Category Archives: Leadership

#EHLeader Cheat Sheet

Geri and I realize that certain “one-liners” have emerged over the years as we (and others) teach emotionally healthy spirituality. They are helpful in providing anchors as we lead others into a deep, beneath the surface spirituality that transforms people who transform the world. Take a look. Eva, my 20 year old daughter, refers to it as a “cheat sheet.” It is not possible to be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature. Our being with God must be sufficient to sustain our doing for God. Jesus may be in your heart, but grandpa is in your bones. There is a big difference between being “in the world for God and being in God for the world” We cannot give what we do not possess. You don’t have to keep Sabbath; you get to keep Sabbath. There are no boundary breakers, only boundary makers. When we overfunction, doing for others what they can and should. Read more.

Go Slowly. Study Deeply. The EH Leader Study Guide.

I wrote The Emotionally Healthy Leader slowly – very slowly. Like good wine, it aged over an eight-year period. During that time I carefully chronicled my mistakes, my struggles, my successes, and my new learnings of applying EHS to the building of a growing church, organization, and team. After twenty years of leading at New Life, I grew tired of relying on unmodified business practices to navigate key leadership tasks. I discovered that simply grafting secular branches into our spiritual root system often caused us to bear the wrong kind of fruit. The Emotionally Healthy Leader breaks new ground in practically applying a deep inner life with Jesus to key leadership tasks as planning, team building, boundaries, endings, and new beginnings. It offers the opportunity to revolutionize the way we lead others. To actually make such a paradigm shift, however, requires we create space to wrestle with the content. For this reason, I dedicated. Read more.

Leadership that Remembers “The Loaves”

The only miracle, except for the resurrection, that is recorded in the 4 gospels is Jesus’ multiplying of the loaves and fishes. Why? The truths contained there are so vast and far-reaching. In Jesus’ mentoring of the Twelve, he returns to it multiple times to teach them about mature leadership. “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened?”(Mark 8:17 MATURE LEADERSHIP… IMMATURE LEADERSHIP…. 1. Redefines abundance as the presence of Jesus Himself 1. Defines abundance by considering only visible resources. 2. Sees beneath other’s anxiety and fear to the deeper work God is doing in and around them. 2. Gets entangled in other’s anxiety, fear or negativity. 3. Responds to the situation according to his values and beliefs (integrity). 3. Responds to the pressure of others and accommodates them. 4. Courageously does what is best for everyone despite other’s lack of support and validation.. Read more.

Waiting on God for God

One of the turning points in my leadership happened 12 years ago while spending a week praying the Offices at a Trappist monastery. My prayer life had been marked by waiting on God FOR “THINGS” –e.g. leaders for specific ministries, creative strategies, breakthroughs, key donors to support the work, healings, growth in our church, family blessings, etc. At that point I moved to waiting on God FOR GOD. It turned out to be life-changing – both for my relationship with Jesus and my leadership. While praying for those “things” is good and biblical, I realized that my will was inseparably mixed with God’s will. The lines between the two were blurry. I always seemed to need something else from him. During that week with the Trappists, I sensed from God an invitation to seek his face (Ps. 27:4) and wait for Him alone. Out of that, I trusted, He would reveal himself and his. Read more.

The Slow, Hard Ways of God

God’s kingdom always appears small, always appears insignificant, and always appears powerless. God’s ways are always slow. The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches. Matthew 13:31-32 Jesus’ life and ministry modeled the slow, hard ways of God. How can we expect it to be any different for us? I was asked, after returning a few days ago, from a one-week trip to Sao Paulo, Brazil: “What was the biggest thing you learned on your trip?” “God’s ways are slow… and hard,” I responded. I surprised even myself with my answer. Our trip was rich, fruitful, and powerful. We partner with Willow Creek Brazil and their gifted staff in bringing EHS. Read more.

Measuring “Success”

Measuring ministry impact with numbers is biblical. The book of Acts uses numbers to describe the impact of the gospel — about 3,000 baptized (Acts 2:41), about 5,000 believers (Acts 4:4), crowds coming to faith (Acts 5:14). We have a whole book in the Bible called Numbers. So, in the context of the church, it is good to measure things like attendance, baptisms, membership, number of small groups, and financial giving. The problem comes when that is all we measure. Measuring deep, beneath the surface transformation in people’s lives is also critically important – if not more important. (Consider Paul, Gal. 4:19, Jesus mentoring the 12). The specifics of these internal markers will differ from ministry to ministry and from context to context. The following are several examples we set to measure at New Life Fellowship Church: Each leader at New Life will develop his or her relationship with God by spending ten to. Read more.

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