I’m always amazed at whenever I see someone from church at the mall or at a restaurant, the first question they ask me is , “What are you doing here?” I know it’s because they don’t expect to see me there, but yes, I eat and buy clothes too (My wife thinks that’s all I do-Yes I’m the shopper in our family). I was thinking about this because Jesus was the kind of person that no one was ever surprised when he showed up somewhere. I wonder if we have gotten too lost in church world that we’re losing touch … Read More

One of the ways I train my staff is through giving them books to read. In nearly every staff meeting we have, the fist hour is spent either watching a DVD or discussing a book we are reading together. I know this is nothing new, but I decided to mix it up recently. I gave my staff totally different books to read and we are discussing the various books together. I’ve found that is a more beneficial way to train for a couple of reasons: #1 – More Conversation – If we’re reading the same book, there’s only so many … Read More

As a leader, I am always hearing about new books that come out. Because I love to read, I buy many of them and try to glean as much as I can from them. But here’s what always seemed to happen to me: I would get on a kick to read a certain author, genre, or subject and it wiped me out. When we were in our first 18 months at CCML, I read every book I could find on church planting, church growth, and ministry paradigms. I felt this was the only responsible thing to do, so I could … Read More

“I am altering the deal. Pray I don’t alter it any further.” – Darth Vader Those words must have hit Lando Calrissian like a ton of bricks. He made a deal with a leader and he broke his promise. One of the keys to leadership is trust and when we go back on our word we lose whatever credibility we have built. I believe Kouzes and Posner were right when they said that the foundation of all leadership is credibility in “The Leadership Challenge.” John Maxwell called it, “The Law of buy-in: People buy into the leader, then the vision.” … Read More

2 things are making post this today. The first is, I saw Tony Morgan’s notes from the Saddleback conference that he posted. What great stuff. His book “Simply Strategic Stuff” is fantastic. But what blew me away was the graphic that showed the rate of success in hiring from outside versus hiring from within. It was shocking! I put the file here so you can download it. Download ssswithblanks.pdf The second thing was I received an e-mail from a church this week that’s looking for a new Pastor. There’s nothing wrong with that, because there are times when going outside … Read More

I was looking at my calendar and I saw what I did on the 9th of this month and I wanted to mention it to you. I went to the C3 Regional conference in Fort Lauderdale on the 9th and I want to encourage you if you have the opportunity to go, do it! It was great! Ed did a great job as he always does, but I wanted to share an insight that I think gets overlooked when it comes to Fellowship Church’s success over the last 14 years. These guys are great leaders! Ed has surrounded himself with … Read More

Mistakes. Everyone makes them. The issue that will affect your ability to lead is, “How do you handle it when those around you make mistakes?” Let’s look at Darth Vader’s leadership on staff mistakes. In The Empire Strikes Back, Captain Needa has made a critical error in allowing the Millennium Falcon to escape. He apologizes to the dark lord of the Sith and Darth Vader chokes him to death and says, “Apology accepted, Captain Needa.” While we probably don’t choke people to death when they make mistakes, let’s be honest, we probably want to. No one likes mistakes, but they … Read More

You remember the scene. You were probably 5 or 6 when you first saw it, but by now you’ve seen it close to 150 times. Darth Vader walks into a meeting on the Death Star and someone challenges his authority. So what does this leader do? He decides to choke the guy until he agrees. He even throws a spiritual phrase in there to boot: “I find your lack of faith disturbing!” What’s the deal with this guy? It’s really simple: he’s insecure. Insecure leaders refuse to have someone disagree with them. Let’s be honest, no one likes it when … Read More