Pastor + Author
Recently I filmed a 90 Second Leadership video for LifeWay Leadership on this important insight that reveals how we best learn.
I hope you enjoy it!
If you like what you saw on this video, I elaborate on this concept further in my book, No Silver Bullets: Five Small Shifts that will Transform Your Ministry.
Click here to watch other 90 Second Leadership videos by LifeWay Leadership.
There are no perfect church vision statements.If you’re looking to change yours, or create one from scratch, the thought of copying another church’s vision statement has probably come across your mind.
Don’t do it!
While it’s fine to see how others have worded theirs for ideas and inspiration—whatever you do—don’t short circuit the process.
Now obviously, copying someone else’s vision statement would be easier and faster, but in this matter specifically, the process is as important as the outcome (I’ll explain why later on). And while the foundation for every church’s vision statement is built with the same building blocks of the Great Commission and the Great Commandment, the way you put them together needs to be different than the way the church down the road did theirs. This is because the vision statement for your church is for your church—it’s not for the church down the road! So your vision statement needs to be contextualized and worded into language that your church understands.
One more note about vision statements, and then I’ll get to why the process is as important as the outcome.
It needs to be feel real and tangible, but not fully here, since vision is more about the future than the present. It’s more like a foretaste, than it is a full meal. Here’s how I describe it in my book, No Silver Bullets.
Vision is about the preferred future. It’s the ability to conceptualize a picture of a golden tomorrow that does not yet exist. It’s about seeing both the difficulties and possibilities so clearly that you can actually visualize a different reality than the one you can see with your eyes. Simply put, vision is about painting the dreams that God has laid on your heart for all to see. In order to discover those God-given dreams, you need to start by considering “everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Phil. 3:8) so that you can stop wondering “what kind of mission God has for me,” and instead begin asking, “what kind of me God wants for His mission.”
[Read more…] about How to Create a Vision Statement For Your Church
Ugh, I want to throw up—and it’s not because these messages seem to be everywhere I look. I want to throw up because they’re all true.
It’s true that others are bigger, smarter, richer, stronger, funnier, and more known than you. And it’s also true that you are bigger, smarter, richer, stronger, funnier, and more known than others. But let’s play this out to the end.
Even if you do reach the top and beat out everyone else around you—whatever that looks like—the clouds will eventually clear, only to uncover the fact that there are even higher mountains to climb. And at what loss or expense will you have done this? Only to realize that the success that you apparently achieved is like vapor or a vanishing mist?
And by “it,” I’m referring to this game of comparison that we always seem to be caught up in. The rat race. And this pursuit for contentment in the very things that never seem to satisfy.
Just consider these words from a famous comedian and actor that seemed to have it all,
(This is from episode 43 of the IMbetween Podcast that I co-host with my wife.)
Wow. I guess Jim Carrey is finished playing games. I wonder if he’s tired of his mask and God persona.
Now if this is something you’re aspiring toward, you’ve likely come across the term, “platform.”
These days, it seems like everywhere you turn, you hear about platform this and platform that. Michael Hyatt even wrote a book on platforms to bring clarity to the concept and help you build one.
And it’s true. Without a platform, you won’t get published. But I believe that an over emphasis on building your platform is actually worse than not getting published at all. I’d rather you stay in obscurity than lose your soul to the very thing that brought the devil down.
Your platform is not for you. Yes, you definitely need a platform to get published these days, since without one, it’s nearly impossible to break through all the noise and get your message out. But your platform is ultimately not for you.
In addition, no one else is going to build it for you. There’s no such thing as an overnight success or a silver bullet in life, just as I wrote about in my previous book. Others will help—in fact, you need others to help you—but you still need to grind, hustle, and put the work into building a platform.
And once you’ve built something to stand on, you need to keep on working at building it.
But here’s where we get it wrong. If you think the purpose of your platform is for you, then you’re wrong. Yes, you need to stand on it, but it’s not so that others will look at you and lift you up. It’s so that you can help others up onto your platform, in order to help launch them up higher, further, and faster.
If others are looking up at you as the hero and as the blessed one, you’ve got it all wrong. And you need to be careful because pride comes before the fall. However, if others are looking up at you as the guide, since you’re helping them up onto your platform, you will experience one of the greatest joys of life—that of being a blessing.
In everything you do, whether it’s writing, speaking, teaching, coaching, parenting, or helping, make sure you’re doing it to serve, rather than to be served (Matthew 20:28). Don’t let the platform change you, and don’t abandon everyone you trust, love, and care about—especially if God so chooses to amplify your platform.
In other words, don’t chase the platform. Because if you do, you’ll lose your soul and eventually everyone around you.
Since my book, No Silver Bullets was published, I’ve received a ton of questions around mid-size communities. And what I’ve come to discover is that they’re not effective if you’re a church of under 200 people.
Mid-Size Communities, or MSCs for short, are critical if you’re over 200, but unnecessary if you’re under 200.
Well, before I answer why, here are a few bullet points on what they are in the first place:
I get that this might be a new concept for you, so be sure to read through chapter 4 of No Silver Bullets to get a fuller grasp of the concept, but here’s why they’re unnecessary if you’re under 200 people.
[Read more…] about Don’t Do This If You’re a Church of Under 200
For the rest of us, it’s nearly 5 times the price of the classic edition of the game. And when you look it up on eBay, I think a lot of people are hoping it becomes the most wanted present this Christmas, much like Tickle Me Elmo, Hatchimals, and BB-8 in previous years.
It’s Hasbro taking a dig at millennials. It’s them putting all the stereotypes of millennials into a box and selling it for a profit. I wonder if any millennials were even on the team creating this, or if it was just a bunch of boomers and Gen Xers?
Let’s try and list all the millennial stereotypes that we find on the box:
Inside the box, instead of buying property, you can purchase experiences.
“Money doesn’t always buy a great time, but experiences, whether they’re good—or weird—last forever,” says the description on the box. So forget Boardwalk! On this version of Monopoly you get a week-long meditation retreat instead. And instead of Park Place, you can buy a 3-day music festival.
Who takes the train anyway? On this version, you can use bike share instead. And instead of staying at cheap motels, millennials apparently just live in their parent’s basement or on their friend’s couch.
And let’s not forget that avocado toast that millennials are so famous for. Or that live/work loft that all millennials envy—if they can actually afford it.
Does that surprise you? Albeit, I’m an older millennial, but I’m still a millennial—so stereotypes like these are getting pretty old. And knowing how long it takes to create a physical product and then get it out for distribution—this wasn’t someone’s side hustle. Hasbro invested a lot into this, they bet big, and it’s paying off.
[Read more…] about Monopoly for Millennials: Lessons for Boomers, Gen Xers, and Everyone Else