Silos, Politics, & Turf Wars by Patrick Lencioni Audio Book on CD, Audio Download

As a leader, have you ever had to deal with folks in your organization who are more concerned with defending their "territory" than doing what's best for the whole team? This is one of the best books I've ever run across on this topic:

Silos, Politics, & Turf Wars by Patrick Lencioni Audio Book on CD, Audio Download

This is a great book by Patrick Lencioni (The Table Group) that I recommend to any leader. The top link above is for an excerpt from the audio book version. I actually bought the hardcover edition. If you happen to pick it up, I'd like to hear from you and get your feedback. Check out the link to Patrick's organization, The Table Group, for some great tools and information on his other books.

The "Rest of the Story"

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Here's an excerpt from a great article by Gordon MacDonald: "Most Christian leadership is exercised by people who do not know how to develop healthy, intimate relationships and have opted for power and control instead. Many Christian empire-builders have been people unable to give and receive love."

MacDonald does a good job of talking about the importance of the seemingly "little" things in the middle of our quest to leave a mark as a Christian leader. One of the reasons the Hunsbergers were drawn to SCC was what I saw in Pastor Russ the first Sunday we visited (t was also the last Sunday we visited -- we made it our church home immediately). Another reason we were drawn here was what we saw in the "rest of the story" (Paul Harvey). The "rest of" the Austins tell you what Pastor Russ is like when he's off the stage, out of the limelight, when he hasn't had a chance to prepare notes.

I had a guest speaker sit down next to me once at a conference I was hosting up in the Midwest. We had just met a few months before and he leans over and says "You're awesome." I'm preparing to write his comment off as just another nice thing to say to the host, until he followed up with this comment: "I can tell who you are by what I see in your children." Several of my grown sons/daughters were in attendance at the conference. THAT comment sunk in -- the Lord was showing me AGAIN that what will really matter when I'm on my deathbed ready to slip into eternity is what those closest to me saw in me. How does my Heavenly Father view my "accomplishments?" What do Gay and the kids think about me -- what will they SAY about me when I'm gone?

MacDonald does a great job of bringing these kinds of values out onto the table in his article.

Here's a link:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/thepastor/pastorsrole/leafrakingdoctrine.html?start=1

Let us know what you think!

Whose yoke is this, anyway?

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Most leaders know the feeling -- trying to get out of town, a stack of phone calls that need returned, emails hanging out of the inbox and the crazy thing keeps ringing at me, bills need paid, dry cleaning needs picked up...

But, He says, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30).

If Jesus promised His followers REST, WHY are so many Christian leaders burnt to a crisp? What does rest have to do with calendars that are stuffed to the max?

I can hear something rattling around in my readers right now: "But, this is the LORD'S work! Are you trying to tell me I need a recliner to be spiritual?"

Here's what I'm trying to tell ALL of us (and I'm really trying to listen!): leaders end up burnt out and caved in because we yoke ourselves to the WRONG things. We are busier than "one-armed paper hangers" because we fill our calendars with all kinds of things the Lord hasn't called us to. It's not a matter of too much work -- the issue we need to address is focusing on work that really matters in the face of eternity! I read a good article this morning over coffee and wanted to pass on the link:

http://www.navpress.com/magazines/archives/article.aspx?id=1.97.2

Every week I'll have much more work staring me in the face than I can possibly get done! It helps me when I back up a couple of steps before the week begins and ask, "Lord, help me FOCUS on the stuff (and those weird PEOPLE I'm supposed to be serving!) that really matters." As I move through the week and the phone keeps ringing and emails stack up, I need to make sure my filter is in place. I have a finite amount of time each day -- what is really important? What would Jesus do?

Believer or Disciple?

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Before Jesus leaves this earth to return to the Father, He gives his 12 catalysts the bulls-eye to focus on. Jesus commands them to "...go and make disciples..." and as they obeyed that command, they turned the Roman Empire upside down in less than 100 years!

I'll bet most of us could quickly come up with a list of differences between recruiting believers and making disciples. I'll bet our lists would look remarkably similar. But, I'm wondering if we've given much thought to the IMPORTANCE of focusing on the discipleship process in lieu of putting all of our efforts into only ONE step. To make disciples, we've got to share truth and ask unbelievers to respond and BELIEVE Christ's teaching. But, just believing doesn't make a disciple. In James 2:19 we're told that "even the demons believe." The process of building true disciples involves much more than changing belief systems. Merriam-Webster defines a disciple as "one who accepts and assists in spreading the doctrines of another." I can passively BELIEVE, but a disciple actively LIVES the message and serves as a catalyst to spread it to others.

I'm asking God to use me to raise up an army of young people who will yield to God and allow Him to use us to set the world on FIRE. That's gonna require more than passive believers. I ran across an excellent article on the process of discipleship. Here's an excerpt: "Disciple-making churches are action-oriented. They call, equip, and send people. They regularly call people to put faith in Christ, equip people to grow more like Christ, and send people to live for Christ through love and good deeds." Here's a link to the rest of the article by Patrick Morley -- http://www.maninthemirror.org/weeklybriefing/wb319.htm

A call to "believe" differently doesn't light a fire in most folks. But, people who've obviously crossed over to a different belief system and then LIVE as radically authentic followers of Christ are MAGNETS that attract others.

Let's help build Christ followers that BELIEVE His teaching and help spread the message by LIVING the process of discipleship.