Category Archives: Leadership

Emotionally Healthy Preaching: Part 3

This is Part 3 of the integration of emotional health and preaching. Again, these points emerged out of multiple conversations between Rich Villodas and I around preaching in our context at New Life Fellowship Church. The following is the last of three parts: 18. Connect the message to the larger vision of the church. 19. Tell compelling stories around your main point, using strong visuals when appropriate. 20. Manage the tension of good sermon preparation and spontaneity (remaining open to the Holy Spirit during the preaching moment). 21. Look for opportunities for creative delivery means to deliver your sermon whenever possible (e.g. Alone Together, Daily Office, Testimonies, “silent sermon”, panels.) 22. Be aware certain sermons are “Culture Shifting Sermons.” They go beyond the norm, shifting the church culture in a significant way. They require implementation, shifts in priorities, discussions as a leadership. They have a prophetic edge to them and release something spiritually into. Read more.

Emotionally Healthy Preaching: Part 2

This is Part 2 of the integration of emotional health and preaching. Again, these points emerged out of multiple conversations between Rich Villodas and I around preaching in our context at New Life Fellowship Church. The following is the second of three parts on our learnings. Leave ample time in prayer and meditation around the text (e.g. lectio divina, memorizing the text). Utilize the power of community exegesis. Talk with others about your message beforehand. Connect your message to equipping/connecting opportunities, leading people to action (e.g. workshops on Skills, genogram workshop, retreats, Daily Offices, Day Alone with God, small group connections). Be vulnerable and broken around the intersection of this truth and your humanity/journey with Christ. Be sure to create an introduction that answers the question: “Why listen to this?” Clear transitions are important throughout the sermon. Be intentional to emphasize that all of life is holy (work, recreation, sexuality, vacation, buying a car,. Read more.

Leaders and Transformation: The Place of a Rule of Life

Two weeks ago, I reviewed with our New Life Fellowship pastoral staff team our “Rule of Life.” First drawn up in 2007, it has been the abiding document to order our life together for over five years. I read through the document paragraph by paragraph, giving history, context, and theology around important sections. Our new staff asked many very good questions. I walked away convinced, more than ever, of how important, and powerful, this tool is for each church leadership team. How can we lead others to transformation in Christ if we are not experiencing transformation ourselves? I share this document with you with the hope and prayer you will consider thinking through some of these issues for yourself and your leadership team. I invite you to read the entire Pastoral Staff Rule of Life on our website. I am including here a few paragraphs that are particularly significant. NLF Pastoral Staff Rule of. Read more.

Endings in Leadership

I don’t like endings.I prefer not to ask: “What is it time to let go of in my life right now? And what is standing backstage in my life waiting to make its entrance?” Endings are painful and slow. I like to know exactly what is God’s new beginning before I end something. I have written about embracing grief and loss so that God’s resurrections might come in The Emotionally Healthy Church and in Emotionally Healthy Spirituality.Yet, after 25 plus years of leadership, I found William Bridges and his book entitled, Transitions:Making Sense of Life’s Changes filled with golden nuggets around this process. He breaks down our transitions to three key elements: 1.Endings. You can’t have new beginnings without endings. Neither nature, nor God, work that way. When I have tried to keep a program, a staff position, a ministry, or a role alive when it was ending, it has died regardless. The only. Read more.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Applications for Leadership

I recently finished Eric Metaxas’ Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. It was, by far, the best biography on Bonhoeffer I have read. After pondering his life, the following were three key questions I asked myself: 1. Do I really have the courage to follow Jesus wherever He leads? Between his natural talents and upper-class, family connections, Bonhoeffer could have done anything with his life. Yet he became a pastor and theologian. When Hitler came to power in Germany, passing legislation that German Jews without Aryan blood be removed from the German Christian church, Bonhoeffer immediately saw the contradiction. He was one of the first to speak out: “Only he who cries out Jews can sing Gregorian chant.” We must “speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves” (Proverbs 31). As a result, he lost his position, his security, his reputation, his opportunity to marry the woman he loved, and his life out of. Read more.

Gordon MacDonald – Wisdom after 50 years of Leadership

I did a year-long internship at Grace Chapel when I was a seminary student many years ago. I did that in order to learn from Gordon MacDonald, the senior pastor at the time. Over the last 30 years, God has used Gordon as a key mentor in my life. (He is now 72 years). Last week, at the Germany Willow Creek Summit, we had a great deal of time together. The following are the key points of the message he delivered last week at that conference. His text was: ‘”I have fought the good fight, finished the course…”(2 Tim.4) Here are some things MacDonald said you can anticipate as a leader over the long-haul: 1. You can anticipate periodic brokenness and rebuilding. “I have been broken so badly (in leadership) it is a wonder the pieces ever got put back together again. You have a choice you must make every day. Most people will. Read more.

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