Begin searching your life for the things you've let become normal that shouldn't be. I'm sure you'll find a whole host of them. I know I did!
If three or more of these are true of you, you need a new challenge.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that America is going through its longest sustained decline in life expectancy in a century.
I spent many years of my Christian walk subconsciously assuming God wanted every part of my life except for my career (after all, I worked for a bank). Eventually, my controlling nature led to a level of pride that God would no longer tolerate.
As a retired pastor, now looking for a church home, I have visited several churches and listened to preachers casting vision, reminding us of their mission, explaining their detailed strategy and describing the culture they wish to create.
Understanding the different sub-congregations in your church is the starting place to make you a better leader.
Many of us have formed our views about women and leadership by osmosis. We've simply absorbed the beliefs of denominations, our leaders, our parents, and our mentors without asking the questions and studying the issue for ourselves about what makes a leader and who is eligible to lead.
Years ago a leadership mentor taught me a simple yet profoundly effective tool to keep an organization aligned with its plan. It's a matrix that looks at each opportunity or idea and asks two basic questions.
The best investments in business are the fields that yield abundant harvests into eternity.
Brainstorming focuses on solutions; question-storming focuses on identifying the problems and issues that need to be addressed to create unparalleled success.
When I get in a funk, something that helps me snap out of it is to analyze why I'm down. It's beneficial to define reality and identify the source. I determined three issues were negatively impacting me.
Martha and I bought a house that didn't have a traditional cement sidewalk. Instead, it had a "paver" sidewalk. But there was a root problem — literally.
The only place for you right now, as a field sergeant in the army of God, is on the battlefield.
I've been in several situations, mostly in churches, where a lack of a clear purpose, clear directions and clearly stated goals led to confusion, frustration and wasted time.
It's easy to miss what's in front of us when we are hurried, stressed or thinking only of ourselves.
Questions can help leaders go further and do more. Yet, many leaders are unwilling to ask.
Has God equipped your church to minister to "people like us"?
When will our churches get back to normal? If "normal" means pre-COVID behavior, we will not return at all. We will, however, experience a new normal. We have to be ready for it when it comes.
An expansive update built on Faithlife's preexisting software, Logos 9 offers user-friendly features to accompany its extensive selection of books, lexicons, and commentaries, which I found especially helpful for my research papers and exam study times.
