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Does Anyone Care About Black History Month?

February 3, 2011 in Church Leadership, Leadership, Uncategorized with 59 Comments

I”ll admit it. I’m often embarrassingly halfway through February before I even realize it’s Black History Month. However, I also believe this can be a great opportunity for the church to step up and bridge a divide.

I love what Pastor Tony Evans shared over at Relevant Online…

When we got saved, we were baptized into the body of Christ. No matter what our race, gender, or class is, when each of us came to faith in Jesus, we entered into a new family. We didn’t create God’s family. We became a part of it.

That is so important to realize because far too often we are trying to force unity when authentic unity cannot be mandated or manufactured. Instead, God says we are to “preserve the unity of the Spirit” (Ephesians 4:3). The Holy Spirit has created our unity. It is our job to preserve it.

The reason why we haven’t solved the racial divide in America after hundreds of years is because people apart from God are trying to invent unity, while people who belong to God are not living out the unity that we already possess. The result of both of these situations has been, and will continue to be, disastrous for our nation. Let alone disastrous for the witness of Christ to our nation.

He went on to say…

The Uprising 2011

January 13, 2011 in Church Leadership, Leadership with 77 Comments

One of my highlights of last year was getting a chance to speak at the Uprising Conference. Pete Hise and his team at Quest Community Church are absolutely amazing. The work they’re doing in Lexington, Kentucky is out of this world!

I’m excited to announce that I’ll be back at the Uprising again this year to join Pete Hise as well as Erwin McManus on April 14th. It’s going to be an incredible conference and the Super Early Bird deadline (just $59) ends this Sunday.

I also want to giveaway 5 pairs of tickets to this year’s conference. Just leave your name and church name and I’ll randomly select 5 winners over the next 48 hours!

Hope to see you there!

Almost Isn’t Good Enough

December 17, 2010 in Church Leadership with 141 Comments

I just finished a great book entitled “Almost Isn’t Good Enough” from my friend Wayne Elsey. Wayne is the founder and CEO of Soles4Souls. This amazing non profit has given away more than twelve million shoes in the past few years and has generated more than $75 million in contributions while keeping their administrative costs at two percent.

His book talks about what’s possible when one person resolves to make a measurable impact in the world after looking into the eyes of the suffering, hopeless, and forgotten. After reading the book I’m more fired up than ever to strive to make a difference in this world.

If you’re someone who desires to impact other peoples’ lives by the way you live yours then you will want to pick up a copy.

The book doesn’t actually come out until December 26th but you can pre-order it HERE. 100% of the proceeds go to benefit Soles4Souls.

And since it’s the week before Christmas and I’m feeling very generous I’m going to give you the opportunity to win a copy. I’m giving 5 of them away today.

Since we have a shoe theme going on here today just leave me your shoe size in the comments and you’ll be automatically registered to win!

The “I Wish” Game

November 30, 2010 in Church Leadership, Spiritual Growth with 67 Comments

To be honest, for much of my ministry I’ve played a mental game that has wreaked havoc on my self-confidence and distracted me from God’s unique call on my life. I call it the “I Wish” game.

I wish I could lead like Jeff Henderson.

I wish I was creative like Ben Arment.

I wish I could preach like Perry Noble.

I wish I could cast vision like Steven Furtick.

I wish I could network like Brad Lomenick

But comparison is a deadly game. The danger of comparison is no matter who you do it with, eventually there is always someone who’s prettier, smarter, faster, more connected or higher-up than you. They’re more _______________________.

There is always somebody who is “more.” In other words, you never win!

The danger of comparison is we find ourselves looking to other people for our value and determining our value by how we compare with other people.

You put two similar things side-by-side and compare them. We all do it when we comparison shop. It’s okay for cars, golf clubs, and shoes… but not for people. For people comparison is deadly.

We have a tendency to keep looking over our shoulder to see who gets the car we wanted, the job we needed, the spouse we desired. Who has the most gifted children, the bigger blog, the fastest growing church and who has the latest iBook, iMac, iPhone, iPad or anything else that starts with an i.

I’m tired of playing this game. How about you?

Own It

May 26, 2010 in Church Leadership with 57 Comments

Someone asked me the other day, “Pete, what’s the most important leadership lesson you’re learning these days?”
Lately it seems like my learning curve when it comes to leading is pretty steep.

I have to laugh sometimes because I’m confident I make more mistakes in an average week than most people do in a year. Because of this I’m learning a ton every day. However, at the top of my list I would say right now I’m wrestling with learning how to admit mistakes.

I think “admitting mistakes and taking responsibility” is a major value missing far too often in today’s leadership culture. Sometimes I get weary with my own excuses for why something happened.

The truth is sometimes I …

Made the wrong hire.
Had bad timing.
Thought I heard from God and clearly didn’t.
Talked when I should have been listening.
Jumped the gun when I should have been patient.
Wimped out when I should have moved forward.

I made a mistake. I screwed up. Maybe it was sin, lack of experience, wrong motives, or plain stupidity. But it was a mistake. I own it.

Do yourself and the people around you a favor today and stop with all the excuses. Owning it and not excusing it is the key to building credibility with your spouse, kids, friends and people you lead.

Any mistakes you need to own today?

How about a favorite excuse?

The Death of Curiosity

March 23, 2010 in Church Leadership with 37 Comments

Few things energize me like being around curious people. I love the questions they ask. the excitement they radiate, and the way they slow down to examine how things work.

I used to be more curious than I am today. I’m afraid my curiosity quotient has gone down over the years not only impacting my leadership but also impacting the wonder and awe I have for my Creator.

Somewhere along the way I became seduced by words like instant and ambition. I actually started to think faster was always better. I started to convince myself that ambition was a way of life.

Last night I finished Sabbath by Dan Allender. It was a great book (more on this later) but he had a quote that I just can’t shake. He said,

“Ambition leads to the demand for the shortest path between points to gain the most in the least amount of time; wonder calls the heart to explore the unexpected, nonlinear paths that often create a new unity that could not be expected when one first began.”

My translation: Hurry + Ambition = Death of Curiosity

I want to be filled with…

The Cult of Multitasking

March 18, 2010 in Church Leadership with 70 Comments

I confess. I’m a multitasker. People rarely at any one time have my complete attention as I’m often checking email, having a conversation, writing a message, answering a text, writing down an idea, all possibly at the same time.

Sometimes I think this is part of the way God has wired me while at other times I realize I’ve been seduced by such words as “quick and efficient.” Sometimes I think I’m addicted to how productive it makes me feel.

In fact, just yesterday I had to send an apology email to a couple co-workers for not giving them my full attention in what I know was a very important meeting to them. I was afraid my lack of focus communicated to them that their time was not as valuable as mine and their ideas weren’t either.

Turns out that not only is it often insensitive, but even if it doesn’t bother the people around you it’s not really the best strategy for effectiveness. I read an interesting article last night on MSNBC entitled “The Cult of Multitasking.” The article said the average employee loses 2.1 hours of productivity every day to interruptions and distractions. Each day a typical office employee checks e-mail 50 times and uses instant messaging 77 times.

It went on to say…

The cult of multitasking would have us believe that compulsive message-checking is the behavior of an always-on, hyper-productive worker. But it’s not. It’s the sign of a distracted employee who misguidedly believes he can do multiple tasks at one time. Science disagrees. People may be able to chew gum and walk at the same time, but they can’t do two or more thinking tasks simultaneously.

Researchers at the University of Michigan found that productivity dropped as much as 40 percent when subjects tried to do two or more things at once. The switching exacts other costs, too — mistakes and burnout. One of the study’s authors, David Meyer, asserts bluntly that quality work and multitasking are incompatible.

So it’s confession time. Are you in the cult?

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