Tag Archives: Leadership

reveal worth

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I learned a pretty valuable lesson from a student who was giving me a really hard time. A while back I ran a community basketball camp for kids in our neighborhood.  I had a student who was supposed to help with the camp but for the first couple of days was a complete nightmare for the adult leadership. The last day of the camp was a water balloon day.  We went through something like 2000 water balloons.  This problem student simply refused to help or to participate in the event.  Voices started to rise, tempers were beginning to flair up when finally at my wits end, I handed this student my camera (in an attempt to get him to stay) and said, “could you at least take a few shots?”  You would have thought I handed this kid a bar of gold.

Before this camp I had two cell phones snapped in half, a camera smashed to bits and a pair of sunglasses broken due to crazy youth ministry events.  I was understandably hesitant to hand electronics to students and they knew it.   When I handed this student my camera he knew that I trusted him not to break it or to do anything that might lead to its demise.  I didn’t just hand him a camera, I handed him self worth and dignity.

I did not hand over my expensive camera with the intention of making this student feel worthy of love, but that was the result and I learned a ton from it.  When he took possession of the camera, his shoulders went up and back, slowly a smile started to come across his face, he took the initiative to clump students together to get the shots he wanted.

One of the things I took away from all of this is that we are a people who constantly try to prove that we are worthy of love.  What do you do in your life to prove that you are worthy of the love and affection of others?  I have had students who indulge in destructive sexual behavior because they are trying to feel worthy.  The day I handed my camera over was the day I realized the power of believing in someone.  When you show them that they are worthy and that you believe in them then their true humanity and beauty begins to rise to the surface of their being.

If we know that humanity suffers from the constant need to prove their worth, then maybe we should become people that reveal their worth.  How free would you feel if you didn’t need to prove your worth on a daily basis?  How much would you change your world if you revealed the worth of others on a daily basis?

By the way, if you are stuck in the trap of trying over and over to prove that you are worthy of love, Jesus Christ has already proven that for you.

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leadership lessons from steve jobs

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I’m not sure if many people know that I’m a huge nerd.  I follow the tech industry pretty closely, I even monitor new cell phones that are coming out on every carrier.  I was playing poker with the guys one night when I realized my geekness, I rattled off the make and model number of some guy’s cell phone.  Wow, I’m a geek but I just love new and innovated technology.

I also love leadership.  When technology and leadership got married they birthed Steve Jobs, the CEO and Co-Founder of Apple.  This man is totally intriguing.  I thought I’d share some leadership principles that I have learned from the man who wears the black turtleneck.

Failure is an option:

How many times do we look at times when we fail and never pick it back up again?  Mr. Jobs was ousted from the company he started in the 80’s and he started a new company called NeXT.  NeXT was at the forefront of technology and products, but the company was never really successful.  Jobs re-wrote the playbook on cooperate structure.  The company developed some amazing computers with some great software.  But they failed.  Ultimately their great product was too expensive and the company suffered.  The company was purchased by another failing company (Apple) to make one of the most amazing technology companies in the world.  NeXT was used as the foundations for what many of us now use on our computers.  Apple was resurrected as a company by an apparent failure called NeXT.

Stick to what your good at:

One day I read a transcript of a conference call that Apple had with its shareholders.  Questions that consumers have all the time is, why don’t you make _______?  Apple’s response was really simple.  “Because we can’t be the best in the world at it.”  Apple said that every product they make can fit on a coffee table and yet they have much larger profits than tech companies that try to do everything.  The huge leadership lesson here is to say, “no” to stuff that you can’t be the best in the world at.

Your internal barometer needs to be spot on:

One of the things that I love about Steve Jobs is his tenacity and his internal barometer.  Apple doesn’t market-test products.  They don’t get consumers in a room, let them have hands on play-date with their product and gauge their response.  They simply come out with a product because they love it.  It doesn’t matter to apple if everyone doesn’t love it, Steve Jobs and the Apple employees have to love the product.  If you don’t love what you’re doing, why would anyone else?

These are just three leadership lessons I’ve learned from Mr. Jobs (There are more to come).  All of these lessons in leadership can be universally applied, so I guess my question is why aren’t more churches applying leadership lessons from the tech world?

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in the absence of leadership

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This past weekend I went white water rafting for the first time.  It was amazing.  I love the feeling of barreling down the river hitting class four rapids.

On our last run down the river we hit a rapid that took the back of the boat under the water.  In less than a second I saw one of my buddy and the guide floating down the river.  It was amazing just how quick it happened. At this point there was four of us left on the raft.  All of the sudden, in the absence of our guide, everyone stops rowing.   My buddy and our guide were rapidly floating down the river.  I started shouting orders.  To my surprise, they listened to every word that I said.  I don’t know why they listened to me.  I think it is just comforting to feel like someone else is in charge of the situation.

In my head I wasn’t in charge of anything, I just started shouting, “right side, left side, all forward.”  I’m not even sure that these are correct commands.  I just started to shout.  We ended up getting our guide and my buddy back on the boat.  They had a few intense seconds under water and a few minutes floating free.

This little incident was a good reminder that in the absence of leadership, people freeze.  Not only will people freeze but also they will listen to any moron (like me) who’s willing to shout out commands.

Here are three things I learned about leadership this weekend:

Prepare for leadership in your absence: If you are the leader of a church, business or a non-profit, train your staff to take over in the event that you get swept off the back of the raft.  Our river guide prepared us very well for leading in his absence.

Train your staff to listen to the right people: In the raft, I was the only one shouting out orders.  I was not the right person to get us all the way down the river.  I do alright in chaos situations, but we needed our experienced guide back for true success. In churches and non-profits there are plenty of people willing to take your organization off its mission.   This is where it becomes so important for every staff member to keep focused on the vision.

Prepare for your boss’ absence: As a staff pastor of a church I always ask my senior pastor what he would do in situations that come up.  I want to glean information from him because I would like to be a senior pastor one day, and when he is gone on vacation I want to be able to make calls that are wise and that he would make as well.  I want to be able to lead well in his absence.  When you take this step, your boss will be able to enjoy a sabbatical or go on vacation very easily.

Can you keep your head in all situations?  Enough to lead others in the right direction, only if it’s just for a period of time?

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the opposite of waldo

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I have some friends that for some reason or other I run into them every week.  I run into either my friends or someone in their life.  It is the most random places too.  A coffee shop that I rarely go to, the mall, La Tolteca, Starbucks, the library.  They think I am everywhere and I think they are stalkers.  

When I think about these friends, integrity comes to mind.  I run into them literally everywhere in the most random places.  The other day I was walking out of a Starbucks and a woman stopped me and said, “Pastor Dave!”  It took a while before I recognized her but I preformed her son’s wedding.  One day I was at the bank making a deposit and the teller said, “hey, do you remember me?”  ”I’m thinking who are you?” But I said, “of course you give me money.”  I was just joking around, but she said, “no, you preformed my friend’s funeral.”

All of these events are good reminders to me that when you are a pastor you are always in the public eye.  There is this thread of teaching that flows through scripture is so applicable.  The thread is that as a teacher of the Scriptures you are judged a little differently, held accountable a little more.  Being yourself is so important and it is important that “yourself” is mentally and spiritually healthy.

I think of Paul as he writes in 1 Corinthians about giving up his freedoms for the sake of unbelievers.  His argument is that in his freedom he could really do anything, but because of others who may have some weakness he abstains from things…Like eating meat that has been sacrificed to idols…a common problem these days.  Paul’s point is that as Christians we kind of stand out.  Sort of like the opposite of waldo.  I’ve seen great well intending Christians give permission to other christians through their lifestyle.

It may be a good time to think about who you are as a person, what do you believe?  What do you broadcast that you believe?  You are a lot more visible than you think.  Oddly enough, you are responsible for what other people see in you because you are the one projecting it.   Have people stumbled as a result of a way you’ve conducted yourself?

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