On Leading Well

Year: 2013

  • Prayer for Christlikeness

    Father of Jesus,

    Dawn is here again, but without your light within me

    no outward light can benefit me;

    Give me the saving lamp of your Spirit that I may see you,

    the God of my salvation, the delight of my soul,

    rejoicing over me in love.

    I give my heart to your watchful care, for I know its treachery and power;

    Guard its every opening from the wily enemy,

    Give me quick awareness of his deadly arts,

    Help me to recognize his bold disguise as an angel of light,

    and command him to depart.

    May my words and works allure others to the highest walks of faith and love!

    May sluggish saints be inspired to greater diligence by my example!

    May those of this world be won to delight in knowing you!

    May the timid and wavering be warned of coming doom by my zeal for Jesus!

    Cause me to be a mirror of your grace,

    to show others the joy of being your servant,

    May my lips be well-tuned instruments

    sounding your praise,

    Let a halo of heavenly-mindedness

    sparkle around me

    And a lamp of kindness be a sunbeam on my path.

    Teach me the happy art of

    attending to temporary things

    with a mind intent on what is eternal.

    Send me forth to have compassion

    on the ignorant and miserable.

    Help me to walk as Jesus walked,

    my only Savior and perfect model,

    his mind my inward guest

    his meekness my clothing

    Let my place of happiness be amongst the poor in spirit,

    my delight the gentle ranks of the meek.

    Let me always put others before myself,

    and find in true humility

    my inheritance of both earthly and heavenly worlds.

    Source: The Valley of Vision, Puritan Prayers and Devotions, Banner of Truth Trust, p. 248-249.

     

  • Leading In The Moment

    Yesterday our Digital Strategies team met for our monthly Strategy Day.

    Strategy days allow us to devote longer sessions of up to two to three hours on a single issue or cluster of problems. We seek to dive deep and pray for wisdom to make one or two decisive calls that ensure we stay on track. We mine for conflict: opposing points of view, subsurface issues that tend to fester, places where someone hasn’t truly bought in at the heart level.

    Yesterday while mining we struck gold.

    How did I know? Emotions began to rise along with a few people’s tone of voice. While this could have derailed a typical meeting, two team members noticed the escalation and invited us to pause, pray, and take a few moments to dig even deeper. Once we ensured that relationships were ok and forgiveness was asked for where needed, we moved on the even more fruitful discovery and decision-making.

    It took courage and Spirit-filled self-awareness for my two teammates to lead in the moment. I’m thankful they did. Their actions saved a meeting and allowed us to commit to a game-changing decision that will radically affect the way we operate in the next 12-36 months.

    Where have you led (or failed to lead) in the moment?

  • Multiply. Are We (Re)Discovering Disciplemaking?

    Is the church rediscovering the lost art of disciplemaking?

    You be the judge. Several big name pastors are now publishing best-selling Christian books on the topic of spiritual multiplication. One of the largest church planting gatherings in the world, Exponential, dedicated its April 2013 meetings to the topic of DiscipleShift. There is an explosion of no-cost or low-cost ebooks out on the the topic.

    No doubt about it; suddenly discipleship is hot.

    Jesus gave his followers three big imperatives:

    1. Love God.

    2. Love people.

    3. Make disciples of all nations.

    Why is the 2,000 year old Master plan finally returning to center stage?

    I think there are several reasons for this shift, and I welcome them all. Perhaps that five years after Willow Creek’s Reveal Study, megachurch pastor/authors are realizing that just getting more bodies into seats on Sunday doesn’t change the world. After a glut of “bigger is better” programs in the evangelical church, we are returning to the basic truth that “your church is only as good as your disciples” (Rick Warren video snippet from the Exponential2013 conference in Orlando this week).

    At Exponential’s opening session, all 5,000+ attendees were handed a “Scorecard” on the way in. There were two blanks to fill in: weekly attendance and weekly offering. The speaker encouraged us all to acknowledge that though those numbers may be helpful, they are very incomplete measures of the church’s true mission. He invited us to tear up that scorecard and work on a new one this week, one that would reflect life-on-life disciplemaking, wholistic life-change, and sustainable multiplication through multiple generations.

    This was music to my ears. I’ve been doing this for the past 30 years in full-time ministry and can testify that intentionally investing in 3 to 12 people each year bears amazing results. Jesus promised that his way would produce 30, 60 and 100-fold results.

    How have you experienced the fruit of intentional discipleship or mentoring?