ROADBLOCK as we face 2014? 5. What was our single GREATEST UNEXPECTED SUCCESS of 2014?  How can we take FULL ADVANTAGE of this unexpected success? 6. What are the 3 THINGS we could do in the NEXT 90 DAYS to make a 50% DIFFERENCE in where we end 2014? After you finish, take a deep breath, offering. Read more.

3 Things “To Do” in 2014

According to Jean Vanier, the founder L’Arche, argues that three activities are absolutely vital to create community: 1. Eating together around the same table. How can think creatively to foster this in 2014, especially in our larger churches? I think we have a lot to learn from immigrants and ethnic churches on this! 2. Praying together. What might it look like to pray more as a lifestyle as a community, outside our prayer meetings? How do we infuse prayer in a way that everyone participates and no one feels intimidated? 3. Celebrating or having fun together. “By celebrating,” Vanier writes, “I mean to laugh, to fool around, to have fun, to give thanks together for life. When we are laughing together with belly laughs, we are all the same.” (see Living Gently in a Violent World, p.17).  We have an intergenerational New Year’s Eve Party each year at New Life. We dance, party, sing, eat, laugh, and dress up. Read more.

3 Things "To Do" in 2014

According to Jean Vanier, the founder L’Arche, argues that three activities are absolutely vital to create community: 1. Eating together around the same table. How can think creatively to foster this in 2014, especially in our larger churches? I think we have a lot to learn from immigrants and ethnic churches on this! 2. Praying together. What might it look like to pray more as a lifestyle as a community, outside our prayer meetings? How do we infuse prayer in a way that everyone participates and no one feels intimidated? 3. Celebrating or having fun together. “By celebrating,” Vanier writes, “I mean to laugh, to fool around, to have fun, to give thanks together for life. When we are laughing together with belly laughs, we are all the same.” (see Living Gently in a Violent World, p.17).  We have an intergenerational New Year’s Eve Party each year at New Life. We dance, party, sing,. Read more.

A Couple’s Prayer for 2014

Geri and I have been praying this prayer each day for our marriage as it articulates our vision as we enter into 2014. If you are married, pray it for your marriage several times a day. And if you are single, pray it for the marriages in your church. It is a prayer filled with a rich theology that the sexual love between a man and woman is the closest thing we have to the intimacy of the Trinity and the passionate life-giving desire God has for each of us. (This is adapted from a pamphlet distributed by the Pastoral and Matrimonial Renewal Center.) Lord, grant us the strength to answer your callto become a living sign of your love.Make our love for each other like your love for us:passionate, permanent, intimate, unconditional,and life giving. May we be as present to each other as you are to us,so that all the world can see your presencemanifested. Read more.

A Couple's Prayer for 2014

Geri and I have been praying this prayer each day for our marriage as it articulates our vision as we enter into 2014. If you are married, pray it for your marriage several times a day. And if you are single, pray it for the marriages in your church. It is a prayer filled with a rich theology that the sexual love between a man and woman is the closest thing we have to the intimacy of the Trinity and the passionate life-giving desire God has for each of us. (This is adapted from a pamphlet distributed by the Pastoral and Matrimonial Renewal Center.) Lord, grant us the strength to answer your call to become a living sign of your love. Make our love for each other like your love for us: passionate, permanent, intimate, unconditional, and life giving. May we be as present to each other as you are to us, so that all the. Read more.