Eric's Blog

Drive Conference: Andy Stanley Session 2

I. A Great Staff is Made Up of Great Leaders

    A. The Goal: A staff culture characterized by mutual submission.

    B. The Question: What can I do to help?

II. Best Practices for Creating a "Great Staff"

    A. Do for one what you can't do for all.

    - Symbolic leadership: I'm going to do for one what I wish I could do for everyone.

    - Fairness is the enemy of rightness.

    B. Systematize top down service.

    C. In response to your staff's key objectives, ask, "How can I help you?"

    D. Create and maintain a sustainable pace.

    - Without margin, there is no room to serve.

    - Without margin, we seek first our kingdoms.

    E. Celebrate and reward greatness when you see it.

    - What's rewarded is repeated.

    F. Confront your ego.

    - What is more important: creating a great organization or creating a name for yourself?

III. Signs that Things aren't So Great

    A. Competition between departments

    B. Double standards

    C. Loyalty lectures

    - You deserve loyalty. You win loyalty, but you don't require loyalty.

Key question to ask your staff: Do you have all the tools to do your job (ministry)?

Drive Conference: Andy Stanley Session 1

THE MULTIPLE CHOICE TEAM from Andy Stanley

"To maintain the relational integrity to operate as a team, we must choose to trust and be trustworthy."

A. Often there are unexplainable gaps between what we expect people to do and what they actually do.

        1. We choose what we place in those gaps.

        2. Our choices determine the integrity of the relationships.

        3. We can choose to fill them in with trust or suspicion.

        4. As believers we are called to trust.

B. Two things make it difficult for us to trust.

        1. Who I am.

        2. What I see.

C. There are three commitments we need to make.

        1. When there is a gap between what I expect and what I experience, I will fill it in with trust.

        2. When I observe someone filling a gap with suspicion, I will come to your defense.

        3. If what I experience begins to erode my trust, I will come directly to you about it.

"Trust cannot be sustained in a culture where individuals are not worthy or trust."

OK, that's just point 1. There is a point two, three, and conclusion but you will have to buy the CD. They may put the session on the web for you to view. If they do I will let you know.

This may have been the most powerful teaching from the Drive Conference. I mean how can we function properly as a ministry if we don't trust one another (always thinking the best) and we are not trustworthy? We can't! So here are a few of the questions you need to answer from the conclusion?

1. Are there people in your organization (ministry) that you have a difficult time trusting?

2. Is it your issue or theirs?

3. What can you do about your part?

4. What do you need to address with them about their part?

Drive Conference: Andy Stanley Session 3

I will post comments from Andy's other 2 sessions from the Drive Conference later. He was originally suppose to give a talk on Making Vision Stick but decide to go in a different direction. Instead he talked about the latest questions/thoughts he and his staff are talking about. He called this session Recent Random Thoughts on Church and Leadership.

1) To reach people no one else is reaching, we must do things no one else is doing.

Takeaway: Become preoccupied with those you haven't reached as opposed to those you are trying to keep.

2) The next generation product almost never comes from the previous generation (From the book: Focus).

What is next: You can either fight it or fund it.

Pay attention to what student ministries are doing.

Takeaway: Be a student, not a critic.

3) What do I believe is impossible to do in my field, but if it could be done would fundamentally change my business (from Future Edge)?

Takeaway: Pay attention to the people who are breaking the rules.

4) If If we were kicked out and the board brought in a new CEO, what would they do? Why shouldn't we walk out the door, come back in and do it ourselves?

"Long after our methods are not effective we are still attached to them."

Takeaway: Acknowledge what's not working. Own up to why you are not willing to do anything about it.

5) When your memories exceed your dreams, the end is near.

"Never be satisfied with the status quo."

"Momentum can carry you into irrelevance."

"Keep the vision out in front."

Takeaway: Don't let success or momentum overshadow your vision.

More from the Drive Conference throughout the rest of the week.

Restoring Honor

Here is the opening paragraphs from Clayton King's post on Restoring Honor...

"I am sure that a post of this sort offers itself to misunderstanding.  I write it nonetheless, in hopes that you will hear my heart and glean the good from it.

The church in America seems to have lost the ancient, and dare I even say Biblical understanding of correctly honoring the man of God; one who dedicates his life to service to God and God’s people (this could be the worship leader, youth minister, or most often the pastor).  We have confused honor with obsession, treat our ministers like hired hands, and become addicted to personalities on TV or the internet and swallow anything they try to sell us while starving our local pastor on a salary that allows him to qualify for food stamps."

To read the rest go here.

Note: Every guest minister that visits our church is a honored guest and gift from God and should be treated that way. I think we treat our guest very well but sometimes we need to be reminded that they are honored guests. Thank you for all you do to make everyone who comes to New Life feel welcomed and loved. You guys are great!

How to Grow in Your Faith Part Two

Growing in your faith requires action on your part. You will have to make decisions and act on those decisions. You can only grow so much from going to church and sitting in a pew and reading your Bible and praying at home. Don't get me wrong these things are important and should be done.

But growing in your faith requires you to make decisions that STRETCHES your faith. I have practiced this in my life and in my ministry. When I said we were going to build our new sanctuary debt free everybody was not ready to move out in faith. Some worried about the current debt and other things. To make a long story short about a year later the building was finished debt free!!! Believe me that required a lot of faith.

My rule is this: When I am facing two choices and they both are good or Godly, which one requires more faith. That is usually the way I go. It may be the more difficult path but by choosing that path I have to pray more, depend upon God more, and that causes my faith to grow. I have always told God I wanted to be a man of great faith. I don't want to be a person of little faith and I don't want to look back over my life and regret a decision I made simply because I did not have enough faith.

When we were building the Ministry Center Building we were not going to finish the kitchen. One day God said to me: "The only difference between finishing the kitchen now and later is your faith." Guess what, we finished the kitchen. I mean around $7000 worth of cabinets with appliances and all.

Faith decisions will take you out of your comfort zone. I also ask our leaders and others in our church to do things that take them out of their comfort zones. Pastors, you should constantly be challenging and stretching your people's faith. Don't be afraid to ask them to take a step of faith with you. It's part of your responsibility.

So you want to grow in your faith? What is God asking you to do right now that you are afraid to do, that you have been putting off, that you know YOU can't do or that you are fearful of what others might say. Step out and do it. Follow God with everything you have. He is a faith God and wants yours to grow.

How to Grow in Your Faith

We often get this question or people check "I would Like Information on How to Grow in My Faith" on the back of their connection card. First, you are ultimately responsible for your spiritual growth. Not your mama, your church, your pastor, or your small group. Your church should ASSIST you in your spiritual growth but you must take advantage of those opportunities.

Basic things you need to do (things you know and hear about but probable don't do) :

• Read the Bible. You can start with a least a chapter a day. Read a chapter in Proverbs in the OT and John in the NT.



• Pray. Don't make this complicated. Just talk to Him as you would a friend.



• Be faithful to you church. Note: If you are not being challenged by the preaching, your toes are not getting stepped on, and you are not getting offended then you are probable in the wrong church. At times growing hurts and is painful.



• Share your faith. Now that sounds hard and scary but all it means is that you tell people what Jesus has done and is doing for you. We can all do that.

Other things you need to do but probable don't think about as helping you grow in your faith:

• Start giving some of your money to your local church. God's starting place is the tithe (that's 10%) but if your faith is not there yet then just do something. I am amazed at the number of people who do nothing. Just start and be honest with God about it. Pray about it and watch God work in you and for you. Believe me this will grow your faith.



• If you are giving the tithe then increase your given. Give to the mission or benevolence fund. Raising your level of giving raises your level of faith which causes you to grow. By the way: Don't get mad about me writing about the tithe or giving more if you have never tried it.



• Get involved in a ministry. You grow by serving others. You grow by using your God-given gifts. This is not something you need to pray about. Get involved this week. Your church needs you.



• Get involved in a small group. We grow better together. Who is holding you accountable? Who do you have to pray with? Who are doing life together with? Do you really want to grow? Then get in a group and BE accountable to it.



• Get involved in outreach. That means you have to get outside the four walls of your church building. Reaching out to others keeps you in touch with the needs around you. Reaching out to others challenges the fear in your life and causes faith to rise up on the inside of you. Outreach will definitely help you grow.



• Read books and blogs that challenge you and help you grow in your faith.

You can sit in your room every day and pray for hours and not achieve certain types of spiritual growth. What I am saying is that giving, serving, and getting involved in outreach will grow you in ways that prayer cannot. Yes, prayer is important. But if you want to be ALL that God's wants you to be then you have to get off your chair, get out of your comfort zone, and reach out and serve others. This post is all about growing in your faith. There is no magic formula. Do these things and do them in increasing measure and you will grow!!!

Ten Questions: Ministry

Here is another 10 questions post from Craig Groeschel's blog...

1. Is our vision so big that we obviously can’t accomplish it without God?



2. Am I doing ministry from memory or from fresh direction from God?



3. What ministry (or program or meeting) has lost its effectiveness and should be stopped?



4. Is there a person who needs to be moved to another role (or removed), and I haven’t done it?



5. What faith risk is God calling me to take?



6. Have I repented to my team at least once in the last year for a failure in leadership?



7. Have I done everything in my power to make sure my team is living without unconfessed sin?



8. Am I expressing love and care for my team members’ families?



9. Am I living with delayed obedience toward God in any area of leadership?



10. If Jesus my sole motivation for ministry or has my motivation become clouded?

Boy, I've got some work to do. How about you?

Ten Questions: Introspection

Today's Ten Questions from Craig Groeschel's Blog deals with introspection. Here they are...

1. In what area of life have I lost my passion? (What can I do to get it back?)



2. If the enemy were going to “take me out,” what are my three most vulnerable points?



3. What new burden has God given me in the last year?



4. What have I unlearned that has made me closer to God?



5. What new discipline is God calling me to do?



6. What has God asked me to do that I haven’t yet done?



7. Is there something that I think about more than I think about pleasing God? (Money, possessions, ministry, family, recreation, something else.)



8. Do I have an increasing joy in serving Christ?



9. Am I handling the pain of ministry with integrity?



10. Am I still being persecuted for my faith in Christ?

As always these are great questions.

Ten Questions: Family

Today's Ten Questions from Craig Groeschel's Blog deals with families. Here they are...

1. Am I closer to my spouse today than I was a year ago?



2. Have I read God’s word with my family this week?



3. Have I prayed with each member of my family this week?



4. Do my children know they come before the people in the church?



5. Are my children joyfully experiencing Christ at church or do they resent the church?



6. Does my spouse feel close to me spiritually?



7. If my spouse could have me change one thing about me, what would it be? (Why haven’t I changed in this way? What am I going to do about it?)



8. Are we honoring the Sabbath as a family?



9. Do my wife and kids enjoy being around me?



10. Can my family clearly articulate our family values and vision?

Wow, these questions will really make you think.

Ten Questions: Ministry Relationships

Craig Groeschel is doing a "10 Questions" series on his blog. These are just to important not to include here. These 10 questions deal with your ministry relationships.

1. Are the people closest to me in ministry lifting me higher or dragging me down?



2. How have I intentionally developed the leaders around me in the past week?



3. Am I speaking transparently with at least two other close trusted friends on a weekly basis?



4. Am I submitting myself to the correction and coaching of at least two mentors?



5. Am I holding a grudge against someone?



6. Am I speaking well of other ministers?



7. Am I falling for the temptation of comparing, complaining, criticizing or gossiping?



8. Are my words and relationships characterized by words of faith or negativity?



9. Do people enjoy being around me or am I often “down”?



10. Have a made at least three new ministry friends in the last year?

Which one speaks to you the most? Thanks Craig for the great questions!

By the way, there was some really BIG church news announced on the internet this week. If you have not heard about it I will be blogging about it later this week. And yes, we are going to be a part of it. What a year we are going to have!!!