Has Busyness Made your Life Barren?
Busyness can make life barren. Several years ago I took improv classes in downtown Chicago to help develop my right-brain skills. I left mid-day to miss the traffic and then catch up on my task list at a table at Chipolte. One week, with my ear buds snug in my ears to block out noise,
Are You Managing your Mind Chatter?
Chatter constantly fills our mind. It’s in our consciousness but we are often not aware of this chatter, self-talk. Our mind simply wanders a lot. When we are not thinking about anything else, it just wanders off. And often this wandering takes us into thinking that discourages us. One of my interests is understanding how
4 Obstacles Pastors Face in Setting Boundaries
Henry Cloud and John Townsend wrote the wildly popular book, Boundaries: When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of your Life. Dr. Cloud also wrote Boundaries for Leaders. I recommend them both. Essentially a boundary for a ministry leader or a pastor is like a property line around your yard, only in
6 Ways to Build Community in your Leadership Team
God created us to live and work in community. The more community we experience, the stronger our teams. Highly productive teams often exude strong personal bonds and work in an atmosphere that fosters community. Good leaders understand the importance of community and actively seek to build it among their teams. Consider these 6 ways to
10 Ways Pastors can Escape the Ministry Stress Zombie Zone
In a previous post I discussed how ministry stress can sometimes make pastors feel like zombies: listless, unmotivated, and mentally distracted. Many of you took the Zombie Zone Quiz to find out if you were in that zombie zone. If ministry stress is draining you, this post offers some practical guidance. purchased from Deposit Photos If you
How Chronic Stress Affects Leadership
Our brains play a vital role in effective leadership (duh!). That’s pretty self-evident. Yet, this often overlooked brain fact profoundly reduces leadership effectiveness – chronic stress diminishes your ability to lead because of how it affects your brain. In this post I list five ways chronic stress does that. Whether you’re a pastor or a
Rejection: How to Keep Other People from Feeling It
I blew my knee out, but that wasn’t what hurt the most. I was left alone and felt rejection. Pain is a given in life. And usually when we think of pain we’re only thinking about physical pain. But social pain is just as real and perhaps more hurtful. In this post I share what
Jesus’ 6-Step Strategy for Resolving Conflict
Conflict is unavoidable in relationships. Conflict isn’t necessarily sinful or destructive, but it can be depending on what we do with it. Jesus outlines a clear, specific, and workable process in Matthew 18. And, we simply can’t improve on what Jesus says. I’ve summarized into a 6-step process the essence of what I believe Matthew 18 teaches us. Before
Stack your Leadership Teams with your BFF’s-good or bad?
BFF: Shorthand for “best friends forever” Dictionary definition: “Used mostly by teen girls when texting” You may have never used this texting shorthand, but the concept captures essential human nature. We all want a few best friends. We need them. In fact, the Scriptures speak positively about friends A friend loves at all times, and a brother is
Dumb & Dumber Mistakes Pastors Often Make
I’ve served over 40 years in different churches in various roles and have make lots of mistakes. I didn’t make these mistakes with ill will or with an evil heart, and neither do most pastors. However, we make them, and sometimes they are, well, just dumb. Here are some of the dumbest mistakes I’ve made. Assuming
