leadership
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What to say when you’re told that “some people” are unhappy…
He asks you over to the side of the room for a quite chat. With grave concerns in his eyes, he tells you that “some people” (or worse, “lots of people”) have expressed some discontent about something you’ve said or done. How… Continue reading
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How we arrived at the Purposes Model
After recently attending the very encouraging Nexus Conference I thought it’d be helpful to outline how we arrived at the Purposes Model. Back in 2008, we had 3 congregations and 1 more about to kick off. We had a Senior Pastor (Greg… Continue reading
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Reblog: Do you use “# of conversions” when assessing a program?
I’ve spoken to some people who think we shouldn’t use “# of conversions” when reviewing a project or program they’ve run. They’ll say something like; “conversion is God’s work”, or “we don’t have any control over that”. And on that… Continue reading
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Moving up the ministry hour-glass
When you’re a young christian, it’s almost as if everything is for you. Church feels aimed at you. There’s a special group for people new like you. You get invited to camps and getaways that teach you things you’ve never… Continue reading
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Dream!
Leading, delegating, starting, serving… they all require a little bit of dreaming. Sometimes, they require a lot of dreaming. What would you LOVE to see happen… don’t worry about “how” it will happen just yet… just imagine. What would you… Continue reading
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Gossip or be content when people misunderstand your decisions. You can only choose one.
Many decisions in Christian leadership are tricky. This is especially so when the information you have to make those decisions includes sin and maturity issues. Why? Because for people to understand the leadership’s decision, they would have to be given… Continue reading
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Reblog: Evangelism trumps everything
If you’re in Christian leadership, you probably already think this. But don’t assume your people get it. You need to play out what it means… If you have to choose between going to your small group or taking a non-Christian… Continue reading
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The Maturity Podcast
For a while now, Richard Sweatman and I have been recording a podcast quite like this blog. It’s brief, practical, and keeps thinking from the big principles. It’s called “The Maturity Podcast” and it’s aimed at helping Growth Group leaders… Continue reading
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Reblog: You are, by God’s design, a decision making machine
1Cor 3 reminds us that we don’t actually make disciples, we don’t actually make people change or grow. God makes those things happen, by his Spirit. But we do make decisions – that God uses. I don’t just mean that… Continue reading
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Amaze people with “no reason”
If you’re in Christian leadership, its your job, your responsibility, to keep asking and encouraging people to give their time and effort to ministry. So much so, that it can feel like every interaction and phone call is a request.… Continue reading
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Reblog: What separates us from the secular managers…
…is motivations. The secular world only cares about motivation; they want motivated people. People with drive and self-persuasion. But Christians don’t want just motivated people. We want people with specific, godly motivations. As an example, you could work for something… Continue reading
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Church “Org charts” are hard
Recently we thought it would be a good idea to try and visually communicate our church staff “map”. It was an attempt to try and describe how we’ve deployed staff across our 5 passions for our flock, and across our… Continue reading
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Reblog: The Aussie cultural bent against being part of a machine
As I read Yanks talk about church leadership and growth, I wonder if they make an assumption that just doesn’t fly here in Australia. See, Australians hate tall-hierarchy and being part of a machine. Whereas (the impression I get) is that Americans… Continue reading
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Reblog: Submissively encouraging decisiveness
(or “managing up”) is a really important skill. We’re all in submissive relationships; whether being pulled over by a cop, a wife with a husband, an employee with an employer, a volunteer and a leader. One of the hardest aspects of… Continue reading
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Good delegation creates new opportunities
There’s an important aspect to delegating something… After you delegate it… STOP DOING IT!! If you’ve delegated a task or responsibility to someone, you can check how they’re going, you can ask them to keep you updated, you can give… Continue reading
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Reblog: Delegate, but always check they know the…
… very next step to take. They might have to call someone they’ve never spoken to before. They’re happy to do it. They’re keen to make a cold-turkey phone call. They know what they need to say, and how to… Continue reading
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You haven’t delegated until you’ve told other people who’s the boss
This is a pretty simple one. If you’re appointing someone to do something that you’re normally responsible for, you don’t just explain that to them. You need to explain it to everyone else too. If you’ve asked someone to organise… Continue reading
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Ask, “How far along the decision making process are you?”
When someone comes to you asking for feedback or suggestions about their idea, you need to know something before you offer your thoughts… How far down the decision making process are they? How personally committed are they to this idea?… Continue reading
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Not having someone’s gift does not mean ungodliness or immaturity
We must be careful that we do not judge ourselves or others by their lack of certain ministry gifts. Unfortunately, this seems to happen a lot. A godly person sees someone else’s gifts; leadership, preaching, music, prayer, welcoming, stewardship, whatever.… Continue reading
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If leadership means making decisions, raising up new leaders means…
If leadership means making decisions, raising up new leaders means… delegating decisions. If you want more people involved, you need more teams/groups for them to join. If you want more teams/groups, you need new team/group leaders. If you want to… Continue reading
MINISTRY PRINCIPLES & PRAGMATICS 