Paul Stewart

Timeless Advice on Pastoral Care

Speak little; listen much. Think far more of understanding hearts and of adapting yourself to their needs than of saying clever things to them. Show that you have an open mind, and let everyone see by experience that there is safety and consolation in opening his mind to you. Avoid extreme severity, and reprove, when necessary, with caution and gentleness. Never say more than is needed, but let whatever you say be said with entire frankness. Let no one fear to be deceived by trusting you. You should become all things to all the children of God for the sake of gaining every one of them. And correct yourself, for the sake of correcting others.

- François Fénelon, French Theologian

The Perfect Orator

“My aim, then, is the education of the perfect orator. The first essential for such a one is that he should be a good man, and consequently we demand of him not merely the possession of exceptional gifts of speech, but all the excellences of character as well.” -- Quintilian, ancient Roman teacher of rhetoric 

A Case Study in Church Marketing

Have you heard of Courageous Church? You will. 

It’s an upcoming church plant in downtown Atlanta. It seems their pastor, Shaun King (29), is a marketing genius. I can’t believe the amount of buzz this church has already been able to create - and they haven’t even had a service yet!

Best of all, they didn’t just do it through yard signs or mailers…

• Through their Church Sucks Challenge campaign they found a way to communicate that they're not fond of church as it is. But rather than complain about it, they want to help!
• Through Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, & YouTube they were able to raise over $21,000 to fund a toy drive for 500 Atlanta children.
• Of the 100 people making up their launch team, 60 found the church online in the past three months.

So far, their story has been picked up by the local NBC, CBS, ABC, and FOX news affiliates and featured on the front page of the Atlanta Journal Constitution (you really should read this article).

Way to go Shaun!

The Core of Leadership (Nancy Ortberg)

I received Unleashing the Power of Rubber Bands by Nancy Ortberg this week in my Catalyst Filter kit. I read the first half of the book last night and really enjoyed it. The subtitle of the book is lessons in non-linear leadership, which is probably the reason I picked up the book so quickly.

Nancy believes great leadership is about creating culture, because cultures transform people in much more profound ways than systems do. There is no clear-cut, step-by-step equation to leadership. Rather, it is the convergence of conditions that creates a climate where people and organizations prosper. The leader sets the tone for the organization therefore the leader ought to be the most transformed person in the organization.

For Nancy, the epicenter of this kind of transformational culture and therefore the core of leadership is hope. She writes,

Leadership is the hope that we can change the things that need to be changed and create what we cannot now imagine. Hope gives us the courage to move forward, the power to forgive, and the grace to keep the promises we have made.
 
Hope dispels fear. Hope readies us for round two. Hope holds our heads above water and gives us permission to regroup when we are tired. Hope redeems mistakes and prompts the optimism and resilience of a leader.
 
To lead well, we must possess the strong belief that our best days are ahead of us, always ahead of us. Hope and leadership are inexorably linked.

Hope breeds confidence. When we release hope in individuals and organizations, they flourish. Best of all, hope is contagious. 

Young Entrepreneurs

This month I joined the Greater Des Moines Young Professionals Connection. Their mission is to attract and retain young professionals in Des Moines by connecting young professionals to each other and to the community through social, civic, charitable, and professional development endeavors.

This afternoon I attended my first meeting, which included a panel of successful young entrepreneurs - Scott Carlson of Court Ave Restaurant and Brewing Co., Ben Karney of Boomerang, and Tony Lemmo of Cafe di Scala. (Apparently my friend Sarah Dornink was part of the panel last month, bummed I missed her).

They had some terrific insights on starting and running a business which I thought translated well to starting and running a church.

• When you start a business you are the “conductor” - the horns, the percussion, the strings are all looking to you for direction.
• Be prepared for the emotional “highs” and “lows”
• As you get older the “highs” and “lows” become more people oriented than financial oriented.
• What we “sell” is us. We don’t sell and product or a service but an experience, a feeling.
• Always remember the power of hospitality.
• Many small businesses have great ideas and a great work ethic, but they don’t understand basic accounting, so they fail.
• Start by building systems. They are hard to put together at first, but they will free you up to be truly entrepreneurial.
• Entrepreneurs need total support from their spouse.
• Don’t ever be afraid to ask for help.

The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership

I just read a great chapter on leadership in The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes & Posner. I thought I’d share some of my favorite bullet points:

1. Leaders Model the Way

• Leadership is not about personality; it’s about behavior.
• Leading means you have to be a good example, and live what you say.
• Leaders must find their own voice, then they must clearly and distinctively give voice to their values.
• Leadership is about the power of spending time with someone, of working side by side with colleagues, of telling stories that make values come alive, of being highly visible during times of uncertainty, and of asking questions to get people to think about values and priorities.

 2. Leaders Inspire a Shared Vision

• Every organization, every social movement, begins with a dream.
• Leaders have a desire to make something happen, to change the way things are, to create something that no one else has ever created before.
• In some ways, leaders live their lives backward… it is their vision of the future pulls them forward.
• Leaders cannot command commitment, only inspire it.
• Leadership is a dialogue, not a monologue. Leaders must know their constituents and speak their language.

3. Leaders Challenge the Process

• Leaders venture out. They are pioneers. They are willing to step out into the unknown.
• Leaders search for opportunities to innovate, grow, and improve. They are constantly looking outside themselves and their organizations for new and innovative products, processes, and services.
• When it comes to innovation, the leader’s major contributions are in the creation of a climate for experimentation, the recognition of good ideas, the support of those ideas, and the willingness to challenge the system to get new products, processes, services, and systems adopted.
• Leaders are learners.
• Life is the leader’s laboratory, and exemplary leaders use it to conduct as many experiments as possible.

 4. Leaders Enable Others to Act

• Grand dreams don’t become significant realities through the actions of a single person. It requires a team effort.
• Leaders foster collaboration and build trust.
• Leaders work to make people feel strong, capable, and committed.
• Authentic leadership is founded on trust, and the more people trust their leader, and each other, the more thy take risks, make changes, and keep organizations and movements alive.

5. Leaders Encourage the Heart

• It is part of the leaders job to show appreciation for people’s contributions and to create a culture of celebrating values and victories.
• Encouragement is, curiously, serious business.
• Leaders make sure people see the benefit of behavior that’s aligned with cherished values.
• Leadership is a relationship between those who aspire to lead and those who choose to follow. It is the quality of this relationship that matters most when we’re engaged in getting extraordinary things done. 

Transformational Leadership

As I’ve watched the presidential election unfold I have been thinking a lot about leadership. The candidates display a wide variety of leadership skills and styles, but what type of leadership is necessary for today? Which candidate possesses the right leadership mix for our nation’s future?

Most would agree that we are in a great leadership crisis. While we are faced with enormously threatening problems – terrorism, AIDS, drugs, poverty, the threat of nuclear conflict, global warming, and the real possibility of economic disaster. Yet on none of the items listed does our response acknowledge the urgency of the problem. We appear to be sleep-walking through a dangerous passage of history. We see life-threatening problems but do not react. We are anxious but immobilized.

Many of the problems that confront us have discoverable, though extremely difficult, solutions. But to mobilize the required resources and to bear what sacrifices are necessary calls for a leader with the capacity to focus our energies and a capacity for sustained commitment. 

As Christians we know that all of these problems in one way or another lead back to man’s separation from God. We were created to by God and when the work of creation had been completed he called it “very good” (Genesis, 1:31). Yet because of God’s great love and his desire to have a truly reciprocal relationship with mankind he created us with a free will -- the ability to choose Him or reject Him (Genesis 2:16, 17). And beginning with Adam and Eve in the Garden (Genesis 3) mankind has consistently chosen to reject Him. Through that choice and the separation from God, sin entered the world as a curse upon mankind and all of creation. But God has not ever given up. He has sent angels and prophets and Kings and finally his own Son, Jesus Christ to redeem mankind so that all who call upon His name will be saved (John 3:16)

In Machiavelli’s The Prince (1513) he says that “there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.”

And yet it is leadership that Christ has called into. He has called us to be a light to the world and salt to the earth. We are all called to be his ambassadors and to go into the entire world and preach the Gospel. Essentially we are called to lead others to Him.

This type of leadership must be transformational, and yet it is never we who do the work of transforming. It is only in Christ and the work of His Holy Spirit that any human will be truly transformed. And so it is up to us, as Christians called by God into this world, to lead others to his transforming love.

Craig Groeschel has "It"

I didn't get to attend Willow Creek Leadership Summit this year, but it sounds like it was a tremendous event. I am excited about watching the DVD’s when they arrive in October. Meanwhile, I really enjoyed reading Mark Beeson’s notes on the Summit. He posted an overview of the conference here and below are some of  his incredibly detailed notes on Craig Groeschel’s session. Great Stuff! I suggest you read these and order Craig’s book right away.

Craig Groeschel: How Leaders Can Get IT, and Keep IT

Willow Creek Leadership Summit 2008


Craig’s church is in 13 locations in six states with 25,000 people

Lifechurch.tv

How many of you ever walked into a church experience, and it was very dead? It was very “dead.”  How many of you ever walked in and sensed the presence of God? You were different, and others were different, and you wanted to say, “They have IT.”

I was associate pastor in a wonderful United Methodist Church…and came to Willow. I was overwhelmed with a sense of “something.” You could see it, feel it and almost touch it. I was overwhelmed with the sense that they had something I didn’t have, but I wanted it.  I thought, “They get it. I want it.”

I left Willow with tears in my eyes and asked God, “Someday can I have it? I want it.”

Bill said, “The local church is the hope of the world.” When he said it, everything in me believed it was true. 

We started the church in a two-car garage; the most miserable of circumstances. They had mirrors in the garage, so 40 people looked like 80. We had green-felt-back chairs. We had an overhead projector. (A machine run by Jerome – who had lost a finger in a drug-deal-gone-bad – and he changed transparencies. We didn’t have anything that most people think you have to have to have church today. But we did have “it.”

People were transformed. They would meet Christ. They brought their friends. We had what was necessary…the Sprit of God!  We had it.

Today all our campuses are under the same exact leadership, the same exact style of worship, similar locations….but the results were very different.  Some groups had “it” and others didn’t have “it.”  It looks the same, same teaching, same kind of people…but some had “it” and some didn’t. 

It’s something more than the Spirit.  It is the very special working of the Holy Spirit though some people. 

For example: the New York campus has seen 145% growth in a single year.  But the campus my family attends has declined by 3%.  Think about that. The only campus that is smaller this year is the campus my family attends.

Some teams obviously have “it.”  There is power and movement.  They care for each other.  They have “it.”  You could name churches that have “it.”

I believe God wants to give “it” to you…in a very special way. What is “it?” I don’t know.  I’m not sure.  I do believe it has a lot to do with the Holy Spirit.  But God shows up where God’s people are…but some have “it.”

This is what “it” is… God makes it happen. It is from him, by him and for his glory. We can’t create it, manufacture it. One person can bring it. One person can kill it.  It can’t be taught; it can be caught. It is not a system.

“It” has an upside. Wherever you see it, you see transformed lives.  It has a downside, people criticize it. 

You could say, “It happens.”

Bad news…if you have “it” it doesn’t mean you’re going to keep it.

Good news…..if you don’t have “it” it doesn’t mean you can’t get it.

The early church had “it.”  
If someone had a need, people would sell what they had and feed others.  When the church was like that, God gave it to them and people said, “I want it.”

ACTS 2:42-47
“They devoted themselves….everyone was filled with awe…many wonders…all the believers were together…everything in common…gave to anyone…met every day together…daily people were saved.”

Daily….
Imagine if God added to your ministry “daily.”  What would that be like?
What if seven people were saved a week?  How many would that be in a year? 365!

How do we get “it.” There are certain qualities that seem to be present, when “it” is there.  The book has more, but today I’ll focus on four.

1. Organizations that have “it” are incredibly focused!


More ministries are not better. “Better ministries” are better.

“What can you be the very best at?” Jim Collins asked that question. 

In order to reach people that no one is reaching, you’ll have to do things that no one is doing. That’s key. And in order to do things that no one is doing, you can’t do what everyone else is doing.

We need some “planned abandonment.” At our church I had the vision for a “full-service” church.  I wanted everything… everything that you need to be a church.  Six years in I wondered, “Which ones are producing maturing disciples?” We were putting a lot of resources into these ministries. 

We didn’t do Christian concerts very well. We entertained Christians from other churches.

I asked, “Why are we doing this? What can we best do to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ?”

We cut everything except:

• Worship experiences

• Small Groups

• Kids ministry

• Students Ministry

• Missions

We don’t do other things; we do those five things very well. We have the margin and resources to do what others aren’t doing because we aren’t trying to do so many of these other things. 

What are you doing that you should stop doing?

2. Leaders who have “it” see potential when others see problems.



You have everything you need to do everything God wants you to do.  Peter didn’t have silver or gold. He said to the beggar, “What I do have I give to you…”

If I told you that you have a sick child who will die by next Friday unless you can raise $100,000 to get it done, you’d find a way. You would see an opportunity when others don’t.

God often guides on what He doesn’t provide. One of the greatest things He didn’t provide was a big enough building.  We couldn’t build fast enough.

Whatever problem you face, ask yourself, “What is God trying to show me through my greatest limitation?”

Laser focus lets you see opportunity.

3. Organizations that have “it” are willing to fail. Those without “it” aren’t!

Failure is not an option. Failure is a necessity!  Failure is often the first step in seeing God!  Peter failed like he did and in that failure saw Jesus like he did!  Peter got “it.”  When he preached 3000 were saved on that day.

Our first video teaching experience, off-site, failed! We thought we heard God speak. I think we were eating Tacos too late at night.  We tried, swung for the fence, and we failed.  Thirty days later I stood before our church (who had given sacrificially) and said, “We failed.”

God may be giving a vision to do something and you have three steps of failure to learn what he wants you to learn so you can do what God wants to do through you. Get out of the boat…”Though a righteous man fails seven times…get up…”

You have everything you need to do what God put you here to do. Shake it off. Those who have “it” are willing to fail.

What has God called you to do that you are afraid to do?

4. Organizations that have “it” are led by people who have “it.”

You need to have “it” for your ministry to get “it.”

When I came to Christ, I came from a sinful past.  It’ll mess you up.  It’s like a big sneeze; it feels good coming out, but there is snot everywhere.

At a Bible study I read Ephesians 2:8-9. 
I was bold. I got “it” and people said I was full of it.
Craig died and Jesus lived inside of me.  I had “it.” I went into ministry. My motives were right. Before long, ministry started to kill “it.”  Ministry stopped being about building His kingdom and more about building our church.  I lost “it.” I tried to be Bill Hybels.  I tried to be Rick Warren. I tried to be Joel Osteen but I’m just not that happy.

Here is what goes on.
When you have it in your heart…you tend to get it around you.  When you have it, it tends to draw people. When you have it “in here” you get it “out here.”  Because you have it “in here” you have the resources to get what you want “out here.”  Beware. You can get caught up in the stuff… you begin to acquire the things that are NOT necessary to have “it.” 

God showed me that I had become a full-time-pastor and a part-time-follower-of-Christ.

Some of you have lost “it.”  You’ve become more about your ministry than about His Kingdom.

“It” matters. If you don’t have “it,” go get “it.” 
If you lost “it,” go find “it.”
You need “it.”


It was not a “one-point” process to get “it” back. I started fasting again. I went to another country and held a baby who would probably not live one week after I left. I read that six million children under the age of five will die of starvation again this year. 

Some of you, it’s time to let God break your heart again.

I have “it” again. It hurts deeply, because I’m never satisfied. “It” doesn’t satiate. “It” doesn’t mellow you out. “It” messes you up…and “It” is awesome.

If you don’t have it, where are you going to get it?

I pray you don’t sleep until you get “it” and fall in love with Jesus again.

Franciscan Blessing:

“May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart.
 May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression and the exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace. May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, and starvation, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy.
 And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.”

May we fall in love, all over again, with our First Love…Your Son, our Savior…the Risen Christ.

Innovation & Opportunity

Ben Arment and Steven Furtick inspire me. Today they each shared their thoughts on innovation and opportunity. You have got to read these posts!

Ben says,

“If you do something innovative and then do it again and again for years on end, it's no longer innovative. So my job is to sabotage sacred cows that threaten the future. I don't want us to wake up someday with an organization that is taken for granted. The hardest plan to change is the one that worked in the past. So to be innovative is to stick my neck out and put myself at risk for unproven ideas.

It's to experiment at the highest levels of excellence and learn quickly from mistakes. No one recognizes innovation while it's innovating, so it's about living in obscurity before ideas take off. My job is to fight for ideas that I'm not even sure will work, but pound on conference room tables and create sound financial models as if I do. It's to help create a culture of progress, which comes with never being satisfied.

It's to identify the talents of others and put them in the right seats. It's to see the future before anyone else and pinpoint the trajectory of trends in culture. In the end, the greatest innovations are those that seem obvious. Why didn't anyone think of that before?”

Steven says,

"Every opportunity has an expiration date.  Exceptional people, churches, and businesses possess the agility to move at the speed of God.  This usually means merging into oncoming traffic at breakneck speed.

A lot of people I know are more fearful of making a wrong move than making no move at all.  Not me.  I’ve been alive long enough to know that if I just sit at the intersection after God has given a green light, He’ll only honk a few times before He passes me by in the other lane.  Doesn’t mean He’ll stop loving me or stop using me.  It just means that that opportunity is gone.  Forever.

If you are currently considering an great, godly, risky opportunity, consider this:
The cost of missing out can be greater than the cost of messing up.


The opportunity of a lifetime must be seized in the lifetime of the opportunity."

Ron McManus

Ron McManus spoke last night to a group of pastors from the Iowa Ministry Network. He is the president of the Center for Church Leadership and MinistryDirect.com. Ron had some good thoughts on church leadership in the 21st century. Here are a few of the highlights…

- No church has ever grown past its leader.

- The Good News: As you continue to learn and grow the possibilities for you and your church are endless

- None of us have achieved our full leadership potential.

- God is leading the church into a new day.

- Unless we are willing to shift and adapt we will miss it.

- A lot of the “flagship” churches 30 years ago are struggling to survive today.

- No church has a future unless its dreams are bigger than its memories.