One of the sayings that we use when I facilitate communities for Leadership Network is: the hardest model to change is the one that works. When a system is working, the tendency is to keep that system the same until there is an indication that something is broke. The problem with that strategy is by […]
In the first post, I gave 5 tips for having great meetings from the side of the person seeking out the advice. But what if you are the person that is having your brain picked? There are a few things that you can do not only help the conversation, but also make an investment in […]
From time to time, I have the privilege to be asked to meet with leaders from other churches to talk about what God is doing at Cross Point. Usually it’s church planters, other ministry leaders or small group pastors. I absolutely love it! I will always find time in my schedule to help other church leaders in […]
I love the Ted talk that Simon Sinek gave a few years ago about how great leaders inspire action. The premise of the talk is that people do not buy what you do, they buy why you do it. They follow you because they believe what you believe. I would add for organizations and ministries, […]
I heard someone say recently that when we are trying to light a fire under ministries, what we are doing most of the time is like using a gas can on the bbq. It will build a big fire for a few seconds, but then you’re left with what you had before – except now […]
One of my favorite Ted talks is about how to start a movement by Derek Sivers. He uses a video from a music festival in Europe as an example of how a movement is built in about 3 minutes. One of the things he says is that “the first follower turns a lone nut into […]
I am currently taking a group of guys at Cross Point through a spiritual leadership mentoring process. For 8 months, we will be studying a variety of church leadership books, Bible study methods and theology. It’s kind of like turbo seminary. In our group meeting this week, we had a lively discussion around a theology […]
I think that all of us would say that the main purpose for small groups in a church is to make disciples. If we are not making disciples, then we might as well call them social clubs. The question then becomes – what is a disciple? For the sake of this discussion, I am going […]
Last week, I helped facilitate a Leadership Community at Leadership Network in Dallas, and one of the exercises that we had the teams do was called Opposites. We had each church list 5 of the most common ways they do currently ministry and then what would be the ministry potential of doing the complete opposite. […]
In the book, Switch, Chip and Dan Heath introduce the concept of looking for positive deviants in problem solving. When we take on a system that is broken, we have a tendency to focus solely on the problems and try to fix them. The end result is that the issues are usually so big and […]