Entries Tagged 'leadership' ↓

I preached a sermon a few weeks back focused on being generous people this year, not just financially, but more particularly in the way we think, speak and act.

Then I was reminded of this great line from Napoleon:

“Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.”

I laughed out loud (um, that would be LOL for you younger types)… such generosity of thought!

My translation?

“Give people the benefit of the doubt. It’s more likely they’re just stupid, not mean.”

A great quote… “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.”

One of the greatest privileges in my life was the gift of God to me in allowing me to study at Dallas Theological Seminary. It has played (and continues to play) a significant role in shaping who I am as a leader and servant of Christ.

One of the amazing blessings of being able to attend DTS was the interaction with some of the most godly and super-smart people on planet earth, whose direct influence has had a marked impact on me as a person. One of those people was Dr. Harold Hoehner, Distinguished Professor of New Testament. Dr. Hoehner passed away on Feb 12.

My first introduction to Dr. Hoehner was in my first semester in NTI (the infamous New Testament Introduction, which always seemed a bit more than just an introduction!), and continued through the years because I majored in the NT area.

There are so many stories and memories that it’s hard to even pick one. He was just a great man, very humble, very smart, very godly, very opinionated, and yet gentle and caring. The plain truth is that there have been some not so nice people at Dallas Seminary or who have been the products of DTS, but I really believe that Dr. Hoehner was one of the finest examples of a Dallas man, in the very best sense. I am richer for having known him and learnt from him.

Interestingly, I went through seminary with his son, David, as one of my closest friends as we did “battle with evil” (the weekly NTI quizzes), and I had a long chat with Dr. Hoehner just this past US summer when I was over in Dallas. He had preached at Grace Bible Church (a very thought-provoking sermon out of Ephesians 5 on the roles of husbands and wives), and we had a good chat afterwards where he quizzed me (he was good at quizzes) on how I was going and what I was up to.

I am the proud owner of a copy of his magnum opus commentary on Ephesians, given to me as a gift by another dear friend at Dallas. I remember, even while I was a student back in the 90′s, Dr. Hoehner lamenting that the publisher was wanting him to make substantial cuts to the length of the text, which was a painful process to a man whose thoroughness is the stuff of legends, the ultimate “high C” personality.

I’m sure when I join him in eternity, he’ll be running exegesis classes somewhere (with quizzes) and those awful Aggie jokes… :-)

This is a very interesting read, which I’m sure is more directly relevant to the US scene, and which some in Australia would no doubt disagree with. But, it’s an interesting read and I think that we’re seeing some of the same shrinkage here in Australia.

I, personally, have found much of the debate and issue over emerging church, emergent church, whatever whatever church, all a bit irrelevant, except for some of the annoying and silly things said by people on both sides of the debate. To me, it’s all about mission… I don’t care what you look like as a group if you are genuinely introducing people to Jesus, baptizing them, and helping them grow in Christ in an authentic and biblical spirituality for our times. That’s the bottomline for me. It seems to me that some of the loudest voices have had the least results over a long enough period of time to assess success in mission (in some cases over a decade).

And, I don’t wish to talk about it any more… :-)

Best line from the article? “Churches that want to survive are adapting, reaching out and experimenting”

Right on!

I’ve often noted that sometimes the people who make my role as a pastor more difficult are other pastors, people who do and say stupid things that reflect badly on who Jesus really is.

So, I wish this dude had kept his dream where it belonged. It kills me that he thinks he’s speaking the truth on behalf of God here. It feels like a bit of an echo of Falwell and the 9/11 comments he made.

“Weep, weep for those who have made a desert in the name of the Lord.”

The principles of war could, for brevity, be condensed into a single word – “Concentration.” – Basil Liddell Hart

This is, I think, true in most of life, from sports to business, study to chess, politics to reading.

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Apparently, here in WA we’re
to be confronted with yet another vote on daylight savings in May. This is ridiculous!

When are we going to have a government in WA that will simply exercise leadership and do the thing that needs to be done? On purely economic grounds, and especially in the current situation, can we afford to head back to the old scenario where you can’t do business with anyone over East (in our own country!!!) for half the day?! I remember some days when the window for eastern state contact was as little as 3 hours, depending on lunch breaks, etc. That’s crazy!

I like daylight savings for a range of reasons, but even if I didn’t, it just doesn’t make sense for us not to have it in place. And yet this is where modern democratic, poll driven “leadership” lets us down… politicians who are afraid to make the hard decisions because it might make them unpopular and hence remove them from “leadership”. So they exercise this “check-the-wind” style of following not leading. This daylight savings issue is a classic example of it in this state.

I can hear some saying, “But, it’s what the people want…” Baloney! The people might also want massive tax cuts and free trips to Hawaii too, but that doesn’t make it possible or right. Leadership is about doing the hard thing, about making decisions that are for the overall good. This daylight savings thing has been a stupid issue for 3 decades now (in my memory) – just do it for the benefit of our state. Be leaders.

Having said this, I must confess to having little hope that our current state government has the capacity for this sort of leadership, so off to the polls we go… again…

Eight years ago I wrote an entry in my blog where I noted that I thought the election of George Bush as President was not only dangerous for the US, but also the world. This entry was lost in the sands of time when I lost a couple of years’ worth of stuff due to a small backup problem… :-)

I think I was right.

A few years before that, I had predicted that W would become President. This was while he was Gov of Texas. I was right on that too. Weird.

But, here we stand on the cusp of something new. I really do pray that Obama is a good President. I feel for him in that he had inherited two huge messes to deal with that may entirely swamp whatever else he had planned for his first term, but if he is the leader everyone is hoping for, perhaps he will push through to better days.

It’s going to be interesting, that’s for sure….

For those of you who are aware of my involvement with ACOM, I’d like to update you on the fact that as of December 31, 2008, I have stepped aside from a formal role with the college.

For the past couple of years, I have been assisting the college as the Regional Director for WA. I stepped into that role primarily to help reconnect the college with some of its historical main constituents here, and I think my long history with ACOM allowed me to assist in the transition from the previous Regional Director, Scott Vawser.

It’s been a busy couple of years with this extra load on top of my primary leadership role at Warnbro Church, and it became very apparent to me at the beginning of 2008 that the RD role was mostly an administrative position, something which I was keen to shift on because admin is not my passion or strength, and I am at a point in my life where I am becoming a lot more ruthless about ditching things which are not my passion or strength. Life is too short.

For me, this was always only a transitional role, so I’m glad to be moving on to the next thing. It’s actually been quite an interesting time, in many respects, and I have learnt a handful of very important things I take with me:

1. I am more convinced than ever that administrative/management/maintenance stuff is not my schtick, and need to remain vigilant about getting involved in such things. I can do them well when I have to but I’d rather not have to. I think I have other contributions to make.

2. There is a massive (and I can’t over-emphasize this point) dearth of excellent young leaders coming through, and there is a huge systemic problem with the identification, recruitment and nurture of future leaders for the church. Many colleges (ACOM included) are suffering the consequences of a much deeper problem in our churches.

3. I have been reminded over the past year how much I love teaching. I specifically spent my seminary time preparing to teach, something which has only been a side-light in my ministry to this point. I’d love to actually do more.

I am not entirely sure what ACOM’s plans are here in WA at this point. I have not really been part of the transitional discussions, mostly because I’m on annual leave until late January.

“There are no statues erected for critics.” – Tim Ferris

True dat.

As a leader, one tends to cop a lot of criticism and there seems to always be a tender crop of people willing to offer their humble opinions on what you did wrong and could do better. Pity they aren’t so smart as to do it themselves. Criticism is cheap. Actually having the courage and skill to accomplish something constructive comes at a cost. Sometimes a very high cost.