We’ve looked at the commissioning statement given to Moses (“So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt”—Ex 3:10). We’ve heard statements from the lips of Jesus indicating his own sense of mission (“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was [...]
Archive for the ‘Leadership’ Category
Jerusalem, Antioch, and Mission
Monday, September 13th, 2010 | No CommentsMany of us grew up thinking there was a “pattern” for church that every faithful congregation of God’s people followed. Same style of worship. Same rituals. Same lifestyle. Same polity model. Same church culture. First century or 21st century—didn’t matter. Mississippi or New Zealand—didn’t matter. According to this thinking, the ideal was a vast commonality [...]
Jesus and Mission
Wednesday, September 8th, 2010 | No CommentsNear the beginning of his ministry, Jesus visited the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth. When asked to read from Scripture, he chose a passage from Isaiah that defined his mission: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent [...]
Why Bother with a Mission Statement? (II)
Friday, September 3rd, 2010 | No Comments5. Mission Statements provide a powerful tool for church leaders If the exercise of your leadership of the church is limited to attending meetings, making policy decisions, maintaining a facility, and managing a budget, you might not have any need for a mission statement. But if you (as a church leader) think about what God [...]
Why Bother with a Mission Statement? (I)
Monday, August 30th, 2010 | No CommentsEvery church has a mission statement. The only question is whether the statement is intentional, conscious, and explicit or (as is the case with most churches) accidental, ill-defined, and poorly expressed. When you examine what churches actually do, where their resources are devoted, how they make decisions, you can determine what churches understand their primary [...]
Developing a Mission Statement
Wednesday, August 25th, 2010 | No CommentsIt has become popular of late for churches to develop “mission statements” that attempt to define the character of the church and identify its essential business … some pithy declaration that can be used on websites and letterhead and as a teaching tool to focus a particular congregation on a particular task. Here are a [...]
Conflict and Trust
Monday, August 16th, 2010 | No CommentsLet’s do the “Trust Pyramid” one last time. If there is to be trust between individuals, there must be confidence in each other’s character (who you are) and competence (what you can do). If there is to be trust within a team, there must be confidence in common direction (where we’re going) and mutual cooperation [...]
Cooperation and Trust
Wednesday, August 11th, 2010 | No CommentsTo this point, we’ve been building the “Trust Pyramid” from the ground up. If there is to be trust between individuals, there needs to be confidence in each other’s character (who you are) and competence (what you can do). If there is to be trust within a team, an additional layer must be added: confidence [...]
Common Cause and Trust
Friday, August 6th, 2010 | No CommentsLet me tell you a story that illustrates what I fondly call “the Stiletto Principle.” Years ago, Julie and I invited a group over to the house for lunch following Sunday services. One of the women who ate with us was a tiny thing—100 pounds dripping wet! But she was wearing a pair of stiletto [...]
Character and Competence Matrix
Monday, August 2nd, 2010 | No CommentsBoth character and competence are necessary for trust in the context of church leadership and ministry. By placing these in a matrix, some observations about trust become clear. The matrix to the right displays “Character” and “Competence” ranging in strength from “High” to “Low.” This yields four possible positions on the matrix: High Character/High Competence [...]
