Understanding Others’ Strengths: Do You Have a Good View? Learning to value differences in others is a lot like looking at skyscrapers in the city. Imagine you can only view buildings from the sidewalks, looking up. But one day you are able to stand on the twentieth story of a skyscraper and look out the…
How To Avoid “The Unimportance Trap” Charlie underwent cardiac surgery to correct a problem in his heart, but in the process, his vocal cords were paralyzed. While the procedure fixed Charlie’s cardiac issue, the vocal cord nerve damage did not resolve. The cords could not move and Charlie was unable to breathe on his own.…
Why God’s Appointments Are “A Good Fit” This three-part series looks at what the Bible has to say about placing people on your team or joining a team yourself. In this series, we have seen that positions on God’s organizational chart are not only needed (Part 1) but also indispensable to building the Body of…
God’s Assignments Have Worth This three-part series looks at what the Bible has to say about placing people on your team or joining a team yourself. In the previous article we saw in Ephesians 4:12, that God graciously provided an explanation for the roles on His “Most Needed” List: “for the equipping of the saints, for the…
What Positions Are on God’s Most-Needed List? This three-part series looks at what the Bible has to say about placing people on your team or joining a team yourself. Three valid questions any organization or church should ask before hiring staff or inviting volunteers to serve are: Is this position really necessary? How does the…
A Practical Way to Build Unity in Your Staff Conflict, Part 4 As I travel the country and world speaking to leaders, my heart breaks hearing their stories. Division in churches has become so commonplace that those of us in ministry have either experienced a split or know someone who has. It may shock you…
Conflict: The Choice Leaders Make Every Day Each day, leaders have a choice: they can judge members of their team or they can value each member’s uniqueness. When a staff member regularly questions your approach, how do you respond? The choice you make determines whether your team lives or dies. Let’s check back in on…
Part 2 of 4 If you’re a ministry leader, conflict is unavoidable. But how do you make the move from conflict to cooperation? Remember Don (lead pastor) and Mark (executive pastor) from our previous article? Neither begins their day trying to frustrate or isolate the other. But that seems to be happening now more than…
Part 1 of 4 in a series on overcoming conflict Even Jesus faced conflict, both internally (the disciples were experts at sniping and one-upmanship) and externally (Jewish leaders questioned Jesus’ tactics and motivation.) So when you’re challenged, confronted, opposed, pressured, or intimidated, how do you respond? Don and Mark served together at a sizable church…
Materials Need For this Exercise Two tables or flat surfaces Four unopened packages of 3×5 index cards (lined or unlined, any color). With a felt tip marker, write on two of the packages “DO NOT OPEN” Timing device: stopwatch, timer, or watch with seconds measurement Instructions The point of the first exercise is to break the ice…