I’m a busy pastor. Even though I never can complete my to-do list, I must never let this one to-do slip, my walk with Jesus. Technology supports my spiritual disciplines as  I use my Mac, iPad, and iPhone in tandem. I just purchased a great app that helps me journal more consistently.

Journaling, a classic spiritual discipline, keeps me spiritually sharp in these ways.

1. I can record what God is doing in my life.
2. I can cut and past key scriptures from my bible app, Olivetree.
3. I can process my frustrations and get them off my mind.
4. I can look back over the past to see good or bad trends in my life.
5. I am leaving a record of my life should my kids and their kids and their kids’s kids want to read about me when I’m gone.

The new app I use is DayOne. I’ve used several journaling apps before and this one tops the list for these reasons. (more…)

Often ministry leaders give advice rather than seek to bring out personal vision in others. These 6 questions help others think about their personal vision. The next time someone asks you for advice, respond with one or two of these questions before dispensing advice.

1. What’s working for you now?
2. What’s not?
3. What really excites you about the situation you now face?
4. What scares you? (more…)

I’m beginning my second week in becoming a certified coach with the Professional Christian Coaching Institute. In the weeks ahead, I’ll share some of the best insights I learn through short mini-blogs.

Gary Collins, one of Christian coaching’s gurus gives these 8 reasons why anyone would want a coach. I see great applicability for anyone in ministry. Here’s what he writes when he answers the question, “why would anybody want a coach?”

1. get unstuck
2. build your confidence
3. expand your vision (more…)

I just began a 30 hour training program to become a certified coach through the Professional Christian Coaching Institute as I hope to be a resource to pastors serving them as a coach.

I was coached a few years ago and didn’t feel it helped much. However, I didn’t give up on the concept and pulled the trigger recently to get this training.

Today my instructor clarified the distinction between several people helping practices when she used this bicycle riding metaphor.

If someone asks, “I want to learn to ride a bike?” these four people helpers would answer in these distinctive ways.

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This is an excerpt from my book 5 Ministry Killers that appeared in the spring, 2010, edition of Leadership Journal.

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Pastor John was just finishing a long Sunday morning. With a weary “pastor’s grin” on his face, he chatted with those who lingered. He was tired, hungry, and ready to go home, when two women approached—one he knew was never happy. Her friend said, “Pastor, Ann here wants to tell you something that happened this past week.”

He thought, Wonderful, just what I need, another disgruntled member. But with a practiced caring tone he asked, “What happened?”

The veins in Ann’s neck swelled as she blurted, “I want you to know that I left three voice mails with the youth minister to talk to him about a problem I’m having with my son. And he never called me back. That so-called youth minister of yours is not doing his job. My son needed help, and he didn’t even care enough to call me back.”

John’s face flushed, and he slowly responded: “Ann, I’m sure Pastor Jimmy tried to call you back and wasn’t able to reach you. I will check with him and have him call you again tomorrow. I’m very sorry the two of you didn’t connect.”

She retorted, “Well, I’ve decided I’m going to another church where the pastors care about people.” She crossed her arms and stood with a what-do-you-think-about-that stare.

Stifling the urge to give her a karate chop, he cleared his throat and answered, “Okay, Ann, I understand your concern, and you must do what you feel is best for your family. But I will get to the bottom of this.”

She spun around and stormed off. Her friend grimaced and followed sheepishly.

For several days John mulled over this encounter and kept his pain to himself, even after discovering that the youth pastor had indeed attempted to contact Ann.

The worst was yet to come. Later that week he received a call from a woman with whom he’d often faced conflict. She was a bit of a drama queen, and her family was the church’s biggest giver. She requested a meeting to “discuss an issue.”

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After two seminary degrees and 30 years in ministry, I’ve gleaned a few insights I wish I’d learned long ago. Although my seminary profs never directly taught me to question the assumptions I’ve listed below, even if they had I wonder if in my youthful enthusiasm I would have  listened. Unfortunately it often takes the hard knocks in ministry to teach us what we must know.

As you read each assumption below, ask yourself if you agree. I’ll comment on each of them after the list.

1. What worked before should work again.
2. Church people will always respect a pastor’s position.
3. When leaders stay silent, they are agreeing with you.
4. Reason always prevails.
5. Everybody perceives the same reality.

It’s taken a few years, but each of these has proved grossly false.

What worked before should work again. It just doesn’t. Culture changes. Technology changes. Expectations from church people changes. If we as leaders and churches don’t change how we do ministry, this proverbial definition of insanity proves true: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Church people will always respect a pastor’s position. I do recall one seminary prof quoting Psalm 105.15 (KJV)…  Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm. He used it to elevate the pastor’s role to an esteemed position. It’s nice when people do that, but many in your church simply won’t respect your role. Sometimes the contrary proves true. Your role actually may elicit disrespect from some.

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Recently our church held a service to celebrate what God had done over the past year. It was a great time of celebration, with a twist. On that day I brought a message that included something I’ve never done before. I publicly repented.

Up to this point in my 30 years in full-time ministry, when I’ve heard that some pastor publicly repented it meant he’d confessed an affair or some egregious sin. My repentance, however, did not involve outright sin, but very subtle attitudes and behaviors that had sneaked into my leadership.

So, in keeping with the Apostle Paul’s thoughts on repentance in 2 Cor. 7.10, where he writes that Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret….I felt God prompt me to share 10 “I repents” with the church that day. Here they are.

I repent that…

1. I’ve allowed myself to get too comfortable in my Christianity
2. By doing so I’ve encouraged you (the church) to stay comfortable in yours
3. I’ve subtly fostered a consumer mentality (striving to make each week bigger and better and hipper than the previous week so that people will want to consume our spiritual goods rather than go to the other hip churches in our area to consume theirs)
4. I’ve unintentionally prioritized bringing people to the church rather than sending the church to the people
5. I’ve allowed the people pleaser monster to rear its ugly head (Prov. 29.25, the MESSAGE, The fear of human opinion disables…) (more…)

Dave Berry, one of the funniest guys on the planet once wrote, “If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be: meetings.”

I’m not sure if he’s 100% right, but he’s close. Meetings, and extended ones like retreats, often don’t achieve their intended purpose.

My latest church pastor’s retreat, however, was probably the best ever in the 40 plus staff retreats I’ve either held or in which I’ve participated in 30 years of ministry.

The church where I’ve served as lead pastor for 7 years employs about 20 staff, including part-timers. Four, including me, make up the pastoral level and we get away once a year for our planning retreat.

As I reviewed this most recent retreat, in contrast to previous ones, I realize I’ve made some dumb mistakes in the past. My biggest ones include these.

1. Packing too much into the retreat (which has ranged from 1-3 days). I once handed out about 20 different documents for review and study.
2. Talking too much. At times I’ve talked/taught so much that I left little time for thorough interaction.
3. Going too long. As the adage goes, “The brain will absorb only what the butt can endure.”
4. Not including R&R.
5. Including other leaders too late into the planning process. In one church I asked our elders to join us after we had completed our planning. They ended up not being on the same page and the pastors felt like our retreat was a waste of time.

Change is everywhere. And unless a church creates healthy change in itself, it will soon become obsolete. Numerous empty or almost empty churches in Europe and America’s inner cities bear witness to that.

Ronald Heifetz, a Harvard professor and business/leadership author, is most known for a concept called adaptive change/leadership. Essentially adaptive change (and leadership) requires not cosmetic, familiar, or known solutions to existing problems (called technical change). Rather it requires experimentation, change of perspective, developing new values, and deep change from within. This link summarizes the differences between adaptive change and technical change.

In an article in the Harvard Business Review, Dr. Heifetz describes the three key steps British Airways took in the 1990′s that transformed it from the airline nicknamed “Bloody Awful” to “The World’s Favourite Airline.”

The president at the time took the company through these three steps, applicable for churches faced with change.

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Every Wednesday night I take an improv class in downtown Chicago to help develop my right-brain skills. I leave mid-day to miss the traffic and then catch up on my task list at a table at Chipolte. Last week, with my ear buds snug in my ears to block out noise, I focused on my “important” projects. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a dark haired sixty-ish women sitting at the table to my left. As she held a courtesy cup I watched her use a spoon to crush a few lemon slices in water.

Something prompted me to ask her if she had anything to eat. In broken English she said that she hadn’t eaten all day. After we talked for a few moments I learned that she was Muslim, had immigrated from Turkey 5 years earlier, and had been homeless for 4 years.

As I heard her story God prompted me to say, “I want to buy you dinner.” At first she refused, but then with thankful tears she acquiesced. I bought her a chicken salad and a soft drink.

For the next 45 minutes I set aside my “important” tasks and simply listened to her stories, often as she gently cried. I learned her name, Sabria. I learned that a problem had occurred with her immigration papers that had led to her homelessness. Also, her husband had divorced her in Turkey decades prior, her parents were dead, and she never had children yet two sisters and a brother were still living. She told me that she refused to beg on the street and would not become a “dirty girl” which I understood to mean she refused to become a prostitute.

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