How healthy are you at exercising power and setting wise boundaries? Â Join Pete Scazzero and Rich Villodas in this month’s edition of the Emotionally Healthy Leadership Podcast as they discuss this pivotal leadership theme. Click the video below to watch or the link to listen to the audio file. LISTEN HERE
We are so excited for this yearâs EH Leadership Conference (along with the one day Pre-Conference âThe Leaderâs Marriage April 19, 2016). This is our premier training event, offering a broad, yet deep, taste of EHS as it has developed at New Life Fellowship over a 20-year period. We had a significant year of new learnings in how EHS answers the great problem confronting the church–peopleâs lives are not being deeply transformed in our churches. Because of our commitment to high quality training, we limit the Main Conference to 350 participants and the Pre-Conference to 120 people (60 couples). We believe God may have you among that group. Pray and ask for His direction about this coming April. Super Early Bird Registration rates end November 30th. Â Register HERE.
We make plans and decisions every day as leaders. God’s leaders have been making plans and decisions without him since the beginning. How healthy is your practice of planning and decision making in your leadership? Join Pete and Rich in this month’s edition of the Emotionally Healthy Leadership Podcast as they discuss this pivotal leadership theme. View the video below to watch the conversation or listen to the audio file by using the player below.
The following is a story based on the life of Abba Anthony from the Sayings of the Desert Fathers that I have pondered for years: Abba Anthony received a letter from Emperor Constantine to visit him in Constantinople. He wondered if he should go and asked Abba Paul who said, âIf you go, you will be called Anthony, but if you stay here (in the desert alone), you will be called Abba Anthony.â What makes this story so important is that it speaks to the inner anchor of a life rooted in the love of God. We assume our overactive spirituality is normal. It is not. In fact, our tendency to seize more and more opportunities for God has destroyed many a good leader. Innumerable demands and distractions confront every one of us. Doors of new opportunities swing open before us â to speak, to strategize for further expansion, to intervene in ministry problems,. Read more.
For the first 17 years of my Christian life I grew in knowledge and leadership experience. I worked with university students full-time, graduated from seminary, and started a church. My leadership gifts blossomed. The size and impact of the ministry expanded. The problem was that growing in love was not my number one aim. I focused on bigger, better, and faster â like most of the leaders around me. I wasnât asking myself: Am I meeker, patient, soft, safe, approachable, courageous, kind, and honest this year than I was last year? Am I less easily triggered under stress? Am I breaking my bad habits from my family of origin (e.g. stuffing resentments, lying when hurt, resolving conflicts poorly, not being attentive)? Are people close to me experiencing me as loving? A revolution took place in my life when I read Jonathan Edwardâs sermons on 1 Corinthians 13:1-3. His exegesis and insights launched a Copernican. Read more.
Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.           –Will Rogers Every day we make many judgment calls. Some of these are larger than others. Who do I hire or invite to fill a key volunteer position? When do I launch an initiative I am passionate about? Who do I include for counsel on a key decision? When I look back at some of the judgment calls I made in my early years, I am astounded, especially as it related to hiring decisions. How could I have been so blind, so shortsighted, and so unwise? So let me encourage you: Continue your prayerful process of discernment (get wise counsel, move slowly, be clear about expectations, etc.). Do a low risk, âtest ârun whenever possible. Relax and donât beat yourself up. You will make mistakes, especially in your first 10-15 years! You will learn good judgment â but it will. Read more.
