Leadership & Market Place Ministry

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Should Andy Stanley have used Sermon Notes for His “The Bible Told Me So, Not” Sermon

by Charles Stone

In August, Andy Stanley delivered a sermon that has upset many because he appeared to question biblical authority. You can hear his message, “Who Needs God? The Bible Told Me So,” here, read a negative critique by Albert Mohler here and read a positive one by Frank Turek here. In this post I’m not critiquing whether or not he undermined biblical authority. I will leave that to people a lot smarter than me. However, I do suggest in the post that this latest evangelical brouhaha offers a lesson to us preachers in favor of using sermon notes, or a manuscript, especially when we speak on difficult and potentially controversial topics.

Close up of a Bible connected with earphones

First, some caveats.

I only met Andy once when I sat next to him in a church service 25 years ago.
I attended his dad’s church while earning my engineering degree at Ga Tech and I heard Andy speak a few times.
He is without a doubt one of the Church’s most gifted leaders and communicators today.
I’ve read lots of his books and have learned much from them.
The attendance at my church would probably fit in his church’s chapel, if it has one.
I don’t question Andy’s commitment to the Bible nor his heart for God.
And, I believe that with recent new insights we’re learning about how the human brain works, pastors must craft their messages with those insights in mind. I believe this so strongly that I’ve earned a master’s degree in the neuroscience of leadership and my last book unpacks how we can learn from intersecting neuroscience with biblical truth.

So what I suggest may seem like an ant telling a lion what to do. Even so, I raise these two questions.

Is it wise to write out a manuscript for messages that deal with sensitive topics?
And if it is, should we stay close to script during those messages instead of speaking off the cuff?

Pardon one more caveat: When I’ve seen Andy speak I notice he doesn’t use notes. If he does, he masterfully uses them. So, I am assuming he does not use them but speaks more extemporaneously. I could be wrong. But if I am close to correct (I also assume that Andy prepares well but speaks off the cuff more than most pastors would) here are 4 reasons why using a manuscript and staying close to it is smart, especially when dealing with controversial topics.

The human brain is wired to lean negative. Our brain has five times more circuits that look for the negative than circuits that look for the positive. 2/3 of the brain cells in an almond shaped part of the brain involved in the fight-flight response, the amygdala (there are actually two of them), are wired to be vigilant and look for the negative. The brain more easily encodes negative emotional experiences than positive ones and more quickly recalls such negative experiences.
- The implication: When we speak about volatile subjects in our sermons, we increase the chance that our listeners will attribute negative connotations to them, thus amplifying our message in ways we don’t intend. When we write out our manuscript, we can more carefully craft statements about volatile subjects and potentially lessen the chance of being misunderstood.
Writing out a manuscript can help us avoid sloppiness in saying things that could potentially hurt others. Andy may write out his messages. Again, I’m making some assumptions. But in the last five years, I’ve changed how I craft my sermons. I now write them out as full manuscripts and I use them from my iPad when I preach, although I’m familiar enough with them to not be glued to them. Writing them out forces me to think deeply about how I need to address difficult to understand issues.
- The implication: The Bible actually did ‘tell us so’ long before neuroscientists told us this. Words really hurt (Death and life are in the tongue, Pv 18.21). In fact social pain registers in the same areas of the brain that physical pain registers. When someone with great influence uses words than can easily be misunderstood and potentially hurtful, those words physically and psychologically hurt. For a 6 year old girl or 65 year old saint who came to faith after hearing the song, Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so, and is then told those words are not true… that experience can be profoundly hurtful. Writing and using a manuscript can help us avoid this.
The larger the platform, the more we must take care to be clear and graceful. Andy’s platform is ginormous. Whereas hundreds of thousands of people tune in, read, and follow Andy, on a good Sunday we live-stream to about 25 viewers and my total Twitter followers is probably equal to the number of views he has per Tweet. Even with my small platform, I still must be clear and graceful.
- The implication: What I or any other pastor says can instantly be re-tweeted or posted on Facebook and the entire world can know it, if it wants to. Soundbites are now ubiquitous. And, in today’s world, it seems that reality is not the issue. Perception is. Writing out and using a manuscript can help us more carefully craft our words by thinking about how they could be quoted and repeated in cyberspace. It can force us to ask, How would this soundbite be heard out of context?
Sloppily stated statements can throw the listener’s brain off track so that the full message gets missed. When listening to a speech or sermon, the average brain goes in and out of attention every 12-18 seconds for a bit to engage internal dialogue that seems more interesting (salient) than what it is listening to. In fact, recent research has shown that goldfish have longer attention spans than humans. When our brains are shocked and they go into reflective What did he just say? or I totally disagree with that! mode, it can cause the listener to miss what follows the shock statement, the unpacking of the statement.
- The implication: Writing out and using a manuscript can help us catch those potential shock words or phrases that can disconnect our listener from us. With a manuscript we can remind ourselves to intentionally slow the pace and pause to give the listener time to catch his mental breath before we continue, thus giving the listener time to hear the entire context.

So, this latest ruckus gives an opportunity for us communicators to put the manuscript back into our sermon toolboxes.
And the hackneyed phrase, Hindsight is 20-20 still bears repeating. Could a little old fashioned manuscript have avoided this ruckus and resulted in Andy’s message being simply another great one? We will never know.
But, if you write out or use a manuscript, how has it helped you?
Related posts:

9 Lessons On Godly Leadership From Miami Hurricanes Head Coach Mark Richt And Why Georgia Fans Are Very Sad

The Miami Hurricanes gets Bibles. The Georgia Bulldogs lose on a Hail Mary. Bulldog fans, you may need to get used to 10-15 years of games like this:

On November 29th, 2015 the university’s administration and Head Coach Mark Richt mutually agreed to end his employment after after 15 years despite amassing a 144-51 record. For many in the UGA community and the state of Georgia, Coach Richt was beloved. In fact, it prompted me to write the post The Type Of Man You Want Leading Your Son – A Tribute To Mark Richt which went viral. Candidly, I am still not happy about his dismissal.
The following are the reasons why:

Two-time SEC champion
Five-time SEC East Division champion
144-51 record while at Georgia
Two-time SEC Coach of the Year
2013 Stallings Award for commitment to humanitarian and community service.
9-5 bowl game record
1 year removed from being the 2014 season-ending 9th ranked team in the country.
Six Top 10 finishes in 15 years
222 graduates – most by any SEC head coach
1 of 7 head coaches in NCAA to have 90 wins in his first 9 seasons

But that wasn’t good enough. So in the spirit of the University of Tennessee after they fired Phillip Fulmer, the Georgia Bulldogs may be entering into a decade of disappointment despite their considerable talent. The Bulldogs are currently 3-2 with two conference losses and have dropped out of the Top 25.
So how is Coach Richt doing at the University of Miami who hired him in less than 72 hours after he became available? The Hurricanes are currently 4-0 and ranked number 10.
In addition, he is changing the team’s culture. Hypeline.org published an article on September 30th detailing how Coach Richt surprised everyone on the team with a Bible. You can read the full article here.
The following are 12 Leadership Lessons About Godly Leadership all leaders can learn from Head Coach Mark Richt I gleaned from the article:

Godly Leaders Are Compassionate – The article noted what makes Coach Richt so unique is the compassion he shows his players.
Godly Leaders Care About You As A Person – Coach Richt wants his players to become great men in addition to being great performers on Saturday.
Godly Leaders Are Attune To The Needs Of Those On Their Teams – The article said, “Coach Richt heard that some of his players didn’t have Bibles and that some of the ones who did had older versions — which made it harder to read and understand.”
Godly Leaders Are Kind. – Coach Richt is not pushy. He is a gentleman. The Sun Sentinel reported, “Richt said that while it was optional his players and staffers take them, he wanted to make sure everyone had the option of having a new Bible if they wanted it.”
Godly Leaders Are Wise – Coach Richt said, “There will be times I’ll give them those wise sayings from Proverbs, the book of wisdom.”
Godly Leaders Challenge People To Reach Their Potential – Coach Richt added, “If anyone would take the challenge of reading a proverb a day, you’re going to get wiser. It’s good stuff. I just wanted to make it available to them.”
Godly Leaders Are Trustworthy – Defensive end Demetrius Jackson described Coach Richt as “genuine and he’s the man he says he is. He just showed us he honestly cares about us and I know if I can trust him, we can all trust him.”
Godly Leaders Are Humble – Georgia team chaplain Kevin Hynes said of Richt, “I’ve never seen a man get more humble with more success, but that’s just what God has done in his life.”
Godly Leaders Elevate The Importance And Value Of The Scriptures – Safety Rayshawn Jenkins said, “It’s shows us that he really cares. He could’ve just handed us a playbook instead, or something else. But he handed us Bibles, something different. It lets us know he wants good for us.”

So Miami gets Bibles. Georgia loses on a Hail Mary. As residents of the state of Georgia, we miss Coach Richt. And I am afraid we are going to be missing him for quite awhile.

Click HERE or on the image to the left and as a free gift for subscribing to this site, you can receive my new Ebook 1269 Leadership Quotes: Timeless Truths From 2016’s Top Christian Leadership Conferences. Featured are the Johnny Hunt Mens Conference, ReThink Leadership, Orange and Leadercast Conferences among others. If applied, these insights will make you an exponentially better leader. Enjoy!!!

Do you really want to live like Jesus?

No one ever accidentally made a disciple of Jesus.

Those that have made disciples were taught, trained, mentored and discipled. Then they had the confidence to go and make disciples with their kids and others in community.

Yet so many of us have never invested the time or resources in learning to live as a disciple that makes disciples. (Many of us spend more each year on Starbucks!) And the churches we’ve been a part of have often taught a more week-to-week faith, rather than modeling a lifestyle of discipleship and blessing.

This changed my life forever…

After I was taught the actual discipleship environment that Jesus both lived in and taught others, everything changed for me. I want to share this with you now.

DISCIPLESHIP ENVIRONMENT OF JESUS Graphic screen.jpg

The Discipleship Environment of Jesus - what did the short game and the long haul look like for Jesus and those he discipled? What was the environment and rhythms that Jesus introduced his disciples to?

How do you get this bonus training?
If you enroll into any full-pay package of the 7 Moves To Missional Course before midnight, Tuesday, Oct. 4th I will send you this Bonus Module and worksheet: The Discipleship Environment of Jesus.

It normally costs $1500 for me to come and give this teaching to a group, but I’ll give it to you free today if you jump in.

This teaching will change the way you see discipleship forever. You will be able to:

Gain confidence that your life is on track for making disciples
Experience the everyday life and relationships Jesus had with others
Throw off our “modern” methods for teaching religion and get back to basics

Begin to Begin...Again
If you're ready to take your equipping to a new level this year, don't miss this fall enrollment for 7 Moves to Missional. And don’t miss this Flash Bonus by acting now!

See ya soon!

–Caesar

P.S. If you have any questions, please hit “Reply” and we’ll take care of you.

Unhealthy Thinking By Some Of Today’s Mega-Church Pastors And 9 Other Most Read Leadership Posts Of September 2016

“Stay in your lane.” This is the directive leaders give their teams on a regular basis. Basically they are saying, “Play to your strengths. Focus on what you do best. Do not spend time on things which will yield limited results.” This is great advice to bloggers as well.
For the past several years this site’s most popular posts have been movie reviews, church leadership insights, and The Top 10 Leadership Posts Of The Week. September proved this once again with the top seven posts falling in this category. You can expect more of these type of articles in October.
For instance, I will live blogging from the Catalyst Conference Wednesday through Friday of this week. Make sure you bookmark this site and check back often for updates.
The following are The Top 10 Leadership Posts Of September 2016:

The following are 8 additional Hidden Gems which did not make September’s Top 10 but were personal favorites. I hope you enjoy them the second time around.

September was an incredible month! I look forward to continuing to invest in your leadership in October.

17 Leadership Quotes And Lessons From Deepwater Horizon

Deepwater Horizon is AMAZING!!! This movie chronicles the events of the April 20th, 2010 explosion on the offshore BP Oil rig Deepwater Horizon.
The movie’s central characters are Mike Williams, played by Mark Wahlberg, and crew chief Jimmy Harrell, played by Kurt Russell. This film is tense and does a wonderful job honoring the brave men and women who were responsible for saving so many lives during this man-made disaster. Make sure you see it this weekend!
The following are 17 Leadership Quotes And Lessons From Deepwater Horizon:

Leaders Who Are More Concerned With Greed And Saving Money Than Investing Money For The Good Of Their People Put Those People And Their Organizations In Harm’s Way – Because the multi-billion dollar BP Oil Company was unwilling to pay $125,000 for a cement inspection, their rig exploded, burned for 87 days, became the worst oil spill in American history, cost the company billions, and caused 11 men to lose their lives.
Leaders Do What Is Necessary To Ensure Their Team’s Success – When the BP inspection team did not review the quality of the cement at the rig’s base, the crew said, “I don’t know if it’s stupid but it ain’t smart.”
A Strong Foundation Is Needed For Success – Harrell said, “If cement is compromised, everything is compromised.”
Inspection Is A Leader’s Friend – Details matter. Organizations suffer when leaders neglect any part of their responsibilities. Prior to the explosion, BP sent the testing team home.
Successful Leaders Create Healthy Margin In Every Area Of Their Lives And Organizations – Williams told BP executive Vidrine played by John Malkovic, “Running out of fuel as the plane tires touch the ground is not smart.”
Hope Is Not A Strategy Or A Tactic – Williams continued in his discussion with Vidrine, “Hope ain’t a tactic.”
Successful Leaders Value The Integrity Of Their People And Systems – Harrell called for a Negative Pressure Test to ensure the integrity of the well.
Reckless Leaders Ignore Warning Signs – After the Negative Pressure Test showed some inconsistencies, the BP executives ignored the test results and moved forward with the drilling.
Bullies Make Poor Leaders – Vidrine told Harrell, “(It’s) BP’s well, BP’s oil.” To which Harrell replied, “We’re just the people hired to drill the well.” And Vidrine said with finality, “And we’re 50 days behind.”
What Made You Successful Yesterday Will Not Keep You Successful Tomorrow – Under the leadership of Harrell, Deepwater Horizon won the BP safety award seven years in a row prior to the explosion.
Pressure From Leaders Often Cause Poor Decisions By Their Team – The best leaders remove pressure from their teams, not cause it. As decisions were being made on whether to keep the fuel pipes open or not, Vidrine bullied the crew into making poor decisions.
Leaders Keep People Calm During Times Of Crisis – As crew members were panicking while trying to get on the life boats, Williams stepped in to bring a sense of calm during the fiery explosion.
Experience Matters During Times Of Crisis – After Harrell was revived he immediately began implementing solutions to get the crew off the rig safely.
Spouses Of Leaders Carry A Heavy Burden As Well – People often forget the weight the spouses of pastors, non-profit, athletic, and business leaders carry. The movie did a great job showing the anguish Williams’s wife Felicia, played by Kate Hudson, carried waiting for news about her husband and then comforting him afterwards with PTSD.
Leaders Must Make Hard Choices On A Regular Basis – Hard decisions are a daily part of the leadership journey. It just comes with the territory. When facing a life or death issue at the top of the burning rig, Williams told his friend Andrea, “Our choice is to burn or jump.”
The Most Important Thing To Emotionally Healthy Leaders Are Their Families – Williams concluded, “My wife’s name is Felicia and my daughter’s name is Sydney and I will see her again.”
Crisis Always Drives People Back To Jesus Christ – After safely getting off the rig, all the workers knelt down and said the Lord’s Prayer. It is true – sooner or later, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Crisis often accelerates the process.

Once again, Deepwater Horizon is a great movie. Make sure you check it out this weekend.

Saturday, October 1, 2016

What Happened At My Kitchen Table

Today Thursday, September 29th at 2:00 PM EST I will be teaching leadership to several hundred pastors and church leaders as I host a free, live one-hour webinar entitled 7 Keys To An Outstanding Spring Capital Campaign. You can listen in by clicking HERE to sign up.
I want to give you a preview of what I will be teaching. The following is one of the 7 Keys – The Defining Moment Of A Capital Campaign.
The year 2002 was when my wife and I experienced the most difficult financial stretch of our marriage. Money was running out. Things were tense. Hope was being lost. I was 90 days away from doing the one thing every young husband and father fears more than anything else – asking my father-in-law to move into his basement.
It was during this time my wife sat me down at our kitchen table and said, “Honey, we have always heard you cannot out-give God. I want to ask if we can raise our giving from 10% to 15% and give the extra money to Precept Ministries because we need a miracle.”
With all the spiritual maturity I could muster, I said, “Well, when you’re this far in the hole, what’s the difference between 10% and 15%?” So at my wife’s urging and with little to no money, we significantly increased our level of giving.
Less than one month later, I landed my dream job with INJOY Stewardship Solutions where I still am today. For the last 14 years I have spent practically every day of my life telling pastors and church leaders about the joy that comes when you trust God with sacrificial giving.
When I look back at my own personal journey, I am often reminded how confused people are about the defining moment of a capital campaign.
Many pastors think it is the public launch of the campaign sermon series. This is a significant moment. But, it is not the defining moment. What about the Commitment Event at the conclusion of the message series? This is when people bring their pledges or intentions for the church’s future as a measurable expression of what God has done in their hearts. That is also a very significant moment. But, it is not the defining moment.
Others think it is when the permitting process is approved or ground is broken. These are without a doubt significant moments in a campaign, but neither are defining moments. Then it has to be when you finally get into your building, or burn your bank note? These are also significant moments, but not the defining moments.
So if it is not any of these significant events, then what is the defining moment of a capital campaign?

The defining moment of a vision-driven capital campaign is the kitchen table.

Just like my wife and I, it is at the kitchen table where a family (or single person with God) sits down and has this following type of conversation:
“Honey, the church is getting ready to build a new children’s wing. The pastor has been asking us for several weeks to pray about our level of financial support for it. What has God been saying to you?”
Then with open hearts, open bibles, and open budgets, the family wrestles with God about their level of commitment. Even though calculators and budgets are involved, this conversation is about transformation, not transaction. This is the spiritual journey of the campaign – when a family decides to trust God at a level they never have before and then watches Him provide.
That kitchen table moment, multiplied over and over again in your church, is the campaign’s defining moment. Your Commitment Event just collectively makes it official. As a pastor, your goal in a campaign should be to drive as many people as possible in your church to kitchen table conversations and decisions.

If you have an upcoming need to raise capital, please join me on Thursday, September 29th as I will be hosting a FREE online interactive teaching session entitled 7 Keys to Outstanding Spring Capital Campaigns.

Sign up today by clicking HERE. No single hour will better prepare you to fully-fund your church’s future than this one. I look forward to connecting with you. It would be an honor to invest in your leadership.

Pastors Who Lack Close Friends: 5 Reasons Why

by Charles Stone

Barna Research discovered that 61% of pastors are lonely and have few close friends. The loneliest people in churches are often pastors. Why is this so?

One depressed person stands lonely, apart from the group

The experts say that five key factors inhibit pastors from developing close friendships.

lack of formative modeling: in families of origin some weren’t close to their parents and/or their parents never modeling for them how to create intimate relationships.
some pastors developed a loner tendency: they’d rather be alone.
personality: some personalties can unintentionally push people away.
wounds from the past can compel some to put up walls with others.
fear of sharing loneliness with others: some pastors think that if people knew they struggled, hurt, or had problems, it might lessen the respect they would give and therefore hinder that pastor’s leadership effectiveness.

Number five can be very powerful. Certainly we shouldn’t publicly display all our dirty laundry, or we would diminish our influence. But actually I’ve found that when I have appropriately shared my struggles with others, most people endear themselves to me and respect me even more.

I’ll never forget a story I heard Bill Hybels share years ago in a conference. The specific details are hazy, but the impact on me remains.

On one of his study breaks he told about a Sunday night visit to a small church. After the sermon, the pastor stood before his flock and in tears shared a heartbreak he had experienced from his son. He said he felt like a failure and wasn’t sure what to do. He then closed the service. Spontaneously the people rushed to the front and surrounded him, hugged him, and wept with him. Bill then used a term to describe the scene: “the circle of brokenness.” As he drew thousands of us into this story, with misty eyes I realized that every pastor yearns for that kind of acceptance.

If fear of rejection, looking less like a pastor, or worry that you might diminish your influence keeps you from inviting safe people in, realize the danger in which you can put yourself. Without safe people, ministry can overwhelm us.

A psychologist friend of mine once explained that isolation can set up a pastor on a slippery slope toward sexual compromise. In isolation, Satan can exploit his vulnerability. He can then begin to compromise and live a secret sexual life that may ultimately lead to ministry and/or marriage failure. My friend reminded me that sin grows easiest in the darkness.

So, if you are a pastor, don’t minimize the importance of friends in the ministry and in your church. Push through your loneliness and find some friends.

What other factors have you seen that can create loneliness in pastors?