Archive for Leadership
Unlearn What You Have Learned You Must
Posted by: | Comments
If you are a parent, could you do me and anyone else who will take part in leading your children into the future a favor?
Don’t tell them that they shouldn’t try to change the world.
It’s much easier for them to take part in changing the world if they don’t have to unlearn years of discouragement first.
A Piece of Wood?
Posted by: | CommentsThen Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.) So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”
Then Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the LORD made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them.
-Exodus 15:22-25
A piece of wood? Seriously?
If I had to guess, that would have been my response to God.
Leaders, when your people look to you for a solution and you cry out to God, don’t always expect that what He tells you will make sense to you.
God is not required to solve our problems in the way we see fit.
Louder Than Words
Posted by: | CommentsI’m reminded of the importance of character more often than I ever wished. One of those instances was yesterday when I found out about the moral failure of someone whose ministry I had been following for quite some time. I won’t be dropping the name because I don’t want to add to the gossip. I will, however, be praying for their restoration.
A few months ago, I started reading Louder Than Words by Andy Stanley. I never finished it. It’s amazing how little importance we place on who we are behind closed doors when it comes to keeping up appearances outside of those doors. I’ll be picking the book back up today in an effort to refocus.
If you spend all your time building the outside, the lack of support inside will cause everything to fall.
On a side note, it’s funny how God reaffirms things. Right when I sat down to start writing this, David Platt tweeted this:
“Mt. 4:1-17 – The purity of our lives is more important than the success of our ministries.“
Wow.
Reading List – 2010
Posted by: | CommentsI picked through my shelves and pulled out some books to make a tentative reading list for 2010. It’s definitely not a complete one but it’s a start. Also, the order of these are in aren’t set in stone either. There are twelve for now. I’d love your suggestions to add to the list or if you’ve read any of these I’d love to hear what you thought of them.
- In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day: How to Survive and Thrive When Opportunity Roars
by Mark Batterson - Communicating for a Change: Seven Keys to Irresistible Communication
by Andy Stanley - Mere Christianity
by C. S. Lewis - Your Own Jesus: A God Insistent on Making It Personal
by Mark Hall - Wild Goose Chase: Reclaim the Adventure of Pursuing God
by Mark Batterson - Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit
by Francis Chan - Killing Cockroaches: And Other Scattered Musings on Leadership
by Tony Morgan - Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith
by Rob Bell - It: How Churches and Leaders Can Get It and Keep It
by Craig Groeschel - The Hole in Our Gospel: What does God expect of Us? The Answer that Changed my Life and Might Just Change the World
by Richard Stearns - Louder Than Words: The Power of Uncompromised Living
by Andy Stanley - The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical
by Shane Claiborne
Blank Canvas
Posted by: | CommentsWow…
This is a bit overwhelming…
I’ve been staring at this page for a while with a couple of valid questions running through my mind:
“What in the world am I going to write about?”
“Who wants to read what I have to say anyway?”
To be honest, I still don’t have very specific answers to either of those questions.
So why do it, you ask? Well, I can tell you one reason why I’m NOT doing it. I don’t have any aspirations of being Blog Star (not really sure but I might have coined a title there which would be awesome). Having thousands of readers isn’t my goal. Well, that’s not necessarily my goal. Don’t get me wrong, that would be great. But if that never happens, I won’t be devastated. At least, I hope not… Hmmm… Moving on…
I miss writing. That’s one reason I started this blog. Writing was something I did for fun at one time. After a Rhetorical Grammar class, writing and fun just didn’t go together anymore. I’d like to get to the point again where writing is actually fun (FYI, I’m not quite there yet).
I love to tell the story of God. Even bits and pieces of His story sometimes don’t fit in Facebook or Twitter updates so this will be an extension of sorts for those updates. In a way, this blog will be the overflow from my relationship with Jesus. My relationship with Him is almost too private if I’m not careful so this is a small way of balancing that out.
Also, as I grow as a leader I’ll be posting and plugging stuff from guys that are shaping me on that front. There will be more to come later on that point.
I guess that’s quite enough for my first post. Thanks for reading.
Matt
