I am loving my Bible reading lately. I have been reading through the Gospel of Mark and taking my time to digest each moment. Yesterday I shared this story with our leadership team at the church.
In Mark 5:36 we find Jesus on a healing spree and people were asking for help at every step. One of those asking for the attention of Jesus was a man named Jairus. He was hoping for Jesus to come and heal his daughter. But before he could get the attention of Jesus, someone came and told him it was too late, his daughter had died.
I love what is recorded about Jesus’ response…”ignoring what they said”…he continued to press forward on his mission of hope.
Always in leadership there will be those who will criticize and doubt. And it is easy to get distracted and lose hope in the midst of the hope thieves. But Jesus gives us a great picture of continuing to press forward and ignoring what they said, encouraging others to believe.
I love to write out what is bouncing around in my head…and recently I have been given a small writing project (certainly nothing to brag about…but for me it is a life-goal to do some writing so this is good practice). I am supposed to be working up a couple of short articles on the lessons I have learned in my first year of being a lead pastor. This creates a bit of a problem for me…because I have had to learn and re-learn so many leadership lessons, I have a lot I want to say…but not enough time or words to say it all. So what to do…ah, I will begin to share the rest on the ole’ blog…so, here is one of the brief bouncing thoughts I have forced into landing on paper.
“As a pastor, I am learning to surround myself with leaders who take their work seriously, but not themselves. In church leadership there are always some who need a leadership role to feel valued, and others who simply value the role. I want to be surrounded by people who value the role and don’t need to feel value from the role.
The reasons are obvious; as Christians we are called to servant leadership not selfish leadership. And those who take themselves too seriously are the ones who drain you of energy, vision, and passion for the ministry. Servant leaders add value to you as a pastor, confirming and directing from an objective point of reference with the desire to add value rather than steal it.
I am learning to pay attention to key words and actions that help me determine who surrounds me in leadership. Beware of the person who demands to be included in decisions even when it isn’t part of their direct role, or the person who constantly complains about others in leadership, and especially the person who gives their opinion more often then they ask questions. Build around you those who often speak words of encouragement, who can speak opposing views without de-valuing others, who question you in order to better hear you, who can excel in a given responsibility while giving credit to the team, and those who seek to dream even bigger than you.”
I am still in school…everyday learning how to lead, how to be a better pastor, how to help people grow spiritually. I have many class rooms…reading, listening, watching others who are succeeding, and even the class of criticism and failure. All of these experiences teach me how to be better…how to grow.
Right now I am learning how to lead people into new places that involve the chance at failure. We are dreaming and discussing how to take some strategic risks that we hope will have huge spiritual impact…but like any change, it involves the risk of failure.
Today I watched a great video about the the lessons of failure. It is worth every one of the eleven minutes it takes to watch…so today, will you come to class with me? Let’s learn together. Click on the “bookie” link to watch this video.
Bookie from LifeChurch.tv on Vimeo.
Wow…I was just changed by a truth that leaped out of this story and into my life. Luke 6:6-11 says,
On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Get up and stand in front of everyone.” So he got up and stood there.
Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?”
He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was completely restored. But they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.
There are the three main characters; Jesus, the man with the hand, and the Pharisees. Here is what I observe:
The man with the hand…was a man who wanted to work (extra biblical writings mention that he was previously a stone mason and he came to Jesus wanting to be healed so he could go back to work), he wanted to be healed for a purpose.
Jesus…knew he was being judged by the legalistic Pharisees…and he chose to highlight their legalism, not by confronting them with words (this time), but by helping the man change his life.
The Pharisees…were looking for a reason to accuse (usually when we look for it, we can find it). They are legalists and thus anti-Jesus because they loved their rules and regulations more than they loved God.
How does this story change you?
Today I read a post from Craig Groeschel (pastor of LifeChurch.tv) that is very well said…and I have to share.
The last couple of months we have been trying to lead and position nbc for God to use us to influence our community with the message of Christ. Our leadership team has been in prayerful dialogue about how to expand our influence and increase the spiritual depth of the people who are calling nbc their church community. Recently we have recognized the need to reshape how we assume people grow…and what we need to be as a church in order to better reach and grow people. I thought it was interesting to read Craig’s thoughts today that mirror a lot of the conversations we have been having within our teams.
Craig writes: “To reach the next generation for Christ, we must be three things: Conversational, Missional, and Generational.”
I couldn’t agree more.
Click here to read the rest of Craig’s post.
