Leading in a Church vs. Leading in a Business

"The New Testament church has two dimensions to its existence . . . it is both organization and organism. Because of that dual nature, the church faces two kinds of problems--organizational and spiritual. Too frequently, church leaders attempt to give spiritual answers to organizational problems and organizational answers to spiritual problems" (Team Leadership, p. 156).


Exactly. It's often very tricky to determine/discern when the problem is spiritual in nature and when it is organizational in nature.

Purpose of the Sermon

On page 159 in Rob Bell's Jesus Wants to Save Christians:

"The measure of a sermon is not whether it affirms what you already believe. A sermon is not a product to be consumed and then evaluated according to how good it was or whether it was pleasing or enjoyable...the gathering of the church, in a service or worship or teaching setting, is to remind, instruct, and inspire people about being Eucharist for the worlds they find themselves in."


What are your thoughts? What do you expect to hear when you hear a sermon? When you are disappointed, what are the reasons why? When you are encouraged, what are the reasons why?

Creating Margins

Highlighted by a professor of one of my classes:

A number of years ago, Dr. Richard Swenson, a medical doctor, wrote a book about the necessity of margins in life. A more recent book builds on his previous work. God is the creator of each of us, and part of our humanity is that we have limits.

“Life in modern-day America is essentially devoid of time and space. Not the Star Trek kind. The sanity kind. . . . People are breaking the speed limit of life.

Everything had become a burden . . . We were not involved in anything that was bad—nothing unsuccessful, nothing selfish, nothing evil. We were meeting needs everywhere we turned . . Yet life was obviously out of control. . . If we had such a perfect life, why did we live so far from Utopia? . . .

Carefully, and even forcefully, Linda and I carved out margin in four areas: emotional energy, physical energy, time, and finances. As we did, ninety percent of our pain disappeared. Life came alive again. My passion for medicine returned in full force.

We remain busy, to be sure. But we are no longer chronically overloaded. We still serve, teach, and help with a full investment of passion and enthusiasm. But always within the context of limits.” [Swenson, R.A. (1998). The Overload Syndrome: Learning to Live Within Your Limits. Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, pp. 11, 12, 14]

Standing in the Way of Promises

In regard to the outrageous promises of God in the Sermon on the Mount, particularly 6.25-33:

"Because we have not trusted in God's abundance, and because we have not risked our security by trusting the new brothers and sisters give to us by God, the outrageous promises of God are choked off and burn like cruel, impossible dreams, when in fact we have frustrated the preconditions for their fulfillment from the outset."

- Michael Budde from God Is Not...

No more "Baton-passing"

Does innovation in the Church look different for the next generation? What is our responsibility to empower next generation leaders?

Innovation doesn’t look different in any generation because innovation is a philosophy, not a product. It’s way of life for any organization that wants to live and last. The phrase "passing the baton" should be dismissed as a four-letter word. The next generation should be working next to this generation, not waiting to take over. If you’re waiting for them to take over, you’ll never be ready to hand it off. And if you think they are waiting to take it over, then they’re probably not the right people in the first place.

from churchmarketingsucks.com

Are you angry?

"Anger in particular seems close to a professional vice in the contemporary ministry. Pastors are angry at their leaders for not leading and at their followers for not following. They are angry at those who do not come to church for not coming and angry at those who do come for coming without enthusiasm. They are angry at their families, who make them feel guilty, and angry at themselves for not being who they want to be. This is not an open, blatant, roaring anger, but an anger hidden behind the smooth word, the smiling face, and the polite handshake. It is a frozen anger, an anger which settles into a biting resentment and slowly paralyzes a generous heart. If there is anything that makes the ministry look grim and dull, it is this dark, insidious anger in the servants of Christ." ~Henri Nouwen