Leadership & Market Place Ministry

Thursday, November 3, 2016

I Miss My Mom [Podcast]

Oct 31, 2016 09:08 am | Mike Glenn

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Mike Glenn Onlins

The Top 17 Books Christian Leaders Should Be Reading In 2017

With Christmas fast approaching, I want to provide you a wonderful list of resources to get the leaders in your life. Below are 17 books written by some of today’s top Christian leaders. These will inspire, equip and challenge all Christian leaders. Make sure you check out each one!
The following are 17 Books Christian Leaders Should Be Reading In 2017 listed in alphabetical order by author. Simply click the hot link on their names to learn more and order your copies.

Chasing The Light: 90 Devotions & Photos To Grow Your Faith by Dave Adamson. I first introduce Aussie Dave to this audience in the post The #1 Christian Leader Everyone Should Follow On Instagram And Why. But what do you do when your youngest daughter loves God and the Bible, but struggles with dyslexia? Dave, a former magazine editor and TV sports reporter, decided to use his passion for photography to help his little girl. He started using photos he had taken around the world to teach her the Bible . . . and watched her face light up! Now thousands of faces light up each because of Dave’s work.
Unreasonable Churches: 10 Churches Who Zagged When Others Zigged And Saw More Impact Because Of It by Rich Birch. The book I am most looking forward to reading in 2017. In an era when 94% of churches are losing ground against the growth of the communities they serve, there is a new breed of churches who buck the trend. This book tells to stories of 10 churches who stopped copying the models of other churches and tried something new. You’ll be inspired to consider how your church could see great impact by blazing new trails!
Comeback: It’s Not Too Late And You’re Never Too Far by Louie Giglio. This book celebrates new beginnings. It offers encouragement and perspective, and it’s for you if you feel frustrated or confused, if you’re sorrowing or in pain, if you’ve made mistakes or are grieving, if you’re disappointed or feel as though life doesn’t make sense.
The Carpenter: A Story About The Greatest Success Strategies Of All by Jon Gordon. Drawing upon his work with countless leaders, sales people, professional and college sports teams, non-profit organizations and schools, Jon shares an entertaining and enlightening story that will inspire you to build a better life, career, and team with the greatest success strategies of all.
Gaining By Losing: Why The Future Belongs To Churches That Send by J.D. Greear. In this book Greear unpacks ten plumb lines that you can use to reorient your church’s priorities around God’s mission to reach a lost world. The good news is that you don’t need to choose between gathering or sending. Effective churches can, and must, do both.
Simplify: Ten Practices To Unclutter Your Soul by Bill Hybels. This is the book I am currently reading. Exhausted. Overwhelmed. Overscheduled. Sound familiar? Today’s velocity of life can consume and control us, until our breakneck pace begins to feel normal and expected. That’s where the danger lies: When we spend our lives doing things that keep us busy but don t really matter, we sacrifice the things that do. What if your life could be different? What if you could be certain you were living the life God called you to live and building a legacy for those you love? If you crave a simpler life anchored by the priorities that matter most, roll up your sleeves and read this book.
Stronger: How Hard Times Reveal God’s Greatest Power by Clayton King. With insights born from his own difficult journey, Clayton offers readers a truly liberating understanding of weakness and suffering–not as God’s punishment, but as his pruning.
The Ideal Team Player: How To Recognize And Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues by Patrick Lencioni. In his classic book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni laid out a groundbreaking approach for tackling the perilous group behaviors that destroy teamwork. Here he turns his focus to the individual, revealing the three indispensable virtues of an ideal team player. To read notes from Patrick teaching on this book, click 2016 Leadership Summit – 42 Leadership Quotes From Patrick Lencioni.
Be Mean About The Vision: Preserving And Protecting What Matters by Shawn Lovejoy. Shawn challenges leaders to stay true to the vision—regaining and sustaining its trajectory over time. Lovejoy offers a proven strategy for relentlessly protecting our organization’s guiding vision:
- Develop a vision people are willing to die for
- Keep the vision alive in us
- Align everyone around the vision
- Keep the vision from being compromised or even hijacked
Streamline: How To Create Healthy Church Systems by Michael Lukaszewski. I am not going to give a long explanation of this book. Simply put, it is the best book on church systems I have ever read. If you want your church to be more effective, buy this book today!
The Matheny Manifesto: A Young Manager’s Old-School Views On Success In Sports And Life by St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny. The best sports book I read in 2016. The tough-love philosophy Matheny expressed in the letter contained his throwback beliefs that authority should be respected, discipline and hard work rewarded, spiritual faith cultivated, family made a priority, and humility considered a virtue. In this book, he builds on his original letter by first diagnosing the problem at the heart of youth sports−hint: it starts with parents and coaches−and then by offering a hopeful path forward.
Intentional Living: Choosing A Life That Matters by John Maxwell. The only thing you need to achieve significance is to be intentional. And to do that, all you need to do is start. You can’t make an impact sitting still and doing nothing. Every major accomplishment that’s ever been achieved started with a first step. Sometimes it’s hard; other times it’s easy, but no matter what, you have to do it if you want to get anywhere in life. In this book, John will help you take that first step, and the ones that follow, on your personal path through a life that matters.
God Breathed: The Undeniable Power And Reliability Of Scripture by Josh McDowell. “God said, ‘Let there be. . .’ ” And when God spoke, things happened. Recapture the awe, the mystery, the passion and power of scripture in God-Breathed—where you’ll personally experience a life transformed by the One who spoke everything into existence, including you.
The Conviction To Lead: 25 Principles For Leadership That Matters by Al Mohler. Using his own experiences and examples from history, Dr. Mohler demonstrates that real leadership is a transferring of conviction to others, affecting their actions, motivations, intuition, and commitment. This practical guide walks the reader through what a leader needs to know, do, and be in order to affect change.
Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic For A Simpler, More Soulful Way Of Living by Shauna Niequist. Written in Shauna’s warm and vulnerable style, this collection of essays focuses on the most important transformation in her life, and maybe yours too: leaving behind busyness and frantic living and rediscovering the person you were made to be. Shauna describes this book as a hand reaching out, pulling you free from the constant pressure to perform faster, push harder, and produce more, all while maintaining an exhausting image of perfection.
The Emotionally Healthy Leader: How Transforming Your Inner Life Will Deeply Transform Your Church, Team, And The World by Pete Scazzero. In this best-selling book Scazzero shows leaders how to develop a deep, inner life with Christ, examining its profound implications for surviving stress, planning and decision making, building teams, creating healthy culture, influencing others, and much more.
Uninvited: Living Loved When You Feel Less Than, Left Out, And Lonely by Lysa TerKeurst. The enemy wants us to feel rejected . . . left out, lonely, and less than. Lysa shares her own deeply personal experiences of rejection–from the perceived judgment of the perfectly toned woman one elliptical over to the incredibly painful childhood abandonment by her father. She leans in to honestly examine the roots of rejection, as well as rejection’s ability to poison relationships from the inside out, including our relationship with God.

Finally as a bonus, it may be slightly self-serving but my book 10 Indispensable Practices Of The 2-Minute Leader is a must for leaders wishing to accomplish the vision God has placed in your heart. Perfect for developing your church’s or business leaders in small group or one-on-one environments. Electronic copies can be purchased by clicking HERE. Hard-cover and study guides can be ordered by clicking HERE.

Click HERE or on the image to the left for a FREE copy of 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!!!

Quickly Turn Strangers into Friends: 3 Easy Questions

Hey friend,
Tina and I are sitting in an airport feeling about as tired as we’ve ever been... It’s been a long few weeks, but we are super grateful for the training immersions we’ve just completed with three amazing communities in Europe and the UK. (You know who you are!)
Ahh...sleeping in my own bed tonight!
Question: Have you ever felt like making new friends or transitioning a group of unrelated relationships into a community can be a challenge? It doesn’t have to be. In my latest post and video I show you how.
3 Easy Questions to Quickly Turn Strangers into Friends
A Non-threatening Way to Break The Ice in Any Group

You will be amazed at how much you can learn about someone so quickly, and the connections people will make with each other’s lives always surprise me... [click to continue and get my free cheat sheet]
Blessings!
–Caesar

5 Ways to Get People to pay Attention to Your Sermons

by Charles Stone

One of the most disconcerting feelings we pastors experience is when we prepare a sermon and pour our heart into it, yet feel that it didn’t make a difference in people’s lives. It’s equally frustrating when we preach to see somebody tuning us out.

What can we do to help people pay more attention to our sermons? For when they do, there’s a greater chance what we say will stick in their minds to give the Holy Spirit time to ultimately change their hearts.
listening

Neuroscience is teaching us a lot about how people remember things. Two mental processes related to attention simultaneously activate in the minds of those sitting in the pews on Sundays.

Focus: the ability to attend to what you are saying.
Inhibiting distractions: the ability to tune out competing information. Those distractions can be external like a baby crying or internal like self-talk or mulling over memories of what happened on the way to church.

So what can we do when we preach to help increase attention? I’ve listed 5 neuroscience insights to keep in mind as you prepare your sermons.

Mood matters. Scientists have discovered that when people are in a good mood they pay better attention. We can’t change what happened to a family on the way to church (ie-a fight), but we can take some steps to help put them in a good mood. Humor is a great tool that does that. Don’t begin your sermon with something heavy. Rather, try to interject some humor. Smile and put people at ease.
The head cannot take more than the seat can endure is true. Our brains need downtime. They can’t concentrate for long periods of time. In fact, the brain will make downtime for itself when it gets tired. So, build ebb and flow into your sermons. Alternate intensity (something that may require intensive concentration) with points or stories that don’t take much concentration.
See your sermons like firing a gun. Three distinct processes take place in the brain for attention to occur. It’s firing a gun: load, aim, fire. To load is when the brain is alerted to take notice. Aim is when it looks for more information. Fire is when it actually acts. So develop your sermon with this in mind. Build each point around the load—aim—fire process.
Include novelty in your sermons. Attention increases with something novel or new. Include a couple of surprises. Perhaps you pull out a “show and tell” item unexpectedly to illustrate a point. Maybe you move to a different location from where you usually preach (ie-off the stage and into an aisle).
Make it relevant. Preaching is connecting the then and there to the here and now. We must try to help people apply the message to their lives. The brain pays much more attention when it senses relevance. Don’t just wait until the end for application. Provide application points throughout the sermon.

Ultimately, we want our sermons to stick in the listener’s long-term memory. The more they stick, the greater the chance for the Holy Spirit to bring about life transformation.
What presentation techniques you found that helps sermons stick?

Relates Posts:

Stuck in Your Head

Nov 01, 2016 09:14 am | Mike Glenn

Have you ever had a song get stuck in your head? You don’t even have to like the song, but if you hear it the right way at the right time, you’ll be singing that song for the rest of the day. Reading your Bible can be the same way. You’ll find yourself reading a passage of Scripture that hits you in a particular way, and the next thing you know, you’re thinking about that passage for the rest of the day.

For the past few weeks, we’ve been teaching through the Book of Ephesians. There are so many passages worth memorizing in this letter. I’ve picked out a few. Spend a few minutes getting these passages into your head and heart.
Jesus quoted Scripture from memory. I guess Scripture memorization should be a priority for us as well.
Here are a few verses from Ephesians to get you started:

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the perception of your mind may be enlightened so you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the glorious riches of His inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power to us who believe, according to the working of His vast strength. (Ephesians 1:17-19)
For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8-10)
Now to Him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us—to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21)
Therefore I, the prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, accepting one another in love, diligently keeping the unity of the Spirit with the peace that binds us. (Ephesians 4:1-3)
Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk—not as unwise people but as wise—making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So don’t be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. (Ephesians 5:15-17)
Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the tactics of the Devil. For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens. This is why you must take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand. Stand, therefore, with truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like armor on your chest, and your feet sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace. In every situation take the shield of faith, and with it you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is God’s word. (Ephesians 6:11-17)

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Three Principles for Your Leadership Toolbox

Apple or orange? Summer or winter? Country or rock and roll? Appetizers or desserts? Read a book or watch a movie? Morning person or night person?

These questions were split-second bullets being shot at the newcomer sitting at our kitchen table. My adult children happened to all be home at the same time and one of them brought a friend home to introduce him to the family and Northwest AR. I watched from the other side of the room with interest and curiosity.

Dr. Samuel Barondes, a leading psychiatrist and neuroscientist, and author of Making Sense of People said, “Although we may spend hours methodically assessing a new smartphone before deciding what we think of it, our assessment of someone’s personality keeps being made by the seat of our pants.” I don’t know if he would approve of the method that was unfolding at my kitchen table. I think he would contend we need a more deliberate process than rapid dyads in order to read and size people up. He argues you have to uncover troublesome patterns such as compulsiveness, narcissism, sociopathy, and paranoia, and consider how this might affect you.

Well, so much for methodical process. Let’s get back to the round-table game of testing the newcomer.

The speed increased with every question because everyone was now slinging contrasts faster than anyone could assimilate them and give a thoughtful response. Then finally someone said “Last question: Walk or drive?” The new guy paused—which brought everything to an abrupt stop—and then said, “It totally depends on where you are and where you are going.”

I smiled and said, “Checkmate” under my breath.

Context is usually crucial for the best answers and the best solutions. I’ve said for years the difference in strategy and useful strategy is trust, context, and rich subject matter expertise.

I am asked all the time: “So who is the best leader? What makes the most effective leader (note: not the perfect leader)?” My response is usually the same—“It is the right leader who fits the organization for a particular season.” The best answer is always filtered through context.

That being said, there are some timeless leadership insights that apply to every leader and every company regardless of the particulars of your situation.

Recently, I was spending the day with a CEO scaling his business. I reminded him of three leadership principles we often forget. If you move past these too quickly, then you are at risk.

Facilitating is not leading.

Don’t misunderstand me—facilitating is usually an important trait for any leader in any enterprise. Juggling differing opinions and bringing people along in a process is crucial. After all, people best implement what they understand and buy into. But do not mistake equating facilitating with leading. They are not the same capability. Both have a place and both are needed. But at every rung of the leadership ladder, a leader must make a few leadership decisions and calls. Not all issues self-resolve or automatically go away. Not all issues will have harmonious energetic alignment with your team. You cannot always take a poll and count the votes and go with the majority.

By all means, be a collaborative leader. Those are usually the most effective leaders in the life and work world we live in today. But don’t think that collaboration is the ultimate currency. It is leading. If you are a leader, be ready for those occasions you have to lead…not just facilitate.

No strategic plan will ever self-execute.

Every leader will answer this question correctly when asked in a vacuum. But we often forget the answer in the day-to-day demands of swirling activity, noisy options, and crushing demands. Will any strategic plan, even the really great, clearly aligned ones, self-execute? No, they will not. They never have and they never will.

Often leadership will put an enormous amount of energy and resources into creating a plan or map to guide their organization forward. And then they wilt or go into auto-pilot with implementation. It always takes some kind of mechanism to drive a plan forward. It does not have to be harsh, costly, or completely disruptive.

I love good, clear plans and maps. But I love even more a mechanism or process that a leader constructs to implement, measure, and pivot as real time results happen.

Inspiration is not a substitute for leadership.

Or as Jim Collins said, “Great vision without great people is irrelevant.” I am a huge believer in inspiration. I love to be inspired and have epiphanies. I love to help others imagine forward. Every year I work with hundreds of organizations, and most of them have a robust vision and are brimming with inspiration.

But even the most compelling vision still needs the human element of a good leader leading. It needs someone carrying the torch of hope and coherence. It needs a leader voicing “This is the way forward!” It needs a leader setting the pace and urgency.

Yes, your particular context sets you apart in many ways. But all leaders practice baseline behaviors. Make sure you have the three items above in your baseline mindset and toolbox.

Unreasonable Churches

“Unreasonable Church Finds a Balance Between Going Both ‘Deep’ and ‘Wide”’ – Rich Birch

Yesterday I posted The Top 17 Books Christian Leaders Should Be Reading In 2017. One of the books listed was Rich Birch’s incredible look at some of today’s most successful churches – Unreasonable Churches: 10 Churches Who Zagged When Others Zigged And Saw More Impact Because Of It.
If you do not know Rich, he has been involved in church leadership for over 20 years. Early on he had the privilege of leading in one of the very first multisite churches in North America. He led the charge in helping The Meeting House in Toronto to become the leading multi-site church in Canada with over 4,500 people in 6 locations. In addition, he served on the leadership team of Connexus Community Church in Ontario, as well as on the Lead Team at Liquid Church in the Manhattan facing communities of New Jersey. Rich also blogs and podcasts weekly at unSeminary.com.
Because of his kindness, he has provided the readers of this site an excerpt from his new book. Check it out below. You can also purchase copies HERE or on the image above. As an additional bonus, Rich is giving a FREE audiobook and worksheets to anyone who orders two or more copies through November 2016 to discuss with your staff or leadership teams. Now, let’s learn about Unreasonable Churches.
There is so much talk about what a church should be focused on. Should we be focused on evangelism or discipleship? Perhaps churches are too intently focused on one or the other to see the big picture. An unreasonable church does the hard work of both saving the lost and discipling the saved.

Seeking the Lost and the Saved

Christ Community Church was started in 1984 by six couples in St. Charles, Illinois, who wanted a church for their friends and neighbors. They prayed together and hired a young pastor named Jim Nicodem. Jim and his wife have served Christ Community for thirty years and are still going strong.
Christ Community now meets in four locations and has an attendance of 5,000 people each week in the western suburbs of Chicago. The church’s mission is to make “passionate disciples of Jesus Christ, who are belonging, growing, serving and reaching.”
From the beginning, the church sought to be a church that reached “seekers” (whom they now call “explorers”). But this methodology has had many legitimate criticisms. To go “wide” meant that the church could not go “deep,” according to many voices. During the time that Christ Community began, American churches began to be separated by an ideological divide. On one side, the attractional or “seeker sensitive” churches claimed their mission was to reach the unchurched. On the other side, the discipleship-based churches maintained that their primary focus should be toward existing Christians. In other words, the focus became either evangelism or discipleship. This issue has continued to divide American Christianity.
Pastor Jim struggled with these issues. He desperately wanted to reach the lost but also saw the problems of “easy-believism.” As a faithful student of the Bible, the pastor studied the Scriptures’ heartbeat: the gospel promises. He realized that there could be a better way than landing on one side or other of the seeker/Christian divide.
From its earliest days, Pastor Jim and Christ Community saw the deep flaws in this either/or debate. If a church was only focused on evangelism, the trade-off was spiritual growth and maturity. If the church was only focused on discipleship, the trade-off was the unchurched being unreached.
Pastor Jim wanted to balance the division between evangelism churches and discipleship churches. He wanted to go “deep” as well as “wide.”

Going Deep and Wide

Pastor Jim has a passion for going after the lost, and also leading them to be disciples who are taught the deep truths of Scripture. Christ Community Church decided to bring attractional and discipleship-based ministry together on their church campuses, reaching lost people and bringing theologically sound teaching to them.
To bring the two approaches together in a unified focus, the church reaches “wide” with attractional events and outreaches, but also “deep” with an intentional plan to bring new Christians to spiritual maturity.
Going Deep in Evangelism
Pastor Jim and his staff have intentionally reworked their evangelistic materials to build disciples, not just count decisions. The materials emphasize Biblical texts and concepts such as salvation by grace through faith (Eph.2:8–9), but also continues with Ephesians 2:10; that God has created us in Christ Jesus to do good works, which He prepared in advance for us. It’s not just an attempt at casting a wide net to get people saved, but instead a focus on a deep and wide net. Salvation means intentionally living life according to God’s plans and purposes.
Going Deep in Preaching
Pastor Jim recognizes that the seeker-focused or Christian-focused churches usually have different preaching styles. Topically based sermons tend to be more accessible and attractive to those who haven’t grown up in the church, while verse by verse exposition teaches Biblical literacy and understanding. Again, instead of being “either/or,” Pastor Jim takes a “both/and” approach to preaching. His sermons are mostly topical, but he packages the topics within a particular passage of Scripture. With a D. Min with an emphasis on hermeneutics from Trinity Evangelical, Pastor Jim is conscious of working to interpret the topic in light of Scripture rather than the other way around.
Going Deep in Worship
Many attractional churches tend to be very high energy in their worship services, and that was also true of Christ Community Church for many years. However, Pastor Jim found himself drawn to evangelical churches with a more liturgical style when he had Sundays off. He thought carefully about why he was attracted to those churches.
In those liturgical services, there was often the recitation of creeds, times of silence, prayer and confession, and Scripture that was read out loud in responsive, congregational styles.
Grasping the idea that worship was also a time for confession and teaching, the church added a teaching pastor to the worship teams. The teaching pastor began screening out songs with no theological value and added songs that helped move the teaching themes along; other liturgical elements were added, such as silence and confessional prayer.
Going Deep in Community Groups
Bringing together the potentially difficult focus points of “deep” and “wide” meant an understanding of where people were at as they came into the fellowship. The first few steps of connecting people into small groups are intentionally designed. Christ Community has three different “on-ramps,” depending on where the newcomers were starting. For those “explorers” who are just beginning to investigate, the on ramp is a small group class called Alpha.
For the new believers, the on-ramp is a course called Next Steps. For Christians who have transferred from another church, their on-ramp is a seminar entitled Begin to Belong. The on-ramps are designed to move people forward in their journey to an ongoing community group. These small groups are intentionally focused on Bible study, using carefully curated materials. The community groups encourage personal Bible reading and discussion of Biblical passages.
Christ Community is developing both better biblical literacy and discipleship among its members and is continuing to be effective in its evangelistic outreach to the community. By having an intentional way to follow up on and direct new members to the right “on-ramp,” the church takes care to make sure the wide net helps those they catch to go deep. Their plans are working well, as they see 75% to 80% of their weekend attendees involved with the ongoing community groups.
If you are a pastor or in church leadership, get this book. Click HERE and order your copies today!