Leadership « Journeyman Journal

The Importance of Staying Connected

Wednesday, February 16th, 2011

I am learning a valuable lesson at the start of this new year. Sometimes lessons are hard to learn, this is one of those cases because it’s exposing an area of weakness and failure on my part. That’s hard to admit and harder to deal with. I’ve been in my role as pastor now for 13.5 months (but who’s counting?). I have loved every minute of it. It’s not work…it’s a passion.

But being passionate doesn’t guarantee success (no matter how you measure it). And being passionate doesn’t mean you’ll do things right. I haven’t. The good news is that not all is lost…not even close. I have great people around me that know what they’re doing and are picking up the slack.

The lesson I’m learning is about the importance of staying connected. When I was in the corporate world this wasn’t nearly as important. People got paid to work and if they didn’t do what we expected they either shaped up or…(you know how that one ends).

Not so much in my new line of “work” (I still hate calling it that). Here, connections are life-blood…critical to keeping anything alive. Over the past few months I’ve made the decision to focus my attention on a smaller number of people…really poor into their lives as best I can. Not a bad call…not one I regret…but I got distracted. Also not an excuse, just the reality.

The consequence is that I lost connection with others. These are leaders that I left in the dust, flapping in the wind (choose your own metaphor). And it’s my responsibility to correct the situation. It will take work. It will take focus. It will take dedication.

But that’s the other great thing about connections…they can be re-established. This is an error that has an “easy” (if not simple) fix…get connected again! So that’s what I’m doing…and I hope I’ve learned my lesson!

16.02.2011 Church, Leadership, Ministry, New Pastor Journal No Comments

A Tale of Two Leaders

Friday, February 11th, 2011

Aaron was appointed by God as the High Priest of Israel…the direct connection between God and His people. He had the awesome task of representing the people before God and God before His people. He was God’s spokesman. He was God’s representative. He was the spiritual leader for God’s chosen people.

He led them astray.

Sure, they asked for it. They got restless and asked for what was comfortable in place of all the crazy new stuff going on all around them. They asked for it, but Aaron certainly wasn’t obligated to give them what they wanted; he was obligated to give them what they need. His first opportunity to lead and he blew it.

So Aaron said, “Take the gold rings from the ears of your wives and sons and daughters, and bring them to me.” All the people took the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron. Then Aaron took the gold, melted it down, and molded it into the shape of a calf. When the people saw it, they exclaimed, “O Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt!” Aaron saw how excited the people were, so he built an altar in front of the calf. Then he announced, “Tomorrow will be a festival to the Lord!” (Exodus 32:2-4, NLT)

The people asked for a god to worship and Aaron had every opportunity to point them to God. Instead, he built them a golden calf (reminiscent of the gods they left behind in Egypt). And when he saw how excited they were about the calf he built an altar..and THEN tried to get God involved the celebration. Slippery slope!

Enter from stage mountain…Moses. He comes down from the mountain after talking God out of destroying the people for their idolatry (something He had JUST warned them about). Moses sees the mess that Aaron has made and he takes charge. He destroys the idol. He gives the people what they deserve. And then he continues to lead His people back to the right path…back to God and His promises.

Am I an Aaron or a Moses? Do I lead out of my own comfort zone or do I lead people down the harder path of obedience and love toward God? Do I have what it takes to make a stand against convention and cultural acceptance?

Am I on God’s side or the other side?

11.02.2011 Leadership, Ministry, New Pastor Journal, Spiritual Musings 1 Comment

Follow the Leader

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

I have been walking through the book of Isaiah for the past month or so. It’s been awhile since God and I took a journey through this book. It’s one of my favorites. It’s deep. It’s rich. I get something new and important every time I pick it up. I must identify with God’s people during Isaiah’s lifetime. We have much in common, which isn’t necessarily a good thing!

Today I got a little flashback to my childhood days. Do you remember playing “Follow the Leader”? What a great game…as long as you were the leader anyway. I loved being out in front and blazing the trail. Following was okay once in awhile, but being the leader was where it was at!

I remember one summer climbing a 14K mountain with my uncles. Naturally, they took the lead because they were the adults. I lagged behind…far behind. It annoyed my uncles because they had to keep stopping and letting me catch up. Until finally my uncle stopped and told me to take the lead. He let me set the pace. And everything changed. All of a sudden I was way out in front; they had a hard time keeping up once I got in front.

What’s the point? Just this: It’s my naturally tendency to take the lead, but that doesn’t really work in my spiritual life…

I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is good for you and leads you along the paths you should follow. Oh, that you had listened to my commands! Then you would have had peace flowing like a gentle river and righteousness rolling over you like waves in the sea. (Isaiah 48:17-18, NLT)

God says I’m supposed to let Him lead. He knows the way. And the problem is that when I do what comes naturally—when I take the lead myself—then I get too far ahead of Him and miss the path I should follow. I think I know the way, but I don’t. I need to let God take the lead. I need to follow The Leader.

The benefits? Says right there in the passage: Peace and Righteousness. I could use more of both!

23.06.2010 Devotional, Leadership, Spiritual Musings No Comments

Which One Are You?

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009

I heard a good comment on the radio yesterday that was directed toward business, but i think it applies to life in general. I can’t even remember who said it (so i should probably be taking credit for it myself right?), but it stuck with me and the more I think about it the more true I think it is.

He said that in business there are two types of people:

Complicators: These people make your life more difficult. You should rid yourself of these people as quickly as possible. They are not worth the trouble.
Simplifiers: These people make your life more simple. You should reward these people and seek them out with everything you have. They are worth their weight in gold.

As I apply this principle to my workplace I see a lot of truth here. But I started thinking beyond work and it applies in life as well. People either complicate your life or they make it more simple…and we can all name people in both categories!

Of course, it’s easy to look at others. Much harder to point that mirror at yourself.

I like to think I am a simplifier…but I can’t say for sure. Is this one of those self-evaluations that you can really be honest about? Would anyone say, “Yep…I’m a complicator!”? And it would take real guts to ask people to honestly evaluate you.

So…which do you think you are (at work and in life)?

And yes…I’m going to ask…which do you think I am? Let the comments fly!

04.03.2009 Leadership, Misc Ramblings, Work 1 Comment

A Little Comparison, If You Please

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009

After listening to President Obama’s first televised press conference on Monday there was one comment he made that caught my attention. As soon as he made the comment my mind re-winded a few years to another president’s inaugural address. The two statements are worlds apart and show a clear difference in ideology.

History will tell which one ends up being right (or “more” right?). Here are the two statements (taken from direct transcripts and in context)…you can draw your own conclusions upon comparison (the emphasis in both is simply to highlight the ideological comparison). For all our sake’s I hope they both end up being right (but I don’t think that will be the case). No more commentary from me…you be the judge…

Exhibit A: President Obama’s Press Conference on 02/09/2009:

It is absolutely true that we can’t depend on government alone to create jobs or economic growth. That is and must be the role of the private sector. But at this particular moment, with the private sector so weakened by this recession, the federal government is the only entity left with the resources to jolt our economy back into life.

It is only government that can break the vicious cycle, where lost jobs lead to people spending less money, which leads to even more layoffs. And breaking that cycle is exactly what the plan that’s moving through Congress is designed to do.

Exhibit B: President Reagan’s Inaugural Address on 01/20/1981:

The economic ills we suffer have come upon us over several decades. They will not go away in days, weeks, or months, but they will go away. They will go away because we as Americans have the capacity now, as we’ve had in the past, to do whatever needs to be done to preserve this last and greatest bastion of freedom.

In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. From time to time we’ve been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden.

Again, time will tell…thoughts?

11.02.2009 Leadership, Misc Ramblings, Politics 2 Comments

Too Serious

Thursday, July 3rd, 2008

I have been reading a leadership book by John Maxwell at work entitled Be a People Person. It’s a decent book (so far) with some good leadership concepts, but nothing earth shattering or new to the topic of leadership…mainly some good reminders.

However, there is one quote in the book that doesn’t relate solely to leadership that caught my attention a few weeks ago and I was reminded of it yesterday while listening to the radio and hearing a comedian (who happens to be Christian) talking about emails he gets from well-intentioned people getting on his case for some of the topics he includes in his material (it’s all clean…just pushes the envelope to get you thinking…as it should). Here’s the quote…I hope it gets you thinking as much as it did me…

Too many of us take ourselves too seriously and God not seriously enough.
—John Maxwell, Page 148

I am of the “don’t take yourself too seriously” mindset…sometimes to a fault. Life is too short to be spend our energy on stupid stuff. We spend way too much time worrying about stuff we can’t change and too little time on the things we can change and on the important relationships in our lives (i.e.: with God). Plus, laughing (especially at ourselves) is much more fun…we’re all just a bunch of goofs anyway!

03.07.2008 Books, Leadership, Misc Ramblings No Comments

Huck & Chuck: Episode 5 – The FairTax

Tuesday, January 1st, 2008

In this episode, Mike and Chuck briefly discuss The Fairtax. At best, this will wet your appetite to learn more about The FairTax, which is a bill in Congress that would eliminate the IRS and all Income Tax and replace it with a national consumption tax (think national sales tax). This is not Huckabee’s idea, but he does support it and there is much more information on their website (links below)…

Episode 5: The FairTax