Leadership & Market Place Ministry: May 2015

Saturday, May 30, 2015

10 Lessons Leaders Can Take From Bad Days

As leaders, we all have bad days. Days when nothing goes right and everything we touch goes sour. All leaders have been there. You simply cannot be a leader and not have bad days.
The question then becomes what can we learn from the days we wish would simply just end. The following are 10 Lessons Leaders Can Take From Bad Days:

Bad days are normal. You are not alone. We have all been there. Many reading this post are there right now.
Bad days remind you the task is not easy and never will be. If you read the Bible from cover to cover, you will not find an instance where God ever called a leader to an easy task.
Bad days remind us we are leaders. It sounds counter-intuitive but it is true. If you feel you are constantly being kicked in the backside, it simply means you are out front leading.
Bad days are why leadership is desperately needed. It is when things are difficult or unclear that leaders are desperately needed. Leaders are the ones who help individuals navigate these times.
Bad days are times for personal development. Sometimes events take place as a result of our actions or poor decisions. We need to accept the consequences, learn from them and improve.
Bad days will eventually come to an end. All storms have one thing in common – they end. Every day, whether good or bad, comes to an end. Tomorrow is a new day and the sun will rise again.
Bad days need to be compartmentalized. If you have a bad day at the office, it should not affect your home. Your home should be a sanctuary.
Bad days remind us about the importance of priorities. My personal relationship with Jesus Christ and my family are the two most important things in my life. They will love me when it seems no one else does.
Bad days are neutralized with solitude. As leaders, tough times force us to step back, get alone, find a quiet place and gain a proper perspective of the situations we are facing.
Bad days can be a gift. As leaders, difficult people and situations force us to press into Jesus and trust Him for our next steps. It is these times which bring deeper intimacy with the One who loves us most.

I hope this post encourages you. Leadership is a wonderful, marvelous thing. It has incredible perks but also comes with an incredible price. When you are paying the price of a bad day, pull out this list and look at the bigger picture. You are being shaped into the leader you were meant to be.

The Consequences Of A Mother’s Love And Commitment

First, let me say THANK YOU to all the mothers who read this site. I hope you were blessed and honored by your families this Mothers Day. Only Heaven can truly record your importance and the impact you have on your families. Once again, THANK YOU.
As is our family Mothers Day custom, my wife and mother-in-law pick where we will go to church as a family. Usually we select North Metro Church where my in-laws attend or our home church, Fellowship Bible Church. However, this time they chose First Baptist Church Atlanta because they wanted to hear the legendary Dr. Charles Stanley.
Dr. Stanley delivered an incredible message on the mother of Moses and her protective love for him as a baby. The following are 9 statements he made on The Consequences Of A Mother’s Commitment. These thoughts should challenge and encourage every mother.

Love – Moses’s mother loved him enough to give him away rather than see him die.
Courage – She risked her own life to save his.
Wisdom – She waited three months before letting him go. She trusted God to keep her baby safe and hidden.
Prayer – Dr. Stanley asked an insightful question, “How do you save a child?” Moses’s mother asked God what to do. He added, “I don’t know anything more powerful and long-lasting than a praying mother.” When talking about his own mother, Dr. Stanley said, “I never forgot the sound of my mother praying for me.”
Creative – Moses’s mother built him an ark for him to travel down the river.
Patience – During the first three months of Moses’s life, his mother quietly kept him hidden until God showed her how He was going to protect him.
Confidence – She knew placing Moses in an ark was not sending him to death but saving him from death. He would survive this. She gave a mother’s best for a short period of time.

For mothers who feel they are failing in these seven areas, Dr. Stanley offered a word of encouragement. He said, “Loving Him. Listening to Him. Obeying Him. This doesn’t cost a dime…Your greatest gift to your child is a spiritual gift.”
And he concluded with these sobering thoughts, “No parent is too busy to pray with their child. You can’t give spiritual gifts you do not have.”
The consequences of this mother’s commitment to her son was he lived, grew up in Pharaoh’s palace, delivered an entire nation from slavery and bondage, received the 10 Commandments, and the Messiah would come from his lineage.
The question then begs, what will come from your commitment to your children? I am confident it will be quite significant as well.
Mothers, I hope this post encourages you. And for everyone else, if you have a mother who possesses these seven qualities, please forward this post to her. I know she will be grateful.

18 Leadership Quotes And Lessons From Bill Gates TED Talk

As founder of Microsoft and currently the wealthiest person in the world, Bill Gates is obviously one of this generation’s transcendent leaders. In the past decade, one of Gates’s primary focuses has also been philanthropy and solving global issues such as education and poverty.
After witnessing the events surrounding the Ebola outbreak in 2014, Gates addressed the need prepare for future pandemics at the recent TED Conference shown above.
As I listened to his presentation, I gleaned 18 Leadership Quotes And Lessons From Bill Gates TED Talk. All quotes below are from Gates.

Great Leaders Serve A Greater Purpose – Gates long ago reached at a point in his life where he shifted his focus to the global quality of human life. At a certain point, how many computers can you sell?
Great Leaders Make Us Look At The World Differently – Gates said, “If anything kills over 10 million people in the next few decades it’s most likely to be a highly infectious virus rather than a war.”
Great Leaders Properly Leverage Financial Resources – Gates said, “We’ve invested a huge amount in nuclear deterrents. We’ve invested very little in stopping an epidemic.”
Great Leaders Build Systems – A system is anything you as a church or organization do twice. If you do something twice, you need a system for how it should be done. Regarding a response to an epidemic, “The problem wasn’t there was a system that didn’t work well enough. The problem was we didn’t have a system at all.”
Great Leaders Properly Evaluate Reality – This is the fundamental requirement of leadership. Gates admitted, “The fact these (system) elements are missing is a global failure.”
Great Leaders Celebrate Accomplishment – No one should ever work for someone who does not celebrate accomplishment. Celebration is the payoff for a job well done. Gates identified three reasons Ebola didn’t spread more. “The first is there was a lot of heroic work by the health workers.”
Great Leaders Know How Things Spread – There are several things which spread in your organization – great ideas, generosity, negativity, passion, etc… Leadership determines what spreads in their organization. A virus also spreads. Gates said, “The second is the nature of the virus. Ebola is not spread through the air.”
Great Leaders Effectively Leverage Luck – All leaders have both good and bad luck. Unsuccessful leaders simply dismiss luck. However, successful leaders identify and leverage luck well. Gates said, “Third, it didn’t get into many urban areas and that was just luck.”
Great Leaders Use All Their Resources To Respond To Issues – Leaders have much at their disposal – money, time, networks, people, experiences, technology, skills, etc…. Gates pointed out, “We can build a really good response system. We have the benefit of all the science and technology.”
Great Leaders Take Skills Learned In One Area And Apply Them To Other Areas – Leaders do not operate in silos. Our skills, experiences and resources are cross-functional assets we can use. Gates said, “The best lessons on how to get prepared are what we do for war.”
Great Leaders Care About And Serve The Poor And Under-Resourced – Gates could have easily just thrown money at the medical needs of third world countries. However, he is using his influence and technology to bring relief to these areas. He challenged all leaders by saying, “We need strong health systems in poor countries.”
Great Leaders Build Great Teams – A great team has depth. Depth allows you to have the margin needed to quickly respond to needs which unexpectedly arise. He said, “We need a medical reserve corp, lot of people with the training and background who are ready to go with the expertise.”
Great Leaders Build Strategic Partnerships – Leaders are connectors. They bring people together who need to know each other so problems can be solved. Gates said, “We need to pair the medical with the military.”
Great Leaders Over-Prepare – Smart leaders go through a rigorous process of preparation. They leave little to chance. Gates suggested, “We need to do simulations. We need to do germ games, not war games, to see where the holes are.”
Great Leaders Are Not Afraid To Fail – They just fail fast. Gates said, “We need lots of R & D.”
Great Leaders Count The Cost – Gates acknowledged, “I don’t have an exact budget of how much this would cost.” Something tells me he will soon.
Great Leaders Offer Hope – They point to a brighter tomorrow. Gates said, “There’s no need to panic.”
Great Leaders Call People To Action – Gates concluded by saying, “but we need to get going because time is not on our side…If we start now we can be ready for the next epidemic.”

14 Characteristics Of Great Church Leadership Meeting

Recently I had the privilege of being in one of the finest church leadership meetings I have ever been in. During a four-hour flight back to Atlanta, I had plenty of time to process what made this meeting so effective.
The following are 14 Characteristics Of Great Church Leadership Meeting. My goal is for this post is to give pastors and church leaders the tools necessary to create leadership environments which effectively advance mission and vision.

A Great Church Leadership Meeting Does Not Happen By Accident – The church’s executive pastor and I had multiple conversations prior to the meeting determining the atmosphere and talking points needed for success.
A Great Church Leadership Meeting Has A Limited Number Of People – You only want people in a church leadership meeting who can make a decision. A great church leadership meeting is for decision-making, not building consensus. This meeting had the perfect amount of staff and elders in the room.
A Great Church Leadership Meeting Has Relationships Built Upon Trust – Prior to the meeting, myself and several pastors met prior to just spend time talking about what was going on in each other’s lives. We did life together.
A Great Church Leadership Meeting Often Has Great Food – Not much explanation is needed but there is something about breaking bread together which strengthen relationships.
A Great Church Leadership Meeting Has Transparency – My objective in a meeting is to help the pastor moves his/her ministry ball. What makes this process much easier is when the pastor trusts you enough to share his honest feelings about what he/she needs.
A Great Church Leadership Meeting Has Pastoral Leadership – This is the biggest difference between a productive and unproductive church leadership meeting. There is simply a significant difference when pastor opens a meeting by saying why we are in the room and what we want to accomplish vs. a passive approach. In this meeting the pastor truly led.
A Great Church Leadership Meeting Has The Right People In The Room – The biggest mistake I see churches make regarding leadership meetings is they do not have leaders in the room. People are selected for many reasons other than their ability to advance a church’s mission and vision. This church had people in the room who loved Jesus, loved their pastor and had the competency to know how to grow a church.
A Great Church Leadership Meeting Has Great Optimism – Great leaders are vision driven. They see a brighter tomorrow. Eliminate devil’s advocates. He does not need any help. Enlist leaders who feel the church’s best days are ahead.
A Great Church Leadership Meeting Has Great Questions – Wisdom is revealed by great questions, not great answers. Great questions probe. They get to the heart of the matter. Great questions clear away clutter and make us better.
A Great Church Leadership Meeting Has Appropriate Humor – Humor is your friend. Humor lightens the load when difficult conversations are being had. Humor lubricates potentially destructive friction.
A Great Church Leadership Meeting Results In Great Ideas – A great meeting contains great thinkers who are freely sharing ideas.
A Great Church Leadership Meeting Ends On Time – This means time has not been wasted. It also is an indication leaders value each other’s time.
A Great Church Leadership Meeting Has Times Of Great Prayer – There is a lot which high-capacity leaders can accomplish. But none of us, no matter how talented or smart, can accomplish anything of eternal value without the presence of the Holy Spirit.
A Great Church Leadership Meeting Makes You Want To Get Back Together Again – The adrenaline, the exhilaration of knowing you are accomplishing something great for the glory of God in the context of community makes you want to get back together again.

What other characteristics do you experience in a great church leadership meeting?

Encouragement For Every Church Volunteer Who Wonders If What They Do Really Matters

I speak with countless numbers of volunteers who wonder if what they are doing truly matters and makes a difference in the lives of others. This is why pastors and church leaders often have much work to do in terms of connecting a volunteer’s task or assignment to something of eternal value.
A recent post by my friends at MAG Bookkeeping resonated deeply with me because they addressed this issue giving meaning and purpose to volunteers head on. The following were their thoughts:
“The MAG Bookkeeping team was fortunate to have one of our current clients, Pastor David Walters of The Vine Church in Atlanta, lead us in morning devotions at one of our team gatherings a few months ago. Pastor David shared a passage from the beginning of Acts 6, where the disciples and members of the early church were struggling to balance the demands of teaching and preaching with the demands of ministering to the physical needs of their growing church. (Sound familiar?) Other groups of Jews were calling them out for not properly caring for those in need in their communities of faith.
So, according to the text,

…the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”

They couldn’t neglect ministry of the word to “wait on tables” – but the people still needed to be cared for and their needs met in the name of Jesus. So they chose seven men who were known to be faithful and trustworthy, and tasked them with the care of those in need. One of these seven was Stephen, who in the next section of scripture becomes the first believer to be martyred for his faith.

Because these early church leaders handed off some of the more hands-on work of administration, according to Acts 6:7, “the word of God spread.” And there’s nothing better than that.

Today, if you’re a church leader or volunteer who’s taking some of the more hands-on work off your leaders’ plates, you’re helping the word of God to spread. You’re waiting the tables of ministry by keeping the books, answering the phones, compiling the reports, delivering food, visiting the sick or homebound – whatever you’re doing, it is making an eternal impact. Because those things that seem insignificant, when done in the name of Jesus, take on eternal significance.

Just a small reminder to you today, from your fellow table waiters at MAG Bookkeeping!”

11 Keys To Successfully Leading Through Crisis Situations

Are you facing a time of crisis in the life of your church, business, non-profit, or athletic organization? Often it is not a question of if but when. This is because if you have been in leadership any length of time, you have encountered times of uncertainty and concern. It is during these times of crisis in which quality leadership steps to the forefront and produces the results needed for success.
On Sunday, May 10th with 1.5 seconds remaining in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semi-finals against the Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers LeBron James elevated and hit a 21-foot game-winning jump shot to tie the series 2-games-to-2. The Cavs have since won the final two games taking the series.
In a May 11th USA TODAY article, writer Jeff Zillgitt broke down the events leading to the last second shot. As I read his column I gleaned 11 Keys To Successfully Leading Through Crisis Situations:

In Crisis Everything Is Seemingly Against You – It is called “crisis” for a reason. The Cavaliers were on the Bulls home court. More than 1/3 of their team were injured in some form or fashion. A series of coaching decisions (see point 4) put the team in a negative situation. James was not playing with efficiency (see point 3). Finally, the team was facing the possibility of going down 3 games to 1.
When Facing Crisis You Want Leaders Who Have Overcome It Before – Leading through crisis is not for novices. James said, “I’ve made big shots before in the postseason. Obviously, this is a huge win for our team. You don’t want to go down 3-1 against anyone. We were able to regain home-court (advantage) with the shot.”
Leading Through Crisis Requires Leaders Who Can Produce At THAT Specific Moment – James had not been having a good game. He had shot only 9 for 29 leading up to the final seconds. However, he was the perfect person to take THAT shot at THAT moment.
Leading Through Crisis Often Requires Overcoming Previous Bad Leadership Decisions – Head coach David Blatt’s original plan was for James to pass the ball in rather than taking the shot. Blatt had also mismanaged the clock and even attempted to take a timeout the team did not have.
Leading Through Crisis Requires Decisive Leadership – Indecision leads to insecurity. Leading through crisis requires confidence and clarity. James said, “To be honest, the play that was drawn up, I scratched it and told coach to just give me that ball.”
Leading Through Crisis Requires Leaders Who Take Responsibility For The Results – It is a fundamental truth not all players want the ball at the end of a game. They do not want the responsibility and the heat which comes from lack of production. There are also leaders who are more concerned with CYA, finger-pointing or passing blame than owning the results of their decisions and actions. James continued, “Have somebody else take the ball out, give me the ball and everybody get out of the way.”
Leaders Through Crisis Requires Leaders Who Deeply Care About Those On Their Team – Great leaders know the impact their decisions have on others. Through the first four games of the series, James had only shot 43.1% from the field and made 5.8 turnovers per game. James admitted, “”I just don’t like letting my teammates down. I did that in a few plays late in the fourth.”
Leading Through Crisis Requires Overcoming Tremendous Obstacles – This is important because experienced leaders know the obstacles we encounter only get tougher along the way. At every new level we encounter a new devil. James noted, “I know some challenges present different ways of winning. Obviously with my point guard a little hobbled right now. My other All-Star is out for the rest of the season.… I’ve got to do whatever it takes.”
Leading Through Crisis Requires A Team Effort – Crisis management is not a solo effort. It takes a team. The Cleveland Cavaliers got tremendous efforts from the supporting cast of Tristan Thompson, Timofey Mozgov, Iman Shumpert, J.R. Smith and Matthew Dellavedova among others.
Leading Through Crisis Requires No Excuses – Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau said after game 4, “We have more than enough, so whoever we have, just find way.” Unfortunately for the Bulls, they did not but James and the Cavaliers did.
Leading Through Crisis Requires Leaders Who Are Reliable – Leading through crisis requires both ability and availability. When asked by an ESPN/ABC courtside reporter about his sore ankle and availability for game 5, James responded he would be listed as “Active.” Indeed he was. In game 5, James scored 38 points, 12 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 steals.

After reading this list, are you a leader who could lead your team through a time of crisis? Would your team feel the same way?
For more on the leadership of LeBron James, click 21 Lessons Pastors Can Learn From LeBron James’ Letter About How Top Leaders Think, 14 Quotes And Lessons On Apex Leadership We Learn From LeBron James and 12 Leadership Quotes And Prinicples From LeBron James And The Miami Heat.

The Bible Verse All Business Leaders Should Pray When Not Meeting Their Goals

Christian business leaders should have a competitive advantage because they attend your church. Not just because of business connections but for the following reasons and more:

Because the Bible is truth, Christian business leaders should have the best grid for decision making.
Christians should understand most the power of vision and how to cast it.
Christians should be most equipped to see the incredible potential which exists in every human life, specifically those on their teams.
Christians should have the best conflict resolution skills.
Christians have been modeled how to build an enduring organization.
Etc, etc, etc…

Part of my responsibilities at INJOY Stewardship Solutions is identifying churches who need assistance with their upcoming capital campaigns. Because of some additional responsibilities I have been involved with lately I was significantly behind on my June monthly goal. In addition to hard work and focus, I needed God’s intervention and help more than ever.
It was time to pray my favorite prayer as a business and ministry leader – Romans 4:17.
“(God) who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.” – ESV
It is true. Jesus brings dead things to life. Jesus brings things into being that are not.
I needed a dead pipeline to come to life. It was a reminder Christian business leaders are never out of options. They are never without resources.
In my office I began each workday as I always do – on my knees. I began telling God (like He didn’t know already) what my current numbers were and what was needed. I acknowledged the gap.
For all Christian business leaders there is always a gap – a gap between what we can do and what is needed. The difference can only be filled by Jesus Himself.
I prayed, “God, I need your help. Do what only you can do. Make things seen that are unseen and bring things into being that are not.”
So what were the results? In a single day, I achieved half of my monthly goal!!! God did what only He could do.
Now Jesus is never our errand boy. He is not a buffet table where we just pick and choose what we want or need. God is more interested in our TRANSFORMATION than He is our TRANSACTIONS.
Therefore, there are times when something happens and you are left with the words, “Only God”. Today was one of those days. I think God takes great joy in seeing our amazement at watching Him work.
If you are a Christian business leader who is not meeting your goals and objectives, I want you to know you are not without hope or resources. And your greatest resource is prayer.
So pray Romans 4:17 and watch God work. Just be sure to give him all the praise and glory afterwards for the results. It had little to do with you. It was Jesus working in the gap.
What gap are you facing today?

5 Disciplines of Leadership Teams That Thrive

By Ryan Hartwig & Warren Bird

“Exceptional leadership teams work together to do the most important strategic work in the church: making critical decisions regularly and continually.”

Studying more than 250 church leadership teams over two years, we discovered several distinctive features of thriving leadership teams. We investigated how the best teams interact, and in our recently released book Teams That Thrive: Five Disciplines of Collaborative Church Leadership, we unpack five disciplines your team can develop to communicate effectively and grow into a thriving unit. To preview the book, here are the five disciplines for effective collaborative leadership:
Discipline 1: Focus on purpose, the invisible leader of your team.
Great teams pursue a shared purpose that prioritizes making decisions together rather than advising one member who then makes key decisions. Mediocre teams spend most of their time advising the lead pastor, sharing information and coordinating operations, but they rarely go beyond that point. Exceptional leadership teams work together to do the most important strategic work in the church— making critical decisions—regularly and continually.
Discipline 2: Leverage differences in team membership.
Great teams pursue diversity in personality, background and perspective rather than democracy or uniformity. Mediocre teams have too many people with the same gifts, styles and backgrounds, or seek to include too many persons. Exceptional leadership teams are small, diverse and consist of members with complementary skills who concentrate their work on the leadership team.
Discipline 3: Rely on inspiration more than control to lead.
Outstanding teams prioritize leadership through relationship-based inspiration rather than role-based giving of directives. Leaders of mediocre teams prioritize control and directive leadership and neglect the development of positive working relationships. Leaders of exceptional teams focus on transformational leadership and the building of trust that together inspire and free the leadership team to perform with excellence while maintaining solid relationships.
Discipline 4: Intentionally structure your decision-making process.
While mediocre leadership teams make decisions in an unstructured, haphazard manner, exceptional leadership teams utilize a careful, step-by-step process while seeking God for his perspective and leading when making decisions.
Discipline 5: Build a culture of continuous collaboration. Exceptional teams meet with intentionality, utilize collaboratively developed agendas and work together continuously to make the most of meetings. In contrast, mediocre teams tend to limit their collaboration to scheduled team meetings, and even when they meet, they fail to recognize the benefits of effective meetings.
For more about how to put these disciplines into practice with your team, as well as a host of other tips to help your team thrive, check out Teams That Thrive: Five Disciplines of Collaborative Church Leadership.
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Excerpted with permission from chapter 6 of Teams That Thrive: Five Disciplines of Collaborative Church Leadership by Ryan T. Hartwig and Warren Bird, InterVarsity Press, 2015. Visit www.TeamsThatThriveBook.com for the book itself, exercises, and other tools to help your team.

Read the Bible to Your Anxiety

By John Piper

Provided by

“Jesus assumes that truth—reasons, arguments, facts—affects or influences the emotions.”

I created three labs teaching through Matthew 6:24–34 on anxiety. My objectives were both to understand how Jesus helps us overcome anxiety and also to draw out six lessons for how to read the Bible for ourselves. With this short series, I have methodology, theology and application in mind. Here are the six lessons I highlighted for Bible reading. Click on the links below to find the study guides and videos for all three labs.

1. The Bible argues.

It gives reasons or arguments for what it teaches. That was transformative in my life when I was 22 years old, to discover that the Bible is not a string of pearls but a chain of linked thoughts. That makes a big difference for how we read.

2. A Bible’s unit of thought (or passage) has a main point.

Each unit of thought (or passage) in the Bible has a main point. That means everything else in the unit supports that point. It’s true of the Bible, and it’s true of this article. Look for the main point in everything you read.

3. To truly understand a passage, we must figure out how the arguments support the main point.

Figuring out how arguments support the main point is what it means to understand a passage or a text. After we have identified a passage’s main point and located the author’s arguments for that main point, we have to do the harder work of understanding the connections. How does each supporting point prove the main point?

4. Jesus assumes that truth affects our emotions.

Jesus assumes that truth—reasons, arguments, facts—affects or influences the emotions. Anxiety is an emotion. It is not a decision. We don’t decide to get anxious. It happens to us. Jesus attacks anxiety in Matthew 6 with truth, with facts, promises and reasons.
Therefore, he must believe that his word given to our souls will have an emotional, even physical, effect. There are dozens and dozens of commands to the emotions in the Bible, and along with them there are truths to bring about what is commanded.

5. Truth affects our emotions when it is believed.

Some will say, “Well, that doesn’t work for me. When I hear truth, it doesn’t have an emotional effect on me. It doesn’t take away my anxiety.” It works where the truths are believed and trusted—where there is faith.
If the Bible’s arguments are not having an effect on you, it’s because you have little faith in what it says. Faith is massively important here. We must trust. We must believe what Jesus says.

6. Pray for faith and meditate on his truth.

Therefore, pray for faith in the truth—in the passage’s main point with all of its supporting points—and meditate on that truth, because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ (Romans 10:17).

Father, grant us wisdom with regard to method. We want to handle your word rightly, think about how to read it rightly, and we want to be free from anxiety to honor our heavenly Father, who knows us and all of our needs, and who will meet them according to your promise. I ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Look at the Book is a new online method of teaching the Bible. It’s an ongoing series of eight- to 12-minute videos in which the camera is on the text, not the teacher. You will hear John Piper’s voice and watch his pen underline, circle, make connections and scribble notes—all to help you learn to read God’s word for yourself. His goal is to help you not only see what he sees, but where he sees it and how he found it.
In this three-part series through Matthew 6:24–34, John studies these 11 verses with two purposes: 1. learn how to fight anxiety with God’s word and 2. uncover important principles for personal Bible reading.

Part 1: Nine Arguments Against Anxiety

This three-part series of labs takes on anxiety by studying Matthew 6:24–27. If the Bible is going to effectively speak to our anxious hearts, we need to learn how to read it well. In this lab, John Piper lays out the arguments and gives three short lessons for our daily Bible reading.

Part 2: Do Not Be Anxious About Tomorrow

When you think about the future, what makes you most anxious? Jesus gives us plenty of reasons not to fear. In Part 1 of this series, John Piper identified nine arguments against our anxieties. In this lab, he slows down over the first five to highlight how they each help us.

Part 3: Your Father Knows What You Need

God wants to comfort and stabilize the anxious with truth. What truths calm our fears? In Part 1, John Piper identified nine arguments against our anxieties. In Part 2, he covered the first five. In this lab, he covers the last four, and highlights six lessons for Bible reading.

John Piper is the Pastor for Preaching at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, and studied at Wheaton College, where he first sensed God's call to enter the ministry. For 6 years he taught Biblical Studies at Bethel College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and in 1980 accepted the call to serve as pastor at Bethlehem. John is the author of more than 30 books and more than 25 years of his preaching and teaching is available free at desiringGod.org. John and his wife, Noel, have four sons, one daughter, and an increasing number of grandchildren. (By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: DesiringGod.org) More from John Piper or visit John at http://www.desiringgod.org

11 Ways 11 Pastors Gave Me A Competitive Advantage In Business

Recently I wrote a post entitled 14 Things Your Church Can Teach You To Have A Competitive Advantage As A Businessperson. It was incredibly well-received and has helped many pastors identify who sits in their services on a weekly basis and how to better communicate in such a way as to add value to their lives Monday through Friday.
As I reflected on the post, I thought back to pastors who are personal friends and how their lessons have made me a better leader at INJOY Stewardship Solutions. Many of the lessons I have learned can make you a better leader as well.
The following are 11 Ways 11 Pastors Gave Me A Competitive Advantage In Business:

Crawford Loritts Makes Me A Better Communicator – My current pastor at Fellowship Bible Church is generally considered one of the best communicators in the world. During a Crawford Loritts message, you will get a multitude of tweetable comments. Crawford has taught me to communicate to my team in a way which is memorable and will stick in their minds. For quotes from Dr. Loritts, click 91 Leadership Quotes On Shaping The Next Generation.
John Maxwell Taught Me The Priority Of First Adding Value To Business Leaders – John made many realize one of the world’s greatest mission fields is the business community. He taught us you can preach the Gospel everyday at my work and simply not quote chapter and verse. Adding value and doing exceptional work then gives you the credibility to talk about Jesus.
Ike Reighard Taught Me How To Build Mutually-Beneficial Relationships With Business Leaders – The amazing pastor of Piedmont Church speaks with business language. He reads business books and applies business concepts in all he does. No wonder he builds bridges between the business, academic, non-profit and faith communities as well as anyone in America. Click 12 Practices Of Highly Effective Churches Who Serve Their Community With Excellence for examples of this.
Mike Linch Taught Me The Importance Of A Positive Attitude – The pastor of NorthStar Church is one of my best friends and the most positive individual I know. People want to be around Mike. Because of this, he has an amazing ability to connect with others. For more on a meeting I had with Mike several years ago, click 20 Practices Of Highly Inspirational Leaders.
Jeff Henderson Taught Me Brevity – I am a teacher at heart. This means I have no problem accumulating content. In fact I usually have too much. Enough content to fill my time as a communicator is never an issue. Cutting the content down to the most compelling information is a skill I learned from Jeff, the pastor of Gwinnett Church.
Derwin Gray Taught Me The Impact Of Unconditional Love – Pastor Derwin of Transformation Church is a former NFL player. He once noted the NFL taught him everything about conditional love. He then learned everything about unconditional love from Jesus Christ. You always have to achieve your goals and objectives as a businessperson, but may I always show the unconditional love of Jesus as we carry out our assignments.
Johnny Hunt Taught Me The Importance Of Being Accessible As A Leader – The senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Woodstock (GA) is omnipresent in the city in which I live. If you go to J. Christopher’s for breakfast, you may likely see Pastor Johnny. If you go to Dixie Speedway on a Saturday night, you will likely run into Pastor Johnny. If you walk the halls at FBCW, you will likely find Pastor Johnny praying with someone. Pastor Johnny builds relationships with people from every walk of life – from those living below the poverty line to the wealthiest business leaders. To demonstrate my point, click 12 Practices Of Highly Successful Pastors Who Love People.
Mark Marshall Taught Me How To Invest In Others – It was Mark who ordained me, baptized me, performed my wedding and gave me my first staff position in my early 20’s. He also gave me my first John Maxwell book, Developing The Leaders Around You, which changed the course of my life.
Rob McDowell Showed Me What Top Business Leaders Value – One of my great joys this past year was sitting down with the Lead Pastor of North Metro Church along with Operations Pastor John Maggard to discuss the church’s receiving of a million dollar gift. Click The Story Of How One Church Received A $1+ Million Gift And How You Could As Well for the entire story. It may changed the way you serve all people.
Carey Nieuwhof Taught Me How To Initiate And Manage Change – No one likes change but a baby but change is critical to a business’s long-term success. Cary taught me how to do this. Click 40 Leadership Quotes From Leading Change Without Losing It from his book to learn more.
Crawford Loritts Taught Me Self-Leadership – Going back to Crawford for a final thought, he taught me the most important lesson of all. He taught me the difference between leader development and leadership development. Leader development is becoming the type of leader God can use. This has to do with long-term sustainability. Leadership development has to do with the assignment itself. There is a HUGE difference.

What is one thing from this list which will make you a better businessperson?

Are You A Wise, Foolish Or Evil Leader?

One of the greatest blessings in my life is having friends who are incredible leaders. These individuals speak truth into my life and make me a better husband, father, church member and leader.
One such individual is Bryan Miles. Bryan is CEO & Co-founder of Miles Advisory Group (a parent company to the companies of eaHELP and MAG Bookkeeping) and is blessed to run this company with his wife, Shannon.
Recently he wrote an incredible post on unteachable people. I wanted to share his thoughts with you. And after reading the post, make sure you check out his two companies. Let Bryan and his team make you a better church leader as well.
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Have you ever spoken with someone and, while speaking with them, you just KNOW they are not teachable?
I have. It is super annoying and frustrating. It could be an employee, friend, family member, strategic partner – whoever. They will shake their head up and down, but you know none of it is sinking in. In fact, it’s bouncing off.
A great author around this topic is Dr. Henry Cloud. I love his books. One of my favorites is “Integrity: The Courage to Face the Demands of Reality.” Dr. Cloud speaks to how to deal with unteachable people in the video shown below. In essence, he discusses three types of people and how they they handle TRUTH when it is spoken to them.

Wise People = hear truth and adjust/correct
Foolish People = don’t listen/deflect to the truth and adjust/manipulate the truth
Evil People = forget truth; they are just trying to hurt you

Know any of those people? Are you in one of those categories? I have people right now in my life I am watching as they implode with poor decisions. How they react to truth is also in how they will navigate their future. Truth converts the foolish to wise. Truth should be something we embrace and absorb readily.
What about you? Do embrace truth when it is spoken to you? Do you have real friends who will tell you the honest truth? Have you leaned hard into a truth to see how it reflects in your mirror? I believe, just like it says in the book of Proverbs, that Wisdom cries out. And the wise person seeks truth and gains greater wisdom.

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

16 Quotes On Faith And Leadership By Steph Curry

Steph Curry absolutely loves Jesus Christ, his wife and parents. This 2nd generation star and league MVP also grew up with a basketball in his hands. He is the greatest ball handler since Pete Maravich and maybe the best shooter anyone of us have ever seen. I am all-in on Steph Curry. Move over LeBron! Steph Curry is my new favorite NBA player.
The following are 16 Quotes On Faith And Leadership By Steph Curry from his 2014-2015 NBA Most Valuable Player acceptance speech. First you will see the speech and then the quotes are below.

“First and foremost I want to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for blessing me with the talents to play with game, with a family to support me day-in and day-out.”
“I’m His humble servant right now.”
“I can’t say enough how important my faith is to how I play the game and who I am.”
“I’m just blessed and thankful for where I am.”
“I love playing basketball.”
“You’ve (his wife) my backbone. You’ve allowed me to do what I do, to focus on basketball and my career.”
“The sacrifices you (his wife) make are unbelievable. I can’t thank you enough for who you are as a person, how you challenge me every day.”
“I love you (his wife) so much and I can’t thank you enough for being there for me.”
“When I go home things are good and that’s comforting to know.”
“You’re (his parents) the example for us.”
“You raise us the right way. Mom, you are our spiritual guidance.”
“There are priorities in life. Obviously, your (his mom) faith is first and foremost.”
“There’s more to life than basketball. Obviously the most important thing is your family and taking care of each other.”
“Regardless if I would have played basketball or not, I know you guys (parents) would love me.”
“Pops, you’re a true example of what a professional is on-and-off the court.”
“To follow in your footsteps means a lot to me. It’s special.”

What are your thoughts on Curry’s faith and leadership?

Saturday, May 23, 2015

15 Tactics for Joy

By John Piper

Provided by

“… in your presence there is fullness of JOY.”

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (Psalm 16:11)

How shall we fight for joy?
1. Realize that authentic joy in God is a gift.
2. Realize that joy must be fought for relentlessly.
3. Resolve to attack all known sin in your life.
4. Learn the secret of gutsy guilt—how to fight like a justified sinner.
5. Realize that the battle is primarily a fight to see God for who he is.
6. Meditate on the Word of God day and night.
7. Pray earnestly and continually for open heart-eyes and an inclination for God.
8. Learn to preach to yourself rather than listen to yourself.
9. Spend time with God-saturated people who help you see God and fight the fight.
10. Be patient in the night of God’s seeming absence.
11. Get the rest, exercise and proper diet that your body was designed by God to have.
12. Make a proper use of God’s revelation in nature.
13. Read great books about God and biographies of great saints.
14. Do the hard and loving thing for the sake of others (witness and mercy).
15. Get a global vision for the cause of Christ and pour yourself out for the unreached.