This might depress you!

George Bush does not exactly enjoy a reputation for being an intellectual, but as this article by Karl Rove makes clear, he is a quick reader...

It all started on New Year's Eve in 2005. President Bush asked what my New Year's resolutions were. I told him that as a regular reader who'd gotten out of the habit, my goal was to read a book a week in 2006. Three days later, we were in the Oval Office when he fixed me in his sights and said, "I'm on my second. Where are you?" Mr. Bush had turned my resolution into a contest.

By coincidence, we were both reading Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Team of Rivals." The president jumped to a slim early lead and remained ahead until March, when I moved decisively in front. The competition soon spun out of control. We kept track not just of books read, but also the number of pages and later the combined size of each book's pages -- its "Total Lateral Area."

At year's end, I defeated the president, 110 books to 95. My trophy looks suspiciously like those given out at junior bowling finals. The president lamely insisted he'd lost because he'd been busy as Leader of the Free World.

Click here to continue reading.

Seeing the Up In The Down

Here is a great post from Mark Driscoll for every pastor who has ever felt glum about a poorly attended church service or prayer meeting.

Remember - its the people who are there who count, not the ones who aren't.

10 Questions Help

A Christmas favor please...

I'm beginning to run out of people I have direct contact with who are good candidates for my 10 Questions feature. If you know anyone who it would be good to include, could you please pass on my details to them, or theirs to me.

It would be particularly helpful if people outside the Newfrontiers network of churches could be persuaded to take part.

Thanks!

One Good Turn...

Steve Roesler from the All Things Workplace blog took the trouble to send me a very kind email, so here is an extra plug to look at his site. I particularly liked this recent post - a good one for pastors as well as executives.

The Problem is Myself

In my 10 Questions for Leaders feature the most common response to the question "What is your greatest leadership challenge?" is Myself. John Maxwell agrees, and offers some tips for helping yourself with yourself!

A young man once asked me a very provocative question at one of my leadership conferences. He'd been listening intently all day, and it was obvious that the subjects we were covering were really striking a chord with him.

"I've decided I want to be a leader," he said. "Who do I start leading?"

As I said, this guy was young-he didn't have a company or even a department to run, yet. I could have advised him to read some of my books, get a job managing a few people, and come back to another conference in five years when he had some experience. But I didn't.

"That's an easy answer," I told him. "Start with yourself."

Click here to read the rest of this article.

10 Questions for Leaders: Steve Tibbert

Steve leads King’s Church, Catford, in SE London and serves on the Newfrontiers UK team. He also oversees the Newfrontiers London churches. Steve has become an inspiration for many in recent years by taking a long established church that had grown moribund and lost vision and leading it into growth and thriving good health. This has been achieved not by doing anything flash or extraordinary, but by consistently making good decisions and doing the basics well. Steve also blogs on leadership, so it is especially good to welcome him here…

Who is your leadership hero? Why?
Difficult to pick one, so here’s three: Firstly my father, a great leader in his own right. He trained me in many things. The others would be Terry Virgo and Bill Hybels.

How long have you been in leadership?
I have been in church leadership for 26 years -18 of those have been full time.

What was your first leadership role?
I led a small group

How long have you been in your current role?
I have led King’s Church for just over 13 years and have been on Dave Stroud’s UK team for about 2 years.

How long has your church been established? Did you start it?
This church was planted by a 20 year old in 1880 as a part of Spurgeons’ vision to reach London.

What has been the growth curve of your church?
The church has continued to grow in the last 12 years at an average of 10% a year - starting at around 200 on a Sunday and now touching 1,000.

What has been your biggest leadership challenge?
Leading myself and coping with the pressure that comes with growth.

What has been your greatest leadership success?
Apart from getting Deb to marry me, it would be inheriting some excellent people who had lost vision and playing a part in transforming King’s into a thriving growing community.

How are you developing new leaders?
Through many differing means: by giving responsibility, inviting people to travel with me and Deb & I are running a small leadership discipleship group.

How are you continuing to develop your own leadership gifts?
Continuing to read leadership books and visit other leaders and other churches who are ahead of me.

Exploring the Five Key Roles Used by Effective Leaders

In Making Sense of Leadership, authors Esther Cameron and Mike Green asked if leadership is making something happen that would not have otherwise happened, what is it that leaders must pay attention to? They came up with five naturally occurring areas of concern:

• Discomfort: What’s not working? Where is the organization hurting?
• Buy-In: How is it possible to harness the human resources and talent around the organization, and inspire, motivate and engage people?
• Connectivity: How do we ensure that the organization knows enough about itself and its purpose and competencies and is well connected enough to be able to self-organize and change in a healthy responsive way when it needs to?
• Projects: What needs to be done to manage key projects and ensure that all the necessary resources are acquired and that the project is delivered right and on time?
• Design: What are the structural and process designs for the future?

These areas of focus were then paired with five shifting roles used by leaders to deal with each of these areas of concern. Leaders must draw their cues from the environment in which they lead.

Click here to carry on reading.

How small groups change everything (part two)

by Larry Osborne

A spiritually crippling falsehood began to lose its grip on our congregation when we embraced small groups.

What I call the “Holy Place myth” is the idea that God’s presence is somehow greater in some places than in others. It’s why some Christians will tell a joke at the office they’d never think of repeating at church. It’s why others don’t think twice about lying on a loan application but still swear they live by the Ten Commandments.

The Holy Place myth fosters a false dichotomy between the secular and the spiritual by leading us to believe that there are some places where God hangs out and lots of others he seldom frequents.

A significant small group ministry undercuts this myth because when people begin to see God at work in their apartments and living rooms, they start to realize that a baptism can take place in a swimming pool, that Communion can be celebrated around a dining table, and that God is just as likely to answer their prayers in the front room as he is to answer mine in the front of the sanctuary.

With the demise of both the Holy Man and the Holy Place myths, our ministry was, for the first time, genuinely unleashed. People started bringing God to the workplace and into their neighborhoods rather than trying to bring everyone to the church building. And they quit insisting that I or another staff member had to show up in order for God to show up.

Click here to read the rest of this article.

The Top 8 Books of 2008 for Church Leaders!

As selected by the Church Leader Insights guys. Get them on your Christmas list!

#8
The Snowball: Warren Buffett and The Business of Life
by Alice Schroeder

In this startlingly frank account of Buffett's life, Schroeder, a former managing director at Morgan Stanley-and hand picked by Buffett to be his biographer-strips away the mystery that has long cloaked the world's richest man to reveal a life and fortune erected around lucid and inspired business vision and unimaginable personal complexity.

#7
Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
by Dan Ariely

Irrational behavior is a part of human nature, but as MIT professor Ariely has discovered in 20 years of researching behavioral economics, people tend to behave irrationally in a predictable fashion. Ariely's intelligent, exuberant style and thought-provoking arguments make for a fascinating, eye-opening read.

#6
Speak to Win
by Brian Tracy

The ability to speak with confidence and deliver winning presentations can accelerate your career, earn people's great respect, and enable you to achieve your greatest goals. But what many people don't realize is that anyone can learn to be a great speaker, just as easily as they can learn to drive a car or ride a bike! Now, personal success expert Brian Tracy helps readers master the art of the winning speech- and use it to improve every aspect of their lives.

#5
Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive
by Noah J. Goldstein, Steve J. Martin and Robert B. Cialdini

Goldstein, Martin and Cialdini meld social psychology, pop culture and field research to demonstrate how the subtle addition, subtraction or substitution of a word, phrase, symbol or gesture can significantly influence consumer behavior. While written primarily for a marketing audience, this amusing book has equal value and appeal for executives, salespeople-even parents trying to persuade their kids to do homework.

#4
The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ
by Bill Hull

The first book in The Navigator Reference Library, The Complete Book of Discipleship is the definitive A to Z resource on discipleship and disciple making for every Christian. Well-organized and fully indexed, you'll find included such topics as spiritual growth, transformation, spiritual disciplines, and discipleship in the local church. You'll find The Complete Book of Discipleship a trusted resource.

#3
Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging and Outmarketing Your Competition
by Guy Kawasaki

In Silicon Valley slang, a "bozo explosion" is what causes a lean, mean, fighting machine of a company to slide into mediocrity. As Guy Kawasaki puts it, "If the two most popular words in your company are partner and strategic , and partner strategic is used to describe decisions and activities that don't make sense"...it's time for a reality check. Now, Kawasaki has compiled his best wit, wisdom, and contrarian opinions in handy book form. From competition to customer service, innovation to marketing, he shows readers how to ignore fads and foolishness while sticking to commonsense practices.

#2
Leadership Gold: Lessons Learned from a Lifetime of Leading
by John C. Maxwell

Maxwell shares 26 nuggets of wisdom based on his nearly 40 years of leadership. A practical guide, complete with exercises and "mentoring moments," this collection offers a blend of advice, professional wisdom and personal recollection. A solid addition to a crowded field, this book will be of value to seasoned leaders as well as those just starting out.

#1
Axiom: Powerful Leadership Proverbs
by Bill Hybels

Winning leaders have winning points of view-succinct, practical, portable leadership proverbs that help them arbitrate decisions and rouse troops to action. In Axiom: The Language of Leadership, Bill Hybels reveals eighty God-given, from-the-gut truths that continue to raise his game and his vision, thirty-plus years into his local-church leadership experience.

A Life That Counts

By Dr. John C. Maxwell

As I age, I gain perspective on the illusion of wealth and status as forms of fulfillment. I don't want my life to be measured by dollars and cents, or the number of books I've authored. Rather, I want to be remembered by the lives that I've touched. I want live a life that counts. With each day that passes, I feel a greater sense of urgency to make sure my time and energy are invested in developing leaders.

To continue reading click here.

10 Questions for Leaders: Darrin Patrick

Our first American contributor, and first non-Newfrontiers guy, Darrin leads The Journey, St Louis, and is part of the Acts 29 team. I met Darrin’s No. 2, Jonathan McIntosh, while visiting the States last year, and through him got my 10 questions to Darrin. The Journey started as what Darrin has often called "Church of the Mind." It only existed between his ears. For over six years, he and his wife Amie dreamed, and crafted the nuts and bolts of what would become The Journey core values and beliefs – how it would work and what it would look like. Still, in 2001 when the Patrick family moved to St. Louis, the burden on their hearts was, "God, how will this work? What do you want this to look like?" And God answered. After months of forming a core team and meeting in a basement in South City, The Journey launched. Seven years later The Journey is a multi-meeting, multi-campus church attracting a huge crowd.

Who is your leadership hero? Why?
Martin Luther King. He led a movement that he suffered and died for.

How long have you been in leadership?
20 years.

What was your first leadership role?
Leading a bible study in high school.

How long have you been in your current role?
6 years.

How long has your church been established? Did you start it?
6 years. Yes

What has been the growth curve of your church?
We started in September of 2002 with 30 adults and now run 2300.

What has been your biggest leadership challenge?
Myself.

What has been your greatest leadership success?
My dependence on God.

How are you developing new leaders?
Internship program, elder process, deacon process.

How are you continuing to develop your own leadership gifts?
I read at least 4 leadership books per year and seek out mentoring from older leaders.

How small groups change everything

By Larry Osborne

Lots of churches have small groups. But if truth be known, they’re usually more of an add-on than a churchwide priority, a little something extra for those who want to go deeper with God.

While many church leaders claim that small groups are an integral part of their ministry, I’ve learned that two simple measurements will always tell me their real place in a ministry’s pecking order: 1) the percentage of adults who attend a small group, and 2) the participation level of senior staff and key lay leaders.

To carry on reading click here.

Books Can Save Us

By Mark Sanborn

I've always believed that books could save me. Regardless of the problem or difficulty I faced in life, I felt confident of finding a book to help me through. Truly, books have transformed my life. I can look back in time and point to specific books that have profoundly influenced my thinking and shaped my attitude.

Click here to read the rest of this article.

10 Questions for Leaders: David Stroud

David leads ChristChurch, London, and also leads the Newfrontiers UK team. He is a serial church planter, having started The King’s Arms, Bedford, and Oasis Church, Birmingham, before moving on to London. He is known for his prophetic gift and sense of vision, as well as for being married to Philippa. I managed to get ten minutes to ask my ten questions at a recent Newfrontiers leaders gathering…

Who is your leadership hero? Why?
I could mention a number of people... John Wimber stands out – in my mind he was able to bring together a strong theological base, leadership wisdom, personal tenderness, moving in the power of the Spirit and a breadth of vision. And he was also a winsome individual. I really enjoyed this testimony I found of him on YouTube recently.


Wilberforce is another hero. He also had a great breadth of vision. He started with a drive for the reformation of manners – he wanted to make the whole world a better place. Fighting the slave trade was just one aspect of this. And he was able to work with an incredibly broad section of people (who formed the Clapham sect) in pursuit of his goals.

How long have you been in leadership?
25-30 years

What was your first leadership role?
Under 11’s first XI cricket captain at school.

How long have you been in your current role?
Leading ChristChurch – 4 years; leading the Newfrontiers UK team 3 years.

How long has your church been established? Did you start it?
Yes, I started it – 4 years ago.

What has been the growth curve of your church?
For the first six months we met on alternate Sundays, and started with 45. At the launch of our weekly meetings we had 240, which shrank to 150 the next week – this was our real number at that point. We are now gathering around 500 each week.

What has been your biggest leadership challenge?
Leading myself.

Also, especially at ChristChurch, raising money. London is a very expensive place and you can easily be squeezed into thinking about what is possible rather than “What does God want?” and then raising finance on the basis of the possible rather than in faith.

Responding to what God wants means I have to keep going to the church, asking them to give again, and Philippa and myself have to make personal sacrifices in our giving.

But God has been tremendously good in blessing our giving. In October we went for an offering for £150,000. And then the credit crunch hit. On the Monday Alan Greenspan was on the radio saying, “This is the worst financial crisis in 100 years” and the next Sunday we were trying to raise £150,000! But by the grace of God we actually gave £205,000!

What has been your greatest leadership success?
Starting Christchurch – and again there is a link to finance here. At the beginning moving the three founding leaders into London meant moving three families, and this was hugely costly financially, with the challenge of London house prices.

How are you developing new leaders?
Our training is on the job – every leader has to find another leader. Next year we will be starting more formal training with occasional evenings and Saturday seminars for all who want to come.

How are you continuing to develop your own leadership gifts?
A number of ways – I read like mad, a book a week. And I try to take as many risks as I can. I try to meet with as many leaders who have gone further than me as possible – and ask them what they have learnt. I also try to put myself into situations I have never been in before and with people I have never been with before. For example I recently attended a leadership conference being run by someone who was an ex-hostage negotiator and clinical psychologist – this was very stimulating. I also seek to listen closely to what God is saying and then make sure I do what He says!