Thoughts on leadership

I had a conversation with a few people last night about leadership, and it was great. Here are a few thoughts that came from the conversation.

I have learned a lot from different leaders and would encourage you to read a few books. For example anything from John Maxwell, Myles Munroe, and Neil Cole. A huge portion of the conversation came from these leaders.

What is leadership?

Simple answer is, influence.
Leadership is the ability obtain followers (if no one is following you, you’re not leading)
Leadership is the capacity to influence others through inspiration, generated by passion, motivated by vision, birthed from conviction, produced by purpose. - Myles Munroe

Some leaders influence others through fear and manipulation. This is not good.
With this thought everyone has the positional to move in leadership. We all influence others around us. Hopefully in a positive way, however sometimes it’s in a negative way.

How do you positively influence others?

To influence others you first have to be influenced. To move others you first have to be moved.
What are you influenced by? What moves you? What vision has gotten inside of you? What do you see and desire others to see?
You influence others by your words, actions, and life. You set an example. If your words don’t line up with your actions and your actions don’t line up with your life you will have a difficult time influencing others long term.
It is very important what comes out of your mouth!

Serving others should be the primary focus for leaders. It’s not so much top-down leadership, but rather bottom up leadership. Jesus demonstrated this by washing His disciple’s feet. This job was reserved for servants.

Leaders should bear fruit. The fruit is for others to enjoy and receive nourishment.
In the fruit is a seed that will reproduce more fruit. Leaders are very interested in building other leaders. Leaders influence the coming generations.

Just some thoughts from a great conversation on leadership.

The Fuel of Pain

Thinking this morning about all the people that I come in contact with that are hurting. Real life pain, financial pain, relational pain, emotional pain. I too have experienced some of these pains. And it is not fun. It’s not something we sign up for but it’s something we all walk through.

Here’s the thought, if we all walk through it then there must be something to it. If we all have to endure pain then maybe, just maybe there’s something about pain that can help us.

There is a scripture in James 1 that speaks a little about this.

(Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. NLT)

Interesting- if I read this right, I have a chance to grow when trouble comes my way. I have an opportunity to be complete needing nothing.

Pain has this way of propelling us into the future. Pain produces strength. Pain = a chance to grow. Pain develops things in you. If we can get our hearts off the issue of the pain and begin to explore the opportunities from the pain we will be better off because of the pain. However, most of the time we get lost in the pain and instead of great joy we have great sorrow and we refuse to move from the pain. And if we are not careful we will live in the pain and not grow past the pain. (I dont even have the time to talk about masking the pain that we live in.)

I have heard some people say “well you don’t know my pain” and at that point they begin to speak of all the issues that I have no glue about. And maybe I don’t. However I do know that pain hurts and it sucks, all of it! So I refuse to live in it but rather grow from it.



Just a thought

just a thought from my bible reading

Eph 5:21 - and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.


what if we took this one verse to heart? What if we really strived to submit to each other. What would our marriages look like?


Often we miss Eph 5:21 when reading 5:22-33 but dont miss it. Both husbands and wives have a part to play in submission.

What if, I as a husband, loved my wife. Not just love but a love that is willing to lay down life? This is my part to a healthy relationship with her. My part is not to make sure she is submissive. This will flow naturally from an overwhelming love. If i have to demand her to be submissive does that reflect Christ in this scripture?

Christ never demanded me to submit to Him, but once I experience His love I have no issue submitting to Him.

I believe it all starts with the husband!

What do you think??

Love

When I read 1 Corinthians 13 the love chapter I am challenged.
Our culture has wrote it's own love chapter.

I think it goes something like this ...
Love is a feeling, love is a battlefield, love seeks it's own, love is tainted, love runs out, love bleeds, love hurts, Love bites. Love needs something in return. Love works sometimes. I want to know what love is will someone show me? I keep looking in all the wrong places. What's love got to do with it? The truth is I just want to make love.

Here's a question for you. Does your love match 1 Corinthians or our culture?

I will strive to apply true love to my relationships.

Bad Choices

The other week I had a physical for my insurance company. You know the one where they draw blood check levels and ask a ton of questions. I typically don’t like these physicals but I needed to have one. One of the questions asked was “have you ever drank alcohol?” Well I don’t try to lie intentionally so I said “yes.” Oh boy, that started a whole bunch of new questions. One after another about my drinking habits. I don’t have a drinking habit! This went on for several minutes and even several days. Several phone calls, after the physical, asking me about my drinking issue. I don’t have a drinking issue. I know what you are saying “ the first step to getting help is admitting you have a problem.” I agree. So let me admit to something, …. over 20 years ago I drank alcohol! There I admit it.


Here is the thought, bad choices have this way of following you. They have the potential of rippling through your life for month’s even years to come.

The story of sin entering into the world through disobedience has affected us all but the good thing is that love covers a multitude of sins.