Follow Jesus. Lead the church. Change the world.
When I was a (20 year-old) kid, trying to figure out what God was doing in my life as I sensed a call to ministry/leadership, I tried to learn as much as I could from others in ministry. I talked to the Christ-following leaders I knew or came in touch with while in college. In … Read more
I watched one of The Nines’ videos, one by Nancy Beach who is on staff at Willow Creek. The one thing she chose to share was, “Guard your heart.” Nancy says her heart is grieved with the number of conversations that she’s had with people from other churches who work on staff with a lead … Read more
If you’ve followed our journey, you probably know that we are Provisional Elders in The United Methodist Church working toward ordination. As part of the process, we attended a retreat Sunday evening through Monday afternoon. On Monday, Revs. Greg Myers (Wilkes-Barre District Superintendent) and Mark Webb (York District Superintendent) each led us in a discussion … Read more
Last week, Bishop Robert Schnase (Bishop in Residence of the Missouri Area of The United Methodist Church) came to teach on the Five Practices in our conference. Since we’re working our way through the Five Practices at Centre Grove, the event was partly review for me, but it was also good to hear Bishop Schnase … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
Several years ago, the “Herding Cats” commercial (for EDS) caught my attention as a great description of leadership. The one-minute commercial is jam-packed with language and imagery about leadership and mission (see complete transcript below). Transcript: This man right here is my great grandfather. He’s the first cat herder in our family. Herdin’ cats … … Read more
In July, we began meeting with our covenant groups (that are meeting together), which is a requirement in the ordination process of The United Methodist Church. Meeting every other month, we met for the second time earlier this week. First, we discussed the leadership paper we’re required to write for the Board of Ordained Ministry. … Read more
I have been thinking about “transformational leadership” in terms of three keywords: Character, Culture, and Perseverance. (1) Character Our character is our foundation. It involves our spiritual/devotional life, our connection to God. This is who we are, and who we are is foundational to what we do. Transformational leaders seek to build strong Christ-like character … Read more