Category Archives: Uncategorized

Power and Dual Relationships

Power, along with dual relationships, is a minefield that has left countless leaders, along with their followers, maimed and disabled. The most painful lessons I have learned in my thirty-five years of Christian leadership have been around power and dual relationships. It has also been one of the greatest means God has used to mature me as a leader. Getting equipped to use our power well in order to free people, especially those closest to us, offers potential to advance Christ’s mission and release joy in ways we have never dreamed. Remaining uninformed, however, exposes us to deadly dangers –both to ourselves and those we aim to serve. I’ve been thinking on this for a number of years and am now writing on it for the book I am working on called: The Emotionally Healthy Leader (Zondervan, 2015). The following is a snippet: The 10 Commandments of Power and Dual Relationships 1. Be prudent,. Read more.

Doing Less

“It is not how much you give, but how much love you put in the giving.” Mother Teresa Focus on love rather than on the your number of accomplishments today. Focus on how much love you can put into your activities, not how many things you get done. Our “to-do” lists are longer than what God has for us. Jesus wants our love, not our lists. It will change your day. …read more

Important Lessons From Fire Building

FIRE – By Judy Brown What makes a fire burn is space between the logs, a breathing space. Too much of a good thing, too many logs packed in too tight can douse the flames almost as surely as a pail of water would. So building fires requires attention to the spaces in between as much as the wood. When we are able to build open spaces in the same way we have learned to pile on the logs, then we can come to see how it is fuel, and absence of the fuel together, that makes fire possible. We only need lay a log lightly from time to time. A fire grows simply because the space is there, with openings in which the flame that knows just how it wants to burn can find its way. Reflection: When in your life in the past yr. have you piled on too many logs? When. Read more.

The 10 Commandments of Technology and Team

My good friend, Lance Witt, has written Ten Commandments for our use of technology that are well-worth disseminating to your team. He expounds on them in chapter 40 of his book, Replenish:Leading from a Healthy Soul. 1. Thou shalt not use e-mail to deliver bad news. 2. Thou shalt not put anything in e-mail that you mind being forwarded…because it probably will. 3. Thou shalt not e-mail (or chat on-line) during meetings. 4. Thou shalt not use “bcc.” 5. Thou shalt be more personal than professional. 6. Thou shalt keep e-mails short and to the point. 7. Thou shalt not text or take calls while in conversation or in a meeting. 8.Thou shalt not call or e-mail people on their day off. 9. Thou shalt use e-mail for prayer and encouragement. 10. Thou shalt give phone/e-mail/Facebook/Twitter (etc.) a Sabbath. What might you add to this list? …read more

Are You a Foolish or a Prudent Leader?

One of the great themes of the book of Proverbs is about wise (i.e. prudent) and foolish people. Note the following: The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways -Prov. 14:8 A simple man believes anything, but a prudent man gives thought to his steps.-Prov. 14:15 It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way. – Prov. 19:2 A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it. – Prov. 22:3 The word prudence refers to people who have foresight to take everything into account. They think long-term and give careful thought to their ways when they plan or make decisions. The simple, or foolish, as described in Proverbs, function very differently. They don’t want to do hard work of thinking things through and asking hard questions. They are hasty, impulsive, thinking only short-term, and. Read more.

A Prayer for a Passionate Marriage

Last night Geri and I shared God’s vision for Christian marriage (over against secular marriage) with our New Life FIRM small group of 18 people. Among other things, we talked about the necessity of bathing our marriages in prayer if our relationship is to become what God intends. Only God’s power and strength, accessed through prayer, can transform us so that our marriage vocations might become “signs and wonders” of the kingdom of God on earth. I promised our group that I would post the prayer Geri and I pray, separately and together, each day. I often include it in my morning Daily Office. Meditate on it. You may want to memorize it. I don’t necessarily pray these exact words each day, but the rich theology and vision contained here keeps me anchored in God’s high vision for a uniquely Christian marriage. (This is adapted from a pamphlet distributed by the Pastoral and Matrimonial. Read more.

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