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Tag Archives: trust

Why Great Leaders are Great Grievers: Part 2 – EH Leader Podcast

The world may minimize, rationalize, deny, or medicate their losses, but God calls us to a different path in the new family of Jesus. Simply put, grieving well is a core discipleship issue – especially for those of us who lead. Consider a few of the great men and women in Scripture who were great grievers and great leaders: Isaiah, Hannah, Jeremiah, Moses, Mary, Paul, Peter, and most importantly, Jesus. Unless we courageously allow our losses to break open our hard hearts, we will project or inflict our unprocessed pain on others. But if we follow God’s pathway for us – paying careful attention to our pain, waiting with him in the confusing-in-between, and letting the old birth the new – we experience a stripping away of our false selves in order to become the new men and women we were truly meant to be. We move from spiritual babies with an incessant need. Read more.

The Core Question of Emotionally Healthy Preaching Rich Villodas (with Pete Scazzero)

Rich Villodas, who is now Lead Pastor of New Life Fellowship, led one of the workshops at our recent Emotionally Healthy Leadership Conference on “Emotionally Healthy Preaching.” Once again, it made a large impact on all who attended. One of Rich’s greatest gifts to the larger body of Christ is, I believe, in the art of preaching. The following is the core of what he shared: Preaching is foremost not about preaching. It’s about a life with God; a life of integrity, out of which we speak. This is the core of emotionally healthy preaching. Like many pastors and preachers, I love the art and science of preaching. I work hard for stories and illustrations that make biblical content accessible to our congregation. I work hard to understand the text exegetically. I think critically about how a passage of Scripture applies in our NYC context. All of these things are important. In addition to. Read more.

Good Friday: A Time to Embrace Our Endings

On Good Friday we remember that at the cross Jesus wipes away our sins, becoming a global magnet that draws the whole world to Himself. Good Friday also reminds me that embracing endings (deaths) and new beginnings (resurrections) is the pattern of life for every Christian. Nothing new takes place without an ending. A real ending—a final death—often feels like disintegration, falling apart, a coming undone. It feels that way because that is what death is. It is an ending that requires walking through a completely dark tunnel, not knowing when or if any light will come again. If we embrace these losses for the severe mercies they are, God does a profound work in us and through us in ways that are similar to what the apostle Paul describes as “death is at work in us, but life is at work in you” (2 Cor. 4:12). As a person who tends to resist. Read more.

Limits, Loaves, and Leadership

How we respond to the limits Jesus intentionally places before us is a core issue for every leader. The feeding of the 5000 (actually the 10,000-20,000 when we include women and children) offers us an opportunity for transformation – if we patiently allow this revelation of Jesus to penetrate us. It is the only miracle, except for the resurrection, found in all four gospels. This summer God has invited me to patiently listen to Him through the John 6:1-15 account. The following are four of the insights I continue to ponder: Jesus intentionally places limits before us to mature our faith. One third of the account concerns itself with Jesus testing and growing their faith. He placed them in an impossible situation. What is an impossible leadership challenge before you today? Jesus is more than enough. Andrew said: “Here is a boy with 5 small barley loaves and 2 small fish, but how far. Read more.

Wonder

Wonder is one of the most important qualities we can cultivate as leaders. It is also one of the most difficult, especially amides the daily pressures and demands of life. A very gifted, godly, friend of mine, after twenty-one years of  “successfully” pastoring a mega-church, recently resigned and decided to pursue a quieter, more reflective life. He writes about his more recent learnings in a wonderful, little book called, Thursdays with Naomi. In it, he notes the learning that have emerged out of his time spent on Thursdays with his little granddaughter, Naomi. Children, like God he notes, have an amazing ability to experience the joy of every thing in each and every moment. G.K. Chesterton, in his book Orthodoxy, writes: It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike, it may. Read more.

Wonder

Wonder is one of the most important qualities we can cultivate as leaders. It is also one of the most difficult, especially amides the daily pressures and demands of life. A very gifted, godly, friend of mine, after twenty-one years of  “successfully” pastoring a mega-church, recently resigned and decided to pursue a quieter, more reflective life. He writes about his more recent learnings in a wonderful, little book called, Thursdays with Naomi. In it, he notes the learning that have emerged out of his time spent on Thursdays with his little granddaughter, Naomi. Children, like God he notes, have an amazing ability to experience the joy of every thing in each and every moment. G.K. Chesterton, in his book Orthodoxy, writes: It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike,. Read more.