The crucial question every leader must wrestle with…

There is one critical question for anyone in a leadership position to wrestle with and answer if they are truly serious about becoming a better leader and the question is this: “Do I have access to the type of leader I want to become?” As leaders we should always be striving to become better at what we do but we are never going to be able to do that if we don’t have someone (or a group of someone’s) in our lives who can show us the way.

Our talent can only take us so far in our roles and we definitely don’t know everything there is to know about leading, so if we truly care about becoming the best leader we could possibly be we need to be sure that we have access to the type of leader that we want to become. If we don’t we will never achieve the results we want in our leadership roles. Take some time today and define the type of leader that you hope to become, and then wrestle with this question. If you don’t have access to this type of leader then do what needs to be done so that you do.

Question: do you have access to the type of leader you want to become?

Fat Pastor Friday: Falling off the wagon

A few weeks ago I hurt my hip while I was running. It took me about 3 weeks before I could run again and even then I could only run about 1/3 of what I used to. That was very frustrating for me and made me not want to do it because I knew what I used to be capable of and I wasn’t able to achieve it any more. So… I fell off the wagon.

The no strings attached volunteer doesn’t exist.

One of the most important things about leading volunteers is recognizing that in order to really take care of that volunteer you need to do more than just care for that individual person. There is no such thing as a no strings attached volunteer. Everyone that you will ever have on your team represents an entire family or group of people…

How bad do you want to find God?

I was reading this morning in Proverbs where it says: “if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.”

So many of us want wisdom and to know God’s will for our lives, but I wonder how many of us actually seek it out in the same way we would go after buried treasure. Have you ever seen someone searching for something valuable? They will do whatever it takes to be the one to find it. We will go after anything like mad men if its valuable to us, but its funny because I’ve seen so many times in my own life and in the lives of others that when it comes to seeking out God’s wisdom we sit back and wait for it to come to us instead of going after it like it was something of value to us. Solomon challenges us that if we really want to go after God’s wisdom and understanding we need to go after it as if it was a buried treasure.

Question: If someone gave you a map that lead to a significant amount of money what would you do to get it? How can you do the same as you go after God’s wisdom for your life?

Jesus works at the Wendy’s drive thru.

Last night at about 5:00pm, as Jen, Nathan and I were sitting down to eat dinner our power went out. We had made it all weekend without loosing power and we thought by Monday we were in the clear. Well, we were wrong. So after I complained about it we packed up and drove to my parents to spend the night. Since we didn’t really get to eat dinner Jen asked me to stop at Wendy’s to pick up something to eat. I pulled into the drive through and waited for my turn. In the car in front of me was woman who as she pulled up to the window to pay for her food broke down into tears. She told the woman who worked there that she had been without power since Saturday afternoon, she had lost her job today, and she just couldn’t take it anymore. The Wendy’s employee immediately empathized with her and offered to pray for her.

I don’t know what happened to that woman after she left but I do know that for those few seconds, she was being cared for by the woman who works in the drive through at Wendy’s. I immediately thought of the verse in John where it says: “by this all men will know you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Talk about being a light and being Jesus no matter where you are at. This woman collected money at a Wendy’s drive through, but for that moment she was a pastor to a person who needed Jesus.

This storm has left many people, stressed, hurting and discouraged. Let’s all learn from the woman at the drive through and show the world that we are His disciples by the love we have for one another.

Question: What can you do today to show someone affected by the storm the love of Jesus?

Fat Pastor Friday: Eat for what you want to accomplish

One thing I had to realize when I decided to start living a healthier life style was that if I tried to listen to everyone’s advice I would be eating nothing but lettuce and drinking only water. Oh wait some lettuce is actually not great for you, and water has too many chemicals, so I guess that means I’ll be having…

There came a point where I had to ask myself a question and it’s a question worth asking for all of us; “what do I want to accomplish with my eating?” When you answer that then you will know how to tailor your diet. For me I knew I wanted to lose weight, so in order to do that I needed to watch my calories, so my diet included lower calorie foods. Maybe for you, you want to watch your sugar intake, well then tailor your diet in that way, maybe you want to eat more organic foods, well then tailor your diet in that way.

Don’t try to accomplish everything with your diet it will feel so limited that you’ll get discouraged and give up. Decide what you want to accomplish and then go for it.

Hope this helps!

Who God really is

I saw this video on Doug Fields blog the other day and thought it was too good not to share. I wonder how we would live differently if we really understood the way God sees us.

 

Fat Pastor Friday: One simple trick to curb your appetite

One of the hardest things for me is knowing when to stop eating. I think I could just sit down for a meal and eat and eat without stopping. Well, that’s a problem. A trick that I picked up while trying to lose weight was to keep gum with me at all times and after each meal pop a piece in my mouth. What I found was getting the flavor of the food I was eating out of my mouth as quickly as I can and replacing it with the flavor of my gum helped curb my cravings. So, now when I know I’ve eaten enough I throw a piece of gum in my mouth, and it helps erase the craving for more of the food I was just eating. Give it a shot, I think it will help you as well.

Be you, not me.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” This is a quote from Steve Jobbs but it is so true of our lives with Jesus. God has created us to be unique individuals, it’s our responsibility to find out what He has called us to.

Question: If you were to tweet God’s call for who he wants you to be, what would it say?

wait, what did you say?

Remember the game we used to play when we were little called telephone? The one where one person would start by whispering a phrase into the person’s ear next to them and they would have to pass it down the line until it got to the end and you would have to see if the person at the end actually heard the right phrase that you said in the beginning.

It seemed like no matter what by the time the last person heard what was said it was not what was originally communicated. But you were sitting there thinking that you were so clear in what you said that no one could have messed that up. The other day I was reminded that what I think I am saying so clearly, is not always what people are hearing.

Be sure to take time to ask the people who you minister to and communicate with if they are really hearing what you are saying. Don’t assume they get it!