Posts Tagged: "Christian Leadership"

Some Shoutables (Serious – Ya Gotta Take A Minute Or Two And Read These Great Posts)

On Today’s Sunday Shout-Outs, here are a few shoutables…

 

sarah bessey guard your gates

This post, Guard Your Gates by Sarah Bessey. Here’s my favorite line: “So, no, I don’t guard my gates against simply terrible or scary things anymore. Instead, I want to guard my gates against what diminishes wholeness and holiness in me. I guard against the influences that make me the worst version of myself, the influences that feed my… Read More

When We Sound Like Kanye West (Or How Honor Doesn’t Work)

- - Life With God, Uncategorized

You’ve probably heard all about it already.

Over the weekend, Kanye did another one of those Kanye things that makes him look like a self-important jerk.

Quoting from The Independent:

The star stopped the show in Sydney on Friday night and insisted that every member of the audience got up and danced.

Kanye told the crowd: “I can’t do this show until everybody stand up. Unless you got a handicap pass and you get special parking and s**t.” While nearly everyone stood up, Kanye spotted two people still seated and called… Read More

Your Twitter Bio Makes Me Feel Like A Total Loser

Because I’m a pastor, I pretty regularly get followed on Twitter by other Christian leaders (that I don’t know) from all over the place. And for some reason, I receive a weekly e-mail from Twitter showing me these new followers – along with their profile picture and Twitter bio.

These Twitter bios make me feel like a total loser.

Let me explain. They say things like…

“NY Times Best Selling author of 14 books, senior pastor of the 23,000-member Hope of the World Church, international speaker and business consultant, entrepreneur, recording artist, fashion designer, coach, mentor, mogul, part-time professor of theology, cultural architect, health & fitness guru, Christian radio host, father of 4 beautiful children, husband, man of God, ultra-marathon runner.”

Dang. That’s incredible. How do you do all that stuff?

And thanks for reminding me that I suck.

Even this “Twitter Bio Generator” comes up with bios that sound better than I actually am… Read More

Doing Great Things Without Becoming Darth Vader

Leadership—specifically Christian leadership—is a messy business. It’s messy because it’s never pure. The motive behind what we do is a mixture of Ego, Ambition, & Holy Calling. And there is this shadowy dark side that goes along with our leadership strengths – what I call the Underbelly of (Christian) Leadership.

Is it possible to do great things without abusing power, inflicting damage on others, becoming a control freak, or leading with a sense of entitlement (breaking rules to satisfy personal desires)?

Is it possible to do great things without becoming Darth Vader?

In my opinion, it’s not.

Let me clarify: If the goal is ME DOING GREAT THINGS, I will inevitably abuse power, inflict damage on others, become a control freak, and lead with a sense of entitlement. If it’s about me doing great things, I will become Darth Vader.

Not too many years ago, my goal was to someday have a church of 10,000 people. And my motive was a mixture of… Read More

Ego, Ambition, & Holy Calling

Several years ago, I heard a well-known mega-church personality talk about the imperfect blend of motivations behind every Christian leader who has a platform and a microphone. He said,

“I’m a piece of work. All pastors are. Think about it. What makes me believe I should be standing here on this stage with a microphone in my hand telling all of you what to think and do? That’s pretty messed-up.”

I loved hearing him acknowledge the fact that our motivations are not 100% pure all the time. There is a constant mixture of ego, ambition, and holy calling that fuels our leadership endeavors.

This isn’t necessarily an evil thing.

I’m generally thankful for ambition. Ambition gets stuff done. And I appreciate some of what ego brings to the… Read More