Morning Meditation:First Things First…

John 15:5 (Amplified Bible)

I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing.

The one lesson I’ve learned in my almost 15 years of rolling with God is that I must put Him before Church activity…that in fact only in the context of a vital, active, passionate fellowship with Him can I be of any service to anyone else, be it my family or Church. Being active does not necessarily mean that I’m being effective and only when I’m depositing into others those good things He has placed into my heart am I really being effective.

My active love of God has to be the context of every thing that I do.

1 John 4:9“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.”Brought to you by BibleGateway.com. Copyright (C) NIV. All Rights Reserved.

Technorati Tags: church leadership

Mind Dump 02-25-08

• Are you a super leader? “A super leader has to see things before they happen. Long before I ministered to thousands of kids I saw it. Long before I had a national ministry I saw it. I don’t pastor the ministry I have, I pastor the ministry I want to have.” (via jim wideman)
• Effective leaders create an environment where those they serve with them find it easy to develope their God given gifts… “Peter only developed as a leader by spending time with Christ. We cannot expect our next-generation leaders to grow without providing an environment of love from which to grow in their relationship with Him. We can only do this by becoming a volunteer-centered leader who builds up leaders and prepares them to build others.” (via agile ministry)
• I quickly found out that the best thing I can do for the people I serve is keep my heart right, by that I mean stay face to face with the Lord and walk before Him as a barefoot priest…”As leaders, we often believe it is our experience, our knowledge, or our skills that are the most important component of our leadership. Not so. In admonishing his son, Solomon says that the heart above all is the most important. It should be our first priority. Why? Because it is “the wellspring of life.” Everything else flows out of it.” (via from where i sit)
• So what exactly is a servant leader…”So a “Servant Leader” is someone who is in a leadership position but their main desire, their mission, is to be in service to the people they are leading. Their ego is removed from the equation. It’s not about how they look or their personal and professional accomplishments or achievements. It’s all about doing things to benefit and enhance the team or group of people who have agreed to follow them.” (via the advantage of leadership)
• How can you spot a person with leadership potential? “The capacity to create or catch vision. “When I talk to people about the future, I want their eyes to light up. I want them to ask the right questions about what I’m talking about…… A person who doesn’t feel the thrill of challenge is not a potential leader.” (via the practice of leadership)

Related Posts

from tag leadership

• Ministry Appraisals « Thinking Out Loud
• Freedom To Fail « Now! Leadership!
• Leader to Leader Institute
• Increased Capacity The Key To Real Church Growth… « Now! Leadership!

(more..)

 

Matthew 22:37-39“Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.” Brought to you by BibleGateway.com. Copyright (C) NIV. All Rights Reserved.

 

Technorati Tags: leadership,church leadership,servant leader

Subscribe to Now! Leadership!

clutter and quality of life…

                                        

We moved about six months ago from a home we had rented to brand new house of our own and that transition was very traumatic, I think we ended up throwing and giving away more than half the stuff we owned. The house we moved into was actually larger than our old place, but I found out quickly that our new life in the new space would be hindered by trying to drag around that old mountain of stuff.

Sometimes we can distract and self medicate ourselves with our stuff…be it email, furniture or endless to do lists. So the bottom line has to be, is all this stuff going to take us where we want to be?

This is a great quote I found on Merlins blog, “What is your vision for the life you want to live, and do your life choices reflect that vision? Specifically: Is your home a space for the life you want?”. If your stuff (digital or material) is not taking you into your wealthy place then it’s clutter, just another useless obstacle that must be ruthlessly removed from your life.

I remember on moving day looking at the huge rented dumpster that sat in our driveway and it was filled to overflowing with what had been a big part of my life up to that point, and it felt to good to be free from all that stuff.

 More from Peter Walsh on clutter, quality of life | 43 Folders

 

Related Posts

from tag clutter

• A Landing Pad For All Your Stuff… « Geeks Guide To GTD
• They Like Me They Like Me! « Geeks Guide To GTD

(more..)

 

Technorati Tags: clutter,peter walsh,merlin mann,productivity

 

Share this post :

What Are Your Priorities?

What should be the top priorities for managers? “The first and paramount responsibility is to manage self; one’s own integrity, character, ethics, knowledge, wisdom, temperament, words and acts.” read more

 

Related Posts

from tag leadership

• My Greatest Hits:Ben Franklin’s Lifehacks « Geeks Guide To GTD
• Leader to Leader Institute
• Great Leadership Quote… « Now! Leadership!

(more..)

Technorati Tags: leadership,management

del.icio.us Tags: leadership,management

Mind Dump 02-07-08

• I’ve come to the point that I have decided that if you can’t win gracefully it’s now worth winning and as the dark lord of college basketball calls it quit lets reflect on whatever lessons we can learn from a bully…”I think the saddest part of Knight’s legacy is that so many of the boys who played under him will become the men who manager their business teams as he managed them believing that that’s the way to win. Not all, but too many.” (via leadershipturn)
• One of the buzz words going around is passion, but do we really know what it means? “A passionate person is someone who suffers and a compassionate person is someone who suffers with, and shares the suffering of, others—and wants to take action to alleviate this condition. Nearly every act of leadership requires suffering—and often for the leader a choice between one’s personal success and safety and the greater welfare of others. We’re asking you to understand that nothing great comes without costs.” (read more)
• Can you do this? “Some young leaders exhibit a conceptual ability to rise above the details, to see a broader context than their peers, and to place themselves and their immediate accomplishments within that broader context.” (read more)
• I keep a pocket Moleskine into which I lovingly place all the hopes and dreams God has placed into my heart and at moments of testing and trails I’ll pull it out to remind me who God says I am…”Do you have a book of dreams?  I’m talking about the book that holds all the dreams you’ve seen become reality.  I think you should have one.” (read more)
• Do you believe the lid law? “Leadership ability is the lid that determines a person’s level of effectiveness. The lower an individual’s ability to lead, the lower the lid of his or her potential. The higher the leadership, the greater the effectiveness.  To give you an example, if your leadership rates at an 8, then your effectiveness can never be greater than a 7. If your leadership is only a 4, then your effectiveness will be no higher than a 3. You leadership ability, for better or for worse, always determines your effectiveness and the potential impact of your organization” (read more)

 

Technorati Tags: leadership,church leadership,moleskine