Entries Tagged 'Personal Growth' ↓

Recently, I was reflecting on my journey, specifically as it relates to formal (ministry/leadership) education. A long time ago, I came to believe that the highest goal of education (for me, at least) was formation, not knowledge acquisition, or the diploma at the end of the program.

Formation is a goal of all personal growth (reading, seminars, etc.), of course, but a formal education setting offers an extra intensive personal growth environment.

This may not apply as well to more technical kinds of education, but the focus in ministry education isn’t just the content (Bible, ministry, and leadership); it’s also about being shaped/formed into the kind of person God can use for a lifetime in ministry. It’s more about character development and formation as a person than it is about attaining all the knowledge you’ll ever need (which isn’t really possible, anyway).

In my Master of Divinity program in the 1990s, the goal could not have been to learn everything about the Bible. In fact, I had only three specific Bible courses (Psalms, Ezekiel, and the Johannine Epistles) in addition to broader courses on the Old Testament and the New Testament.

While part of the goal was to learn as much as possible about the particular topics I got to focus on, the more important goal was to learn how to learn/study, so that after graduation, I can make the most of lifelong study of the Bible.

Now, it’s also possible that I came to this realization as a way to make me feel better about how little I actually remember from all those years of studying! Seriously, I know I remember some things, but I also know there’s simply no way to remember everything I learned. There *has* to be a higher goal!

I have had a sense (or at least a hope) that Lent 2010 will be an especially transformational time in my life, in my home, and in my church. Knowing that we have to be intentional about our own spiritual growth, I’ve been thinking specifically about my growth plan for Lent (this continues the thinking from my recent posts: Personal Growth Plan and Daily Must-Dos).

I didn’t do so well with last year’s attempt at Reading Eugene Peterson for Lent, but that was because we hit a major crunch time in finishing up some work for our commissioning/ordination process. I’m hoping to do better this year!

Here’s the list of books I plan to read this Lenten season (in order) …

Off-Road Disciplines (Earl Creps)

Eat This Book (Eugene Peterson)

Raising an Emotionally-Intelligent Child (John Gottman)

Secrets from the Treadmill (Pete Briscoe and Patricia Hickman)

Hearing God (Dallas Willard)

Emotionally-Healthy Spirituality (Pete Scazzarro)

Cadences of Home (Walter Brueggemann)

Leadership Gold (John Maxwell)

A Resilient Life (Gordan MacDonald)

When the Game Is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box (John Ortberg)

Some of these books have been on our list for a long time, including the Reading Pile 2.5 years ago. I’m just now recovering from the doctor of ministry program we completed in 2008!

Observations …
In this list, I’ve tried to include mostly spiritual formation/development types of books along with one leadership book, one preaching book, and one parenting book. Normally, I read mostly leadership books, with a few of the others thrown in occasionally.

Two of the books, including the parenting book, deal with emotional health. I also wanted to include something by Eugene Peterson, Dallas Willard, and Walter Brueggemann, and I settled on these particular ones.

I wanted to include at least one preaching book. I’ve been thinking recently that, while I really don’t usually read a lot of books on preaching, that I should occasionally. Since it’s something that I do virtually every week, it’s an axe I need to continually sharpen. I just finished reviewing Communicating for a Change (Andy Stanley and Lanes Jones) in the last few days, after having read it twice (and I almost never read books more than once!) a few years ago (see my One Point Preaching post for more on that). I’m planning a couple posts on preaching next week.

I always enjoy reading John Ortberg, whose books have great titles (e.g., If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat and Everybody’s Normal Till You Get to Know Them). I’ve also been greatly influenced by John Maxwell over the last two decades through his books, monthly audio clubs, and conferences.

Well, I will probably blog some learnings along the way. I’m looking forward to it!

Following up on yesterday’s post, Personal Growth Plan, I’ve been thinking about the things I think I need to be doing (virtually) every day (while similar to a post I wrote a year and a half ago, Routines, this post focuses more on the *everyday* routines).

I came up with a list of five daily must-dos …

• TWG: Time With God (prayer and Scripture, primarily)
• TWF: Time With Family (quality and quantity time)
• Reading & Listening (leadership, ministry, and/or spiritual formation)
• Sabbath Time (I’ve heard that the root word for Sabbath means, “to catch your breath”)
• Exercise (walking and weights)

I certainly haven’t mastered these five daily must-dos. And I’m not even sure it’s possible to do all five equally well everyday. Some days it’s hard enough just to do most of ‘em! But it’s a *reminder* of the important things that I need to be doing, that if done as consistently as possible, will make a big difference over the long haul.

TWG keeps me connected and growing in my relationship with God. TWF strengthens family relationships (including the ongoing bonding with Ethan and Sarah) and maintains a healthy living environment. Reading (as well as listening to leaders/communicators via podcasts or DVDs) stirs my heart and mind and also keeps me learning and growing. Daily Sabbath time (perhaps my biggest challenge on this list) will provide some healthier balance and will make the other daily practices more effective. And exercise releases stress and gives me energy (I include “weights” here even though it’s been a missing component since bringing Ethan home two years ago; hoping to change that soon, though); exercise creates a healthier environment where learning and growing can happen more effectively (in other words, it fills my tank; see Tank-Filling Activities).

What are your daily must-dos?

I have written about the value of learning and personal growth before. See Shaping a Learning Culture, Lifelong Learning, and even Still Learning from last week.

One of the people I’ve heard talk about having a personal growth plan is John Maxwell. I don’t remember where he writes about it — maybe Developing the Leader Within You or The Success Journey — but the idea is that learning isn’t accidental; it has to be intentional!

John Wesley was a huge proponent of personal growth. I remember reading somewhere that he challenged his preachers to read/study five hours per day. That’s pretty intense!

And as I’ve quoted before, Proverbs 19.27 says, “If you stop learning, you will forget what you already know” (CEV).

Recently, I jotted down the things we try to do intentionally for personal growth, including …

• Books, journals, and online resources.
• Leadership Summit DVDs (we recently picked up a few collections from previous years on clearance from Willow Creek).
• Various continuing education opportunities for leadership/ministry development (next up is the How to Reach Unchurched People in Your Community in a few weeks).
• The Provisional Membership process that we’re in is a required part of our growth plan.
• Audit Classes at Asbury Theological Seminary (probably after ordination in 2011).

Personal growth is important for everyone. It’s vital for followers of Jesus, who are “disciples” (a.k.a. students, learners, apprentices). And personal growth is absolutely imperative for leaders, too. I’ve always loved Rick Warren’s statement that “Leaders are learners; the moment you stop learning, you stop leading!”

In the next few days (hopefully), I plan to write a couple posts on (1) Daily Routines (those few things that I believe I *must* practice every day (or at least most every day), and more immediately, (2) a specific growth plan for the season of Lent, which begins next week on Ash Wednesday.

I realize some of us are more planners than others, but what do you do to make sure that you continue to grow?

Shortly after we graduated from seminary in the mid-1990s, while serving in our first church, we found ourselves using the phrase “learning and growing” to describe what we were experiencing at the time. It’s a phrase that has stuck with us ever since!

This morning, I was explaining to Ethan why our responses to he and Sarah are different when they do things they shouldn’t do (e.g., climbing up on the TV stand and/or touching the TV, etc.). I essentially told Ethan that Sarah is still learning.

In a somewhat somber, matter-of-fact tone, Ethan responded, “I’m still learning” (he added that he was still learning to talk as well).

Ethan is indeed learning. Some good things, of course. But some not-so-good things, too, like the fact that Sarah’s crying and/or screaming seems to work with Mommy and Daddy (why shouldn’t it work for him?). And some funny things. Apparently, we’ve used the phrase, “This is not a toy” with Ethan somewhere along the way. Sometimes, when Sarah is playing with one of his toys (like a toy hammer or any number of other things), Ethan will sometimes say, “No, Sarah. This is not a toy!”

For almost as long as we’ve had Sarah, Ethan has been saying things like, “I’m growing up!” or “I’m getting bigger.” One morning, Ethan came into our room and climbed into bed. He said to me, “You have a big nose.” Then he said, “Mommy has a bigger nose.” But apparently, he wasn’t comparing, because he added, “I have a bigger nose, too!”

Sarah is learning new things as well. One of her favorite things is watching Ethan. It will be interesting to watch her development, to see how having an older, active brother impacts her development. One thing I’ve noticed is that when Sarah crawls up the steps, she’ll often slap the step in front of her with one or both of her hands two or three times. Ethan showed her that once, which came from something he and I did a few times back when he was crawling up steps.

Anyway, ongoing learning is important. I love Proverbs 19.27, which says …

If you stop learning, you will forget what you already know.

We’re all still learning and growing. But this week, we’re simply hoping everyone (i.e., Mommy, Sarah, and Ethan, so far) gets well and over their colds, etc.

Too often we get so comfortable with what’s familiar that we stop looking for other ways, including better ways, of doing things. We live by the cliché, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” (actually, I like “If it ain’t broke, break it!” better!). We settle for less and it stifles our growth.

But, years ago, I read a statement that helps me to try to stay out of the ruts (which seems to become more challenging over time) …

There’s always a better way!

We try to instill this value in Ethan and Sarah (last month, I wrote about it in Cultivating Creativity). To truly believe that there’s always a better way is to embrace change as a good thing (or at least a necessary evil!). Without change there is no growth, no transformation, because transformation is change!

Sometimes looking for better ways simply means shaking things up, making sure you stay out of a rut. Weightlifting has a principle called the “confusion principle.” Because your body and muscles get accustomed to your regular routine, you confuse your muscles by changing your routine from time to time in order to overcome the tendency to get in a rut.

I’ve written about how I’m always looking for a better way in the area of task management (see this post and this post). I seem to always be looking for a better way to browse the Internet, too.

While there’s no such thing as the perfect browser (every browser has its strengths and weaknesses), too many people simply settle for the browser that came pre-installed on their computer (although that’s changing, according to a recent article at PCWorld.com which notes that Firefox 3.5 is currently the most-used specific version).

When I was a PC user, I looked for alternatives to Microsoft Internet Explorer. I used Avant Browser, one of the early “tabbed browsers.” I loved tabs because I often have multiple windows and a number of tabs open at any given time with pages I’m reading, researching, and/or tracking). I also liked how Avant regularly released new updates (a sign of constant improvement).

Since switching to a Mac six years ago, my primary browser has been Safari, but not just because it came pre-installed on my Mac (it also came with Internet Explorer for Mac which I deleted a long time ago because it had already been abandoned by Microsoft after Apple released its browser, which now has a Windows version).

While Safari has been my primary browser, I periodically try other browsers, looking for better, more effective/efficient ways of browsing the Internet (or maybe I just get bored too easily). I’ve used Firefox (it’s been my main back-up browser) and have had a brief stint with Opera (now that version 10 is out, I may give it another spin, at some point). But, for some reason, I always come back to Safari after a while.

Recently, a beta version of Google Chrome for Mac was *finally* released (the Windows version was released last fall), and I’ve been trying it out in the last few days. As a beta version, it lacks some key features, but overall, I like Chrome and think it has some potential.

There are some things I really like about Chrome — its minimalist look, how it handles tabs, and how well it fits in a Mac environment (this is actually the number one I reason I keep returning to Safari).

But in order for Chrome to become my primary browser, there are some things that need to be added: the ability to open PDFs within the browser, a bookmark manager, and the ability to “Open all (bookmarks in a folder) in tabs” would be nice.

I would love to see keyword bookmarks (the ability to create shortcuts for bookmarks, like “ww” for williswired.com, for example. Firefox and Opera have this feature; sadly, Safari doesn’t. The Official Google Mac Blog lists some features that are on the way.

Well, there’s always a better way. Or maybe I just get bored doing things the same way all the time. What about you? What are some areas in which you’re always looking for a better way?

Now that I’ve had a chance to sleep on it, I’ll share a few more thoughts on yesterday’s free online leadership, The Nines.

One thing that quickly became clear is that everyone has different passions, callings, and things they’re focused on. Some of those passions and focuses meshed well with my own passions while others didn’t necessarily grab my attention. But sometimes we need to hear those, too!

Interestingly, the communicators seemed to interpret the request to share “one thing” differently than others. Some communicators had one point while others had multiple points. I liked the one-point approach better ( but that shouldn’t be a surprise).

The communicators used their time differently. Some jumped right into their topic while others eased into their topic with introductory comments. While I understand the desire to build rapport with the audience, I think in this format, my favorite communicators were ones that maximized their time and did less introductory stuff.

The worst offender (among the ones I saw) was the one who, except for opening and closing remarks had a good presentation. I appreciate the guy’s leadership and writings, but why he used his opening remarks (part of his precious 9 minutes) to express his pride in being a PC user is beyond me (and not just because I’m a Mac). If that weren’t enough, his final words told the audience that he was going to turn off his Dell laptop. Tragic thing is, the only thing I remember from his presentation is his love for his (Dell) PC. Apparently, he was making a statement, but was that really what he wanted to communicate?

I mention that not to criticize that particular communicator but as a lesson for other communicators, including myself, to make the most of our words and our time. The Nines highlights the importance of words. And perhaps it demonstrates, too, that less is more.

This 12-hour event was different than most other personal growth events. I liked the format. It forced the communicators to focus on the most important things they wanted to say. I’d like to see this format used more. Of course, it’s certainly a more cost friendly approach for “attendees”!

Finally, it looks like the videos will be available at YouTube soon. I may offer more reflections as I view / review more of them. As always, feel free to chime in.

Earlier, I offered a heads-up on a free online leadership event called The Nines. The event (centered around 9-minute videos from 70+ different leaders/communicators), which took place today, ended moments ago, nearly 12 hours after it started.

I’m not sure how much of it I caught. I had the live stream going on my computer most of my time at home, but I wasn’t glued to it all the time. I was able to watch several inspirational/challenging segments and enough bits and pieces of others to know that I will want to check out some of the other videos when they are available online later.

I did not take extensive notes, but I tried to jot down some things that particularly challenged or inspired me, including the following.

While I’ve long known the name Nancy Beach, I don’t believe I’ve ever heard her. But she was the first communicator that inspired/challenged me. She talked about leadership integrity. She referred to Proverbs 4.23 and said, “I need to be intentional about guarding my heart.” Practically, she highlighted three things: (1) spiritual practices, (2) safe relationships, and (3) stretching experiences.

I love listening to and reading Reggie McNeal (I’ve written about his book, The Present Future, one of the most challenging books I’ve ever read). He defined missional church as “the people of God partnering with God in his redemptive mission in the world.” I didn’t catch all of Reggie’s segment, so I will need to review it later.

I enjoyed Bill Easum. He said, “Your legacy is not what you leave behind but who you leave behind.” So, he argued, your To-Be list is more important than your To-Do list. Easum lamented that too many pastors reach the end of their lives never having done what God called them to do, but what the church wanted them to do. He challenged leaders to set their own agenda, based on their call and the size of their vision. Leaders need to ask, “What do I need to stop doing?” and to do only what they feel called to do — nothing more, nothing less. That’s hard to do, but critically important.

Mark Batterson reminded leaders that it’s better to have one “God idea” than a thousand good ideas!

I’ve only heard John Ortberg speak a few times (via podcasts) but I love his writings. I caught most of his presentation around dinner time, but I heard him say, “What I want more than anything else is that I want to be fully alive, to be who God made me to be.” I also loved his statement, “Disciples are handcrafted, not mass produced.”

I caught just enough of the presentation by Ed Stetzer to know that I will want to watch it later when it becomes available. In his opening remarks, he said, “Mission is the opposite of self and we have to consistently make it about God’s glory and not about self.” He also said, “The heart is an idol factory.”

I will also want to review the presentation by David Foster, who talked about an area that’s important to me, as well as an area where most leaders, including myself, constantly need challenging — preparation. He said, “Make sure preparation is a priority so that preaching and teaching is out of the overflow.” This was nothing new, of course, but a needed reminder! Foster challenged leaders to devote time every week to preparing themselves mentally, emotionally, and spiritually so that their ministry flows out of their preparation.

As I said, for part of the day, I simply had the event running in the background. I was occasionally in and out (and I turned it off for a while during to evening to spend time with Ethan) and while I didn’t always get to take notes, there were other communicators I enjoyed, people like Margaret Feinberg and Craig Groschel. And as always, I will need to listen to the segment by Leonard Sweet a few times!

I did catch the final segment by Rick Warren after Ethan’s bedtime. Rick talked about the importance of having a system for making disciples, for taking people from “Come and see” (some of Jesus’ first words to his disciples) to “Come and die.” Rick said we start with “Come and see” but we can’t leave people there. We’re commanded to make disciples, not just converts.

One of the things I enjoyed about the event was seeing the different styles of the communicators. Most simply sat in front of a camera (with various kinds of backgrounds) and spoke directly to the listeners. The presentation by Brian McLaren was staged as a phone conversation (at least Brian’s side), which was well done. The segment by Mark Driscoll, which I did not listen to, looked like he was speaking to an audience, as if it was simply an excerpt from a presentation he gave to others.

The segment by Scott Williams was a dramatic mini-documentary filmed at the location of a prominent, historical church in Oklahoma City that was involved in the civil rights movement. He passionately talked about the need for churches to be more racially/ethnically diverse.

Well, there’s a lot to chew on. And a lot that I need to catch up on. Since each segment is supposed to be 9 minutes, it would be possible to catch a segment or two, from time to time (once they’re posted online).

If you saw any of the segments (or if you have any questions), feel free to leave a comment.

This Wednesday, there will be a free leadership event that will take place online. The event, called The Nines, will begin at 9:09 am CDT, on 09/09/09, and could last around 9 hours. While the event is free, you need to pre-register.

Leadership Network asked about 80 leading communicators, “If you had nine minutes to talk one-on-one with thousands of church leaders, what is the one thing that you would tell them?” Seventy-five communicators responded, sending in their videos, and, according to the site, “The result is a series of passionate and personal messages that will help you and your church navigate into the future.”

It looks to be a great event. The nice thing, besides the cost (free!), is that because it’s online, we can come and go as necessary. Also, the videos will be available afterward so we can watch what we miss on Wednesday.

After skimming over the list of speakers, I’m especially looking forward to Leonard Sweet, Reggie McNeal, John Ortberg, Nancy Ortberg, Nancy Beach, Alan Hirsch, and Margaret Feinberg, as well as discovering other communicators with whom I’m not yet familiar.

I’ll try to post a review/recap of the parts I see.

This morning, during my morning walk and prayer time, I remembered the language/imagery I’ve heard used for things like reading, personal growth, and even spiritual disciplines, “sharpening the ax.”

When chopping down a tree with an ax, a sharp ax is better than a dull one!

So, if you’re chopping down a tree with an ax and your ax gets dull, as it naturally will, it’s worth the time to stop chopping and start sharpening so that you will be able to finish the job. Sharpening your ax makes the rest of your work more effective!

In leadership, the idea is that learning, growing, and developing your knowledge and skills improves your ability to lead. This is a challenge for pastors, especially when they get bombarded with many different tasks (i.e., the tyranny of the urgent).

When bombarded on all sides, it’s easy to lose sight of the importance of spending time to sharpen the ax. After all, the time spent sharpening could be used to get stuff done, right? But how effective can we be if we’re working with a dull ax?

In our case, we could add adjusting to parenthood and new ministries, as well as recovering from doctor of ministry programs, to the tyranny of the urgent to our list of challenges.

But we must keep our axes sharp. The work of leading God’s church is demanding, and it requires a sharp ax!