Learning Leadership

How to Affirm God's Will (and following it)

While reading Ajith Fernando’s Jesus Driven Ministry he leaves us with something to think about when he describes that “Jesus’ temptations had to do with choosing the will of God over alternative paths” (pg 87). This is something important for us as leaders to think about because our own desire and ambition to do good in the community will tempt us to use our own methods and paths instead of God’s. Like Jesus, you and I will need to say, “No” to the rights and privileges we might believe that we have and commit to God’s path for our lives and His ways of accomplishing work according to His law and Word.

One of the ways we operate according to God’s Word and path instead of our own is to operate in love. Thomas Merton describes operating in God’s love as to “live in such a way that we don’t have to think about ourselves, He will think about us. So you are no longer worrying about whether you are virtuous or not, you just live” (pg 39). Just living in God’s love for others helps us to forget about ourselves and to focus on others. By focusing on others and not thinking about our own personal paths of ministry or accomplishment, it helps to put God in control and allows Him to direct our lives and guide us down the path He wants us to go.

This is not easy, but it is necessary to follow God’s will and follow the path He determines, not mine.

Question: How do you affirm God's will for your life and follow it?

RETREAT!

While reading the book, Jesus Driven Ministry I am glad to read about the author, Ajith Fernando stressing the importance of taking mini retreats.

Several years ago a mentor suggested I do something similar, and I have benefited from taking those retreats occasionally. In my ministry of working full-time and spending a lot of time volunteering I definitely have experienced what Fernando describes as a situation where “we are so rushed that we do not think straight because we do not have time to think reflectively. . . . We need to slow down! Retreats help us to do this” (pg 65).

Doing this is easier than it may sound. I have taken mini retreats by simply taking an extra Sabbath day during the week or being intentional to think about life and reflectively write. I have planned vacations and intentionally set aside time on those vacations to reflect and think about life. Those retreats have been very beneficial to me as a leader.

One of the great benefits from these retreats is that it creates space for us to “find ourselves” as Thomas Merton has written about so many times in his many books about reflection, solitude, and meditation. It is difficult to find ourselves if we are busy—in fact—when we are busy the world pushes us to find someone else. It is important to have these mini-retreats where we are allowed to rest in God’s presence and find ourselves.

Question: How do you "retreat" from work?

 

Important quotes for young leaders from the book, Quitter

For my birthday this year my girlfriend purchased me a copy of Quitter: Closing the Gap Between Your Day Job and Your Dream Job by Jon Acuff.

This is a great book for someone such as myself who works full-time and works part-time on nights and weekends towards a dream. I think it is a great book for any young leader who has a dream or vision in her heart to do something great, but who is having trouble making that dream or vision possible.

In Quitter Jon talks about some key principles people need to know if they are serious about making progress toward their dream.

Here's a few quotes from the book that I feel are relevant to you and I as leaders who are working towards a dream and vision.

"When you keep your day job, all opportunities become surplus propositions rather than deficit remedies" (p. 14).
A major theme in Jon's book is that if you have a dream you want to pursue it is a great advantage to keep a full-time paying job. The advantage is that you know your bills are going to be paid, you know you have good health insurance, and you have stability. If you have a solid full-time job it helps to provide you a springboard you can launch your dream from because you can pick and choose which opportunities to pursue and what you dedicate your time to simply because you know all your bills are taken care of. You get to do what you love to do because you do not have to do it for money. 

"You have the perfect amount of time each day for the things that matter most. The key is spending time on those things" (p. 73).
Jon talks about building a schedule and system of how you can spend time working on your dream. His advice is to find a way to wake up an hour earlier every morning to work on your dream. Whatever your process might be, I agree that if you are committed to working on your dream you need to schedule time for it. For me, I know that from 7pm to 9pm I have time for my dream. I'm home by 5pm to enjoy a walk with my girlfriend, eat dinner, then get to work on homework, creating content, and writing. That gives me a good two hours every night that I get to dedicate to my dream of completing a college degree and creating content for this blog.

"Bad employees make horrible dreams . . . . You're not just working; you're practicing for your dream . . . . If you want your dream job to work, work on your day job." 
This is an important principle that I have seen not lived out. Often I have come across people who are terrible at their 8 to 5 job because all they do is dream about their dream job. They do a crummy job at their paid job then expect to magically "turn on" their hard work switch to work on their dream job. It does not work that way and I am glad Jon touched on this in the book. He says that if you are serious about pursuing your dream job you need to start by giving everything you got your paying job.

I throughouly enjoyed and have benefited from Jon's book. He has some great insights about how to make progress towards a dream and vision while still holding down a full-time job, being a great father, and a faithful husband.

If you know of someone chasing a dream on nights and weekends while still working a full-time job (or maybe that person is yourself) I would suggest Quitter as a great resource.

Question: What other principles do you believe are important when someone is working a full-time job and working to pursue a dream? 

How to allow your organization/program to succeed when you are gone (part 2)

Yesterday I wrote about one of the two reasons I believe A Day of Hope has had success over the past two years without my help.

Another reason A Day of Hope has been successful (from what I can deduce) is that I have modeled good leadership, then I got out of the way.

This is something I learned from John Maxwell when listening to one of his leadership lessons where he described the final days in his last church he served as Senior Pastor. On his last day as Senior Pastor he made it very clear to his congregation that when he was leaving their church he was no longer the people's pastor. He was not going to perform weddings, he was not going to guest speak, he was not going to provide counseling, and he was not going to provide any consultation to the church. Since he was leaving the church to devote himself to full-time leadership teaching he was turning the church over to another pastor. And from that day on, the new pastor was the people's pastor. The last thing the new pastor needed was for the old senior pastor to get in the way and prevent the success of the new pastor.

I believed the same principle applied to my role at A Day of Hope. For a short period of time I attended a few of the A Day of Hope meetings, gave some help in specific areas, and provided my input. However, I noticed an unhealthy habit I had of wanting to provide input on the way I would do things. This was a new team going in a new direction and they didn't need the founder and past leader talking about the good'ol days of how he did the project in past years.

They were a new group with new ideas and they needed to be let free to try new things. Even if they failed that was not my place to inject myself to tell them what would and would not work. 

One of the reasons I believe A Day of Hope has been successful without me is because I modeled good leadership for them, then I got out of the way. Me getting out of the way might have made the project tough for them at times because they were unsure of how to run things or operate (which is why I wrote them a book). However, I think the program has been more successful without me helping than it would have been if I tried to help.

Question: Have you seen an organization where the leader stepped down and got out of the way? Did it work well?

Don't Let Others Take You Down

"If you can't pickup the people in your life, don't let them take you down." - Les Brown

HOW TO ALLOW YOUR ORGANIZATION/PROGRAM SUCCEED WHEN YOU ARE GONE

This past week marked the second year that A Day of Hope has been operating without me leading it.

I am grateful to say that last year and this year the new team leading A Day of Hope fed more families each year than I had. They have continued to grow the program to serve and help more people (just as the need for the service has increased too).

While journaling about my observations of A Day of Hope, I believe there are a couple of reasons why A Day of Hope has continued to have success without me.

Today I will share the first reason, and tomorrow will be the second the reason.

The first reason is that I have a passion to serve others and a tremendous work ethic. The model I showed everyone who was involved with A DAy of Hope over five years was my passion to serve others with the tremendous work ethic to back up that passion.

Several volunteers with A Day of Hope can attest to me sleeping in the church, staying up half the night, and working more than 12 hours a day every day for more than a month to make the program successful.

Leadership is caught more than it is taught and I sincerely believe that the new regime of people leading A Day of Hope also have that passion to serve others and tremendous work ethic. I believe they share the work load more effectively so there is less pressure on one person, but I see the same passion and work ethic in all of them.

Tomorrow I will share with you the second reason the program has continued to succeed: I modeled good leadership and then I got out of the day.

Question: What are some leadership characteristics that you modeled which have been caught by the people you lead? 

Happy Thanksgiving and Thanks for Reading

Happy Thanksgiving Learning Leadership Blog readers!

I hope you are benefiting from the leadership content here on this blog. The content is not always laser focused on leadership, but I do my best to share with you what I am learning and experiencing in an effort to teach you about leadership.

If you are a reader from America you are probably enjoying Thanksgiving today with friends and family while watching football. If you are an international reader (and there are many of you) this might be just one more day for you. And that is ok too.

Saturday we will be back to the leadership content as I write about some of the leadership characteristics that have allowed A Day of Hope (here's the book) to successfully continue without me in leadership.

Thank you for reading and thank you for allowing me to positively influence you in your leadership and faith. 

My Testimony (audio form)

If you read the Learning Leadership Blog you probably already know that I am a Christian and believe in Jesus. If you do not believe in Jesus that is ok too. I hope the content on this blog is beneficial for everyone regardless of your faith beliefs.

A few weeks ago I shared my testimony about how I came to know Jesus Christ. Here's that talk: My Testimony.

A letter about stretching to my classmates

Below is a letter I recently wrote to my fellow classmates at Fresno Pacific University. The letter emphasizes that we are in a community where we need to stretch each other and help each other grow.

I believe that any class or organization needs to have an understanding that we are each there to help each other stretch and grow. Part of the role you can play as leader at your organization is to help your team stretch and grow. 

In my letter I outline several ways that we help each other grow in my class, and it is my hope that you might be able to apply some of these ideas into your own company or organization.

Stretching

This letter is from Christopher who has been chosen by God to teach leaders around the world.  This letter is to my fellow students in our Christian Ministry & Leadership class at Fresno Pacific University who are eager to learn about Jesus Christ, what it means to follow Him, and how to transfer that to lead other people in ministry.  Daily I thank God for you and the spiritual hunger you have.  I greatly admire your desire to learn, grow, and become wholesome followers of Christ Jesus.  Even though you might not realize it, we have all made a commitment to stretch each other throughout the 18 months of our Christian Ministry & Leadership classes.  We have made a commitment to do the rigorous reading and come prepared for class each week.  Once we have completed the reading, we need to take time to think about what we read and relate to what we have read.  This allows the content we read and learn to marinate within us, and when it’s time to share our thoughts, that content has had time to formulate and change the way we think.  We have made a commitment to participate in discussions and share our thoughts every week.  Even if we don’t always agree with each other, we still need to share what we think and believe, because this stretches our thinking and helps us see scripture and ministry differently than we might have seen it based on our own gender, race, background, and daily job. In addition to the commitment we’ve made to read and come prepared to share our thoughts in class, we also have made a commitment to do a great job on our papers.  Writing papers about what we’ve read and what we’ve talked about in class is how we prove to ourselves and our professors that we are learning and growing as a result of participating in the class.  Now, even though we only see each other weekly, we have an obligation to stretch each other in our thinking as followers of Jesus Christ, the one who we all seek to serve, and as leaders.  May you have peace and enjoy God’s grace.

What can you learn about "no"

"No" does not mean "no" if you actually learn something from it.

If you take the time to reflect, think deep, and ask why "no" was said, then it wasn't really "no."  It was a learning experience to help you with your ask or request the next time.   Therefore, lessing the chances that you will receive the answer "no" again.

What do I mean?

Here's a few examples:

If I ask my boss for some help with a new project I want to start on a new newsletter and she says "no," I have to think about why she said no and figure out what went wrong.

If I ask a potential donor for a donation at United Way and she says "no," it is an opportunity to see why she said "no."  Next time I ask her, I'm now better equipped to get a "yes" instead of a "no."

If I ask my girlfriend go grocery shopping with me and she says "no," I need to ask her why she doesn't want to go. Is she tired, does she expect to go by myself, does she like to grocery shop by herself? If I ask questions and dig deep, then I will be able to uncover information I need to have a better chance at getting a "yes" next time I ask.

No doesn't always mean no. It just means that we need to learn from it. And if we take the time to think and relfect and ask questions on why we received a no response, then in a way we didn't really get told no. We were just told we need to understand something differently, ask a different way, or go about our request in a different way.

Why is this relevant? 

Because you and I as leaders and followers are always asking people for things. That's one of the main things leaders ask for: they ask for the best from their people. And if a leader isn't getting that best or if he has to ask for his staff to do certain work, he is going to get some "no" responses.  And he needs to know how to navigate "no." 

Quotes from Greg Mortenson

Last year my girlfriend and I were extremely grateful to see Greg Mortenson speak in Modesto, CA.

There has been some controversy about Mr. Mortensons's charity activity and how it is structured. My view on those things is that anyone from the outside can make assumptions and publish an article. I am not sure if the assumptions are true and I honestly do not care. My experience working in charity is that everyone wants to serve and make a difference and Mr. Mortenson seems to be one of those people.

Greg Mortenson began his charity work with a heart to build schools for children. Since starting his work they have built hundreds of schools and raised millions of dollars. Anyone doing the amount of work Mr. Mortenson has accomplished must know and practice great leadership. In his talk I heard lots of great leadership quotes and a few pearls of wisdom. Some of the quotes were his own statements and some he was quoting from others. 

I am a studious note taker even in a dark auditorium, so while in his presentation I jotted down some key quotes he shared. 

"Listen more, be respectful."

"All of us have an innate desire to help people."

"All of us make mistakes and fail."

"When it is dark you can see the stars." - Chinese Proverb

"Do one good deed a day--make it a habit." - Mr. Mortenson's Grandmother

"To solve poverty, we have to touch poverty."

"We are only as strong as our weakest link."

"Even if the world ends tomorrow I will plant my seed today." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Glean wisdom and knowledge from our elders."

Question: Have you read Mr. Mortenson's books or heard him speak? What has stood out to you? 

Affirmation for the Work I Do, and Hope to do More of It

In the fall of 2009 I attended training for small group leaders at our church where I heard a silent and subtle voice say to me, “Christopher, go and make leaders of everyday men and women.”

To give more context to this, let me back up. For almost a year I had felt a strong desire in my heart to serve leaders. I had already started writing a book to help nonprofit leaders and organized a leadership seminar at our church. I attended this small group training because I next wanted to create a group of men who wanted to study the topic of leadership from the Bible.

This week I am encouraged when reading Ajith Fernando’s chapter, “Affirmed by God,” in his book, Jesus Driven Ministry because at times I feel inferior, ill-equipped, and not gifted for the desire in my heart and what I believe God has told me to do. When I work hours to develop a Bible study only to have it not seem relevant to the participants, I feel discouraged. When I spend three hours at a book fair only selling one book the entire time, I feel lonely. However, Fernando provides great encouragement to me when he writes, “When we experience this affirmation [of our Christian service] over and over again, the messages we got from the world that we are useless, inferior, and insignificant lose their power” (pg. 54). 

Going forward with my ministry to serve leaders I pray that God will continue to encourage me to keep creating content for leaders because little bit by little bit, with his encouragement, I will overcome the negative messages the world sends me about ministry. 

Question: How do you feel affirmed in the work you do? 

Why Rapport is Important

Last fall I took an English class at a local Community College to prepare me for my future schooling at Fresno Pacific University.

On the third day of class I was arriving about five minutes late and noticed another student who was also late. We both arrived at the door at the same time. It was a defining moment.

Who would go in first and be seen as the person being late?

Who would go in first and be the focus of ridicule from the professor?

The guy I met at the door late with me is a former Marine who spent some time in Iraq. A brave man I solute and have the utmost respect for. Anyone who puts himself or herself in harms way to defend our country deserves my respect.

I offered to allow him to walk in first and I would walk in after him. But he said, "You go ahead. I'm scared of what the professor will do." So I grabbed the handle to the class door and we walked in while I received a little bit of ridicule from the professor for being late and had to endure his loud "wassup" saying to me.

I found myself puzzled.  

Was this former Marine scared of our professor? Was he scared of what the professor would say or do to embarrass us?  

Sitting in my seat I realized why the former marine asked that I walk into the classroom first.

I had rapport with the professor. 

The part of the story I didn't tell you is that I have had that same professor in two other classes. He is a great guy and we both enjoy talking to each other and seeing each other.  Often I have stopped into his office just to say hello and see what he has been up to. When I arrived at the class the first night he greeted me kindly in front of the entire class and asked how I was doing and said it was good to see me. And throughout several other classes he had called me out in front of the class to ask my opinion saying I had taken his class before and wanted to see what I thought.

When the former marine and I met at the door, he asked that I go first because he knew I had rapport with the professor. He knew there was a relationship there and that it was something to be trusted and leaned on. I believe he was hoping that my rapport with the professor would allow less ridicule in front of the class for being late.  

That's why rapport is important for us all to have--both as leaders--and as everyday people walking the earth. Rapport with someone allows us to have influence with them and not be seen just on the surface of what we are doing. 

Question: What role has rapport played in your life (good or bad)? 

Leadership Learnings from Nehemiah (chapter 10)

Chapter 10 of the book of Nehemiah continues with the people making a covenant to obey God's way. They have seen the amazing thing God has done for them: rebuild the wall and now they are ready to follow His way He has laid out for them.

Leaders go first (v. 1-27) - What impresses me the most about chapter ten of Nehemiah is the leaders were the first to sign the document. My Bible (NLT) outlines the signature son this document being in the following order:

1. The Governor
2. Priests
3. Levites
4. leaders
5. Then the rest of the people signed

Verse one of chapter nine clearly says Nehemiah was the first one to sign the document proving that a leader truly leads the way. A leader paves the way for his people to follow.

Reading the Maxwell Leadership Bible I found this commentary to be very relevant, "As governor and top leader of his people, Nehemiah signed the document first. In doing so, he showed his commitment to sticking with the agreement and set an example for the rest of the leadership and the nation. As always, he acted as a "leader's leader."' (p. 609)

In other words: the leader signed the document first and then everyone else signed it.  Anyone who has visited Washington DC (or paid attention in High School US History) probably knows the stories of the amazing sacrifice our founding fathers made when they signed the Declaration of Independence. The men signing that document knew their lives were in amazing risk by signing that document. If they didn't pull off the commitment they had made and decided upton, they would be hanged.

Question: What have you learned from the book of Nehemiah about leadership? 

Leadership Learnings from Nehemiah (chapter 9)

It's been a while since I wrote a post about leadership from the book of Nehemiah. 

The last post I wrote was about chapter 8, so I'll continue into the last few chapters of the book to give you a complete view of leadership from the book of Nehemiah.

Here are my leadership thoughts on:
Chapter 7
Chapter 6
Chapter 5
Chapter 4

In chapter 9 we continue to see the people rejoicing and celebrating the amazing faithfulness of God. The people know they have walked far from God and now because of the amazing great work God has done through them to rebuild the wall, they are coming back to God. Now, the wall has been built which means Nehemiah and the people are no longer in "building mode" but they are in "maintaining mode."  They are focused on how they can continue to keep what they have been so lucky to receive: a new wall around God's city. 

Knowledge allows the leaders to pray for the people (v. 5). In chapter 9 we see eight Levite leaders who stepped up and prayed for the people. Praying and teaching in teams wasn't anything new to the people of that day--or to the book of Nehemiah. But what impressed me was the amazing amount of history the Levite leaders recited to the people in the prayer. It was impressive to see how much history and how many stories they were able to recite and tell to the people. There are two points I want to draw out of this that makes it significant:

1. The Levite leaders teaching in a team allowed them to pray for the people with an amazing amount of history and recollection. A team of people can do what one person cannot. And even though it might have been possible that one man could have memorized all the things that were recited in verses 6-37, it is more likely that a team of them had to each pray for areas and things they could remember.
2. Since these Levite leaders had such a good recollection of stories and history of their time they were able to pray more powerfully for the people who had gathered. The people had gathered to celebrate the great accomplishment, learn from God, and pray for the future. Because the leaders had worked hard to learn and understand history and God's faithfulness in the past, that allowed them to pray for the people in a more powerful way and were able to teach them things they wouldn't have been able to teach any other way.

Question: What leadership lessons have you learned from the book of Nehemiah?

An Area of Feeling For Others

I'm still reading Bridges to Contemplative Living and Jesus Driven Ministry every week. Here's a few thoughts on these books and how they relate to spiritual formation.

Merton gets right to the heart of living contemplatively when he writes, “The contemplative life must provide an area, a space of liberty, of silence, in which possibilities are allowed to surface and new choices—beyond routine choice—become manifest” (pg. 21). Merton is telling us that through our quiet time of silence we create an area where we can feel for others and experience new things and choices.

This relates to Fernando’s writings about feeling the pain of others as he tells us that “We are children of the King and servants of the people. We pay a price so that we can identify with people and serve them effectively” (pg. 21). I believe Merton and Fernando’s statements are connected because when we create that open area, we are able to finally feel for others.

Our world is fast paced and constantly encourages us to “lookout for #1,” but when we take that time to feel, it gives us the opportunity to feel the pain of others. It is important to feel for others and identify with them because as we already know Jesus modeled that for us first. He came here to earth, was baptized as we were baptized, felt many of the same social pains that we feel, and then he experienced ultimate pain of public humiliation and wrongful death.

Just as Jesus experienced the pains we have experienced, as we create that area in our contemplative lives, we will begin to experience the pain of others, and that will allow us to serve them in an effective way.

Question: How do you develop a feeling and compassion for others? 

Connect Your Thoughts with Transitions

Having given hundreds of short talks about United Way of Stanislaus County, A Day of Hope, and leadership teachings, I have learned that when I give a talk I have to connect my thoughts.

Often I'll have three or four main thoughts and ideas I'm trying to share with my audience, and even though they might be generally connected to the main purpose of my talk, those three or four points are independent of each other.

To be an effective speaker you have to be able to connect those points together in your talk and smoothly transition between one and the other.

In my book, A Day of Hope: Leading Volunteers to Make a Difference in Your Community, I share some tips about how to give a talk and what my process is for preparing and getting ready to deliver one.  

Transitions help your audience know what you have just said, and gives them an introduction to the topic you are transitioning into. Transitions also help you share with your audience how your two thoughts are connected and why they are important.

Question: How do you transition between ideas and principles when giving a talk?

Watch What You Say

When you're a leader you need to watch what you say.

If you tell an emplyee he did a great job at your company, it is going to be hard to lay him off when your budget calls for cutbacks.

Once he is unemployeed he is going to ask you to write a letter of recommendation.  After the letter of recommendation he is going to want to list you as a reference for future employers.

Watch what you say, because what you say to others is remembered. Especially if it is an extremely positive or negative comment.  People remember what you say and they take it to heart.

So,
if you are going to say something nice to someone, be sure you mean it because that comment will come back around later and you will be have to face up to what you have already said.

As leaders have an extreme power with our words and we need to be careful of what we say.

Learning to Sacrafice Time

Last summer my mom was visiting with me from Alaska.

It was nice to spend time with family and to be able to connect with someone I've known for a long time and love so much.

While she was here I had to put down much of the work I normally do and focus on her.  The work I put down was reading, blogging, reflective writing, editing my book, and many others.

When my mom visited it was a good reminder to me that as leaders we need to keep focused on the most important things of life.  And those important things mean we sacrafice what we do and what we create.  Yes, I could have spent more time writing, reading and editing my book while I mom was here, but I decided not to.  I made the concious decision that time with my mom was more important than the work I could have done.

Question: What is an example from your life where you chose to spend time with family instead of work? 

Steven Furtick Leadership Notes from the Cataylst Conference

At the 2008 Catalyst Conference Steven Furtick was considered the "up and coming" next generation leader.  I think his church was considered to be one of the fastest growing churches in America at that time (which was October of 2008).

Here's a few notes from his talk I feel are relevant to share with you, my blog readers:

Nothing starts big
Steven elaborated more by stating, "When God makes a promise, even though the promise is big, the beginning journey of the promise will be small." Notice he didn't say, "might be small" or "could be small" but it "will be small."  I think that's an important distinction for leaders because we feel like we've got such a big vision inside of us that it is hard to look at our current circumstances which don't match up to that.

Steven shared the story about even though his church has been growing rapidly over the past couple of years, he had spent years and years in preparation. He remembers spending Friday and Saturday nights in his dorm room ministering and serving other college students instead of being out partying like most guys where doing. No matter how young or old you might be God is going to make you pay the price to do great work for Him.  He is not going to allow it to be easy cause if it was easy He would allow everyone to do it. He has chosen you and will work through you in great ways, only after having put you through what He wants you to go through.

Question: What has been your experience with watching something start small and grow?

(On a side note, since Steven's talk at Catalyst in 2008 he has published the book, Sun Stand Still sharing his story.) 

Jesus the Master Teacher

Recently I gave a talk titled, Jesus the Master Teacher from the book, Called to Teach. The article, Jesus the Master Teacher was written by Dr. Edmond Hiebert.

In the talk I give some examples of how Jesus was the master teacher and still is today.

Enjoy. 

Download Jesus the Master Teacher

One-Point Lessons

While teaching a small group of men through the story of David from 1 Samuel 16 thru 2 Samuel 4, I am learning the importance and impact of one-point lessons.

I was first introduced to the idea of a one-point lesson when reading Andy Stanley’s book, Communicating for a Change. In the book he talks about building sermons around one point, one main idea, or one core principle. When you build a message around one point it is easy to know what the main thing you are attempting to teach is, and it helps you to get rid of everything that is not helping you teach that point.

While teaching our small group on Tuesday mornings I am noticing the impact of having one point I am trying to teach. We usually only have 30 minutes for reading a chapter of Scripture, me sharing a few insights about the text, discussing what we have learned, and then sharing how we can implement what we have learned in our own lives. As I have worked hard to narrow down our weekly lessons to one main point and idea (a process that is difficult to do from an entire chapter of Scripture) I have noticed that my ability to teach and help the participants learn is increasing.

Creating and molding our lessons into one main point is helping me to prepare better for the teachings, and I know it is helping the participants to take away what they have learned and implement it in their own lives.

Question: How do you prepare and build a lesson around one or several points?

Therapeutic Writing

Participating in my internship with Church Assistance Ministry (CAM) by leading a Bible study for new believers, maintaining CAM’s website, leading a Bible study on the character of David, and writing about those experiences has reminded me how good it feels to get my thoughts down on paper.

As I experience ministry through CAM it is always helpful to jot down my thoughts in my journal or in my prayer time or to blog about them. One of God’s messages to me last year was that He wants me to share with others what I am going through. One of the greatest ways for me to serve others is to share with them my experiences and what I am learning. I always feel good after I share what I have been going through and what I have been learning with others in the form of reflective writing. After writing I feel refreshed, renewed, and empty.

Throughout my work I have been accumulating information, stories, and insights, but after writing them down on paper or a computer screen for someone else to eventually read, I then feel that I have more room to experience and learn more. It feels like some type of therapy I get to enjoy.

Question: What do you do to relax and refresh?

Close Strong

Teaching a few weeks ago taught me the need for a strong closing when I conclude my teaching. After nearly 45 minutes of teaching about How to Become a Christian to 15 people at church, I failed to close the lesson succinctly and tightly.

I had worked hard to explain how we can make the commitment to become a Christian and had a good closing planned and written out. However, when it came time to close, I began to get a little nervous, failed to follow my outline as closely as I should, and this led me to finish the lesson in a haze that left several people confused (including my girlfriend who knew what I was supposed to say.)

This reminds me of a teaching by Chip Ingram where I remember him sharing that an older gentlemen had encouraged him to spend at least five hours honing down the conclusion to his messages. Like Chip, I am going to have to spend more time on my conclusions going forward. A strong conclusion will help to summarize for the participants what we have learned and lead them to applying the information in their lives going forward.

Question: How do you close your lessons strong? 

Talk It Out

The past few weeks I have posted blog posts about what I am learning while teaching a New Believer's Bible Study.

One value I am learning in my internship with Church Assistance Ministry (CAM) is to talk out my lessons with several people. In past years before teaching with CAM I almost always prepared articles and teachings by myself with little input from others. However, as a result of being stretched to teach on topics I do not normally teach on, I have found the value and the need to “talk out” my lessons with others as I am forming the lesson.

When I have topic or message I am working to prepare a lesson on, I begin by getting my thoughts down on paper and doing everything I can to formulate a solid lesson with scripture, illustrations, thought provoking questions, and an application. As I am forming these elements together I have learned there is great value in sharing some of my thoughts with other people on the different elements of the lesson as I am working on. Often I will talk about the lesson with Steve (my internship supervisor) or my girlfriend because this helps me to formulate my thinking, simplify it, and make it as applicable as possible for the participants.

Now, as I formulate my lessons, I make a point to share that lesson with Steve or my girlfriend early on as a way to see if my thinking is theologically sound and practical to everyday life. Talking it out with others is helping me to do a better job of creating lessons that help others.

Question: How do you "talk out" your lessons with others to help prepare you to teach? 

1 Year Anniversary of my book, A Day of Hope

October 30, 2011 marked the one-year anniversary of my book, A Day of Hope: Leading Volunteers to Make a Difference in Your Community being published.

Since the book has been released I have sold about ninety copies. I am very grateful for the opportunity to serve other nonprofit leaders by helping them see how they can serve others and by teaching them how to do that.

I am also grateful to announce that A Day of Hope as a program is still going strong without me in leadership. Last year, in 2010, under Sarah Moore's leadership with a new team they fed more people thant I ever had. What a great job they have done! 

A Day of Hope as a book is still being sold on Amazon, BarnesandNoble.com, and privately. If you are looking to learn more about how you can lead volunteers to make a difference in your community, this book is a great resource for you.

Question: Do you have any questions or thoughts about the book I may answer for you? (Please leave them in the comments section if you do.)