Category Archives: Leadership

The School of Discretion

I have invested my adult life in studying and understanding Christian leadership. I’ve attended conferences, earned advanced degrees, and read broadly – for decades. But I cannot recall any discussion of discretion. For the first 500 years of the church, discretion was considered the most precious gift, or charism, for the church (John Cassian’s Conferences). They understood that without discretion individuals and communities could easily be ruined. In fact, all abbots of monastic communities were to be distinguished by discretion (The Rule of St. Benedict). Without it we are dangerous – speaking too freely, giving people burdens they cannot bear, and offering superficial spiritual counsel. Discretion is the opposite of our 21st century leadership culture that emphasizes bigger, better, and maximum impact as quickly as possible. Discretion is the ability to wait to see what unfolds, to not act. It involves the humility and patience to know when to leave things alone, knowing. Read more.

The 4 Questions of Emotionally Healthy Supervision

Every year at our Emotionally Healthy Leadership Conference I am asked: “How is supervision in an emotionally healthy church different? What makes it distinct?” In emotionally healthy teams, role expectations are openly talked about and agreed upon. We evaluate how we are doing. But that is not enough. How people care for their inner lives is also important. The question is, “How important?” The answer is: “Very important.” Minimally transformed leaders will always result in minimally transformed teams doing minimally transforming ministry. How could we expect it to be any other way? As a result, there are four areas that we ask about on a regular basis: 1. How is your walk with Jesus? In other words, tell me about your rhythms of being with God and doing for God. How are you living out of your Rule of Life in this season? How has God been coming to you? I was so blessed. Read more.

The Few

I believe in the indispensable place of building the local church, preaching sermons, and speaking at conferences. The problem is we can do these things and still not make disciples who make disciples (Matt.28:18-20). That involves focusing on a few. It is one thing to know about Jesus’ plan of discipling the 12 over a three-year period for the sake of the world; it is another thing to actually follow Him in a similar strategy. I think I am finally getting it. Geri and I drastically shifted our global strategy in our trip to Korea and Singapore this August. Instead of doing large EH Leadership conferences, we chose to invest ourselves in a small group of highly committed people in both countries. This picture below is Geri and I speaking last year. (We are the little dots on the stage). Are you impressed? Don’t be. Now this picture below is Geri and I speaking. Read more.

Enough

One of our greatest temptations as leaders is to want to be more, have more, or do more than God has given us. We discard the gift of God’s limits and take charge. We try to do things only God can do and attempt to fix people and situations only God can fix. This has consistently been my greatest spiritual challenge. When we cross over the line of God’s limits, symptoms such as the following surface: anger, tiredness, anxiety, frustration, judgmentalism, a lack of compassion, and discontentment. When we go beyond our limits, we end up in the Evil One’s territory and the consequences are severe. (Consider Genesis 3). Our loving union with God is disrupted and, like Adam, we end up hiding behind our over-activity. When we let go and surrender to God’s limits, however, we meet Him in surprising ways. I recently implemented a new practice that has served me to prayerfully. Read more.

EHS and the Millennial Generation

Emotionally Healthy Spirituality was created in a multiracial, socio-economically and generationally diverse community. New Life Fellowship, where EHS was birthed and where I serve as the lead pastor, has been exposed to EHS far longer and deeper than any other community. Because of this, we have seen profound fruit in the lives of our church family, especially among the Millennial Generation. The Millennial Generation is the group of people whose birth years range from 1980 to 2000. (You may want to look at Thom Rainer’s book, The Millennials to understand more about this generation). I was exposed to EHS as a 28-year old (I’m 37 as I write this), and, for the past decade my formation in Christ has been deeply impacted and shaped by this paradigm. In the process I have had innumberable conversations with many others from my generation about EHS. As a result, I have up with 3 primary reasons EHS. Read more.

Radically Changed by the EHS Course

Changed people change the world. EHS is the fruit of 20 years of wrestling with the problem of superficial discipleship. Over the years, we have seen its power in transforming lives, time and time again. Click on the image below to view some stories of the impact EHS is having in peoples lives: We believe the EHS Course is a powerful discipleship model that goes deep beneath the surface of people’s lives and results in long-term missional impact in the world. People are so changed they can’t help but change the world around them. And so we are committed to offering the best training, equipping and resources possible to empower you as a pastor or church leader to immerse yourself in bringing this radical discipleship model to your church. We invite you to consider these exceptional opportunities as you prayerfully plan your church discipleship pathway this fall: Live Training: How to Lead the. Read more.

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