Tag Archive - teaching

Compare Game

April 2, 2009 in Links, Ministry with 1 Comment

Did you know that sometimes I write blog posts for others?  Really, I do.  Sometimes I take perfectly good stuff that could be on my blog and give it to others in exchange for Starbucks and iTunes gift cards completely free.

Head on over to Gina McClain’s blog for my recent gift to the blogging community of JabberFrog.

The Compare Game

Do you ever compare yourself to others? I do. I’ll go ahead and admit that I sometimes try and size up people in the first few minutes with one standard-bearing question: Are they better than me, or am I better than them? It’s all very subjective, I don’t literally wonder if I’m a better person than someone; but I do wonder if my house is bigger, if my salary is larger, if my church is more heavily attended, if my marriage is healthier, and any other way that I could possibly walk away with a win in this dangerous “compare game.”

Head over to Jabberfrog.com for the rest…

Feverish Perspective

March 30, 2009 in Ministry, Personal with 0 Comments

fever

I was sick last week.  (I won’t go into all the details, because I’m THAT GUY that gets grossed out easily when others feel the need to describe their bathroom experiences on twitter.)  One of my major symptoms was a raging fever.  I had taken Motrin and Tylenol cocktails all morning, and the fever took about 10 hours to finally break.  I sat in bed rocking back and forth, moaning, with aches in every joint of my body, and with goosebumps covered in a literal cold sweat.  I was miserable.  But later in the day the fever started to leave, and it was like the fog had been lifted. 

As I started to feel better, the reality of how great I felt begin to settle in.  That fever had provided a much needed jolt of perspective.  Feeling bad really helps me to appreciate when I feel good.  As I moved into feeling much better, I couldn’t shake how much is really sucked to feel bad.  Feeling good again made me appreciate a hot cup of tea, the sunlight coming through the windows, and miraculously my kids voices suddenly sounded refreshing again.  I’m not advocating that we all contract a debilitating fever, but I firmly believe that to appreciate what we have we sometimes have to get some decent perspective. 

Ask yourself, How does what I’m going through compare to what I’ve been through?  Do those around me struggle with the same things I’m struggling with?  How bad is my current situation really?

Be challenged to look back at what you’ve seen, done, and experienced; and pray that God will help us all gain some perspective moving forward.

Distance not only gives nostalgia, but perspective, and maybe objectivity.
Robert Morgan

Complete in Him

February 20, 2009 in Bible, Ministry with 0 Comments

For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.   -Colossians 2:9-10

In my first foray into Spiritual Life Coaching I learned that one of the foundational principles of coaching is to believe that the coachee/client is Capable, Creative, and Complete in Christ.  The idea is that everyone I meet with to offer coaching, already has all that they need within them.  I make the assumption that the coachee is capable of finding their own solutions, creative enough to know what to do, and complete as a person.  At first, it sounds funny; but in reality if the coachee isn’t one of these things then they need therapy, counseling, or professional medical help. (Thus the difference between coaching and counseling.)

As I’ve thought over this principle I’ve discovered how wholly freeing that is to me as a pastor.  Those who are pastors are always supposed to have the answers, or at least it is insinuated that way sometimes.  For example, I remember having a problem with a soccer team I coached last year, and telling someone that I needed to speak with somebody about how to control this rowdy bunch.  They then reminded me that I would be the one to ask!  For example, it is also assumed by those around me that because I work with kids for a living that somehow I have a better handle on raising my own.  That might be true in some situations, but you must know that my parenting skills are a journey to discovery everyday. A journey of discovering how much I really suck at it sometimes!

Here’s where the power of Colossians 2:9-10 comes in.  If I assume that the parents, children, and families that I work with are “complete in Him”, then they already have the solutions within them to solve whatever is keeping them from experiencing God’s very best.  Then the burden is only on me to help them discover what’s already within them.  It’s liberating to me that I don’t have to present the “right and perfect way” for them, but that I only have to help them discover the passions, values, and purpose already existing inside of them.

Spiritual Life Coaching

February 11, 2009 in Ministry with 2 Comments

This Wednesday I started what is the beginning of an exciting adventure.  I’m already one day of training into a 3 day training on the Spiritual Life Coaching Model.  I’m giving up two days of office work, and 1/2 of my only day off to make it happen.  I’ll get to do this once a month for the next 6 months, and I’m doing it along with all the pastors on staff at Trinity.  It’s definitely a breaking of old “pastoral counseling” habits, and a relearning of relationships. 

Coaching is defined as a powerful partnership designed to promote and forward the lifelong process of growth, effectiveness and achievement around a God-given purpose.  Life Coaches are committed to helping all those who are around them perform at their best, while reaching their full potential in Christ.  Life Coaching is about serving others while expanding your own personal horizon in a grand space of creativity.

Over the past two years, our Senior Pastor has become certified as a Life Coach through the Coaches Training Institute (CTI.)  CTI is the first ICF-accredited and the largest coach training organization in the world.  It is however, NOT a Christian coaching network.  Since our pastors recent completion of his 2-year certification process, he began to develop (based on the CTI model of coaching) a Spiritual Life Coaching model.  So I’m working through a manual that he has designed, along with the book Co-Active Coaching.  I’m the coaching guinea pig!  I’ve got lots of reading homework, and I’ll be actively pursing a coaching client willing to let me practice on them.  I really do love learning, and it’s been way too long since I’ve had an expectation of learning put on me.

I’m excited for what this can do for me both personally and what it will allow me to pour into those I’m called to serve.  It’s been a frustration of mine for years that I’m expected to biblically counsel those in and around our church, when in all seriousness I’m severely unqualified to do so; in the counseling sense.  It is my prayer that being able to have a posture of coaching when working with others will allow me to discover new opportunities for releasing the potential in those around me.

Stay tuned for more as I journey down this road…

Power of Buy-In

February 2, 2009 in Ministry with 2 Comments

I will not always want to do things the way my leader wants me to.

I’ve had employers that have asked me to do things that I would NOT have done if I had been the boss.  To NOT do what they want, would change my employment status.  To NOT do what they want would be willful disobedience.  Sometimes I’m asked to do thing in a way that isn’t necessarily my way of doing things.  Sometimes decisions are made by those in leadership, that don’t always reflect my convictions.  This is life.  To not admit it, I would be living in denial. 

Assuming that I’m not being asked to do something that compromises my morals, integrity, and honor; I will have to do what I’m being asked.  And I will have to do it like it was my idea in the first place.  Therein lies the trap.  I really believe that to do what my boss asks, but do it with the attitude that I’m being forced into it isn’t beneficial to anyone.  To not give my all for those in leadership above me, compromises their authority.  I’ve got to take ownership of my leader’s decisions. 

Taking ownership means that I don’t obey simply to fill in a checkmark next to the task on my to-do list.  Taking ownership means that I defend the decision, and pass it off as my very own.  If I make it known that I’m doing something in a way that isn’t “my way” it undermines my own authority, alienates those in authority over me, and decreases my potential for success. 

As a “little pastor” at my church (meaning my importance on the leadership scale is down towards the bottom) I have made it my life goal to see the vision of my leaders fulfilled.  I am willing to do anything that helps my Senior Pastor accomplish what God’s plan is for our church and our city.  There are those that work for me that are forced into the exact same situation.  I might ask them to do something that is my own personal conviction, and something they might not do if they were in charge.  I always assess those that work for me by their ability to support my leadership and the leadership above me.  If the are blaming me for the problems in their area, then they aren’t buying in to the vision.  If they are openly using my name to ask people to do things, then they are simply being the messenger. The messenger isn’t the owner.  I need those willing to own what God has called us to do in our city and church.

Page 11 of 20« First...«910111213»...Last »