I remember it well. Helping with a character development workshop in Grand Rapids, my trainer, Lawrence Edwards, made this startling observation: Comparison is the seedbed of envy. Huh? Envy – that ugly, distasteful character defect that fuels pettiness, judgments, isolation, and division – grows in the soil of comparison? I never thought about that before… […]
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We all have this experience in life: what you’re doing isn’t working. Like most people, your impulse in those moments is to “double down”—to do what you’ve been doing, but do it harder, faster, more strenuously, more diligently. Right? And, most of the time, you end up in the same place, just more exhausted. About
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Last time, I introduced the phrase: Throw your body into the middle of the room and see what God does with it. Let me clarify. When you’re surprised by life and find yourself frozen in uncertainty, the pervading impulse is to stop. Ponder. Evaluate. Assess. Trouble is, often life’s reality won’t give you the luxury
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A while back I was training in an evocative character development ministry. Central to my struggle — in that training process and in life—was my reluctance to move, to leap into action, before I fully knew what to do. And, more importantly, if it would turn out. I’d trained myself to make plans, and back-up
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Leadership Courage Series # 44 Go first! Leaders go. They take action. They leap. Managers, strategists, futurists, idea practitioners, educators, and visionaries can all get by without going—and particularly without going first. Leaders, however cannot. Leaders lead. It’s just what they do. That what Jesus did. The apostles, too. Somehow, as Christianity has passed from
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Leadership Courage Series # 43 Reintroduce yourself to the adventurous life. This is the eighth of nine characteristics necessary to lead the Church well today. Notice how little risk-taking the Church does today? Other than making a bold “leap of faith” to finance a 400-seat sanctuary for the comfort and convenience of their own people,
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Leadership Courage Series # 42 The seventh of nine leadership characteristics needed in the Church today: Disengage from an unreasonable faith in reasonableness. Let me ask you: How reasonable was Jesus when confronting opposition, faithlessness, and cowardice? Consider his arrest, in Gethsemane. Jesus is betrayed with a kiss by one of his closest confidants, an
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Leadership Courage Series # 41 The sixth leadership characteristic needed in the Church today is: Undermine the 80/20 Rule. 80/20 is another evidence that cowardice is thriving in much of the American Church. A week ago, my pastor announced that last year’s tithes and offerings – totaling more than $5 million – came from 15%
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Leadership Courage Series # 40 As we review the nine leadership characteristics I think are necessary to lead the Church in this hour, today we turn to #5: Don’t “push on the rope”: the unmotivated are invulnerable to insight. Ever tried to get a kite out of a tree? If you’re like me, there’ll be
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Leadership Courage Series # 39 The fourth trait to lead effectively in a Church caught in a culture of cowardice: Stand, as an exemplar, in the sabotage and backlash that must come. A Christian leader is not simply someone who gets things done or who gets others to behave in desirable ways, in a religious
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